Winning College Students for God’s Kingdom

– Part One Interview with Rev. IJ Kim

By Joyce Yue, M.D.

The university of Virginia (UVA) was founded by Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. Rev. Kim came to the U.S. from Korea at the age of 14 and is a graduate of UVA. After receiving his theological training, he came back to UVA and became a campus pastor of Grace Christian Fellowship (GCF). When I was a medical student at UVA, I had the privilege to attend GCF and received leadership training from him, and had the honor to interview him for this special issue about Korea.

Please tell us about your background and how you become a Christian.

God blessed me with a wonderful Christian family.

I remember going to church ever since I was very little. Also, my parents held “family worship” almost every evening.

I recall responding to altar calls at church revival meetings during my middle and high school years, but it was not until my freshman year in college that I became a committed Christian. I began to see God as someone so personal and real, and I also realized that I needed to surrender myself entirely to Jesus Christ as both the Savior and the Lord.

It seems more Christians are willing to be a full time missionary or to pastor a church than to devote their years to be a full time minister to college students. Why is the student ministry so appealing and challenging to you? What struggles did you face before accepting God’s calling?

The college years are crucial and important years for many people. During that time, students make key career decisions and their values are shaped. Their character is cultivated. They often meet and make life-long friends, and sometimes, their future spouse during those years. I have seen many young students become dynamic Christ-followers in college and then go on to make a difference at their work place, in local churches, and on the mission field.

The college years should be spent not only to train for a future career, but also in spiritual training that would invite God’s eternal blessings of love and truth upon their own and other lives.

I decided to go into full-time ministry after my second year in college. As the oldest son in my family, I struggled most with a sense of responsibility towards my parents. I often questioned, “Am I honoring my parents by making this decision?” I felt a strong tug in my heart that God was calling me, yet I hesitated and was even afraid of sharing this thought with my parents. Thankfully, after many months of agonizing prayers, God graciously prepared my parents’ hearts so that they understood and accepted my call into ministry. They became even more devoted to Christ, and are active in praying for me. My father even attended a seminary and became an ordained minister a few years ago.

We admire the Korean Christians’ zeal to pray and to serve the Lord as missionaries. How does your Korean culture and ethnic background influence your ministry?

I think that we need to thank God for our respective cultures and ethnic backgrounds. At the same time, we the church should be Christ-centered, not culture-centered. God can then use our culture as a tool or vehicle to spread the Gospel.

As a minister working among college students of various backgrounds, I encourage our students to be sensitive to those of other cultural backgrounds as we want to uphold the discipleship mandate as our common vision. We ask ourselves, “Are we promoting Jesus Christ first or are we promoting our Korean, Chinese, or even American culture?” While we should thank God for our unique backgrounds and respect one another, we can also seek to “become all things to all men” for Jesus and His message (1 Corinthians 9:22).

We praise God and promote various tones or colors of our spiritual expressions. For example, Korean- American students tend to be a bit more passionate in their praise and prayer. I think that such practice is supported in the Bible. Meanwhile, I have noticed that Chinese-American students tend to be more logical and thinking-oriented in their praise and prayer. I think that is also supported in the Bible. I think that we need such diverse expressions to mesh so that we love our God “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37)

Korean Christians faced much persecution during the Japanese occupation and the Korean War. God redeemed such trials and allowed many believers in Korea to place their faith in Him foremost in midst of their economic and physical hardships. They prayed to God, and built churches throughout the cities and villages so that in the 50s and 60s there was an exponential growth of conversions. In the U.S., many early Korean immigrants arrived here and started worshipping God as well. These places of worship quickly became places of spiritual and social gathering. Many non-believing Korean immigrants were welcomed and helped tangibly and spiritually at these early fledgling churches. Many mission scholars now consider this trend of the past 30 or 40 years as a “people-movement” in which about 70 percent of Korean immigrants became Christians or exposed to Christianity. (In contrast, Christians make up about 30 percent of population in South Korea.)

Now, God seems to be using Korean Christians from the US and from South Korea as His missionaries all over the world. They often go into nations and regions where traditional Western missionaries would not be welcome. Many church and mission leaders predict that Korean missionaries will soon surpass or equal the number of American missionaries. (They also predict that Chinese missionaries will soon outnumber all others! There seem to be some neat, wild, but quiet revival fires happening in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and other places!)

How do you get your financial support?

Since college students tend to have limited resources, I decided from the beginning of my ministry to ask God to provide support from those outside of our ministry. I was challenged by biographies about George Mueller’s life when I was thinking about starting college ministry. Mueller is referred to as the “Father of Prayer” and experienced thousands of answered prayers as he was helping many orphans in 19th century England. Even though I was nowhere near his level of faith, I began to pray to God for financial provision.

