From June 16–19, 11 PC(USA) pastors came together for four days of learning as part of the first-ever transitional pastor training held in Korean. Cohort participants began learning together with a virtual gathering on May 16 and will gather online again in August for a final time to conclude their training.
The training — which organizers hope is the first of many — was the culmination of years of dreaming, planning and effort.
Transitional pastors have long served an important role in PC(USA) congregations, coming to a church after a permanent, often long-term pastor, has departed.
“Sometimes congregations need to go through this intentional time of transition so that they can discern their future, their vision, their mission,” explained the Rev. Joshua Heejoon Park, who serves as Manager for Korean-speaking Councils Support of the Interim Unified Agency, “instead of simply wanting to call the next pastor and let the pastor figure out all the things.”
The transitional pastor role requires particular skillsets and education to be successful, and trainings have been offered and well-known for years in English and in the dominant culture within the PC(USA). However, Park said that the practice and even the phrase “transitional minister” is unfamiliar in the Korean community.
Korean congregations are a significant part of the PC(USA), with more than 300 congregations and nearly 50,000 active members. Korean Presbyterian churches exist in 120 of the denomination’s geographic presbyteries. Additionally, there are three Korean-language non-geographic presbyteries: Eastern Korean American Presbytery, Atlantic Korean American Presbytery, and Midwest Korean American Presbytery.
Park emphasized that the need for transitional pastors — and adequate training for them — is as crucial to Korean Presbyterian churches as any others.
The idea for a program in Korean began years with conversation between the Coordinating Committee of Korean American Presbyteries (CCKAP) and the Rev. Jihyun Oh, who was then serving as the director of Mid Council Ministries. Oh is now the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly and Executive Director of the Interim Unified Agency.
Park explained that the Covid pandemic temporarily stymied efforts to organize a program in Korean, even while the pandemic led to more pastoral transitions and a greater need for training. Park joined the staff of what was then the Office of the General Assembly in 2022, and resumed this effort, working with CCKAP, the Transitional Ministry Education Consortium (TMEC), and others to bring the idea to fruition.
The executive presbyters of the Korean American presbyteries gathered with leaders of TMEC to hash out details of how a Korean transitional pastor training should look. They knew they wanted to include the core content from pre-existing transitional pastor trainings in English, but there were additional culturally specific elements they
wanted the program to address as well.
Park said one of the challenges was identifying instructors who could bring expertise in these skill sets to a Korean-speaking audience. For this first training, they brought in two highly qualified experts to lead the group. The Rev. Dr. AHyun Lee is a pastor in the United Methodist Church and a professor at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. The Rev. Dr. Eunil David Cho is a PC(USA) pastor and a professor at the Boston University School of Theology.
Participants also benefited from the leadership of the executive presbyters of Eastern Korean American Presbytery, the Rev. Hyon Chun Kim, and Midwest Korean American Presbytery, the Rev. Beung Hoon Choi, who led an introduction to transitional ministry and an exploration of appreciative inquiry, respectively. Park also brought his expertise to the group, leading several trainings around the call process, mission study, a church document revision process, and other polity-related matters.
Park said this first group of participants includes pastors from all over the country, some of whom are already serving in transitional roles. A few have been serving congregations for decades but are finding that pastoring in transition has its own unique challenges.
“A lot of the topics and the subjects we introduced and taught were something very new to them and they really truly appreciated it,” Park said. “So many of them, in fact, said if [they] had known about these things, it probably would have shifted how [they] did parish ministry to begin with.’”
Layton Williams Berkes, Communications Strategist, Interim Unified Agency (Click here to read original PNS Story)
Let us join in prayer for:
Brittany Cook, Young Adult Volunteer, Interim Unified Agency
Rich Copley, Multimedia Producer, Communications, Interim Unified Agency
Let us pray:
Generous God, we give thanks for new opportunities to hear your Word and see your grace transforming our lives. Your abundance bridges our cultural chasms and connects us in new communities of discipleship. In Christ’s serve we pray. Amen.
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