Monday, June 15, 2009

KOREA'S LARGEST WORSHIP CENTER DEDICATED MAY 22, 2009
JUNE 15, 2009 - Monday. The new 15,000 seat worship center was just dedicated by the Sungrak Church in Seoul, South Korea. It is now Korea's largest worship center and is among the world's 5 largest worship centers. Though it now has only 15,000 pew seats, the auditorium space can actually accomodate a maximum capacity seating of 22,000 when additional pews are added in the future. The first regular worship service was Sunday, June 7.

The church has additional services at its two other on-site worship centers that seat 6,000 and 3,600 people. The dedication of both the new domed worship center and its adjoining 13 story World Missions Center was attended by national government leaders, media, and church leaders from more than 30 countries. There were two of us who were invited foreign guest speakers for the dedication: myself and Dr.Ralph Waller. Dr. Waller is the new director of the Oxford University netword of colleges. I led the guest lecture on "America's Megachurches Today." Dr. Sung Hyun Kim, the son of senior pastor Dr. Ki Dong Kim, received both his bachelor and doctoral degrees from Oxford.

The congregation has a network of 57 branch churches throughout South Korea that receive live satellite services from the central congregation in Seoul each Sunday. The church began in 1969 with only seven founding members.