I've been encouraged already by your pastor's welcoming of us. And Pastor Ryan, several weeks ago, he took some time out of his day to help me put together our itinerary, actually. And then he helped contact churches and we're just really grateful for his help. And then Pastor Jason's warm welcome. So thank you. We're not, we are not, our mission team is not under any third party mission organization. We are solely under our sending church, which is now Non-Sola Reformed Baptist Church in Daejeon, South Korea. And so, we are only prayed for and supported by churches that have some personal contact with us, and sometimes through a third party, like the Harvest Field Prayer Guide. And that ministry has been a huge blessing to us and the work in South Korea. Being able to come to churches like this one, to meet you personally, to introduce you to the work there, it's a huge opportunity for us. And so we're very grateful for it. Thank you. My name is Sam and I am married to Sanghee. And my wife was born and raised in South Korea. And we've been married 17 years now. We have two boys. They are 13 and 11. And I've been living in South Korea for going on five years now. I grew up in Vermont. And shortly after I turned 18, I joined the Air Force. And I spent several months in San Antonio. And it was there in San Antonio that I first heard the gospel. And then after San Antonio, I was sent to Wyoming. And the Lord put another military co-worker in my life who was also a Christian. And it was through that man and the reading of the scriptures that I was converted. Eventually, I would leave the Air Force to go to college in Wisconsin. That is, it was through that Reformed Baptist Church that I learned about Westminster Seminary California and IRBS. And I made my way to IRBS in 2014. In 2018, I graduated and my family and I went back to my hometown in Vermont, where I would continue serving in a local church there, Concord Community Church. That's where I was ordained in 2019, and it was from there in 2020 that I was sent to help with the Reformed Baptist work in Daejeon, South Korea. Good afternoon. Yeah, as you heard, my name is Taewook, but feel free to call me TK. I'm not going to be offended by that because you know what, one day in heaven I'll have the name here, right? Jesus, right? I was born and raised in South Korea. I'm living in Sejong. The city's name is Sejong. Right across the street where Sam is living. I've been married to Yujin. As you heard of my name, Taewook, is Eugene is kind of like man's name, right? So I'm not married to like a man. So Eugene is Y-U-J-I-N. That's quite popular like girl's name in South Korea. So Eugene, born and raised in South Korea and have three kids. Yeah, actually three sons that He told me that it's live streaming, so they're not like it. They're always telling me that, Daddy, stop calling us like monsters in front of people, but I'm not gonna stop, okay? Three vigorous monsters I have, who's looking forward to having big bags of Cheetos in South Korea, yeah. Those monsters will, yeah, eat them all. I have no Christian background. I have kind of experience like Roman Catholic experience when I was six, but has no Christian background at all. The 2002 first time that was the first time I attend a church in Toronto, Canada. So I went there to study English. How can we go there? Those kind of questions you guys can ask later, right? So there is something happened in my life, that's why I went to Canada. It's quite a long story and it's quite funny. In 2002, I went back to Korea, finished my mandatory military service, as all a Korean man should fulfill. In 2008, I came to America to study English. It was at Santa Monica. I entered Santa Monica College in 2009. I went back to South Korea, got married, and then came back to America with my wife. And I transferred to a Christian college in LA. So one year later, 2010, I met a friend who introduced me to Reformed theology. He introduced me to a bunch of Reformed theology books and introduced reformed pastor, like Korean pastor. That's why I heard a lot of like preachings of him and read books. That's how I observed like reformed theology. So I decided to go Westminster Seminary 2013 after my graduation where I met Sam there and I audited RBS classes there. The 2016, I graduated Westminster Seminary and moved to Las Vegas for some reason. Yeah, there are a lot of reasons why I have to move around. So Las Vegas was my last destination in America. So 2019, I came back to Korea, settled in. So living in South Coast side part of like South Korea. It was far from Sejong. Because my dad was a firefighter. He retired in that city. That's why I settled in that city. I wanted to move to Sejong where Sam was living. Sam is living right now, but it was impossible back then. So from there, like 2022, I went to Vermont with Sam, and there became a member of Concord Community Church in Vermont, which