Dr. Younghoon Lee
Senior Pastor · Yoido Full Gospel Church
Ministry Introduction
Yoido Full Gospel Church first began in May 18, 1958, in a tent with 5 church members, in Daejodong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, Korea, one of the poorest countries in the world at the time. Although it was a shabby tent church, the Holy Spirit worked so powerfully in this place that great miracles, such as a paralyzed person walking, demons cast away, a shaman repenting, happened. As a result, the church experienced revival-the church membership grew to 300 within 3 years and moved to Seodaemun.
During the Seodaemun church period, Dr. Yonggi Cho realized the Holy Spirit has personality and began to emphasize inviting, welcoming, and acknowledging the Holy Spirit. In 1968, while preaching during a worship service, with such awareness he even declared that "the Holy Spirit is the Lead Pastor of this church and I am the assistant pastor". The church then was filled with vision, wisdom and guidance of the Holy Spirit and grew more and more. However, Dr. Yonggi Cho became exhausted due to overload of church work. The Holy Spirit gave him wisdom and ideas for the church's cell system. Dr. Cho laid the foundation for church revival by boldly establishing and training female cell leaders in a patriarchal social culture. This cell system became a ministry model for church growth throughout the world. Dr. Cho preached the gospel and gave courage and hope to millions of poor and sick people with the message of hope so-called the Fivefold Gospel and the Threefold Blessing.
After moving from Seodaemun to Yoido in 1973, the church grew even bigger. Through the establishment of Osanri Choi Jasil Memorial Fasting Prayer Mountain, the fire of prayer arose, and many miracles such as healing the sick and prayers being answered happened. As missions and evangelism became more active both domestically and internationally, the organization called Church Growth International (CGI) which promoted the church growth throughout the world was established in 1976. Yoido Full Gospel Church, which has grown explosively due to relentless work of the Holy Spirit, was able to become the largest church in the world with over 780,000 memberships. In 1993, it was recognized as the world's largest church and entered the Guinness Book of Records.
Dr. Younghoon Lee succeeded Dr. Yonggi Cho in 2008 and continued his ministry as the senior pastor of Yoido Full Gospel Church. After Dr. Cho's retirement, he split the church into 20 other disciple churches as independent satellite churches in 2010. Also, he continues to succeed and develop the Holy Spirit movement and the legacy of Dr. Yonggi Cho. Among many parts of his ministry, this features on how the church has been doing in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 and how Yoido Full Gospel Church has actively been adjusting to the new church environment.
Online Media Ministry
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, online media ministry has emerged as important. As Covid-19 continued to spread, the government quarantine authorities reinforced the policy of social distancing measure in the metropolitan area. Due to this policy, only 19 people were allowed to enter the Main Sanctuary of Yoido Full Gospel Church, which can accommodate more than 10,000 people, during worship services. Consequently, Yoido Full Gospel Church switched all worship services including Sunday Services, Wednesday Services, Friday Holy Spirit Prayer Meetings, and Early Morning Prayer Meetings to online services. All worship services were broadcast live on the website, YouTube, mobile phone applications, OTT (Over-the-Top) media services, and the Christian Gospel Broadcasting channel called GOODTV. In addition, 650 local churches and 136 satellite churches, which were established in each district, were connected through Zoom to worship cooperatively, and restore liveliness of worship. In order to produce professional online videos, one-person video editing rooms were built in the church and have been in use until now. Every district and department including Sunday School produced education videos to help members grow in faith. Afterwards, as Covid-19 rate decreased little by little and the government lowered the social distancing measures, Yoido Full Gospel Church opened its 136 satellite churches in 13 different districts every Sunday and every morning for the members who wanted to attend the on-site worship, so they could have Sunday and Friday services together. In addition, by creating Youtube Channels like <Absolute Positive TV> and <Give Thanks 365>, the meditation on the Word of God was made more accessible to the church members, who were exhausted from Covid, and it gave them the message of hope and courage.
Yoido Full Gospel Church also helped small local churches, newly planted churches and dependent churches that were not able to equip devices for online worship due to their financial difficulties.
