Visit any traditional Korean church on a weekday morning between 6:00 – 7:00 am. You will most likely find people there praying and worshiping God. It’s called – Seh Byuk Gi Do.
Why is this such a phenomenon and why do we see this mainly in Korean Churches and not in Western Churches? Does this fervency and disciplined morning prayer attribute to the rapid growth of Christianity in Korea and amongst Koreans? Or are there too many variables that have attributed to the growth of the Korean Church? What can the Church in the Western World learn from this spiritual discipline of corporate morning prayer?
3 weeks ago, I went to a prayer meeting at my church and I honestly had a difficult time entering into prayer and worshipping God. It got to the point where I actually just wanted to leave because the time felt useless. However, I didn’t end up leaving – I don’t know if that’s just because that would make me “look bad” as a pastor (whatever that means) or if the Spirit of God was holding me back – but in the end, I didn’t leave. About 10 minutes after that internal battle, I felt the Holy Spirit doing something in my heart and all of a sudden I felt raw passion and began to fervently pray for the church in the 3rd world and individuals in Montreal, Quebec, and Canada. After that, I just sensed that God was calling our community of faith to gather more frequently to pray and worship. I didn’t know what it would look like, but I sensed that it would be okay and that God just wanted me to go ahead with it.
As a result, after 3 weeks and 5 early morning prayer and worship times, here I am writing this post and reflecting. I really wonder what kind of impact the early morning prayer and worship times made. I personally enjoyed them and loved connecting with God and with other followers of Christ, but I just wonder what kind of impact this made on others? Number wise, we consistently got about 5-6 people every time, but that’s hardly the issue. It’s not about numbers, it’s about transformation and impact.
“God…I obeyed and held those early morning prayer and worship times, but what do you want for the future? What are you calling our community of faith to? Please lead us and reveal your way to us. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”