At times, waiting for God’s answers was hard and difficult. However, although I did not solicit for any help or ask anyone for support, I would receive checks in the mail from random people or distant acquaintances. Far too often, I would get exactly what I needed for rent, food and ministry expenses each month. One time, I received a mail, stamped and postmarked “Dallas, Texas,” with no return address. In it, I found two one-hundred dollar bills. To this day, I still do not know who the sender was – and I do not have any rich cousins in Texas! It seems that God was validating what I was doing as a campus minister and encouraging me to press on. I am reminded that our Father knows our needs and will supply according to His “glorious riches in Christ” (Philippians 4:19).

What are the differences between a campus ministry and a church ministry? GCF not only attracts Korean students but also other nationalities as well. Why do you think this is? Why have Korean Christians done so much in cross-cultural ministry?

I affirm all local churches and their ministries. I also see that many local churches are sincere in their desire to reach out to these young people. However, college students often live in a subculture of their own. They are in a separate insulated world of dorms, classrooms, and dining halls “24/7”. It takes a special mission perspective and strategies to reach these students with the gospel. In that sense, many campus ministries like InterVarsity, Campus Crusade for Christ, or GCF are able to do what churches find themselves unable to do. After four years of growing spiritually, these students in turn go back to their local churches and other places to advance God’s work even more.

God has blessed us with people of different backgrounds. When I was a freshman at UVA, GCF was called Korean Christian Fellowship. My second and third year, our group began attracting more English-speaking Korean-American students (like “ABC” or America-born Chinese). We invited and welcomed other Asian students as well. Soon, we changed our group’s name to Grace Christian Fellowship. Now about one half of our student leaders are Chinese-American students. While we need to appreciate and acknowledge unique cultural and ethnic differences, we need to focus on Jesus Christ and His life-changing message. If we focus our eyes upon Jesus Christ, then we can experience a glimpse of God’s one family even more.

Our human tendency is for us to hang out with familiar people and stay in our comfort zones. God’s divine call for us to is to reach out to people of other backgrounds. Just like Jesus left behind heaven and its glory to reach out to us and save us, we need to practice this area of outreach, even though such a practice of faith is not easy and goes against our nature.

The news of thirty-two Virginia Tech students and faculty killed by Mr. Seung-Hui Cho has drawn global attention to the well-being of college students. As a minister of students at a campus close to Virginia Tech, what do you think about that tragedy and what can we learn from it?

We live in a time during which more people are struggling with loneliness, isolation, and depression in spite of increasing means of communication and connection via cell phones, internet and instant messaging. We have been reminded through tragic and sad events like this that our true joy and belonging come only through Jesus Christ. While there are needs for educational, social, and other programs, we Christian need to “step up to the plate” all the more to share the Good News Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I recall meeting two men during my travels a few years ago. In separate times and under different circumstances, each man lost his son through suicide. While the men were very successful financially and in other ways, the tragic loss of their precious sons made them realize there is more to life than financial security and social standing. As I sought to comfort them, I was reminded of the crucial call for Christians to reach out to others with the message of Jesus Christ: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). As we live in volatile and uncertain times in the US and in the World, Jesus is and will be our hope and security.

(A brief related comment: Our families and churches should be open to professional counseling. Oftentimes many parents in Asian cultures shun and avoid such treatments to “save face” because they fear a bad reputation. We all should embrace and support those who struggle with various mental and physical illnesses and actively connect them with professional help.)

Based on your observation of 15 years in ministry to college students, how has their value system and philosophy of life changed over these years? How does your ministry respond to the changing needs of these students?

We live in a time called the “postmodern” period. Students at colleges and universities are the epitome of such values and perspectives. They fuse facts and fiction without any reservation. They hold their views or the views of their friends’ in higher regard than that of any other authorities of professors or experts. They are connected with their buddies technologically, yet remain disconnected from parents and family emotionally. They like to have fun, but they are not satisfied and stay confused. They are savvy with trends, but weak with truth. Right and wrong are determined neither by the Bible nor by human conscience, but by their changing emotions or their peers’ opinions (or the views of TV characters like Bart Simpson).

In such a time as this, I see the Bible to be ever more important in the lives of all Christians, especially among college students. Just like people of any age, they look for purpose and answers to the questions, “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” “Where am I going?” While we need to adopt new methods and means, our message about Jesus Christ never changes. Jesus is the answer.

And as I point students to Jesus Christ and His unchanging message, I seek to do this in fun and relevant ways. I now regularly use Powerpoint outlines and a video projector when preaching. Today’s students are ever more visually oriented. I also try to stay relevant by using examples and analogies of trends and fads that the students follow. Just like Jesus used examples of farming, shepherding, and fishing of His time, I try to use examples of movies, music lyrics, TV shows. (Sadly, they only have vague knowledge of Ronald Reagan, the Great Depression, and other such historical events and people before their time.)

Also, I seek not to be the authority, but point the students to the Author of our Salvation.

College students live in a different world of their own. It is not easy staying connected with them. They know that I am not a student, and I do not try to be one. But they seem to notice that I care about them. I guess God’s love is the language that is understood by all cultures and generations.