1. Church setting and cultural context

The Hanul Baptist Church is a culturally Korean church located at 2960 Merced Street in San Leandro, California. The word "hanul" means "sky" or "heaven" in Korean. This church has former ties and on-going disputes with the Berkland Baptist Church. The Hanul Baptist Church lies just off a main street in an industrial area of the city. The church premises formally housed a plumbing school. The property has been refitted to include a large sanctuary area seating about 450 people, two very large classroom areas that can each accommodate over 100 people, several smaller classrooms and offices, one large and one small kitchen/dining area, and a large parking lot. The congregation of this church spent enormous amounts of personal time and money to retrofit, groom, and maintain this property. See a current church bulletin as enclosure 1.

The church is located in San Leandro, just south of Oakland, California. The city of San Leandro has a population of about 100,000 people, but members drive in from five Bay Area counties with a combined population of over three million. See enclosure 2 for more facts about the city of San Leandro. Nearly all church members are Korean: first generation (immigrants who were born and raised in Korea), the one-point-five generation, (born in Korea, but raised in America), and second generation (born and raised in America). There are also several non-Korean members who are the spouse of a Korean. To my knowledge there is no member without a connection to Korea either by blood or by marriage. The church is united by culture, but divided by language. In the past this church has functioned as one congregation with two "departments", a Korean department and an English department. The Korean half is mostly first generation, older, and more rooted in the community. The English half is mostly second generation and younger, with a large contingent of transient college students. Traditionally there have been two worship services, one for each department. The departments typically get together for meals and celebrations.

About 150,000 Korean-Americans live in Bay Area counties. This number is difficult to gauge because of a large but uncounted number of undocumented Korean visitors. Centers of Korean population are in San Jose first and in East Bay second. This population ranks among the highest in church attendance, with approximately 300 Korean churches in the Bay Area able to support a full-time pastor.

2. A history of the church

This church had a brilliant beginning, a troubled past, and has an uncertain future. In this portion about the history of the church, I will only use facts. The next section will include more detail and more opinion. The Hanul Baptist Church (HBC) began life as part of the Berkland Baptist Church (BBC). The BBC is active and prospering. Below is a history statement of the BBC copied from their web site: www.berkland.org. See Enclosure 3 referencing the web page.

"The Berkland Story -- In 1981, Berkland Baptist Church was founded by Pastor Paul Kim and his wife Rebekah Kim JDSN near the border of Berkeley and Oakland, hence the name, "Berkland." Berkland was started with he vision to live out His Greatest Commandments - to love God and love one another and join in His Great Commission - to make disciples of all nations. Since 1981, BBC has grown into twelve churches located around the world in Berkeley, Boston, New York, Los Angeles, San Leandro, Silicon Valley, Seattle, Davis, and Seoul (Korea)."

The Berkland Baptist Church acquired its first property on Alcatraz Street in Oakland in the mid 1980s under the leadership of Paul an Rebekah Kim. This is the mother church. Soon churches were planted in Los Angeles and Seattle with a special emphasis on attracting Korean college students. By 1995, the property on Alcatraz Street was too small and parking too limited to accommodate the growth of the mother church. The BBC purchased a former plumbing school in San Leandro and moved its East Bay operations there. For a while the Alcatraz property was vacant but soon a few activities were taking place in that location as well. The senior pastor of the Berkland Baptist Church in San Leandro (BBC-SL) was Pastor Lee, the youngest brother of a BBC founder, Rebekah Kim. For a few years the church thrived reaching a maximum weekly attendance of about 550 in the English/College department and about 400 in the Korean department. Paul and Rebekah Kim moved to Massachusetts and oversaw the nationwide, then worldwide, expansion of the Berkland Churches. Pastor Lee retained control of the day-to-day operations of BBC-SL and nurtured limited autonomy from the Berkland organization.

In the Fall of 1997, Pastor Lee was discovered to be in an adulterous relationship with another church member. This scandal caused a loss in membership, especially in the Korean department. By 1998, Pastor Lee resigned his position. In March of 1998 Paul Kim appointed Pastor Roh to be senior pastor at BBC-SL. Pastor Roh was the former pastor of BBC churches in Los Angeles and Seattle. Paul Kim also addressed the San Leandro congregation and declared autonomy for all Berkland churches. With this declaration, the entire English/College department split from the church. Most went back to the Alcatraz location. The BBC-SL was now a Korean language only church of about 200 members.

