Earticle

Until now preachers of the Korean church have seemingly been negligent in preaching on social issues. However social issues must necessarily become one of the important topics of preaching. If so, why should they preach it and how should such issues be proclaimed? Therefore some answers about these questions are discussed throughout this study. First, this paper insists that the reason why preachers have to advocate on social issues is that God wants it and that as a human being it is a natural social matters. This paper argues on the sermons about social issues that must be proclaimed in the perspective of God the Father and they have to become one-third of the whole preaching of preachers. This study also discusses that social issues have to be delivered in connection with God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

Because Korean society and citizens give very low credibility to the Korean Christians and Korean churches, Korean preachers should seek to practice ethical preaching in order to recover ethical holiness and moral excellence in the Korean Christianity. Ethical preaching tries to connect the preached message on the pulpit with moral excellence in the social lives of believers. In order to prepare ethical preaching, preacher need an ethical interpretative strategy of the Bible. Because the Bible is neither a moral prescription book nor an ethical manual, literal interpretation is not desirable for ethical preaching. Even though the Bible is not a moral prescription book, its ancient texts tell and show us, modern readers and preachers, how to listen to the moral implications there as the ancient believers did, and how to live holy lives under the salvation and ruling of God. For an integrative ethical interpretation strategy of the Bible, three components: God, His people, and the sphere of God􀁳s ruling, should combine together in a triangular paradigm of the biblical interpretation. As another necessary strategy for ethical preaching, the preacher also needs to consider a faith community where an ethical preaching message is applied and practiced by those who listened to the message. For this purpose, the preacher should analyze the ethical situation of the congregation, and decide the ethical degree to which can help them to change after preaching. And the preacher also needs to combine the individual ethic and the community ethic, and practice pastoral leadership for transforming ethical lives of the congregation.

The purpose of the present study is to arrive at a way of orienting ethical preaching commonly available from Korean pulpits by the guideline of Jonathan Edwards’ ethical theology and sermons. As love is the sum of all within the law of God and the sum of all duties which the Word of God requires, love is also the wellspring of Christian ethics. Accordingly the love of God is the one true virtue, which in turn generates all other edifying forms of love. Love is an eternal and perfect virtue, in fact the only virtue that will transcend earthly human conduct and continue in heaven. Consent to the love of God is the summum bonum that Christians seek. The new heaven and earth will witness the consummation of the love between God and His creature that the Bible tells. From the analysis of Edwards’ ethical theology and sermons, the author presents thoughts concerning the predominant orientation of Korean church’s ethical preaching. First, in order to help raise Korean believers’ awareness of Christian ethics, preachers need to reduce the frequency of blessing-heavy sermons that have been the staple of Korean preaching for decades; they must instead increase the frequency of ethical sermons rooted in absolute truth and ultimate ethics, put more emphasis on individual’s responsibility than on society’s for ethical decisions, and help the lay form their own identity as disciples of Christ and equip them with the insights to tell true virtue from seeming virtue. Second, they need to preach the universal principle of love by distinguishing, in clear terms, between the love of self, the love of neighbors, and the love for God. Third, the preacher is to preach ethical issues in connection with sound doctrines drawn from the texts, particularly those with eschatological significances. Fourth, the preacher needs to develop a lucidly expressed ethical theology of his own and master the necessary rhetorical style to deliver it, and to enhance his understanding of religious affections of his audience.