was our ascending church, and they have been supporting us a lot until now. So 2023, with the help of Concord Community Church and all the reformed Baptist churches in America, I could move up to Sejong finally. So 2024, I became a Non Hana Church, Non Sola. Sola in Korean is Hana. So Non Sola Reformed Baptist Church member, and then got ordained as pastor elder there. So I'm here now. I want to begin our presentation with some scripture reading. I'll begin with Matthew chapter 9, verses 35 through 36. And then Mark chapter 6, 30 through 34. So Matthew chapter 9, 35 through 36. And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. Mark chapter 6 verses 30 through 34. The apostles returned to Jesus and told Him all that they had done and taught. And He said to them, come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while. For many were coming and going and they had no leisure even to eat. and they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. In 16th century Europe, there was no shortage of churches. It's been said that when the first-generation reformers looked out across Europe, they didn't see a lack of church spires, but rather what they did see were churches that in theology and in practice obscured the gospel. The first generation reformers saw a need to recover the ancient truths of scripture concerning the simple regulated worship of God, the proper understanding of the gospel, and they saw a need to recover the ancient biblical understanding of baptism in the Lord's Supper as well as church government. Despite all the churches and despite all their outward religious practices, the reformers saw a great multitude of unreached people. And in the spirit of Christ and in the language of scripture, they saw sheep without shepherds. and they had compassion on them, and they began to teach them many things. This is exactly what we see today when we look out across South Korea. We see churches that are far from the romanticized days of the early missionaries and early revivals. We see churches that are far from the romanticized days of the rapid church growth of the mid-19th century. When we look out across South Korea, we see a great multitude of unreached people. And in a great number of pastures, we too see sheep without shepherds. We see multitudes who are harassed by and helpless against the false ideas of shamanism, buddhism, confucianism, and materialism. Okay, I want to introduce various kinds of ideologies in Korean mind. So to do that, I want to open this up with a quote from Michael Breen's book. It says, it has been said that the stereotypical Korean is a materialistic, shaman, Confucian, Buddhist, Christian. I would say one more time, the stereotypical Korean is a materialistic, shaman, Confucian, Buddhist, Christian. Although Confucianism is modern South Korea's greatest influencing idea, this description captures the complexity of the modern South Korean soul. That's what it said. So you all know how America has changed for 300 years. Was it okay? Y'all? Thank you. Korean history is almost 5,000 years old. When we look at Korea in 2024, Korea has changed 10 times more than America. I would say 20 times or 100 times. We've gone through more than six ideologies which have been dominant in Korea for 5,000 years. Those ideologies are Shamanism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Neo-Confucianism, Christianity, Materialism. And on top of that, I would categorize rest of those in like tendencies But those are ideologies too. Those are collectivism, pragmatism, and syncretism. As you can imagine, tons of combinations can be produced. Shamanism with Buddhism. Shamanism with Confucianism. Shamanism with Christianity. Or Buddhism, Christianity. Confucianism, Christianity, tons of combinations can be. There has been no pure ideology for 5,000 years. Basically, it stacks up. The shamanism occurred first, right? Shamanism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Neo-Confucianism, It works like that, it stacks up, but most of the time, it's mixed up. So, in East Asia, Buddhism is not a pure Buddhism at all. It's a mixture of Shamanism and Buddhism. So, let me give you a brief description of ideologies, the main ideologies that you're not familiar with. First, shamanism. Shamanism is all about praying, begging to nature or something. That something could be a tree, a rock, or a cat, or a dog, or sky, or ocean, or even this kind of chair. To seek success, prosperity, and blessings. Usually there are mediums, shamans between people and any kinds of gods. I've seen this is quite interesting. I've seen some mediums actually serve MacArthur as a god. So As I know, you guys are reformed, we are reformed. You guys probably imagine that MacArthur, John MacArthur, wow, Korean mediums are serving, worshiping John MacArthur. Please don't say that to Asians, Koreans. John MacArthur, no, Douglas, General MacArthur. Yeah, as