For its first 10 years (2002-2012), the ministry of Korea DNA was focused on building wholistic, sustainable models of local churches in the Korean context. After conducting the 10-year impact evaluation in 2013, the leaders of Korea DNA decided to consolidate their learning and to prepare for the next chapter of ministry in two ways: first, by publishing the DNA book to reach out to a wider audience in Korea; second, by holding leadership retreats.
Leaders of DNA Korea gather for four days on these retreats to fellowship and to share their ministry vision, experience, challenges and future opportunities. But the most important objective of the retreat is to rest as they come away from their day-to-day busy ministry commitments. This is where new ideas for the future of DNA Korea are being germinated (and incubated). This is a slow process in an unforced rhythm of future leadership preparation for Korea DNA’s next chapter.
- The first leadership retreat took place in early 2013 near Seoul with a total 8 members of Korea DNA Leadership. The focus of this retreat was on building relationships among the Korea DNA leaders and sharing their personal and ministry vision and experience.
The second retreat took place in September 2015 on Jeju island (shown at right) with 10 attendees. The focus of the retreat was to learn from the prayers of Hannah, Samuel, and David in the rapidly changing times of Israel’s history (1 Samuel) in order to gain insights and wisdom for our task for training future pastoral leaders in the complex context for local churches in Korea.
- A third retreat is tentatively planned for August 2016 in Vancouver, Canada. The focus will be to understand the past 100 years of theological and missional engagement of local churches in Western Canada, especially learning from multicultural local churches in Vancouver (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, etc.) as well as various theological institutions.
