The first Korean Methodist churches in the U.S. were established in the early 1900’s. From that time, generations of Korean Americans have preserved language and culture among congregations within the United Methodist connection.
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(Detroit, Michigan)
In 1981, Korean United Methodists formed Trans-Generation Ministry, the purpose was to bridge language and cultural barriers to connect English-speaking Korean pastors in the U.S., with traditional, Korean congregations. In 2011, the group took the name NEXUS, which means connecting-point, with an eye toward the future.
Tarah Lee, Korean United Methodist Church of Greater Washington: “We started Nexus because our vision had evolved. We wanted to become a place of resourcing and developing as well as a place for us to network and go beyond our Korean American community. We wanted to connect and grow in our understanding and our partnership with the greater United Methodist Church.
Nexus is helping churches develop leaders for tomorrow through programs for children, youth, and college-age people; support and scholarship programs for seminarians; and mentoring programs for young clergy. Nexus is committed to growing with the needs of Korean American United Methodists.
Tarah Lee: I think for us one of the things that we’re really kind of excited about for the future is that we have the ability to continue to hear new voices, you know, that we’re not gonna be a stagnant group, that we will continue to hear, you know, younger voices. We will hear voices from women, you know, from men, from laity to clergy. And we want to honor those voices.
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Learn more about NEXUS.
This video was produced by United Methodist Communications in Nashville, TN.
Media contact is ChonEui Oh, [email protected].
This video was first posted on September 4, 2019.
