OMF worker Hak Hyun Cho believes that despite the needs of churches at home in Korea or in the West, there is still a place for church planters to go and serve cross-culturally:
‘Above all, we still need church planters. Whether they are Western or non-Western is not important. But we need church planters in Cambodia.’
What kind of qualities do church planters need today? Hak Hyun & Seung Won shared four helpful points:
1. Get experience
Seung Won: ‘OMF Cambodia requires at least one year of Bible school church planters, but church ministry experience would be great too.’
2. Love learning language and culture
Hak Hyun: ‘Learning language is not only a tool for ministry. Nowadays, we have digital tools like Google Translate but still, we have to learn language and culture. We recommend OMF because of our programmes to help new missionaries learn language and culture.’
3. Love spending time with people
‘Eating food together is very, very important,’ Hak Hyun jokes. Rural Cambodia ‘is not time orientated, task orientated. The people love and enjoy life together. Be willing to take time with people.’ It’s great if you love working with children, Seung Won adds. ‘Wherever you go, there are so many children. When church planting starts in the village, the children’s ministry always starts first.’
4. Love teamwork
‘OMF places a high value on teamwork’, Hak Hyun says. You have to be willing to lay down your own ideas and work alongside people from different cultures and church backgrounds.
Read our interview with Hak Hyun and Seung Won to discover more about church planting in rural Cambodia.
Explore over 50 current church planting opportunities with us in Cambodia, Thailand, Taiwan and Japan at go.omf.org/churchplanting-23
