} New report reveals how Korean pastor in Chicago fostered ' The World Economic Forum ranks the country 115th out of 145 countries in gender equality. Especially in the Korean community, to call out a pastor, youre going against God-given authority.. He is currently pursuing a Master of Divinity at Talbot Theological Seminary. Hannah Chao Anew reportfrom the Chicago radio station WBEZ has gone into extensive detail regarding Chung's misogynistic conduct. height: 90px; Rev. However, there have also been a number of accusations of abuse of power and harsh treatment towards others that continued to surface regarding this same pastor, Kim continued. A final assessment was set to be published by this summer. He also referred WBEZ to Tim LeCroy, a pastor who chaired the PCAs committee that wrote the domestic and sexual abuse report. Nine teaching elders protested the KCPs ruling, saying they didnt think Chung was truly repentant, and called for indefinite suspension. Anne Rhee (not her real name) recalled when she began to kiss a male friend from church. Sources, including Singer, told WBEZ that CFC was concerned the information-gathering process was biased and that it dug too much into Chungs case, which the church deemed outside the scope of the assessment. A church in Urbana-Champaign reverses on promises to address abuse allegations. Kim would not agree to an interview but wrote back: We at CFC continue to seek the Lord in the work of the church and we are grateful to God for the way He is leading our congregation and this is our focus right now. Chung turned over leadership of the church he founded in 2019 to a team of associate pastors, according to Ministry Watch. A few months later, a group of pastors dissatisfied with the presbyterys April 2021 determination filed a complaint in an effort to indefinitely suspend Chung from ministry. Experts say the scandal and subsequent backsliding at CFC illustrates how many churches and their governing bodies are ill-equipped to address allegations of abuse. .mytheme-mejs-container .mejs-time-float-current, It was another missed opportunity, Amy Han said. .wp-caption p.wp-caption-text { Esther Yoon-Ji Kang is a reporter for WBEZs Race, Class and Communities desk. Susie An covers education for WBEZ. Regarding recovery, the pastor reconciled with his victim, and regarding his relationship with God, he recognized his sin before God and relies on the blood of Christ, Rev.
WebDr. .mytheme-mejs-container .mejs-embed, The report, published in June, is intended to provide resources to handle abuse cases and to offer best practices and guidelines for elders, churches, presbyteries and other entities. CFC also hired The Center Consulting Group to conduct surveys and evaluate the health of the church. .mytheme-mejs-container .mejs-time-total, The leader of a Christian cult in Kenya is due to appear in court next week, as the exhumation of bodies found in mass graves on his land continues. GRACE said in a statement that although all that remained in the investigation was a minimal number of interviews, primarily with CFC leadership, it had been informed by CFC that the assessment would not continue. Christie Clinic Race Weekend: Race results and next years preparations. } .elementor-widget .elementor-icon-list-icon svg { She said, Its very important for churches to understand theyre killing themselves, and they dont look anything like the God they say they serve. A few months later, a group of pastors dissatisfied with the presbyterys April 2021 determination filed a complaint in an effort to indefinitely suspend Chung from ministry. He is the founder of truthmattersministries.com. In August 2019, Chung stopped preaching at CFC, but said it was to facilitate a transition to a team leadership model. He added: Theyre banging on the door, looking for justice, and I dont think leaders of the church should look down upon that because that is exactly what they should be doing if they havent found it where they should find it.. /* Track progress bar background (amount of track fully loaded) Pastor KJ Kim acknowledged that Chung has been accused of a pattern of abusing his authority. It was just like, Why, why did we do this all in vain? Park said. I personally do it for the survivors. .mytheme-mejs-container .mejs-controls .mejs-horizontal-volume-slider .mejs-horizontal-volume-current, CFC has begun posting Leadership Updates on its website. [They] are literally re-traumatizing [themselves] by speaking to us, so the least the other side could do would be to hear those pieces of information, Dunn said, adding that current church leaders, including KJ Kim, were the only remaining people GRACE had left to interview. The motion failed to pass, allowing Chung to remain an ordained minister in good standing with the PCA. His influence extends beyond the church walls. As outlined in WBEZs initial report, in April 2021, the KCP a regional presbytery of the PCA to which Kim, Chung and other former CFC pastors belong had found Chung guilty of his admitted sexual harassment for inappropriately touching a female congregant in 2001 (instead of a more serious form of misconduct). He and his wife Tracy are celebrating eleven years of marriage together and have three children: Caden, Isabella, and Ian. She bangs on his door all hours of the night until he finally comes and gives her justice, LeCroy explained. } The report doesnt offer explicit details of the