a god. Right? Yeah, in our mind. Yeah, he's functioning like a god that I'm not that old, but I'm old enough to mention this, like, movie, 1990s, like, movie's name, like, Ghost. Have you ever watched that? Like, Luffy Goldberg, like, the spirit comes into someone's body and do like this and speak something. Yeah, that kind of thing. That's happening even now in South Korea. Shaman business is still huge, still huge. And customers are mostly rich. They are rich people. They're following that shamanism, even now. In Buddhism, it's all about how to find and or empty yourself to seek a truth. How to rule people with mercy. Basically, it is teaching of Buddha. Just one person who perished a couple thousand years ago. They're following that teaching till now. And Confucianism, it is all about all the attitude, mind, and ceremonies about how to honor bigger countries back in ancient world, bigger countries, or your king, someone's king, how to honor someone's king, how to honor ancestors, how to honor parents, how to honor older people, and how to honor husbands. It is teaching of confusion. Just one person who perished a couple of thousand years ago. Neo-Confucianism is all about keeping all good attitude toward a king, ancestors, parents, older people, and husbands too. If you don't keep those things, honor your king, honor your parents, honor older people, it's evil. That's his teaching. It's evil. If you don't keep it, it's evil. So its point is good and evil distinction based on the teachings of confusion. So as you see, shamanism works as a religion until now. And even in America, right? In the world, all around the world. The teachings became a religion, Buddhism, Confucianism. People worship Buddha or their ancestors. They are not supposed to worship Buddha because Buddha didn't teach them to worship himself or ancestors. Did they say, worship me? Worship them? No. But we just mixed everything and worshiped them, people. The teachings became laws in Korean mind. and their culture itself. If they don't keep it, it's evil. If you don't honor your parents, if you don't honor ancestors, if you don't honor older people, it's evil. It's in Korean mind. Always. The teachings became a lifestyle found in language and major holidays. Oh yeah. It's okay. So language, as you can see, Asian languages, especially Korean language, we have like respective form. There is a certain form of language grammar that we have to use to older people. If you don't use it, it's arrogant. You have to use it or it's evil. So that's the kind of ideologies that have been dominant in Korean mind. I want to like share kind of like, as you know, like stereotype, stereotypical American like culture. So we, you and I, have a typical American stereotype. As I know, my congregation in South Korea and my wife and all Korean people have that same stereotypical American. So Americans are all cowboys. All carry guns. Boom, boom, boom, boom, right? Is it okay to live stream it? Okay. One thing that I want to bring up is I see nobody's wearing a cowboy hat now. It's Texas. In Korean mind, wow, Texas. Everybody's wearing cowboy hats and holding a gun and bam, bam, bam, bam everywhere and riding a horse. That's kind of stereotypical American. And you've only gonna run about 300 years under Judeo-Christian foundation. One layered, one layered foundation, which is easy to talk about law and gospel. But we've got almost 5,000 years plus more than six layered foundation. It's different, right? Should be different. So I want to compare to Korean mind, like Korean stereotypes, typical mind. So when it comes to, say, the difference between American mind and Korean mind, whereas you have, first, independent pioneering spirit, second, right to free speech, third, right to bear arms, boom, boom, boom, right? Four, deep sense of right and wrong. Five, you're not afraid for morality on others. In short, individualism. Koreans are under collectivism, where cohesion is way more important than right and wrong. Cohesion is important. And if all say yes, nobody wants to say no. Because they are going to become outsiders. You guys are free to say no, right? If everybody say yes, everybody says yes, and somebody say no, then he's brave, he's pioneer, he's a pioneer. But in South Korea, he's an outsider. Korea is a shame and honor society. People want to be in a circle in which they feel safe. If you're not in a circle in which they feel safe, they are uncomfortable. They're uncomfortable. So let me give you an example to compare the American mind and Korean mind. So two years ago, we were traveling southeast, visiting the Reformed Baptist churches there. So we had no car, that's why Sam and I, our good friend, Uncle Jack, gave us a ride from Virginia to Georgia. That was quite a long drive. So while we're driving, Uncle Jack was driving and I was right next to him. I just take one protein bar out from my backpack