Abstract
This book is about the journey of Sao Paulo United Korean Church, an immigrant congregation in Sao Paulo, Brazil, particularly in its community and mission formation within a complex social context. A handy summary has been published elsewhere by one of the two authors. 1 This book is authored by two senior church leaders: Kim, the present senior pastor, and Myung, leader of the Portuguese ministries who will soon become Kim’s successor. Kim is a first-generation Korean minister who went to Brazil to pastor the congregation. Myung, a 1.5-generation Korean-Brazilian, who is bilingual and bicultural, served as a medical missionary in the Amazon before being called by the church to lead the newly instituted Portuguese ministry. Although the church will soon celebrate its fiftieth anniversary, the book is not a commemorative historical study. It is an in-depth record of, and reflection on, the process that transformed the Korean first-generation immigrant congregation (single culture) into a multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-generational, and multi-congregational church. Currently, a name change for the church is being discussed, ‘Igreja Yonham de Sao Paulo’ (Sao Paulo United Church) (p. 118).
The book was concurrently published in two versions: Korean and English. This was a conscious decision to share their experiences, struggles, mistakes, and lessons with the constantly increasing number of immigrant (or ‘diaspora’) churches all over the world. The main title is a combination of a Korean word gonsanim (senior deaconesses with an honorific ending) and two Portuguese words, querido and querida. The first word in this title is a common word used by a younger generation to honour the elder ones with respect and love, such as ‘mother’. The second set of Portuguese words is feminine and masculine forms of a participle, ‘loved one’, used as a response by the elder ones (p. 286). These are the unique words of endearment which the church has adopted as a symbol of inter-cultural, inter-generational and inter-lingual unity. I suspect that the creation of such language is to break down walls in the church.
The book consists of two major parts, the first half is written by Kim, and the other by Myung. The first half (four sections with 19 short chapters) is autobiographical accounts. With amazing vulnerability and honesty, Kim shares his journey of missionary development (awareness, or formation) through challenging ministries of the Sao Paulo church. The section begins with his own experiences before he accepted the invitation of the Sao Paulo Church. Although he calls himself ‘unprepared’ (Chapter 2), he came with a broad range of mission experiences, including his time in England (at Selly Oaks Colleges to be specific) and Kenya, in addition to his pastoral ministries in Korea. He bravely confesses his own arrogance in branding immigrants as cowards running from national problems (such as poverty and security threats from the Communist North), and a lack of understanding of challenges that each immigrant family had to endure and overcome. The second section presents Kim’s key values of his pastoral work, ‘respect’: respect for the next generation, Portuguese-speaking members, different values and priorities. His conclusion is admirable: when you come with respect, you will gain a friend (or ‘partner’, in his words). The next two sections narrate his and the church’s process in making the paradigm-shift to ultimately privilege the new generation, Portuguese-speaking groups as the flagship part of the church. This part includes detailed data on small group ministries, leadership formation, and others. Kim concludes that the process began with ‘two families under one roof’, growing into ‘one family with cultural and linguistic diversities’.
The second part (Sections 5–7 with 36 chapters), authored by Myung, presents a more organized, coherent and well-researched presentation. I suspect that this may be part of his Doctor of Ministry research (at Fuller Seminary). This academic quality is partly attributed to Kim’s investment in leadership development of younger partners. All three sections share the same title, thus identical conceptual framework: ‘Becoming One in the Lord’. They only differ in subtitles: ‘Preparation’, ‘Process’ and ‘Purpose’ (3 Ps), respectively. Through this presentation, Myung uses one anthropological approach/methodology: ‘cultural symbiosis’. (Does ‘symbiosis’ sound strange? Remember that Myung was a practicing medical doctor.) In Section 5 (the ‘Preparation’ section), in addition to the introduction of the approach, Myung presents useful information on Korean immigrants in Brazil, its history, current state, cultural and linguistic demographics, and their struggles with identity issues. In wrestling with the challenges of the multi-generational and linguistic Korean-Brazilian communities, he presents three biblical models, Moses, Jonah and Paul, in their accommodation/rejection of various cultural influences. He concludes that Paul’s attitude, being a kingdom mind-set, is desired. Section 6 describes the process through which the paradigm shift was actualized in the church structure. His analysis of the Brazilian culture and people sets a good stage, as he compares this with the Koreans and Korean-Americans. The latter comparison proves to be essential as Korean-Brazilians have viewed Korean-American churches’ approaches to their multi-generational and linguistic diversities. I was pleased that both Kim and Myung concluded that this is not applicable to their Brazilian setting. Also admirable is Myung’s ‘kingdom’ priority over Korean cultural mandate, which the first generation strongly felt when the church was first established. The priority is shaping the church into a kingdom-oriented community, and languages and cultures thus occupy only the secondary place. Two specific aspects of this process in the Sao Paulo church are introduced. The first was efforts to narrow the generational gap, and the second is the process of discerning and decision-making in handling the non-Korean Brazilian group in the church. The last section is in a sense an extension and elaboration of the second aspect of their mission strategy. Anchored in McGavran’s four church growth models, Myung, using the church’s efforts to reach out to the lower social strata in the immediate geographical context, concludes that the best model for the church is the ‘bridging’ one. As a specific implementation, the church formed a strategic partnership with an Amazonian synod of the Brazilian Presbyterian Church, where he once served as a medical missionary. In the concluding chapter, Myung picks up Kim’s earlier ministerial value, ‘respect’, for his own pastoral leadership style and for the church’s missionary engagement.
Throughout the book, I was extraordinarily impressed by the first-generation’s willingness to relinquish their privileged place to the next one. For this, Kim’s decisive leadership will be long remembered and appreciated. This book is of special value, as only a few useful published materials are available on the experiences of Korean immigrant congregations. And, of the ones that there are, often they become elaborate commemorative books, by trying to include too much information (for record’s sake) and are often uncritical. This book with its candour and serious analytical reflection will serve those who research on immigration and their presence in, and impact on, their social context.
Several things, however, beg the publisher’s attention for future editions. The first is typos found in the English version. (In fact, Myung pointed out many of them.) Second, at least one piece of data is recorded not accurately. The World Congress on Evangelism, Berlin was held in 1966 (not 1996), and organized by Bill Graham (p. 162). Third, the book is not available through popular global online sites such as Amazon.com. However, the publisher’s site has useful information about the book and the authors. 2 Lastly, and very seriously, the book is full of grammatical errors, and less-than-acceptable expressions. I carefully went over Chapter 1, and found five grammatical errors, and one of them is a complete nonsense (‘choungrakoice’, p. 15). That is five out of 13 total sentences of the chapter, a whopping 38%! Even if one may suspect that the English version is a translation of the Korean original, a complete and thorough proofreading will be critical before a corrected edition is published. Albeit these ‘plenty of dusts in the jade’, this book is a significant contribution (or a rare piece of jade) to diaspora studies.