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Contributing to the process of indigenization was a wise missionary policy that made the church an independent, self-governing Korean entity as rapidly as possible. As soon as there were enough ordained Korean elders to outvote the missionaries, Presbyterians, for example, cut the Korean church loose from its mission apron-strings. They established the self-supporting; autonomous Presbyterian Church of Korea, which has now become in its various divisions one of the five largest bodies in the Protestant third world of younger churches. Methodist, Holiness, Baptist, Pentecostal, Adventist, and Salvation Army churches have likewise flourished. Visitors to Korea are rarely out of sight of the cross on the spire of a Christian church. In Seoul alone there are more than 1,500 Protestant churches, and when Billy Graham held the final meeting of his crusade in June more Koreans flocked to hear him than had ever before gathered in one place at one time to hear the Good News preached.

It happened in Korea. And if one still asks "Why?" I can only point again to the foundations: the good news according to the Scriptures, the power of the Spirit, the enthusiasm of the witness, faithfulness in adversity, rootage in the national soil, and the providence of God in history. Above all, the providence of God. Paul said it best long ago: "God gives the increase."

This article first appeared in the November 23, 1973, issue of Christianity Today.

Copyright © 2007 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

A Century After North Korean Revival, Dreams of an Encore tells about the centennial celebration of the 1907 Pyongyang revival.

Samuel Moffett has written several articles for Christianity Today, including:

Why We Go | Recapturing our motivation for missions. (1994)

Westminster Theological Seminary's SaRang Korean Missions Center researches the Korean church and has archived its history.

The character of the Korean church was largely set by the 1907 revival. Called the Korean Pentecost, and detailed in a book by that name written by missionary observers, the revival began practices such as early morning and evening prayer and the public reading of Scripture.

Korean Pentecost: The Great Revival Of 1907, by Young-Hoon Lee, is a scholarly history of the revival, published in The Journal of Asian Mission.

The Korean Pentecost: The Revival That Prepared Thousands For Eternity, edited & compiled by David Smithers is a short history compiled from The Korean Pentecost and other sources, available from the Revival Resource Center.

More Christianity Today articles on Korea's revival include:

Prophecy and Politics | How revivals and the Olympics made Korea the wunderkind of missions. (March 1, 2006)

Honoring Pioneers | The early missionaries to Korea serve as examples to modern-day ones. (March 1, 2006)

Liberating Faith | When Korea threw off Japanese rule in 1945, it was as much a victory for the church as for the nation. (Aug. 12, 2005)

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January (Web-only) 2007, Vol. 51