Help Wanted: Adventist evangelism in South Korea could double with more English teachers

August 9, 2007 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States …. [Ansel Oliver/ANN]

After becoming a Seventh-day Adventist three years ago, Rich Constantinescu wanted to work overseas as a missionary and flew to the Republic of Korea to teach English at one of the Adventist Church's 39 language schools, the church's main evangelism tool in that country.

Constantinescu, an American, now a graduate student in Michigan, said he was able work abroad for nine months and share his faith with students.

“The problem was so many people wanted to study the Bible that there was hardly enough time,” Constantinescu said.

Having more people wanting to learn about the church than there are teachers might be a good problem to have, but church leaders in South Korea are tired of it. With about 1,200 people joining the international denomination each year through the Seoul-based SDA Language Institute, administrators are hoping more Americans and people from other English speaking countries will come serve as a teacher for several months or a year.

“We would like to get as many missionary teachers as we can and to expand this great mission outreach program,” said Kim Si-Young, SDA Language Institute director.

“The more institutes and teachers we have, the more Koreans can get to know what our church believes and our Savior.”

But despite plans to expand, recruiters say they are struggling to even meet current demand for roughly 300 teaching positions.

Launched in 1969, the network of schools now draws more than 50,000 students each year throughout South Korea, the world's 12-largest economy according to the International Monetary Fund. Employees of multi-national companies requiring English proficiency are attracted to the schools for their quality, small class size and instructors from English-speaking countries — something not always found among hundreds of competitors.

Classes are taught on weekdays and students can attend an additional Bible class to practice their English on Friday nights, the beginning of the Sabbath kept by Adventists.

The denomination, now with 15 million members worldwide, used to send college students as missionaries to South Korea, but Korean law has since changed requiring teachers to have a four-year college degree.

“It can be a degree in farming, as long as English is their native tongue,” said Vernon Parmenter, director of the Adventist Volunteers Center at the church's world headquarters.

In April he and other world church officials traveled to South Korea to meet with leaders who are eager to expand the institute.

“We need to be able to deliver what we promised,” Parmenter said of the institute's reputation and his concern about rapid growth. “We want to support Korea as much as we can and work together, but we should keep it in connection with the ability to provide an adequate number of qualified teachers who are committed to the church,” he said.

Typically a school rents a building and builds student clientele before buying property on which to build a school and a church, usually in an area without an Adventist church.

“It would be very disappointing to put up a school and have the structure in place and not be able to staff the school,” Parmenter said.

The institute is financially successful and pays missionaries about $1,600 per month plus round-trip airfare and a furnished apartment.

In 2002 the church in Korea sent a pastor, Nam Young-Kim, to live and work close to the Adventist Church's world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, near Washington, D.C. to aid the screening process of applicants and help recruit others.

Kim said Koreans are receptive to the Adventist denomination because many are already Christian — some reports indicate as much as one third of the country's population.

Church leaders in Korea said few young people attend church, but many attend English classes. “If we don't have young people there's no future for the church in Korea,” said Ken Yoo, institute teacher recruiter for North America.

“The institute is the most important means to reach young people,” Yoo said. “I think if more people knew what was going on there, we would have enough teachers.”

For more information see the Web site www.sdakorea.org.

Copyright (c) 2007 by Adventist News Network.