With the goal of "building 10,000 online churches," the members of Yoido Full Gospel Church as well as churches from different denominations financially supported this ministry to equip those small local churches by purchasing media devices and creating websites for the churches. The message of the gospel remains the same, but the method of delivering the gospel should differ from times and circumstances so that it may always be creative.
Sharing Love and Relief Work
In the book of Acts, the early church had 2 major ministries. One was the missionary work of spreading the gospel, and the other was the ministry of giving and sharing. Following the example of the early church, Yoido Full Gospel Church has dedicated themselves to missions and relief work during the difficult time of COVID-19.
Yoido Full Gospel Church donated 10 billion KRW to help the underprivileged in December 2021. A total of 10 billion KRW was donated to support small business owners, basic livelihood recipients, multi-child families, 800 households living in poor village, called Jjokbang, as well as 2,000 dependent local churches in Korea who were suffering from the continued economic recession during winter due to the 2-year-long COVID-19. Additional 5 billion KRW was donated again to support the church members who were suffering from heavy rains in August 2022 and the poor people. This relief ministry became an act of love that gave hope to many people who were in despair and discouraged, and it became a valuable opportunity to reaffirm the purpose of the church.
Furthermore, Yoido Full Gospel Church has been conducting an event called "Hope Box" for the past 10 years with a relief NGO of the church, Good People. This event is the biggest relief event of the year at Yoido Full Gospel Church. The church delivers boxes of daily necessities during the weekend and New Year holidays to the elderly living alone, children of families without parents, single moms, and multi-cultural families. Approximately, 20 billion KRW has been donated by January 2022 through "Hope Box" events. The church donated 30 million KRW to overseas missionaries who were undergoing difficult situation overseas due to the outbreak of Covid-19.
Also, the church provided 1.2 billion KRW to pay off the rent for thousands of small dependent churches in Korea. This decision was made to alleviate the suffering of the churches that were unable to continue Sunday services and pay church rent during Covid-19 crisis. Likewise, Yoido Full Gospel Church has been continuing and expanding the legacy of Dr. Yonggi Cho's "Sharing Love and Happiness Movement".
Holy Spirit Movement and Prayer Ministry
Yoido Full Gospel Church has dedicated themselves to the relief work, they also have been focusing on prayer and receiving of the fullness of the Holy Spirit despite the difficulties during the Covid-19 era. First of all, an online prayer meeting called <On-tact with God> was launched. This is a prayer meeting that started with the purpose of communicating and connecting with God through online media. This prayer meeting opens every Monday to Thursday at 9 pm on YouTube, the church website and mobile application. During this prayer meeting, each day of the week has themes such as repentance, restoration, and prayer for the nation and people. These prayers, praises and worship continue for an hour.
The church also started campaigns such as 1+1 evangelism and 1+1 prayer. This campaign means "Bringing one soul and helping him/her settle as one member of the church within one year" and "One day, One hour of prayer changes one life". Propagating the campaigns, the church distributed bookmarks with the phrase "1+1 evangelism and 1+1 prayer campaign" to all the members and encouraged them to actively participate in evangelism and prayer.
To celebrate the 64th anniversary of the church, <Special Daniel Morning Prayer Meeting> was held for a new spiritual revival. This prayer meeting, which was held from May 16th to June 4th, 2022, started with the hope of overcoming of the shadow of discouragement and despair caused by COVID-19, receiving the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and restoring worship and spirituality to revive the church. During the prayer meeting with the theme of "Restoration of Worship and New Springboard," the church members gathered at the Main Sanctuary from the early morning and filled the place with prayer. Also, to encourage all the members to pray fervently at least one hour every day, <One Day One Hour Prayer Campaign> is being held. Dr. Yonggi Cho said, "The Holy Spirit movement is a prayer movement". Yoido Full Gospel Church is also yearning for the new fire of prayer and for the fullness of the Holy Spirit. As a result of focusing on prayer and the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and actively sharing love, over 4,000 people were added to the church in 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic situation demands the understanding of creative and passionate ministry. No matter what the circumstances of the times, it is necessary not to lose the essence of the fullness of the Holy Spirit, adapt to the new environment, and focus on the revival of the church continuously. I hope that CGI network churches will continue to revive and grow by bearing the beautiful fruits in the ministry through receiving of the fullness of the Holy Spirit and the wisdom that comes from God.
