When most people think of South Korea, they picture K-pop idols, catchy dance challenges, hit dramas, or next-level skincare. While these are huge parts of Korean culture today, there’s another side that many people don’t know about: South Korea is also home to the world’s largest church by membership.

This church, Yoido Full Gospel Church, is located in Seoul and has around 830,000 members as of 2017. To help you imagine it, that’s similar to the entire population of a mid-sized city all connected through one community. Every Sunday, huge crowds fill the main campus and several satellite locations across the city, with services offered in multiple languages for both locals and international visitors.

From a Living Room to a World Record

Yoido’s story started in 1958 in a small living room in Seoul. A young pastor named David Yonggi Cho and his future mother-in-law, Choi Ja-Shil, began holding small prayer meetings with just a handful of people. As more joined, they moved from tents to a small church building and finally to a massive new site on Yoido — an island along the Han River in central Seoul.

By the 1980s and 1990s, the church grew so quickly that it was officially recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest church in the world. One reason for this incredible growth was the church’s core message: a mix of spiritual hope and the idea that faith can bring blessings in health and life success. This resonated deeply with many Koreans during times of big economic and social changes.

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Wait…Isn’t Korea Mostly Buddhist?

A lot of people believe Korea is mostly Buddhist, or that mega churches only exist in Western countries. In reality, Christianity is one of the main religions in South Korea today, and some of the biggest Christian communities in Asia are right there.

Yoido Full Gospel Church is part of the Pentecostal movement, which focuses on the power of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts like healing and speaking in tongues. Even if you aren’t religious, it’s pretty impressive to see how such a massive community has come together.

More Than Just a Church

Of course, Yoido hasn’t had a completely smooth journey. Founder Pastor Cho stepped down in 2008 after facing legal issues, and leadership passed to Pastor Younghoon Lee. Under new leadership, the church has put more energy into social outreach — providing financial aid to families during the COVID-19 pandemic, supporting single mothers, and even giving incentives to encourage higher birth rates (a big topic in Korea today).

These efforts show that the church’s role goes beyond religion and touches many social issues in Korean society.

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A Personal Glimpse

When I lived in Seoul for over ten years, I often went to Yoido. Every time my family drove past that area, I couldn’t miss the enormous building of Yoido Full Gospel Church and the huge crowds gathered outside. As a kid, I always wondered why so many people were there every week. Later on, I learned that I had been passing by the largest church in the world — something that still feels surreal to me today.

Image Credit: Jhcbs1019 from Wikimedia Commons

So...What’s The Takeaway?

There’s always more to a country than what we see on social media. While K-pop and Korean beauty trends are amazing, looking a little deeper helps us understand different cultures more fully — and might even challenge what we thought we knew.