As we share the Dunamis Project materials and teaching in new international settings, it is exciting to see how the Holy Spirit draws people in, raising up local leaders and teachers who then contextualize the teaching.
Hear about how that is happening in South Korea:
The Korean Dunamis Network
Following the completion of all six Dunamis seminars as a special “advanced training” held at Jesus Abbey in Taebaek, Kangwon Do, Korea in 2010, it did not yet seem the time to establish a Dunamis Fellowship there.
So, the Korea Dunamis Network (KDN) was set up to coordinate tracks and other related activities in Korea.
The operating committee is co-chaired by Ben Torrey, Dean of Korean Language Programs for the Dunamis Institute and Pastor Young-Woo Ahn of the Onchun Koryo Presbyterian Church in Pusan.
The Young2080 parachurch organization has provided a full-time staff member, Josephine Choi.
Josephine coordinates interpreters for seminars, has translated all the Dunamis manuals into Korean, and is developing a Dunamis Basic Series that covers the first two Dunamis seminars for use as a church educational program.
Three volumes have been published and are in use in a number of churches.
The fourth volume is due out later in 2012. Josephine is also overseeing the development of the Korean website.
Unique Country, Unique Methods
South Korea is about the size of the USA state of Virginia, so rather than having regional tracks, they have developed a different plan—to have Gateways in different areas each spring, to do In the Spirit’s Power (“Gifts”) in the summer and then each fall a new course until they have done all six.
Three Regions Embracing Dunamis DNA
Three regional Dunamis prayer groups are meeting on a regular basis: in Taebaek for the northeast region, in Pusan for the southeast, and in Kwangju for the southwest.
This past February, our Taebaek Dunamis pastors’ group ran a week of evening meetings in the Yongdong Presbyterian Church using Dunamis Basic Series volume 1.
I gave one of the talks.
The leadership team consists of a number of clergy from Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist churches in the Taebaek area.
This group has done a very good job of internalizing primary aspects of the “Dunamis DNA” that are highly valued here in Korea such as real team ministry and the discernment process.
Through the Clergy to the People
In our Dunamis seminars we focus on clergy, encouraging them to take the teaching back to their churches and disseminate it among the people. The Dunamis Basic Series is the primary tool for doing this.
We were very pleased to have a number of distinguished senior pastors from Koryo Presbyterian churches. (Koryo is the most conservative of the four largest Presbyterian denominations in Korea.) We also had church leaders from other denominations as well.
Teachers and Leaders
PRMI Board President Tom Willcox and his wife, Raylene, will be the primary instructors for In the Spirit’s Power the first week of July.
Ben goes on to speak of the commitment of Korean partners in this work:
I cannot end this report without expressing deep appreciation to Missionary Jik-Han Koh, the head of Young2080, for supporting the KDN so strongly and providing Josephine’s services to us so extensively.
One of our main speakers, Pastor Jacob Yang, is also a leader in Young2080. Missionary Koh and the other leaders are convinced that Dunamis is vitally important for the Church, providing the right theological and Scriptural understanding of the person and work of the Holy Spirit to reinvigorate the Church.
Our balanced perspective is critically important in the Korean environment. We are all committed to it as the best means to bring true unity to the fractured and wounded Body of Christ here in Korea.
Pray with Us
We encourage you to pray for us as we move forward. Thank you for those prayers.
