How does the preacher function in the sermon?

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Ministers have a general understanding of who they are and what they are doing as they go about the work in the ministry, because they realize that their duty is to be a “midwife” between God and the congregation (Long 1989b:20,23). Preachers have many identities (e.g. shepherd, prophet, herald, pastor, storyteller, witness, etc).

As a preacher, what is Rev. Kim’s identity in this sermon? It is similar to that of a teacher. In school, the teacher’ role is to teach and guide his/her students. In addition, a teacher offers the correct answer to the students in his/her class. Rev. Kim, like a teacher, also taught and guided anti-communist education, pro-Americanism and allegiance to President Myung-Pak Lee to his congregation as though they were students. Furthermore, he was like a teacher who offered the correct answer to his congregation (students) in his church (school), saying that the conservative (right) wing is better than the liberal (left) wing. However, Kim’s identity has some disadvantages because his background could also influence the congregation when he offers incorrect information and answers to his students.

3.6 Conclusion

By means of the Heidelberg method, we have offered an analysis and assessment of Hong-Do Kim’s sermon. Thus, we conclude as follows: firstly, as a conservative, anti-communist and pro-American Korean, Rev. Hong-Do Kim supports only the Korean conservative government and President Myung-Pak Lee. The reason is that he not only experienced the Korean War, but also moved to South Korea from North Korea to seek freedom of faith and to avoid the North Korean government’s oppression and tyranny. He always supports the conservative (right) wing’s policies with his preaching and thus mobilizes his congregations. Moreover, he cannot but love Americans and support the FTA because he believes that if the FTA is negotiated, the relationship between the United States and South Korea will be strengthened and the United States will protect South Korea from North Korea because American forces will continue to be stationed in South Korea. Therefore, he cannot but intentionally compose this sermon to support the conservative (right) wing, President Myung- Pak Lee and America, and criticize the liberal (left) wing, the communists, and North Korea.

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bad, our party and their party. In this sermon, Kim asserted that the right part favours God, and that He loves only the people on the right. However, his assertion in the sermon is not in accordance with the original meaning of this passage. He used this passage merely to support and prove his theological view, and did not listen to God. Consequently, he lost the distinctive motto of homiletics that is, “from the Bible to the congregation.” In other words, Rev. Kim composed this sermon with the wrong homiletical method, that is, “from his own theological view to his congregation.”

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CHAPTER FOUR

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN

POSITIVE THINKING AND TRIUMPHAL PREACHING

4.1 Introduction

So far, we have examined the problems of political preaching, i.e. political preaching usually offers an attitude of blind obedience and absolute servility toward the state. The Korean Protestant ministers and their congregations still have supported the conservative (right) wing’s politics directly or indirectly with the State theology. Consequently, the Korean people, today, are not only rapidly turning their backs on the Korean Protestant Church, but also mistrust the Church’s morality that has led to the Korean Protestant Church’s decline.

However, the Korean homiletical field has not experienced this problem only from political preaching. It faces another problem, that is, triumphal preaching, coupled with so-called “positive thinking.” This preaching style stresses God’s blessing like a sugar-coated gospel (Kim 2005b:15-37), in which the congregation keeps God’s commands and their faith in order to enjoy God’s material blessings, such as longevity, health, wealth and occupational success (Son 1983:337).

As a result of this problem of the preaching style, the Korean Protestant Christians cannot but be indifferent to Christian ethics, the benefit of suffering for self-reflection in God, etc. In this chapter, we shall examine the relationship between positive thinking and triumphal preaching while pointing out the problem of this style of preaching in Korea. In order to examine this problem in detail, we shall begin with an examination of the American positive thinking, based on prosperity and well-being theology, as the Korean Protestant Churches have already received and copied this sugary theology for their communities to overcome poverty without proper critical reflection. Especially, we shall discuss three American preachers, Norman Vincent Peale, Robert Schuller and Joel Osteen, because they implanted positive thinking based on prosperity into minds of Korean Protestant ministers and members from the 1960s until today in Korea. Secondly, we shall explore the relationship between positive thinking and triumphal preaching in Korea. It should be noted that the Korean people are still influenced by Korean Shamanism including “positive thinking” because Korean Shamanism -

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as the most truly indigenous aspect of Korean religious culture - has always been at the centre of the religious life of traditional and even modern Korean society (Chung 1982:609,624).