Spending Sunday at Yoido Full Gospel Church

The Yoido Full Gospel Church is the largest in the world. This megachurch has impressive statistics. It has;

- in excess of 800,000 members, 
- 527 ordained and non-ordained pastors. 
- Out of this, 100,113 members are serving elders, senior deacons, deaconess and deacons. 
- Home cells around 20,000!   Wow.

Main entrance to the Yoido Full Gospel church

 As such, it was a natural stop for us. More so it was Boxing Day of the Christmas season. On a cold winter morning, we made our way for the morning service in the heart of Seoul, next to the Han River. The church was reachable by the underground train. Exiting from the Yoido station, we were lost at first but was subsequently found.Pardon the pun. Actually one can get little clues as we approached, the vibrancy of the place increased as we drew near the church.  

Yoido Church in Korean I presume

Commercial activities around the complex

                                                   It was actually a complex of sorts comprising many buildings. We found the main church and were quickly shown in by well dressed ushers. As foreign visitors, we were led upstairs where translation services were available. The hall itself was like a philharmonic theatre. Some of the lady worshippers were dressed in their traditional hanbok and looked reverent when they worshipped. 

Part of the Church

Clasped hands with cross in the middle

Although worship was sung in Korean, we have headsets whereby we can choose to sing in English, Indonesian Malay, Tagalog etc. That was great. The songs were not familiar but at least we understood the lyrics in English.
When the elder uttered a prayer, the congregants responded with  'kam-sa-ham-ni-da'' ( thank you ) in unison, a familiar cry in Pentecostal churches. The enthusiasm in worship with raised hands and heartfelt cries was electricfying. I was more amazed when there were queues at the many entrance of the church, waiting for the next service. The common quote here ... " If you are not 15 minutes early, you are  late! '' 

After service, we were led to another part of the complex for fellowship. We were also given a short briefing of the church, its works and purpose. This church also support 2 universities, a prayer mountain facility, a welfare town that offers training and guidance for the underprivileged and a television station! We left this place in reverent awe.