2005年NPR美国国家公共电台九月-Church in Seoul Full of Korea's Faithful

（单词翻译）

Korea has strong Buddhist¹ and Shamanist roots. For many centuries, it was known as the “hermit kingdom” because of its resistance to outside influences. But in the last 50 years, Christianity has taken hold in South Korea. The number of Christians² has grown exponentially. And there is one church that’s especially influential³. NPR’s RA sends this postcard from Seoul.

The Yoido Full Gospel Church isn’t your typical place of worship. With more than 800,000 members throughout South Korea and even overseas, it claims to be the biggest church in the world. At any one service, 12,000 may crowd into the main sanctuary⁴. Finding a seat is a bit of an ordeal⁵, wading⁶ through all the people, and squeezing onto elevators if you want to sit on the balcony. Ushers⁷ guide visitors to stadium style seats that look down on a stage decorated with flowers.

Gospel singers accompanied by a full orchestra are already warming up the crowd with upbeat numbers. Some in the congregation wave their arms or clap along. And just before the sermon begins, a tenor⁸ gives a graceful⁹ performance.

It’s a summer day. Many worshipers fan themselves as there is no air-conditioning and it’s stifling¹⁰ hot in the pews. All the services are in Korean, but simultaneous interpretation¹¹ is available in English, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, French, Russian, Indonesian and Malay. Pastor¹² Chao Yangyi who also calls himself David Chou founded the church and is leading the service on this day.

In his sermon titled “How Rich Am I”, Chou says money doesn’t necessarily lead to happiness. Chou’s dynamic presence in the pulpit brings to mind Billy Graham in America, fervently¹³ claiming that only through God can believers achieve salvation¹⁴. And the congregation is quick to embrace his words.

Christianity gained a great foothold in the country only after the Korean War. Chou says church membership skyrocketed because of American missionaries¹⁵ who offered a way to escape the miseries¹⁶ of war through faith.
“Korea has been a Buddhist country from beginning. But through the Japanese occupation and Korean War, all of those religion and tradition have been destroyed. And then especially America propagated Christianity here.”

It is easy to feel anonymous¹⁷ in a church the size of Yoido. That’s why there are much- smaller weekday faith-related meetings in homes and offices. But Sunday service, Chao says, is a time for celebration. And that’s exactly what happens every two hours within the vast halls of Yoido Church.