• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.194-202
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• 2018

This study was designed to analyze the impact of Christian counseling for the common faith and religious wellbeing within the Korean Luther Church, and to provide church growth factors based on the results. The study target was based on the survey results of a total of 83 members who were attending layman in the ${\bigcirc}{\bigcirc}{\bigcirc}$ church, which is affiliated with the Korean Lutheran Church. The research tool used NCD questionnaire for church health diagnosis by the Korea Church Growth Institute for the church growth model and the reliability of Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ in this study was 0.91. The collected questionnaire was tested for correlation to verify the relationship between church development and growth, and for multiple recursive analysis to confirm factors affecting church development and growth. The results showed that church's services, programs, and atmosphere were highly correlated with development of church, including counseling. The research showed that the relationship between church services, programs, and friends, including counseling, was highly correlated with spiritual growth and self-growth, while community activities and mutual communication were low. Therefore, for continuous church growth, the importance of community programs in the church is considered necessary.

• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.68
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• pp.375-415
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• 2021

Although the interest in Christian education of spirituality has increased recently, the practice of the education of spirituality in the Korean Church has been fragmented in the contents and methods without any clear educational purpose of the Protestant tradition. This requires a creative study to seek out the contents and method best suited to realizing the educational purpose of the Protestant tradition, through a rigorous academic methodology. This study proposes just such a creative model for the education of spirituality with an educational purpose based on the core ethos of the Protestant spirituality, integrating the long tradition of spiritual practices of Christianity. First, I survey the teachings on 'the life of faith' of the main leaders of the Protestant church, including Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Wesley. Through this process, I reveal 'liberated-ness' to be the common purpose of the Protestant leaders, and the core of the practices for that purpose are 'the means of grace,' which has a different meaning from that of the Roman Catholic tradition. I construct the meaning of 'liberated-ness' in a dynamic manner, which begins with the 'liberating will' of God, and is followed by the 'self-giving will' of the believer as the response to the 'grace' of the 'liberating will.' The contact point of these two 'wills' is what I call 'the living membrane of faith.' As a creative synthesis of the above discussions, I propose a model of 'the practice of liberated-ness' for an education in spiritual practice. The purpose of this education is for the learner to become a person who continuously experiences ever-increasing 'liberated-ness' through continuous personal 'encounters' with God, and to become ever more faithful in carrying out practices for the 'liberated-ness' of her or his neighbors. The relationship between the teacher and the learner is that of personal 'encounter' as put forth by Sherrill, and also incorporates elements of 'co-authorship' as conceptualized by Kim. I transform and rename major practices of spiritual discipline according to a principle of 'liberated-ness' based on the Protestant tradition, and these comprise the main content of my spirituality education model. They include: 'lectio divina of encounter,' 'prayer facing the Lord,' 'service in liberation,' 'reflection of liberated-ness,' and 'mutual spiritual direction.' The teaching and learning process draws on Dykstra's methods of coaching and mentoring. The key environment is that of a 'sacramental community' as defined by Moore. Evaluation can be performed only by the learner her/himself. The significance of this model is that it creatively inherits and succeeds the tradition of Christian spiritual discipline from the early church onwards by transforming it through a Protestant spirituality of 'liberated-ness.'