c. 1999 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ Two years ago, so few people were attending Broughton Presbyterian Church in Bloomfield, N.J., it could no longer support a full-time pastor. Meanwhile, so many people were flocking to the Korean United Presbyterian Church it had outgrown its rented space in neighboring Montclair.

The solution devised by the regional Presbyterian governing body is a dramatic illustration of a shift in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.): It asked the Broughton church to disband as a congregation and allow the Koreans to take over the building.

Since 1983, the PCUSA has lost a half-million members, dropping from 3.1 million members to 2.6 million last year. From 1997 to 1998, the church lost about 21,000 members.

Korean Presbyterians, however, fueled by an immigration boom, have gained about 4,000 members since 1990. Presbyterianism has long had a strong presence in Korea and is one of the largest Christian faith groups in South Korea. There are approximately 50,000 Korean Presbyterians in the United States today, the fastest-growing segment of the PCUSA.

The Korean church in Bloomfield reflects this trend. When the congregation moved into Bloomfield in 1997, membership stood at about 150 people. Now, there are 500.

Like every other ethnic or religious group that has tried to assimilate into American culture, Koreans find strength _ and comfort _ in numbers.

“We are still immigrants to this country and many of us like to go to ethnic churches because of the language and cultural problems,” said the Rev. Samuel Kim, pastor of the Korean Presbyterian Church of Hackensack, N.J.

This is especially true in New Jersey. Of the approximately 60 Korean Presbyterian churches in the eight-state Northeast Synod, 40 are in New Jersey. The churches are tapping into a Korean population in the New York metropolitan area that approaches a half-million people.

“The members bring new people in and it’s like a chain reaction,” said the Rev. Chong An Lee of Korean United Presbyterian Church, as the new Bloomfield congregation is called. “People new to the community who are trying to do business have to come to church. It’s where all the Koreans are.”

Lee said the congregation’s growth is not only a question of immigration, but of spiritual relevance. His sermons often focus on spreading the word of God.

“On the whole, American Presbyterians lack that explicit evangelism. The idea of spreading the gospel. That’s why they have not experienced any growth,” the pastor said.

But nor is evangelism the only reason for growth.

As the PCUSA moves toward a more liberal outlook, Korean Presbyterians continue to hold firm to conservative social values.

“There’s a general tendency that the churches that hold most firmly to traditional teachings and that have evangelical zeal tend to be those that grow most rapidly,” said Alan Wisdom, a vice president of the conservative Institute on Religion and Democracy, a Washington-based organization that works to reform a number of mainline Protestant denominations and promote socially conservative values.

Experts say it is this conservative view, combined with an emphasis on evangelism _ almost seeing themselves as missionaries in a foreign land _ that makes Korean Presbyterians poised to be a major force in church politics at the national level.

“As Korean Presbyterians become more active in church government, you will see a moderating effect on the decisions made nationally,” said Jerry Van Marter, director of the Louisville, Ky.-based Presbyterian News Service, the denomination’s official news agency.

An example of the potential power and influence of Korean Presbyterians came in 1997 when the PCUSA General Assembly voted on the so-called “fidelity and chastity” amendment _ a proposal that effectively banned active homosexuals from the church’s ministry.

While the measure sharply divided the denomination as a whole, Korean Presbyterians almost unanimously voted yes on the proposal.

“Some Presbyterian churches are very liberal,” said church elder Lee. “Rather than saying we are conservative, we say we are more biblical. We try to be based more on what the Bible says rather than being conservative for the sake of conservatism.”

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Korean Presbyterians are evangelistic and conservative because the Presbyterian influence in Korea was very strict, said the Rev. Don Choi, president of the board of elders at the Bloomfield church.

That conservatism has become a source of pride for many.

“We are closer to God and that’s why attending a Korean church is better than American churches,” Choi said.

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But some fear that conservatism may also hurt the church in the future if the values and evangelistic ideas that fueled the growth of Korean Presbyterians cannot be passed to young Americanized Koreans.

“The biggest challenge is, can Korean Presbyterians transform themselves from being an ethnic enclave into a church movement that holds onto young people moving into the mainstream and have that same evangelistic attraction for non-Koreans?” said the IRD’s Wisdom.

The Bloomfield church has addressed this problem by holding English-only services for the young adults who either spent their formative years in the United States or who have spent their entire lives here.

“There is a silent exodus of our young people from the church,” said pastor Lee. “If the church does not take care, they won’t have any interest in coming to church. We are going to do our best to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

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