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From Outreach Magazine 2007, Issue 2

Rev. Yong (John) Jin, by Abigail Echols

Rev. Yong Jin, pastor of the Philadelphia New Church, approaches his work with this ministerial philosophy: "no matter what, we just get to plant the seed, then the Lord makes it grow and bear fruit." Yong applies this philosophy to all of the many things that he does in his work as a General Church minister, but especially to his leadership in Asian missionary work.

Yong was introduced to the New Church about 20 years ago and during our interview reflected that when he learned about the church he moved from a world of darkness to a world where "everything was bright." Because of the way his life was changed by the Writings for the New Church, Yong said, "I thought, ‘How can I share this with other people?’ This dream continues now. But the first couple years had a lot of struggle."

Wanting very much to learn about how he could spread the New Church, especially to the religiously oppressed people in Asia, Yong came to Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania in 1995 to attend the Academy of the New Church Theological School. Four years later, at the age of 44, Yong was ordained and began developing his plans to plant seeds and form connections in China. In the eight years since then, the Lord has clearly blessed the efforts of Yong’s labor.

From the beginning of his ministry Yong has had a very specific idea about how to spread the church in Asia. Yong recognized from the start that it could be difficult for him, as a Korean, to reach out to Asian countries such as China and Japan because of the painful history that created deep rifts between these nations. Instead of trying to create dramatic ways of breaking through these boundaries, Yong instead decided to focus his energy on the millions of Korean–Chinese people who live in the area of Manchuria, China. These people have lived in China for five generations, but still have ties to their Korean background, and as a result are much more open to learning from and working with Yong. "So my mission," Yong said, "focuses on these people...so these people can spread the New Church to Chinese people."

In 2001, Yong started teaching a Korean–Chinese couple over the phone. For two years he worked with them, hoping that eventually they would be able to spread the Writings for the New Church throughout the area of China where they lived. But, unfortunately, "this couple needed money for the children’s education, so they moved. So it failed," Yong said.

But Yong’s spirit did not fail, and he started again, planting new seeds. In December 2003, Yong started the Asian Missionary Course which, although it is open to anyone interested in Asian missionary work, currently consists of people from his Philadelphia congregation. Yong said this course is a "new kind of lay leadership training." The course is split into twelve topics, and in the last three and a half years each topic has been taught once. At the beginning of April, seven people graduated after participating in this course from the very first meeting, and Yong is going through the course again, bringing in new people to teach about Asian Missionary work. Yong said that a large amount of bonding has happened because of this course and a deeper understanding of New Church doctrine has been gained by all the participants. Yong reflected that "through this Asian missionary course, we have seen great benefit in the church." Yong’s hope is that graduates from his course will be inspired to reach out to other Asian people and join in his constant efforts to spread the Writings for the New Church effectively.

While Yong devoted much of his energy to starting the Asian missionary course, he did not give up on his active efforts to plant seeds in China. In 2004 a Korean couple informed Yong about a group of roughly 4000 people who are associated through 70 underground churches in China. In June 2004, General Church Outreach sponsored Yong as he traveled to China to meet with the leaders of this group. During this meeting Yong said he "briefly explained our teachings, freedom of choice, and what we do in Philadelphia. They were very much impressed." This trip was significant because "friendship is very important, especially in China," Yong said. It was a crucial first step, and has led to another three trips to China, all sponsored by General Church Outreach, in the two and a half years since.

In April 2005 Yong was invited to give a seminar to the Chinese church leaders. It was held in a town in China near the Mongolian border. Forty&ndashfive people attended the 30 hour seminar about Swedenborg’s work The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine.

This seminar was so successful that in March 2006 a second seminar was held, this time with two parts: the first part of the seminar was for Chinese church leaders, and 17 people participated. The second part of the seminar was for Korean&ndashChinese leaders, and 45 people participated. Yong had learned from his experience with the seminar in 2005, and for the subject of these seminars he chose to focus on the New Testament. "I realized doctrine is important, but they don’t have a denomination in China," Yong said. So he started with the fundamental Bible stories of Jesus’ life in order to provide them with a clear, straightforward foundation.

On this trip Yong also traveled to Nepal, for a second visit to the Loving Arms Mission. During his first trip in 2004, Yong met with Kent Rogers to discuss ways that Kent could develop mission work in Nepal. Yong baptized 13 people on his first visit to Nepal, and during this second visit baptized another eight people. "It’s mission fruit," Yong said. Mission fruit that is growing quickly because of Kent’s efforts in mission work. On this second trip Yong said he and Kent "discussed a lot of things [about] how to reach out in Nepal." Kent has a healthy relationship with the Christian church leaders in his area, and has made progress in his efforts to develop a public place where they could meet for worship. Currently there is a group that meets weekly with about 45 people gathering for a worship service that Kent leads. Not only is there a regularly meeting group, but there is also support from the Asian Missionary committee to fund people interested in learning about mission work or training to become a minister.

