Abstract
One of the implications of the shift in the center of gravity of Christianity from the Northern to the Southern hemisphere is a new dimension in Christian mission. In The Spirit Moves West, Rebecca Y. Kim, examines a missionary sending agency in South Korea, University Bible Fellowship (UBF), that is intentionally sending its missionaries to different parts of the world, and particularly to the United States.
Employing multiple methodologies, the book draws on detailed surveys and extensive participant observations, as well as archival materials and in-depth interviews. In the first chapter, Kim starts the story with the indigenous leaders, both men and women, taking central stage in the growth of the Korean Protestant Church. In contrast to other parts of the world that associate foreign missionaries with Western colonialism, foreign missionaries, especially American missionaries, are seen as those “who helped modernize Korea” (23). Kim summarizes the UBF Korean missionaries as “hyper-Korean evangelicals,” meaning “They are more theologically conservative, intensively devotional, enthusiastic about evangelism, and hierarchically organized” (45) than other Korean evangelical groups.
Chapters 2,3,4 and 5 examine UBF efforts to evangelize among “white American” college students. Founded in South Korea in 1961 by a Korean Christian, Samuel (Chang-woo) Lee, and an American missionary, Sarah Barry, UBF is a nondenominational movement focused on world campus evangelism. Seeing the United States as the “modern Rome,” UBF Korean missionaries arrived with a “soldier spirit” to “help America regain its spiritual fire” (58). Engaged in self supporting mission, and embracing a “theology of suffering,” UBF missionaries intentionally situated themselves outside their social network to serve for the sake of the Gospel.
Chapter 6 explains reasons for their ineffectiveness to make inroads among “White Americans” despite their evangelistic fervor, sacrifice and hospitality. An authoritarian and hierarchical organization model, cultural conflicts, and encounters of racism and prejudice were major stumbling blocks in their mission efforts. Having described the development of the UBF over the years, Kim concludes the final chapter with a prediction. “The Global South Christians come with greater “spirit,” religious conservatism, and zeal for evangelism, but with the passing of time and adjustment to their Western host country, they will lose their sectarian traits. They will “cool down” and become more like the Western churches in the mainstream” (164).
The Spirit Moves West is a wonderful resource for all those interested in global American Christianity and those interested in Christian mission.