Seoul Rising

Morning sun gave way to some crazy snow showers here in Seoul, a bustling city of ten million people and endless high rise condo towers. Today (it's already Wednesday here) we are having lunch with a few friends and key ministry leaders and a 2 PM meeting with pastors representing most of the major churches and ministries throughout the city.

Seoul is an interesting dynamic, a place where the Christian church has only really exploded in the past fifty years. And explode, it has. We visited today with friends (guests who were at Passion Dallas) at one of the largest churches in Seoul where they oversee ministry to the thousands of young adults and college students. When I say large, this church has 90 different services on a Sunday and has 20,000-25,000 people come through the building (they are growing fast and have trouble keeping count). And that's just this campus. In other places throughout the city that many more are meeting, as well.

But it's not the size of the church that floors you, it's the fervency. As we walked in the main auditorium (seats about 2500-3000) in the late afternoon there were three women deep in prayer scattered across the room. The one closest to me in the balcony was crying out to God with everything she had. I'm pretty sure she never noticed four guys walking around her touring the place. She was weeping, and calling out to God in a language I could not understand, but with a passion and intensity I felt immediately drawn towards. And, as I was told, someone is praying in the place all the time. That doesn't count the three weekday morning prayer meetings at 6 AM which are packed, or the forty days of prayer that just ended where people had to arrive before 4 AM to get a seat for a service that started at 5 AM!

Needless to say it was a powerful image to see on the day First Monday was being posted back in the States. I started thinking about all of our churches, and wondered if you walked into most of them in the late afternoon (or anytime, for that matter) how many people you could hear weeping in the seats. I think we like the idea of praying. But these people believe in the power of prayer.

We went out to the Olympic Park later and walked through the venue we are trusting God to give us for October. (The government has to say yes and they won't even talk to us officially yet!) They were tearing down the stage from an event the night before (The Moonies!) and we just stood and looked at thousands of empty seats...wondering if what "has been" in Korea could "be again" in this new university generation in Seoul. We're humbled to be here, and anxious to see what God will do. But, first we must pray (the kind where you actually pray), because nothing great ever happens without it.
LG