While they have learned the hard way that some people are interested only for the money, the Asian Missionary Committee has successfully been able to fund Shyam Pokharel who came from Nepal in August 2006 to study at Bryn Athyn College and according to the Philadelphia New Church newsletter he has "expressed his desire to want to be a missionary in India and Nepal."

Not long after his return from this productive trip, Yong was asked to visit the New Church people in Japan in order to talk about the church and his work with the Asian Mission. So in October 2006 Yong left for a long and full trip that took him not only to three different areas of Japan but also back to China.

On the first Saturday of his two weeks in Japan, Yong went to Tokyo and met with a small group of people interested in the church. While they had a fulfilling four hour long discussion, their time together started out full of tension. Yong said that because of the culture gap and the turmoil that still exists as a result of the Japanese occupation of Korea from 1909–1945 it took some time for everyone to feel comfortable. "It is very interesting—when I first met them their faces were watching and thinking, who is this guy?" To break the tension Yong said he "started talking about the New Church. I asked them this question: ‘After you read the Writings, the Writings changed what in your life?’" After talking about this question the tension was gone, and, Yong said, "we are the New Church, that makes a bond."

That Sunday Yong led worship with about 30 people in attendance. During the service one person was baptized, and after the service they had another three to four hour long discussion about the church. Yong said that after their discussions "people really got the hope, and then they know what to do...they are very excited." Yong said that a paradigm shift took place during his visit and the people realized not only that they want to bring a local minister to their group, they also want to develop a course to train Japanese ministers.

After visiting with this inspired group Yong traveled to Kyoto, the former capital of Japan, and went with Mr. Yasuyuki Suzuki and Shiro Matsumoto to meet with six New Church people who hadn’t had a New Church meeting since 2003. This meeting was challenging because Yong does not speak Japanese, and the people in Kyoto do not speak Korean, so in order to communicate they wrote their discussions out using Chinese characters–a language they all can read and write. Despite this challenge, however, Yong said it was a very satisfying visit, with many interesting questions about the New Church.

From Kyoto, Yong traveled to Takashima to visit Professor Tatsuya Nagashima. Tatsuya translated many New Church books into Japanese during his lifetime. During his visit Yong presented Tatsuya with gifts from the General Church to show appreciation for the energy and time that he put into spreading the church in Japan. Yong said this recognition uplifted Tatsuya and gave him "pretty much peace and happiness with his family." The fruit of the seeds Tatsuya planted are evident in Japan, as Yong witnessed first hand.

This trip proved extremely rewarding for Yong. He left the people in Japan hopeful and excited about growing the church. After the trip Yong heard from some of the people who he visited with. Shiro Matsumoto wrote about the visit: "Rev. Jin gave us the vision and the hope of developing a Japanese New Church and reminded us of the importance of love and friendship in the church. Everyone who heard him was moved by his enthusiasm." Shuichi Ohara from the group in Kyoto wrote: "When I heard that you wanted to meet members in Kyoto even with communication in writing, I was surprised by your great zeal, and at the same time I really wanted to become one of the members who welcomed you. And when I met you, I realized you had great zeal like how I had imagined you were. And I remember you held all of us with your loving warm heart."

Not only was Yong’s time in Japan fruitful, but his time in China proved equally hopeful. "The Chinese underground church leader wants to become a New Church minister. So in the end of October on the way to Japan I went to China again–for three days. And then I met this man, this leader. I cannot say his name because it is still better to keep it secret. I met this man and his wife to discuss how I can train him as a China local minister. So we decided to do a video conference every week two to three times. We also have a website–with a lot of sermons, and an Asian Missionary course. So we will serve them in two ways: video conference and through the internet. I expect [the training to take] two to three years."

In the eight years since Yong’s ordination he has planted many seeds. After his two most recent trips Yong has discovered not only connections but friends in China, Japan, and Nepal as well as Korea. All of these countries have hope and plans for their future with Yong’s help. Yong recognizes that the early failure was a "good teacher." But ever hopeful, during the interview Yong said that "our New Church Asian Mission has a lot of hope...the Lord, His hands, are always there." Yong has been planting many seeds, and, with the Lord’s help, many have born beautiful fruit.

At the time this issue went to print Yong was already back in China for another visit, spreading more seeds.

We would also like to note that Tatsuya Nagashima passed away less than a month after Yong’s visit. He contributred greatly to the General Church in Asia.

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