**1. Introduction**

*1.1. Understanding Korean Immigration History*

There have been three waves of Korean immigration into the United States. The first wave of Korean immigration occurred from 1903 to 1905. During this period, Japan made Korea a protectorate in 1905 and officially colonized Korea in 1910, a situation that lasted until the end of World War II in 1945. Thus, between 1910 and 1945, it was impossible for Koreans to migrate to the United States as Korean citizens. Koreans were also forcibly moved to Japan during World War II because Japan faced a severe labor shortage. Consequently, the first wave of Korean immigrants in the United States was significantly concerned with the oppression of their home country. This concern led to a high number of Korean immigrants to be actively involved in the Korean Independence Movement. Through their participation, the immigrants were able to raise a large sum of money that was sent to Korea for further liberation movement support (Kwon 2003, pp. 22–31).

The second wave of Korean immigration was directly tied to the Korean War. When Japan was defeated in World War II in 1945, Japan lost control of its colonies, including Korea. However, Korea was immediately occupied by the U.S. (1945–1948). Eventually, the original Korea was divided into two countries (North and South Korea) along the 38th parallel. This division took place because of the escalating Cold War tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States. After five years of division, the Korean War then

**Citation:** Kim, Namjoong. 2022. Exploring Intergenerational Worship of Interdependence in a Korean American Context. *Religions* 13: 1222. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13121222

Academic Editors: Eunjoo Mary Kim and Simon S.M. Kwan

Received: 16 June 2022 Accepted: 14 December 2022 Published: 16 December 2022

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**Copyright:** © 2022 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

broke out between North and South Korea, lasting from 1950 to 1953. This war took place because of conflicting societal ideals. Korea has now been divided for more than seventy years (Kwon 2003, pp. 31–37).

As a result of this war, the second wave of Korean immigration to the United States occurred. Initially, the Immigration Act of 1924 banned immigration from Asia. However, after the Korean War, Koreans fulfilling certain requirements were allowed to enter the United States. Thus, between 1953 and 1965, approximately 28,000 Korean military brides (Rhee 2009, p. 253), 13,000 Korean and mixed-race adoptees (Kwon 2003, p. 33) (who were the children of Korean women and U.S servicemen), and six thousand students came to the United States to study abroad.1 Many of the students remained in the United States (Yoon 1997, p. 230).<sup>2</sup>

The third (and largest) wave of Korean immigration differs in that it did not result from conflict in the homeland. Instead, it resulted due to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which allowed Koreans to freely enter the United States. Thus, today more than 95% of current Korean Americans consist of post-1965 immigrants and their children (Min 2011a, p. 1), due in large part to a consistent welcoming environment for immigrants that allowed family reunification and occupational immigration.3

There are many other reasons why Koreans decided to come to the United States after 1965, such as low standard of living, lack of job opportunities, political insecurity, and lack of political freedom. Additional motives that led Koreans to immigrate to the United States included access to better education and better job opportunities by escaping highly competitive education systems and the lack of safe or stable job positions. Furthermore, media images of the United States (which were advertised as a stepping stone for wealth and lifetime success) acted as a motive for Koreans to come to the United States. In sum, we might say that Korean immigrants came to the United States seeking a common goal: a better life (Kwon 2003, pp. 37–41; Min 2011b).

#### *1.2. Korean American Christianity, Generational Conflict, and Purpose of this Article*

From a religious perspective, Korean Protestants moved to the United States because of their belief that the Christian God blesses the United States through its material abundance and scientific advancements. Essentially, Korean Protestant immigrants saw the United States as a land of opportunity; indeed, a promised land. Additionally, Protestant Christianity urged Korean Protestant immigrants to feel a religious homogeneity and spiritual unity with Americans, due to the shared religious experience of Christianity. Many Korean American Protestant churches have rented American church facilities for worship and education before constructing their own church buildings. As a result, Korean American Protestant Christianity has often had the most rapid religious growth in the United States (Shin 2002, p. 128). However, today the growth of the Korean American Protestant Church has begun to decline. For example, as of August 2019, 3514 Korean American Protestant churches had been established throughout the United States, but as of October 2021, that number had declined to 2798.4 This decline was not solely due to intergenerational conflict, but due to several complex reasons. And this decline is based only on first-generation Korean immigrant churches.

Even though its total membership is currently declining, the percentage of Christians among Korean immigrants of Korean Americans in the United States is still higher than the percentage of Christians among Euro-Americans. For instance, by 2010, 71% of Korean immigrants are Christians: Protestant (61%) and Catholic (10%).<sup>5</sup> These statistics show an unprecedented phenomenon. Among Korean immigrants, Korean American Protestant churches play a significant role in creating an extended family, offering religious and social gatherings and providing direct sources of help. These churches also function as places for information about how to live as immigrants and what business types can be successful in the United States (Min 1992, p. 1370).

