Daegu Korea's Hoon Dok Family Church Experience

Chang O Kim
November 2013

A program fostering home group leaders in the Daegu church that includes in-depth education on home groups, such as on their operation and administration, and on how to communicate with and guide home group members.

True Parents initially started the Hoon Dok Family Church in the 1970s in the form of the home church movement, which then developed into the system of breaking through at the grassroots level' and finally to Hoon Dok Family Churches. Ever since the Lord returned, God has endlessly tried to conclude his will in the family, the holiest sanctuary, instead of concluding it in an external church or social organization. True Parents often blessed this practice and spoke about this as God's advance base and as the source of life that gives birth to people of Heaven.

Accordingly, the Family Federation for World Peace surpassed its church identity by becoming a social committee and repeatedly challenged itself to achieve True Parent's large vision of a Family Church. Recently, FFWPU, centered on Cheon Bok Gung, established the names "Home Group" and "Hoon Dok Family Church." Internally, the church has been gradually systematizing its organization, strengthening its spirituality, restoring the culture of heart that existed in the early days of the church and shaping itself into a church advancing with the Holy Spirit and truth based on True Parents' teachings. After True Father's ascension, we have been living up to our faith and investing maximum effort at the risk of our lives, as we head toward 2020 centered on True Mother. Our major focus has been on properly setting up a healthy church and bringing about a spiritual awakening and a strengthening of capacity centered on the pastor.

Based on this, the Daegu headquarters church is challenging itself to establish Hoon Dok Family Churches centered on the Daegu Family Church. I would like to share the major tasks and inspirations felt concerning these changes in the church.

A view of the city of Daegu, population 2.5 million

First, the Daegu Family Church is trying to shape its identity as a church building love through the Holy Spirit and the truth. The terms true love and true family are quite familiar to us but have also become formal terms in our lives. We are challenging ourselves to project these within the actual lives of all members. The challenge of making them part of our lives as a life-religion is a difficult but precious task. Many problems remain to be resolved including the aging of Korean members, the difficulty that Japanese members face in settling within Korean society, the financial difficulties of our interracial families, and others.

Members and facilitating groups, such as home groups, are finding some difficulties in establishing loving relationships and practicing them because of the lack of a clear object to love. In the same manner, we have a combative culture today that was established as we sought to achieve our vertical goals and purposes. A home group, unlike the past solitary culture, wherein a person could conduct tasks alone, requires a communicative and horizontal culture where members need to achieve tasks as a team. The reality is that this horizontal communicative culture is still weak in Daegu. In order to overcome one's inner fear and realize true sibling love, qualities such as attentive listening and a serving leadership are required of home group leaders. However, many home group leaders tend not to embody them. That is why we need an incubatory-style strategy in order to expand a culture of true communication and love centered on small-scale home group leaders.

Second, Daegu Family Church is trying to shape its identity as a church building the ideal (dream) through the Holy Spirit and the truth. First-generation members practiced absolute obedience based on absolute faith. However, we recognized our wounds and inadequacy as we became aware of the fact that the church was no longer growing. In order to resolve those disadvantages and for the church to properly advance, introspections occurred and we tried to set up a process that can guide people into mature faith, a systematic nurturing system and education. This resulted in the building of a system and culture based on witnessing, nurturing, lay ministry and the blessing. It is necessary that efforts be put into witnessing to new members, raising them as citizens of Heaven, and nurturing them in becoming leaders that can achieve God's dream through the witnessing centers and home groups. Daegu Family Church consistently challenges itself by conducting different activities including "Happy Day seminars," an eight-week VIP course for new members, one-on-one Divine Principle studies, three-day Divine Principle workshops, the fostering of Divine Principle lecturers, home groups to help new members settle, a ten-week settlement program for new members, and blessing education through our New Hope Witnessing Center. This, however, does not mean that Daegu church had not been carrying out activities in the past. What is important is that we realized that the fostering of mid-level leaders has blown in a sense of mission and responsibility, changing the church atmosphere and making witnessing to new members possible.

In the first half of this year alone, we obtained nine single candidates for the blessing, and we are seeing an increasing number of candidates experiencing changes in their lives as they come to better understand the significance and value of blessed families. In order to realize an ideal or dream, we need to systematize our organization, obtain the right environment, nurture mid-level leaders, develop many lay-ministries, and activate home groups with members that can feel, practice and share love and deep heart. Hence, we are investing maximum effort in setting up leaders of Hoon Dok Family Churches in order to achieve the above. To enable twenty or so of our midlevel leaders, who are each in charge of lay-ministerial home groups, witnessing home groups, home group leaders' education, to experience leadership and a sense of accomplishment equal to that of a pastor, spiritual conditions and a change of mind-set within pastors are essential. Our senior pastor, Rev. Song In-young's message, on properly moving forward instead of living in a rush, greatly touched my heart.

Third, Daegu Family Church is trying to shape its identity as a church building a happy life through the Holy Spirit and the truth. Daegu Family Church went through many labor pains and a lengthy attrition until now because of different policies requiring either divisions or integrations between affiliated smaller churches. However, Daegu church is now growing into a healthier church as it approaches brothers and sisters who have all collapsed in exhaustion and as we become pillars to one another. We have not yet dealt with all the problems our blessed families face, including spiritual, marital, financial and parental, as well as faith education issues. However, we are getting away from any type of superficiality and are truly trying to foster warmth through prayers, spiritual conditions, texting (communication) and visits, through which we convey the pastor's thoughts and heart. As True Parents' representatives, Daegu church leaders are approaching members in all sincerity, strengthening the foundation of the church and challenging ourselves to bring about development. In addition, Daegu church is gradually transforming into a church where the aging Korean members once more love and work together with younger blessed families. We are trying to nurture trust and a healthy perspective of the pastor by getting away from the reality of daily life, encouraging natural exchanges with one another through volunteering and harvesting activities conducted in nature.

Left: A one-on-one Divine Principle lecture being conducted in a home group of Filipino members. Right: Home group members in Daegu, make it a point to pray for any member going through particular difficulties.

I believe that only when confessions, such as "I feel like I am truly living now" or "I am truly grateful to have this faith and to know True Parents," by members set up as midlevel leaders overflow in the church can a church start to experience true changes. We are gradually realizing that the Hoon Dok Family Church movement is not about settling a system or bringing about changes in a system but is a movement to bring about restoration of faith and a movement that focuses on the restoration of the deep heart. Daegu church has become keenly aware that it requires tremendous investment and dedication to change people's thoughts. In line with this, Daegu church is now trying to bring about internal changes of the heart, spiritual changes and systematic changes rather than focusing on the external change of the church environment. We are working hard to return glory and joy to our Heavenly Parent and True Parents. We realize once more the importance of having public awareness centered on Heaven rather than on oneself, based on the teachings of our Heavenly Parent and True Parents. We feel grateful to True Parents for forgiving us and for setting us up once more as the army to settle Cheon Il Guk.