Pastor Roh was not selected by the congregation, but was appointed pastor by David and Rebekah Kim. He sought for more local autonomy and congregational decision-making authority in governing the church. Berkland founders, Paul and Rebekah Kim, made frequent sojourns back to San Leandro in order to oversee the operation of the church. Leaders in the local church resented these "outsiders" flying in. In October of 2000, Pastor Roh resigned and the BBC-SL voted on the question of full autonomy. The pro-BBC group received more than one-half of the votes, but did not get the required three-quarters. The members wishing more independence stayed in the BBC-SL location. The pro-BBC faction mostly returned to the Alcatraz location. The BBC-SL was all Korean speaking and now down to less than one hundred.

The newly-autonomous board now selected Pastor Yoon to lead the church. His election in January of 2001 was strongly supported by a board member who was also his friend. As part of the agreement with the BBC, the newly independent Baptist church was required to select a new name. Pastor Yoon selected the name "Hanul" and the church was re-registered as the Hanul Baptist Church. Pastor Yoon did not stay long. He resigned for "personal" reasons that seemed to be tied to a falling out between himself and the member of the church board that championed his election. After Pastor Yoon left several more members followed suit and church attendance slumped to about 60 per week.

The church went un-pastored for a few months. More people left the church. Finally Pastor Kim was elected in August, 2001. Some on the church board did not like his election and left. When Pastor Kim addressed his congregation for the first time, there were less than 20 people to hear his words.

The church has bounced back a little since then. When I counted last week (November 17), there were almost fifty people, including children and babies. Still, in a 500 seat auditorium, only one in ten seats was occupied. In keeping with Baptist tradition, most sat in the back.

3. Church growth patterns

The graph entitled "Church Growth Pattern" shows 10 points. The attendance numbers are rough approximations gleaned from interviews. The dates are accurate, based on documents.

4. An original evaluation of the church -
Was decline caused by sex, pride, or greed?

In September of 2001, I was asked to join the Hanul Baptist Church as pastor of the English department. My wife is Korean and both of us have been active in the Korean Community and in Korean churches for several years. The current pastor, Pastor Kim In Guan, told the story of the previous church pastor falling into adultery. Sexual misconduct was his primary explanation for the decline in church membership. I accepted that explanation and began to attend services in San Leandro. I wanted to see what I could do to help the church grow.

I began to suspect that the explanation of decline was larger than the adultery scandal. I talked with some members of the congregation. My wife also spoke with some of the ladies of the church. Later we shared notes. A few of the older Koreans talked about how sad they were that their children left San Leandro to worship with Berkland on Alcatraz street. They alluded to "cult-like activities" of Berkland members and how they did not see their children much anymore. They explained how Berkland believers put their church activities above everything else. True Berkland believers did not socialize outside their group. They suggested that Berkland-style Baptists arrogantly present the Berkland model as the only way and the only truth. At the same time, I noticed that on the back side of the Hanul Baptist Church bulletin was the doctrine of Baptist autonomy, directly quoted from the SBC's Faith and Message, Part VI. The Church. The words regarding "autonomous local congregation" and "through democratic processes" was in bold and the entire paragraph was translated into Korean. At first I assumed that the San Leandro church was publishing and translating different portions of the Faith and Message for the edification of the congregation. However, bulletins for the next few Sundays also carried this message. It became clear to me that autonomy from Berkland was also an explanation for the decline of the church. As I talked with members, we all agreed that our ultimate loyalty is to Christ, but is our denominational loyalty to Berkland or to Baptist? This was an issue of pride?

Later I spoke with two students in a GGBTS seminary class who are active in the Berkland Church. They were a bit aghast that I would be working with the people at San Leandro. I asked them about the dispute between Berkland and Hanul Church. They did not mention adultery. They did not mention autonomy. They explained to me that there was an ongoing dispute over title to the property. The BBC held title, but the Hanul Church would not leave the property. This was news to me. The next Sunday, I talked with a long-time member of the San Leandro congregation. He told me that for the past year Hanul church has been negotiating with Berkland over the title. Hanul church members assert that during an October 2000 independence meeting, the BBC promised that the independent group would "take" the San Leandro facility. This assertion is in dispute. To confound all this, there have never been San Leandro bylaws regarding property. Berkland holds the title. Hanul occupies the property. No one wants to go to court. Long time San Leandro members say, "we haven't done any wrong. Why should we leave this building?" They point out that the Alcatraz group is free to return to San Leandro. The issue is this: would a re-united church be autonomous and democratic following the Baptist Faith and Message, or would it follow the model of Berkland with David and Rebekah calling the shots from Massachusetts? Who owns the property? Was this an issue of greed?