The rapid growth in Korean American churches can be viewed as a success, but there is a phenomenon to be considered from a critical perspective. The Korean American Protestant church, as an ethnic–religious community in the United States, is mostly characterized by the fact that it is for the first generation, by the first generation, and of the first generation. In this regard, it can be said that the growth or the success of Korean American Protestant churches has been due to the first generation of Koreans. This is an issue, as members of the 1.5 and 2nd generations have begun to drift apart from their parents in terms of language, religious ideals, and societal perspectives, and little effort has been made to make the church more relevant to members of these generations.

There are issues on both sides of the generations of Korean Americans. For example, issues that 1.5- and 2nd-generation Korean Americans associate with their parents in the church include a male-dominated church management (patriarchy and gender hierarchy), frequent division and conflict, inconsistency in action and belief, exclusion from policymaking, lack of engagement with the wider community, and deprivation of autonomy (Kim 1999; Hong 2021). On the other hand, the first-generation parents have concerns about their children in the church, such as a loss of family solidarity, severance from Korean tradition and culture, a decrease in same-ethnicity marriage, a shortage of bilingual pastors who understand both cultures, and teachers for second-generation education (Kim 2010, pp. 21–49).

Because of these profound and complicated issues, Korean American Protestant churches are constantly challenged to review and reconsider the current pattern and style of the Korean Christian ministry in terms of language, education, content, the type of sermon, the form of worship, and the theological perspectives being conveyed through their actions. To address one of these challenges, this article critically examines the current common form of traditional Korean American Protestant worship and theologies in worship.

There are many types of case studies and suggestions about intergenerational worship among scholars in South Korea and the United States. Overall, they focus on biblical validity and Christian educational effectiveness of intergenerational worship (Yoon 2021, pp. 15–23). Thus, it is difficult to find studies dealing with justice issues or intergenerational liturgies.

I propose research to design communal intergenerational worship that is rooted in God's call for doing justice as a way to resolve conflicts, which could be the bridge between the division of generations. This article suggests the five characteristics of the Triune God's relationship as the core of the theology of intergenerational worship services. These are flexibility (innovation), communication (sharing and empathy), interconnection, ubiquity, and holistic artistry. These characteristics provide a rationale for designing intergenerational worship and will be the core elements in an intergenerational worship service.

This article articulates the idea that worship combined with a meal, such as a church dinner, is an effective Christian practice to embody this theology of intergenerational worship (Schmemann 1973, pp. 14–16). Traditionally, in the Korean church, an important value has been for each age-group to listen to the language, music, and sermons appropriate for their age. Consequently, this tendency has stimulated conflicts and divisions among generations in churches. To overcome this situation, this article suggests that intergenerational worship is possible in which all can joyfully participate by conversely implementing the liturgy of worship combined with a meal.

It is hoped that this research can articulate a theology of intergenerational worship that addresses its nature, purpose, and character appropriate to intergenerational congregations. It is also expected that this research project can propose creative liturgical ideas and strategies for intergenerational worship practices in particular liturgical contexts.

#### **2. Theological Framework of Intergenerational Worship in Korean American Congregational Contexts**

#### *2.1. Some Critical Aspects of Common Form of Worship and Sermons within the Traditional Korean American Immigrant Church*

The purpose of intergenerational worship is not to grow the church, but to heal relationships among the separate Korean generations. Thus, this article illumines three critical aspects of common worship and sermons within the traditional Korean American immigrant church that need to be reconsidered. These three critical aspects can be generally observed in the Korean American Protestant congregational contexts, regardless of their denominational differences.

Firstly, shamanistic faith, individual spiritual blessings, and a limited understanding of pneumatology tend to be aimed towards church growth rather than healing and reconciling relational conflicts. Shamanism has had an influence on the Korean American Protestant congregational context and church worship.

As Jung Young Lee points out, most Korean people who seek shamanistic faith almost always have a one-dimensional desire such as physical health, material blessing, blessings for descendants, or Han-resolving (Lee 1997, pp. 54, 73). Additionally, shamanistic and capitalistic elements combine and give birth to a prosperity-centered/materialistic worship of success. This materialistic success worship is one of the fundamental influences on the history of Korean American Protestant churches and congregations. Even to this day, it affects growth, construction of ever-larger facilities, and the mindsets of church members to show both success and blessing as interpreted through shamanism. These values are then passed on to the congregation in worship and the preaching of a prosperity gospel message.

