Increase the deposit money tenfold!

Dear COAH,

This week, I attended my last denominational assembly before my retirement. My mission was simple: to say goodbye to fellow pastors and denominational leaders. It has been a long journey together.

I still remember the summer of 1989, when I took my ordination exam in the Korean Presbyterian Church Abroad (back then America). One of the Korean Church History questions on the exam was, 'What is the first organized Presbyterian Church in Korea?' Panic set in because I had no idea. My seminary in Canada did not offer a course on Korean church history. I was very anxious at the thought of failing the ordination exam. Thankfully, I passed without any issues, but that question did motivate me to study Korean church history in-depth.

By God's grace, I have served in the same denomination for more than 35 years now. During that time, our denomination has come a long way. We now have 470 member churches in 21 presbyteries. Unfortunately, for the past three years, the whole denomination has been thrown into mud and mire by a personal issue of an elder of Young Nak Church of Los Angeles. The local church's dispute quickly spread to the presbytery and the entire denomination. The matter has now been fully resolved after much anguish and pain, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on legal fees.

Before I retire, I want to make one last petition to the denomination. I would like to see the denomination get tougher on local churches not to bring their problems to the higher bodies by discouraging people from taking each other to church courts. These court battles rarely bring out the righteousness of God. One way to make it harder to go to trial is by increasing the amount of the deposit money the plaintiff places (paying for the cost of trial). Instead of several thousand dollars, I propose to raise the amount tenfold. This measure will make people think twice about going to church courts.

There's nothing more irresponsible and counterproductive than implicating the whole presbytery or the denomination in a local church issue. Why not use all that energy to reconcile, not fight? What a difference it would make in witnessing to the gospel? Before I retire, I will make a petition to discourage lawsuits by increasing the deposit money tenfold!

Blessings,
Pastor Minho Song