We asked the pastors who came from overseas to attend the 56th Pastors’ Couples Seminar about (1) their attendance background; (2) itinerary; (3) attendance purpose; (4) attendance results. As a result, I was able to confirm that pastors who came from all corners of the globe were greatly graced by the Holy Spirit who is eternal yesterday, today, and forever, and transcends all regions, cultures, and races.


(1) Attendance Background: Who came to attend the Pastors’ Couples Seminar?
A total of 319 pastors from 33 countries attended the Pastor’s seminar, of which 188 responded (60%) to the survey. By region of origin, 42% of the pastors were from Asia, 12% from the Americas, and 24% from Africa. There were 23% of pastors who had less than five years of pastoral careers in their ministries, and more than half of them had pastoral ministry for over 10 years. The number of veteran pastors who have served for more than 30 years in their pastoral ministry amounted to up to 10%. Overall, 30% of the survey respondents were pastors of fewer than 50 church members in planting churches and 10% of the pastors were serving more than 1000 church members.

Among them, 8% of the pastors shepherded over 3000 church members. The survey showed various distributions of career of ministry and scale of church.

(2)Itinerary (Journey to attend the Pastor’s Seminar)
Overseas pastors attending the 56th Pastor’s Seminar responded that it took them an average of 18.6 hours to come to Korea. It usually takes 14 hours from Incheon International Airport to New York. They spent a tremendous amount of time to come to Korea. Among them, 39% answered that they came to Korea in 24 hours. This shows that the distance could not take away the heart longing for the grace of the Lord. The number of the countries attending the seminar is increasing every year.

66.3% of pastors attended the pastor’s seminar for the first time, while 34.7% of pastors attended more than two times. 11.6% of pastors attended more than four times. This confirms that there are many pastors who regularly attend the seminar, despite the fact that the journey to South Korea can be lengthy.

(3)Attendance Purpose: For what did you attend the Pastor’s Seminar?
Among the purposes to attend the seminar, “to get the power to pray” ranked the first, with 77.7% of the respondents providing this reason (among various others). Far from doing pastoral ministry, pastors knew that, without the filling of the Holy Spirit, they could not lead their faith lives. Pastor Seok-Jeon Yoon preached that they should have the ability to pray without ceasing, filled with the Holy Spirit. They received God’s grace saying, “Amen.”

The second most frequent purpose was “to do the powerful pastoral ministry” (71.7%), while the third most frequent purpose was “There were not many pastor’s seminars in my country” (38%).

(4)Attendance Results
We asked the pastors who had attended the pastor’s seminar before about what changes they experienced in their pastoral ministry after the seminar. 74.6% of the respondents answered that “prayer time has increased” in the first place. The respondents were allowed to give multiple responses.

The main motivation to attend the seminar, “I will get the spiritual power to pray”, complies with the participants’ answers. It shows that the pastor’s seminar in Hindolsan Retreat Center is making a real impact on their pastoral ministry.

In the second place, 43.3% of the respondents said that they got the power to do pastoral ministry, while 32.8% of pastors said that there was a change in their views of pastoral ministry; furthermore, 31.3% of the respondents said that personal faith life has changed, while another 14.9% said that the numbers of their church members increased. These results confirm that their changed prayer life was effective in winning souls. We could indeed observe the great work of the Lord accomplished through the pastor’s seminar.


/BY SEONG-JIN PARK

위 글은 교회신문 <565호> 기사입니다.