Delegates to the 2005 convention of the Lutheran Church in Korea (LCK) elected Dr. Hyun-Sup Um to his first four-year term as president. The convention, held annually, was Oct. 6-7 at Sarang-Maeul Lutheran Church in Kwangju.
A professor of Old Testament, Um, 59, has been teaching at the LCK’s Luther University/Seminary in Shingahl for 25 years. He succeeds Rev. Hong-Yeol Lee, who had served as president since October 2001.
Um was ordained in 1977 in South Korea and has taken post-graduate courses at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis — first in 1991, and as a doctoral student from 1994 to 1996.
The Lutheran Church in Korea has nearly 4,700 members and in 1971 became a partner church with The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. It is the only Lutheran denomination in Korea.
Um has said that one of his goals as president is to focus on church planting.
“Korean Christians are enthusiastic to evangelize and do outreach,” he said. “In my term [as president] I would like to build two local congregations per year. By our 100th anniversary [in 2057] I expect that reunification will have happened and we will then have 500 congregations. So church planting will happen in North Korea where there are now no Christian churches.”
Posted Dec. 29, 2005
