Gil Seon-ju: The Cornerstone of the Korean Protestant Church(Essential Writings)

Reverend Yeonggye, Gil Seon-ju (1869—1935) was Korea’s first Protestant pastor and the pioneer of what has become the remarkable phenomenon of Korean Christianity. His faith is the model of the orthodox faith guarded by the Korean Protestant Church today, and his character and integrity have become the standard which today’s Korean Christians strive to emulate. What follows points out the place that Reverend Gil Seon-ju occupies in the history of Korean Protestant Christianity.

Reverend Gil Seon-ju’s Importance in Korean Church History
Reverend Gil Seon-ju was active from the 1890s to the 1930s, which were the founding years of the Korean Protestant Church. He planted churches throughout the country and helped them develop into the prototypes of today’s Korean churches. It is estimated that Reverend Gil delivered more than 17,000 sermons, and that his sermons were heard by over 380,000 people. He planted churches in some sixty locations, and those who entered church leadership or theological studies under his influence numbered in the hundreds. More than three thousand converts were baptized by Reverend Gil, and the total number of people who were converted to Christianity under his evangelization surpassed seventy thousand. Moreover, within thirty-five years, Reverend Gil covered a trail of roughly ten thousand kilometers, crisscrossing the Korean peninsula and traveling as far as Manchuria. In this way he traveled about in Korea and China, leading revival meetings and Bible classes.
Reverend Gil Seon-ju was one of thirty-three signers of Korea’s Independence Declaration. As this indicates, he was one of several good shepherds who proclaimed the hope and the comfort of a new age to his people in their time of oppression under the Japanese regime. Reverend Gil’s convictions about the transformation of the age are also apparent in his exposition, Malsehak [A Study of the End Times]. His lectures on the end times gave hope to a people sunk in despair. At one time he even participated in the Independence League to raise awareness of the future. But he eventually gave up direct involvement in political activities in order to commit himself to evangelism. However, unable to give up his passion for the enlightenment of the masses, he strove to evangelize the workers’ union of Pyeongyang, an activity that might be seen as the Korean Church’s first venture in evangelizing industrial workers. As a testament to Reverend Gil’s passion for education, the neighborhood school that he started in Pandong, Pyeongyang in 1898 grew into the Sungdeok and Sunghyeon Schools.
Reverend Gil Seon-ju also started the tradition of early morning prayer meetings in 1906, and the practice of praying aloud in one voice was also his idea. He solidified the Korean Church into a church of prayer, and set an example for generations to come by his habit of Bible reading and biblical practice. For instance, it is said that Reverend Gil read through the Old Testament 30 times, the New Testament 100 times, 1 John more than 500 times, and while imprisoned during the March 1st Movement, he read through The Revelation of John 1,200 times. The Bible became like a life force flowing in his body.