Discipleship Ministry of Sahmyook Open Church Bears Fruit

A baptismal service on April 30, 2022, celebrated a new chapter of life for five people at the Sahmyook Open Church—its parent church is the Sahmyook University Church.

One of the newly baptized members, Ms. Shim, had a protestant background but drifted away from her religion. When she connected to the Sahmyook Open Church, she recovered her faith and decided to be an Adventist through baptism. The other four were part of three generations of a family. Ms. Jeong’s spiritual revival led her mother, husband, and daughter to discover the truth and believe in Jesus.

The Sahmyook Open Church is based on small group and discipleship ministry. In January 2020, the church began with nine believers who shared the same vision for small group ministry. The church has grown to seven small groups with a total of 140 members. Leaders of each group have gone through a course of discipleship training that enables them to teach the Bible and nurture anyone connected to the group. As every activity at this church centers around the groups, the mission of preaching the gospel and guiding souls to God is mainly laid upon the members rather than the church pastor. When seekers visit the church, one of the groups teaches the Bible to them, nurtures them, and devotedly works for their spiritual growth. The church mostly consists of either new believers or believers who have been away from religion for a long time.

The five newly baptized members have no direct connection with Sahmyook University. They all met and accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and decided to be baptized through the church’s small group ministry.