and unwrap it and about to eat it. Uncle Jack said, oh, can I have one? This? There's one more. Okay. He just all of a sudden said, what can I have one in Korean? You guys all see that I'm Korean, right? I can speak Korean. But I was like, can I have one? Can I have one? Can I have one? He said, you don't have any words for can I have one in Korean? I said, I think so. I think we don't have one. He said, then what do you say? So I said, oh, it looks good. Yeah, it's a kind of indirect way, but it's efficient. My youngest son always says, whenever his youngest, like oldest brother is eating something, he's saying to my wife, Mommy, I like that. What does that mean? I want to eat that. Yeah, that's a kind of like Korean mind. It's indirect. It's indirect. All Americans tell you what exactly he or she is thinking. But a Korean is not likely to tell you what he or she is thinking at all. So what is right, what is proper, what is acceptable might be, no, is considered in culture insulting. Insulting. It is extremely hard to point out sin. As you can imagine that. And discipline people. Regarding church discipline. It's really hard. It's really hard to point out that. Because everybody should be indirect. Then direct. So on top of that, there is more important problem. Under over six layers of ideologies, on top of confusionism and collectivism, influenced on lifestyle, language, and culture, a hierarchical system is the most important reason for modern reformation in South Korea. It is really serious. Historically, Korea has been kingdoms for 5,000 years. Imagine that, for 5,000 years. We have had kings all the time. All the time. Was literally king for 5,000 years. The last kingdom was invaded by Japan in early 20th century. From then for about 40 years, during Japanese colonial period, Korea had been dominated by an extreme hierarchical system. Imagine that Japanese was ruling Korean. Hierarchical system was necessary. Right after the period, we had Korean War. Military service has been mandatory for all men, which led Korea to have a rigid hierarchical society. You know how military functions, right? It's really strict. This hierarchical system plus Confucianism and collectivism has produced a distorted corrupted hierarchical system, hierarchical society. That's today's Korea. I'll give you an example. To older people, even if you are a superior to him, saying what you did is wrong is evil. Hard. Wrong. Because they are older than you. Because they are older than you. It's really hard. Hey, what you did is wrong. It's really hard for a Korean mind. They have to keep silent or extremely indirect. They should be indirect. A senior pastor in South Korea is a king of a church because he's older, he's a pastor, he's the king of the church. No one can say no to him. No one. The pastor is the head of the church. You see, there's something wrong, right? Who is the head of church? Christ. But the pastor is the head of the church in South Korea. And the pastor is the constitution itself. Because the pastor, what he says is the law. It was easy for Korean to accept Presbyterian system because it has a hierarchical system. As you know well, even Korean Baptist Convention, the only Korean Baptist Convention, accepted Presbyterian system. This is the reality that we are facing. This is the reality. So we have four categories of the issues of reformation in modern Korean context. Number one, simple, Regulative worship of God. Number two, proper understanding of the law and the gospel. Number three, proper understanding of the sacraments. Number four, ecclesiology. So it's all about church officers should be elders and deacons, right? But I don't know whether you guys know or not, but there are more than three, four officers in Korean churches. They made up an ordination by local church. There's no, there should be, there shall not be higher authority. Right? But Korean Baptist Convention has one. Local church cannot call their pastor. Presbytery, they don't call it presbytery, but that authority should ordain pastor and send them, a local church, a pastor. Something wrong, right? And church is a plane, as I mentioned. We have to become a model church as a Reformed Baptist Church base camp in order to discipline pastors who are in darkness. Even though they like Reformed theology, even though they want to practice Reformed Baptist theology, they can't because they get out of their circle, they become outsiders. That's why they are afraid of that. 2. In order to enlighten people who have improper understandings, Especially because of the misunderstanding caused by multiple layers of ideologies, we need to show them proper understanding of the law and the gospel as a model church. And because of the hierarchical system based on the ideologies and history, we need to show them proper understanding of church discipline. as a model church. So the constitution that we have now is