단기선교에 대한 선교학적 성찰

서지정보

ㆍ발행기관 : 한국선교신학회 ㆍ수록지정보 : 선교신학 / 28권
ㆍ저자명 : 이후천

영어 초록

The enthusiasm and expectation of Korean churches for short-term mission is tremendous today. As a result, the number of short-term missionaries reaches 100,000 per year approximately. There are several reasons though, Korea's economic growth, church growth, and overseas travel liberalization since January 1, 1989 are inferred as a major steppingstones for the explosive growth of short-term mission. The expectation for short-term mission of Korean churches can be categorized into two according to their intention. One is for local church growth and the other is for training of candidates for long-term mission. In any events, short-term mission today not only contributes to the attainment of goal for sharing the gospel in a cross-cultural environment in a short period, but also settles down as an effective program for church growth. However, negative view on short-term mission appears at the same time. Externally critics on short-term mission suddenly stood up since the hostage affair of short-term missionaries sent by Saemmul church in Afganistan on July 19, 2007. This was a big challenge for Korean churches, regardless of evangelical or ecumenical position, to understand the importance of comprehending local culture in mission field. Internally, the need of awareness in terms of self-reflection on short-term mission in the circle of Korean churches occurred. This came from the consciousness of crisis of the depression of Korean church growth, the weakness of long-term missionaries, the misrepresentation of short-term mission, and the official complaint to the essentiality of missionary work. Thus, more systematic and strategic training and theoretical theologizing works are needed today in Korea. Normally short-term mission means overseas missionary work between one and four year period, but nowadays it is accepted as a visiting tour of mission field in a period of a week or so. It also called differently according to the purpose, the motive, and the characteristic of the mission organization, such as short-term ministry, short-term service, mission trip, vision trip, exploratory training, and the like. However, the contents of these programs are almost similar, and thus, the name is often changed according the vision of mission organization and the solidity of the program. In this situation, this article surveys the problems of short-term mission from a missiological perspective and aims to suggest some alternatives. For this purpose, this study first analyzes the contents of publications related to short-term mission, and then discusses missiological issues to propose some alternatives.

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