Korean sermons have influenced the faith, theology, and way of thinking of the older and younger Korean American generations (Smith 2008, pp. 98–115). The combination of the doctrine of church growth and the shamanistic blessing orientation and individual spiritual blessings significantly contributes to Korean American Protestant preaching and worship that are oriented toward church growth. This type of worship and preaching tends to bless the "haves," rather than the "have-nots," and the individuals of vested rights, rather than the marginalized (Aycock 2000, p. 32).

This kind of worship and preaching that focuses on the individual spiritual life also justifies and supports the present political and economic structure rather than focusing on community transformation and progression. It also consciously or unconsciously compels the Korean American Protestant congregations to adapt to the current political and economic system. This kind of worship and preaching does not contribute to reconciliation and peace in the church and human society. Such worship and preaching justify the status quo by intentionally or unintentionally joining the oppressive/dominant structure (De La Torre 2004, p. 96). Girim Jung reveals in his empirical research that these aspects shape "1.5 and second generations consider themselves no longer Christians; they leave both the Korean American and Korean immigrant churches to attend other Christian churches" (Jung 2020, pp. 52–77).

Secondly, worship in Korean American Protestant congregational contexts is rooted in the key tenets of Fundamentalism established in the United States in 1904. One of those tenets is that the authority of the Bible is paramount. Essentially, the Bible is inerrant and is to be interpreted through a lens of strict literalism. In worship and preaching, this biblical perspective results in a separation of the Bible and the context of the worshipping community. The content of worship and sermons does not consider the context of the lives of the members, such as Asian hate crimes, the Black Lives Matter movement, solidarity with Native Americans, discrimination against Islamic people, or other discriminatory viewpoints and behaviors. Rather, worship and sermons generally have a dismissive attitude regarding the practical issues related to their context's cultural, socioeconomic, and political dimensions.

Interestingly, pneumatology and the Pentecostal movement in the context of Korean American Protestant churches today contribute to the enlargement of secular materialism. However, the issue becomes serious when this materialistic behavior turns in the direction of the nonhistorical, and anti-social consumption-oriented economic system of capitalism. The Holy Spirit is seen as a means of church growth. Therefore, the Pentecostal movement, blessing-oriented behavior, and church growth are interwoven. However, the younger generations' disappointment in the public sphere with the Church's inaction means that the number of members is still decreasing. One of the main reasons for this issue is the restricted understanding of pneumatology of the Korean American Protestant congregations. This version of the popular understanding of the Holy Spirit follows the teachings and sermons of the preachers from the Korean American Protestant churches (Anderson 2004, pp. 136–56).

A third contributing factor and perhaps the most crucial characteristic of the Korean American Protestant Church is that the theology of worship pursues "the Prefabricated Colonial Method" (England 1984, p. 206). Liturgical imperialism (Aghahowa 2001, pp. 357–59) produced Christian supremacy.6 It promoted exclusivity, arrogance, and closed-mindedness. The Western-oriented value system, as a privileged/superior culture, has formed the basis of many Korean American Protestant churches today. Furthermore, Western notions on church structure and physical objects such as church buildings, pulpits, robes, stoles, hymns, musical instruments, liturgies, choirs, the structure of preaching, and Western scientific language, have greatly propagated Western values among Korean American Protestant churches. As a result, Korean American Protestant churches have fostered the cultural imperialism of the West and devalued the Korean and Asian cultures.

Transmitting Korean cultural traditions and heritage through Christian faith is difficult for Korean Protestant immigrants. It is not only because there is a great dissociation between Korean Protestantism and Korean secular culture, but it is also because secondgeneration Korean American evangelical Protestants have embraced the white American evangelical subculture (Min and Kim 2005, p. 263). This embrace of Western culture without Koreanization shows there is no enduring link between the Christian faith and Korean culture, so Korean American Christian youth, inspired by evangelical zeal, may assert that Christianity is the only true religion and may fail to understand and fail to respect other cultures and religions. This attitude is consistent with the colonial and imperialistic mission: to propagate the Gospel to all non-Christians in an attempt to convert them to Christianity. The result is that the youth are growing up with a dualistic worldview about religion and culture; perhaps a dichotomy that may be characterized as black and white. This worldview can be intolerant toward other cultures/religions and gives a false sense of superiority, making the second-generation Korean Americans colonizers attempting to conquer the world in the name of Jesus Christ (Choi 2015, pp. 46–64).

The Korean American Protestant church is largely ignorant about Korean culture and history, and except for the Korean language and food, still considers learning about Korean culture or other religions as irrelevant. Additionally, many Korean Protestant immigrants, for instance, are more knowledgeable about the history of the Hebrew Scripture and New Testament than knowing about their Korean history and religious heritage. Ultimately, the issue here is whether the Christian faith and Korean culture are to be in a dialectical dichotomy in terms of an either/or choice.