The rapid growth of the Korean church in just over 100 years has been recognised as a miracle to the world church. But it is not easy to deny that behind such brilliant achievement there is also the shadow of glory and shame. The proud heritages of the primal church in Korea are that the church came to Korea as a new hope in overcoming the lamentation over the national ruin, as a pioneer giving the new experience of western enlightenment to the Koreans and as a courier of hope to the Koreans who had suffered from the oppressive reign of Japan. During the Korean War, the church as a refuge of the soul and as a spiritual helper encouraged the Koreans in pain to rise again. On the other hand, the Korean church was severely criticized by the society because most of the churches neglected the public responsibility of gospel. It is evident that this history of glory and shame, whether we like it or not, is the heritage and basis of the Korean church in which the church should carve the way to the future. In this context the practical theology as a guide of the church should play a great role. As a result of the illumination, most of the Korean churches have limited its status quo to the church itself. Apart from early history, the Korean church concentrated only on mission work through social welfare, education or relief efforts. Most churches went through in silence when dealing with the violations of human rights and antidemocratic attitude of the military dictatorship. This behavior of the church was based primarily on the conservative theology that proclaims the reason of existence of the church is to worship God and the christian is the first object of the ministry; this attitude of the church was seen by non-christian as a church of􀁲 enthistorisierung􀁳and a group just seeking self-welfare which isolated the church from society. Concerning the subject of ministry, the Korean church has been centered for a long time on the pastor; the Korean church did not have enough time to develop a strong religious education system for the pastors. Concerning the structure of the Korean church, the Korean church generally seems to belong to personal-individual christianity and church-centered christianity viewpoints. Most of the churches are experiencing the decrease or stalemate in number of churchgoers especially children and young people. To escape from this crisis, the Korean church must change the leadership of the authoritative-hierarchial-priestridden type of church to one of the democratic-participant-cooperative, use various methods concerning the praxis of the church, overcome the denominationalism and egoism of the local church and reform the worship and preaching.

In this article this writer tries to explore how we should understand and preach the message Ephesians. It is a general consensus that cosmic reconciliation and unity in Christ are the central theme of Ephesians. God has made known the mystery of His will, which is to sum up all things in Christ for His glory. In Ephesians Christ is the mediator who unites the cosmos, especially Jew and gentile as one new person through His death and resurrection. The main message of Paul’s preaching in Ephesians can be summarized as follows: God has provided the spiritual blessings of unity and reconciliation humanity by the work of the Christ’s death and resurrection through the Holy Spirit, so that believers should live the Christian life worthy of their calling for the glory of God. Paul’s preaching in Ephesians is replete with the activity of the three persons of the Trinity. First of all, God is described as the major subject who acts throughout Ephesians. Jesus Christ is described as the major agent by whom God has accomplished what He has willed for His glory. Through Christ’s life, especially His death and resurrection, God has fulfilled his prophecies promised in the Old Testament. In Ephesians the Holy Spirit works as an instrument of accomplishing all God􀁳s plan. The Spirit is described as a life giver to those are dead, a transformer for those who are in Christ, and a producer of the fruit of the new creation. Based on thematic understanding of Ephesians, this writer tried to provide four suggestions for proper expository preaching of Ephesians. Fist, we have to preach the whole counsel of three persons of the Trinity focusing on His salvation. Second, we should not only expound the Word of God but also apply the truth in the believer’s life. Third, the indicative message of Ephesians should always be the ground of the imperative message. Finally, this writer indicates that the Holy Spirit should be the initiator to lead the believer’s life.

When preaching is only evaluated based on doctrinal(truth) and ethical (goodness) criteria, it misses the sacredness presented on aesthetical (beauty) dimensions. The beautiful feet of those who bring the good news in Isaiah(52:7) and in Romans(10:15) present the importance of crossing the boundaries in preaching. The boundaries of theology, culture, and verbal languages are finding limitations and the communications in nonverbal languages can help preacher journey into the mountains to bring the good news to those who live on the other side. In this study, contemporary homiletics in North America is discussed quoting Mary Eunjoo Kim, Chuck Campbell, and John McClure. And Don Saliers and James F. White are included in conversation of liturgical importance in the homiletical development. The study deals with performative aesthetical tasks including musical interlude, visual arts, kinesics, paralanguage, proxemics, and non-verbal language communications. Also the study attempts to include Korean cultural adaptation on applying gestures, and subtle communication skills in storytelling methodology. Preaching is a beautiful act when the preacher’s body is fully used in accordance with what is preached.