Youngnak Presbyterian Church () is a church in Seoul, South Korea. It was founded on 2 December 1945 by Kyung-Chik Han, who later won the 1992 Templeton Prize. Inaugurated by twenty-seven refugees from Soviet-occupied Korea, Youngnak steadily increased in membership as more refugees sought religious freedom below the 38th parallel.Just Three More Years to Live! The Story of Rev. Kyung-Chik Han. 2005 p. 126
On 24 March 1949, ground was broken for a new facility to replace the building and tent that had become too small for the growing congregation.Just Three More Years to Live! The Story of Rev. Kyung-Chik Han. 2005 p. 132 By the time the new church building was completed in May 1950, membership had increased to over 4,000.Just Three More Years to Live! The Story of Rev. Kyung-Chik Han. 2005 pgs. 132-133 By 1992, when Rev. Han was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, membership had grown to 60,000 (making it, at that time, the largest Presbyterian congregation in the world), excluding 500 sister churches planted by members of the original congregation.
In 1998, under the auspices of Rev. Han, who at the time was a Pastor Emeritus, Youngnak gained an English language ministry, International Worship in English, which was founded by an American missionary to Korea, Bill Majors. For his efforts, Majors was made an Honorary Citizen of Seoul in 2005.
Senior pastors 1949–1973: Han Kyung-chik 1973–1985: Park Cho-joon 1985–1997c: Kim Yoon-guk 1988–1997c: Lim Young-soo 1997–2018: Lee Chul-shin 2018 to present: Kim Woon-sung
Gallery
References
External links
International Worship in English of Youngnak Church