Pastor Foley (with Mrs. Foley translating) shares about the significance of the Report of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to a group of North Korean defector pastors. Pastor Foley says that ultimately, “only Christians acting like Christians, building their faith around the Bible, can cut the root of Communism.”
For more information on North Korea visit www.seoulusa.org.
Since November, North Korea has arrested a Korean American missionary, a South Korean missionary, and an Australian missionary. Do these arrests represent a declaration of war on Christians?
Not a new one.
It’s important to remember that the war on Christians was declared by North Korea with its formal establishment as a state in 1948 and has been unrelenting ever since. Those being held—Korean American Kenneth Bae, South Korean Kim Jong Uk, and Australian John Short—should be remembered in our prayers along with the 30,000 North Korean underground Christians who are paying the price of faith in quiet anonymity in North Korea’s concentration camps.
There are important lessons to be learned from the arrests by Christians seeking to reach North Korea in the future. Now is not the time to comment on the strategies of those being detained. But what we can conclude with certainty is that there is no “back door” into North Korea—no strategy for sharing the gospel there that does not involve paying the highest of personal prices. This is what North Korean underground Christians have known and practiced for years, and Bae, Kim, and Short have now joined that story.
What has surprised me the most personally about North Korean underground Christians is their acceptance that the practice of their faith will naturally lead them to imprisonment in a concentration camp. They do not regard imprisonment with surprise or outrage, as if it were unusual. They regard the camps as their mission field and see everything that leads up to their imprisonment as training for that most grueling of missionary services. I pray that Bae, Kim, and Short are able to draw strength from that.
For North Korean Christians, the imprisonment is when missionary service truly begins.
At a conference last week, I met a young pastor, and quite honestly I thought this pastor might be a little too young to be pastoring a church. I was even more shocked to find out that this pastor was responsible for over 100 congregations! Surprisingly, this situation was quite common among the pastors and congregations in this restricted country that I was visiting.
This past week, Pastor Foley, Mrs. Foley and I, had the opportunity to train over 80 church leaders. The theme of our training was understanding the “key to discipleship.”
While some of the participants lacked a proper Scriptural education, we found that many pastors (even the very young ones) had a good Biblical foundation and a strong desire to learn more. We also found that the leaders in this restricted country had a similar problem to American churches. They understood the Word, they preached the Word, they valued the Word, but they didn’t regularly put it into practice. For example, one church leader said, “I’ve always had a desire to serve in the church, but I didn’t realize my responsibility was first to serve in my home.”
During the conference we spent time talking about the Work of Mercy of Doing Good, but we also challenged the church leaders to “do the word” at the conference according to Galatians 6:1-10. Verse 10 says, “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” You see, instead of simply listening to God’s word, everyone was being held accountable to put God’s word into practice.
The following day when we asked for testimonies it was exciting to see their faces light up and to hear their inspired stories of God’s faithfulness. For example, one participant ensured that all of the fellow participants had enough blankets as they prepared to sleep at night. Another one helped a fellow participant from a rural area communicate with her family back home. And another student carefully prepared boiling water for his uncle before he went to bed. These activities helped everyone to understand the difference between Bible study and discipleship, between Hearing the Word and Doing the Word.
These “doing the word” activities may not seem like anything earth shattering, but it was an attempt, on the part of each person, to mirror God’s goodness to others. They didn’t overthink “doing good,” they simply practiced God’s word in the situations that were presented to them.
So, what did we share with the participants as the “key to discipleship?” Better preaching? More Bible studies? A better Bible version? Longer worship services? We shared that the key to discipleship is the combination of “hearing the word and doing the word.” If we forget the doing of the word, then our faith becomes foolish and lacks impact, and ultimately we don’t really grow in the Lord.
During the conference, I was reminded that even though discipleship often seems to elude us, it isn’t a mystery. I was reminded that Bible College, seminary, cell groups and even a good steady diet of Bible knowledge aren’t prerequisites for discipleship. I was reminded that age and status aren’t requirements for discipleship either. What is required? Similar to the church leaders at our conference, “doing the word” in a simple and faithful manner is the most important ingredient for discipleship.
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Do the Word 