Anyone who has hiked a trail that leads to a waterfall knows the rushing sound that signals their arrival. Depending on the size of the waterfall, it can be deafening in the most magnificent way, or it can sound soothing and calm. Either way, hearing the sound of a waterfall is a unique experience, just like participating in a time of Korean-style prayer.
While most of us are familiar with other types of prayer such as “popcorn prayer” where everyone takes turns praying about an individual need; unified or unison prayer, where everyone prays the same prayer aloud together; and call and response prayer, fewer people are familiar with Korean-style prayer.
Led by Korean Capital Presbytery, the worship service will be the Assembly’s first ever service in which first generation Korean worshipers can fully participate without translators.
This type of prayer invites a group of people to pray individual prayers about the same topic at the same time aloud. This is not disordered or unintelligible prayer, but gives voice to the silent prayers individuals often make in corporate worship so that each encourages the other to petition and praise the Lord in their own words. After the designated amount of time, a leader concludes with a representative prayer, like a collective “amen.” While not exclusively a Korean practice, it is called Korean-style prayer because Korean churches implement it during their worship services. Attendees at this year’s PCA General Assembly will also have the opportunity to experience this type of prayer during one of the worship services.
Worship in the Korean’s Heart Language
The themes for this year’s services are drawn directly from the PCA’s motto: Faithful to the Scriptures, True to the Reformed Faith, and Obedient to the Great Commission. Several Korean-speaking churches will lead the Thursday night worship service (focused on the theme Obedient to the Great Commission), which will include a time of Korean-style prayer. The evening will focus on overseas missions and the work of missionaries around the world while also acknowledging the beginnings of Christianity in Korea through Presbyterian missionaries.
Led by Korean Capital Presbytery, the worship service will be the Assembly’s first ever service in which first generation Korean worshipers can fully participate without translators. It will be the first time a service is led from the call to worship to sermon to benediction by Korean American pastors within the PCA.
Owen Lee, pastor of Christ Central Presbyterian Church in Centreville, Virginia, and director of operations for the Korean American Leadership Initiative noted in an interview with byFaith that the committee hopes a bi-lingual service will invite people who have never experienced a Korean worship service to collectively participate in, learn from, and be encouraged by it.
Lee commented that one of the questions the committee asked when planning the event was “Can the worship service be done in a way that allows those of us who are not a part of Korean culture to experience how Korean churches worship?” This was a goal when planning the evening, including Korean-style prayer.
The significance of Korean-style prayer is that it speaks to Korean Christian spirituality. According to Lee, Koreans pray in a way that is fervent, “more like pouring out your heart before God. There’s an earnestness and passion there, a volume that is different from when others pray,” he said. It is how Korean Christians express their spirituality, but is culturally informed and not more or less spiritual than other forms of worship and communing with God.
Not to mention that it also sounds distinct. “It sounds like a gushing waterfall when you have a thousand people praying together at the same time. You don’t worry about what the person next to you is saying or praying, you pray together as one voice,” Lee said.
In an article about Korean-style prayer, also called tongsung kido (tong-sung ghee-do), Timothy Isaiah Cho, associate editor for Faithfully Magazine, explains the basics of praying this way, but also the benefits and beauty of implementing it in worship services:
[ Korean-style prayer] … dignifies short prayers, medium prayers, long prayers, choppy prayers, polished prayers, and everything in between. It dignifies big faiths and little faiths. New Christians and seasoned Christians, adults and children, people from all different education levels and walks of life are able to pray as they are in a corporate manner. It teaches us that we are a house of prayer, not just a group of people with one or two designated “good prayers.” We do not have to compare ourselves to others when we pray aloud together and we are able to utter prayers that clean, polished words may not be able to express.
“[Korean prayer] sounds like a gushing waterfall when you have a thousand people praying together at the same time. You don’t worry about what the person next to you is saying or praying, you pray together as one voice.” – Owen Lee
Both Cho and Lee believe this style of prayer is beneficial for all Christians to experience because it provides an opportunity to speak with God in a fresh way that is also seen throughout Scripture as people cry out to God and practice corporate worship.
Lee, who is serving on the worship committee for the Assembly’s gathering, hopes that incorporating a bi-lingual service with Korean-style prayer and the other linguistic aspects will encourage first generation Korean pastors to feel seen and included, making the PCA also feel a little more like home for them and their congregants.
“I also hope it stretches the imagination of our non-Korean brothers and sisters in the room,” he said. “There are other ways God is worshiped and corporate prayer is one. This isn’t the only way, but another way. There are other ways to worship and express love and adoration to God.”
Cho emphasizes learning from other cultures and believers as a reason to implement Korean-style prayer within worship services where it currently is not used.
“We can learn from our brothers and sisters from other cultures and backgrounds and grow with them together into maturity in Christ. This is the Lord’s intention, that we would need each other as members of one Body. What a precious truth that is!”
More information about this year’s General Assembly is available at pcaga.org.