the unprecedented. They never had the constitution. Every Baptist pastors, I told him, I told them that we have constitution now. We're writing constitution. They don't understand. Constitution? Is that Presbyterians? Hey, we don't have constitutions. They never had constitutions at all. They don't know what it is. They don't know how it functions at all. So this is the unprecedented first and the most important document for reform Baptist movement in South Korea. We have more to do in that country. Please look forward to our every steps as our brothers and sisters in Christ. South Korea is one seventh the size of Texas. It's about the size of Indiana. And whereas in Texas, you have a population of 30 million people, South Korea's population is 52 million. So it's one seventh the size of Texas and more than one and a half times the population. And just last month, we constituted the only confessional Reformed Baptist Church in South Korea. 44% of South Koreans identify with a religion, and 56% identify as irreligious. Those who identify with a religion, 20% are Protestant. Korean Buddhism is about 16%, and Catholicism is around 8%. Since the mid 20th century, faith for blessing or prosperity theology has grown rapidly. This has caused a number of churches and a number of Christians to pursue prosperity, to pursue the charismatic gifts and megachurch status rather than being devoted to the simple teaching of the apostles inherited by Christians throughout history. Today, even though many churches in Korea may claim to be evangelical, their theology and practice reveal that their claims are superficial. Protestantism in Korea looks a lot like Protestantism here in America, with the exception of confessional Reformed Baptist churches. When it comes to the propagation of Reformed Baptist theology and practice, much like what has taken place in North America over the last 60 years, this propagation has only just begun in South Korea. As we've said two weeks ago, our congregation covenanted and became the only Second London Church in Korea. The main Baptist denomination, the Korean Baptist Convention, which is a sister denomination of the Southern Baptist Convention. In that convention, there are 3,200 churches and 6,400 pastors. And again, besides us three men at our church, we only know of a few more that would even identify with the Calvinist covenant theology found in the Second London Confession. Taewook and I first met at Westminster Seminary in 2014. And it was shortly after we first met that we began to discover that we both had similar desires for a modern reformation in Korea. And trusting God's providence, he moved back to Korea in 2019. In February of 2020, at the invitation of Pastor Park in Daejeon, my church in Concord, Vermont sent me to Korea to work alongside Pastor Park to help reform already existing churches and, Lord willing, to plant healthy Reformed Baptist churches. In 2022, The elders in Concord and TK and I became more and more convinced of the need to plant additional healthy Reformed Baptist churches. And the goal has always been to eventually, with the planting of another church, to form an association of churches. So in 2021, Teuk and I visited the church in Vermont where he was formally introduced to the congregation to be considered as my co-laborer. And almost a year later, the church in Concord voted unanimously to formally recognize TK and to establish the South Korea mission team. And at that time, we were under Concord's authority, care, and commission. And we were alongside Pastor Park in the church in Daejeon. As some of you may already know, in December of 2022, our church in Tejan experienced a major disruption, at which time over half of the church left. Then, in February 23, TK and his family moved into the city, and that is when the Three of Us Men began reforming and replanting the church. And throughout that disruption, It became more and more clear to Pastor Park and the remaining members that we needed to reform the theology, and we needed to reform the practice of the congregation. And by God's grace, we've been able to do just that. Over the last year and a half, we have worked together researching, writing, and teaching a new church order. Teuk has also translated and is preparing for publication two important 17th century Particular Baptist documents that were used directly in reforming the church. One of those is by Nehemiah Cox and the other is by Benjamin Keech. And TK has already begun his third translation project, which is The Mystery of Christ, His Covenant, and His Kingdom. by Dr. Sam Renahan. And while I devoted more time to my Korean language and cross-cultural studies, earlier this summer, Pastors Park and Tew wrote and taught a new essentials class as an introduction to the faith and the life of the church. And all of this came to a culmination last month, when on August 17th, we administered baptism