Was the decline of this church caused by misdirected sexual desire, by prideful desire to maintain power, or by greedy desire to retain property? The answer seems to be "yes, all three to some extent". However, the essence of this on-going crisis appears to be the complicated relationship between the Berkland founders (Paul and Rebekah Kim) and local San Leandro leaders. I have no doubt that Berkland Baptist Church has done many great things for the Lord, but quite honestly Berkland does appear to be a "denomination within a denomination". Were Berkland founders planting churches of the Southern Baptist Convention or of the Southern Baptist/Berkland Baptist convention? There does seem to be a genuine conflict of cultures in play here. American-born Baptists bring a long history of democratic, autonomous, self-governing local congregations. Korean churches, like Paul Yongi Cho's church in Seoul, operate more like extended families than independent congregations. They tend to be more autocratic and group oriented, with loyalty to the leadership of supreme importance. When Baptists in America plant a church, it is like nurturing a newly married son until independence is achieved. When Korean Baptists plant a church, it is like nurturing an extended household. The connection is never lost, and only a bad child would want to be "autonomous" from its parent.

My private diagnosis is that the Berkland Church is less than a denomination (like the SBC) but more than a local congregation (twelve churches worldwide). I submit that Berkland is a para-church (sodality) that is operating like a church (modality). President Crews of GGBTS admitted as much when he said that "wherever I go, Berkland Baptist Church is full of vibrant, exciting young people (enclosure 3)." Where are the old people? Is this church really rooted in the community serving all who wish to join? Or is this church targeting a segment of the population and offering them specially tailored programs? What happens to those genuine Southern Baptists who do not choose to get aboard the Berkland bandwagon? Should they seek out another non-Berkland Southern Baptist church? I submit that Berkland Church should immediately dissolve as a modality, and become a true sodality. Allow all local congregations true self-governance. Allow local leaders to look after all the needs of the people; the young, the old, the sick, the non-participating. Berkland can become a wonderful para-church organization in the image of "Youth with a Mission". Berkland could become "Korean Youth with a Mission". By recognizing its true nature, Berkland can become even better than it is.

Plans for church growth

At the moment, Hanul Baptist Church (HBC) is in a title dispute with Berkland Church. If the property is lost then this planning is irrelevant. Assuming that Hanul Baptist Church stays in its present location, then these are the plans:

Beginning on January 13, 2002, we will restructure the single combined service into two separate serial services. The structure is sketched out below:

Using this structure, departments are equal and both can take full advantage of the sanctuary. Musicians can participate in both services and those wishing to stretch their language abilities can listen to sermons in two languages. This structure also provides a great opportunity for a Sunday school class to also meet. While the English department is in the sanctuary, the Korean department can be holding Sunday School class. The roles can be switched in the next hour. I believe that this Separate Serial structure is the best way to attain unity in culture and accommodate diversity in language.

Pastor Kim Ik Kon will be the Korean Department Pastor and overall leader. I will serve as the English Department pastor and will preach and lead the English speakers, including the youth group which is English speaking. A third person will head the music ministries. We will have a strong church board. At the moment we include about eight English speakers with a dozen youth. We will also to begin two Sunday school classes, one for adults and one for youth. I see three levels of potential growth. The first growth objective will be to attract former church members that are waiting on the sidelines to see how this church dispute works out. Existing members can visit former members / friends and encourage them to return to their old church. Next we will reach out to the Korean community at large. We will do this through advertising and by holding special services. Finally we will reach out the non-Korean community. Not all Americans would be interested in attended a "Korean-flavored" church, but if the preaching is powerful and the Spirit is moving, Christians of all flavors will be drawn to the service. We will also form cell groups. We are hosting a cell group in Mill Valley with several seminary students attending. Through preaching, teaching, and training we will build this church to the glory of God.

My personal goal for the English Department is to grow to 50 members by the end of 2002, then to 100 by the end of 2003. I will be taking attendance and a separate offering during our service to monitor the attainment of this goal.