for six adults and two youths. And a week later, on August 25th, we formally constituted with a new church order, a new covenant in membership, and a new plurality and parity of pastors, where TK, Pastor Park, and I were installed as elders. And at that time, our mission team moved under the Care Commission in charge. of known Solar Reformed Baptist Church. At the beginning of the summer, our church moved into a new location in the building right next to our former location. Our new worship room is double the size, and we have three additional classrooms, a much larger kitchen, and a much larger eating area. And this new location will allow us to hold twice as many people as our former location. We'll be able to organize Lord's Day Christian education classes and Lord willing conferences as well as formal and informal theological education classes. In short, this new location is allowing us to continue stabilizing a home base for the Reformed Baptist mission in South Korea. Moving forward, Pastor Park will continue in his role as the primary weekly preaching pastor. And TK and I will continue assisting him by filling the pulpit on a monthly basis. Upon our return, we are also planning to start adult and youth Christian education classes and to explore starting an English Theological Book Club at the Korean Baptist Theological University and Seminary, which is walking distance from our church. Our city is the Louisville of the Korean Baptist Convention. If you know anything about Louisville and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and its role in the Southern Baptist Convention, our city in this institution is our Louisville, if you will. Next year, we will continue stabilizing our foundation. Teu is planning to expand his translation work, and he and Pastor Park are exploring starting a publisher in order to begin printing some of these resources that he's already translated. In addition to helping with pastoral and outreach needs at the church, I'm planning to devote more time to my cultural and language acquisition, and to continue raising awareness of and support for the Reformed Baptist mission in South Korea. And all of this we are doing with an eye towards the next Reformed Baptist church plant. And with our church now, our hope is to form an association under the Second London confession. As you know, over the last 60 plus years, the United States has experienced a recovery of Reformed Baptist theology in practice. Latin America, East Africa, Australia, New Zealand, have all been experiencing the propagation of Reformed Baptist theology in practices because men were sent to those parts of the world as ambassadors. And those men were sustained through the prayers, encouragement, and support of churches just like this one. We have had this same opportunity to serve as ambassadors of Reformed Adventist theology and practice to the East. And we, too, need your prayers, your encouragement, and your support. We are convinced, first and foremost, that a biblical understanding of the simple regulated worship of God, a biblical understanding of the gospel and baptism in the Lord's Supper, as well as church government, are exactly what modern Koreans need for the sake of their own souls. And this is fulfilled in the planting and shepherding of local churches. The planting and shepherding of local churches is the propagation of the faith. The planting and shepherding of local churches is the illuminating of the nations. This is the fulfilling of the Great Commission. As I'm sure you can imagine, our past year and a half has often been overwhelming, but as you can see, in the midst of and from out of great disruption, God has done a great work among us. And so we invite you to join us in giving thanks and praise to God, for all that he has accomplished among his church in Daejeon. Please pray for our time in Texas and our return to South Korea. Please pray for God to strengthen us and sustain us in our work when we return. And please pray for local church partnerships and our support in the coming months and years. We can't Thank you all enough for helping make this trip possible. And we can't overstate how much we need these kinds of relationships with Christ churches. It's partnerships and relationships with churches like yours that encourages and strengthens us. And through prayers and provisions, God provides for us. so that we can continue doing the work he has called us to in South Korea. So truly, thank you for having us. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this Lord's day when we can come and set aside the cares and fears of this world and be reminded of the gospel and be reminded of the spread of your kingdom throughout Texas, throughout the United States, and throughout all the world. We pray, O Lord, that you would encourage our souls, and by your grace, that we would love you and obey you, and love and serve one another.