incident, but states that the touching was in a way that could be constituted as sexual assault under Illinois law. People close to the woman said she didnt wish to speak to TRR. 5 min read. So they think that they can have some level of control of the process some access to information before they get to the final product, Singer said. transform: translateY(445%); At least 90 have been discovered so far. Covenant Fellowship Church is nondenominational, has no elders, and is not a PCA member. She says he then began to force himself on her and pull his pants down until she pushed him off and ran into the bathroom, locking the door until he left. Smith said she agreed to report the incident and received help from the University of Illinois Weve lost our reputations. .mytheme-mejs-container .mejs-embed body { .mytheme-mejs-container.mejs-container, However, some internal tension caused many leaders to depart the church, with Chung stepping down as head pastor in 2019. We acknowledge that this was wrong., Kim said the woman had forgiven Chung long ago.. to conduct a third-party investigation. .mytheme-mejs-container .mejs-time-handle-content { Coverstone confirmed in a separate email to WBEZ that Kim, who had been accused by former church members of failing to respond properly to Chungs sexual misconduct, had been accepted into the Presbytery of Northern Illinois in January. Rev. what happened to pastor min chung. Another woman reported to Chung that she had been raped repeatedly. But we cant do it without you. In addition, hundreds of accounts surfaced online criticizing the church for mishandling alleged incidents of sexual abuse committed by church members, highlighting how Chung and other church leaders downplayed that abuse. } Friday, April 28, 2023 Todays headlines: A newly signed Illinois law will let out-of-state doctors and nurses practicing on temporary licenses stay here. Follow her on Twitter @WBEZeducation and @soosieon. But theres, of course, a lot under the surface as well, he added. font-size: 11px; But that system broke down: Oversight entities had limited power and the denominations governing rules proved to be inadequate for addressing the issue of abuse in the church. Experts say the scandal and subsequent backsliding at CFC illustrates how many churches and their governing bodies are ill-equipped to address allegations of abuse. At least 90 have been discovered so far. Theyre a very inclusive, very inviting community. Attorney Laura Dunn, a contracted institutional response specialist with GRACE, said many of the people with whom she spoke struggled to get through their interviews, some of which took three to four hours. Park is one of the whistleblowers who submitted the report to the KCP. In our previous meetings, they had acknowledged that [Chungs case was] within the scope, so Im not certain why that changed.. .mytheme-mejs-container .mejs-horizontal-volume-total { The KCP which consists of several pastors who were close with Chung had determined that he had been restored to God, as well as the woman. The Former CFC member Janet Park said that when she confronted Chung in 2009, he told her that he kept the matter a secret because the victim had insisted on doing so. The political influence of the Senior Pastor in most independent churches is always a problem but in a denomination the hope is that people with oversight can minimize the political influence I guess not. Chungs church reckoned him to have an especially high place of anointing, making him untouchable when he does wrong, said Dan Lee, another whistleblower in the report. Some members of the allegation group also said they lacked confidence the KCP would handle any future cases differently, given the ties many of the pastors had to Chung. } Kim did not respond to a request for comment on these claims against him. } Chung, who founded the church in 1990 on the University of Illinois-Champaign Urbana campus, announced in the summer of 2019 that he would transition out of the head pastor role and a team of associate pastors would lead the church. I am probably going to get myself in trouble making this next statement but the context was always a sense of Hyper-Complimentarianism or some hybrid form of it because the Denomination that I refereed of believed in women Pastors but the culture was steeped with this type of theological thinking. GRACE said the termination by CFC effectively halts its work at this time. However, nine elders objected to the decision and asked for Chung's suspension. Your tax-deductible gift helps our journalists report the truth and hold Christian leaders and organizations accountable. .mytheme-mejs-container .mejs-controls .mejs-time-rail .mejs-time-total { LeCroy said the procedures and laws of the PCAs Book of Church Order by which churches, presbyteries and pastors abide dictates that the lower court, [the presbyterys] decision is to be respected, and that the SJC often does decide things along procedural grounds, and not the merits of the original case. We know this may cause pain for many people, and we deeply regret that CFC has chosen this path. At the same time as former and current members of CFC were being interviewed by GRACE, the case against the figure at the center of the controversy Min Chung made its way through the PCAs judicial system. Others claimed that Chung assaulted them several times, including while on a two-hour car ride. It also alleges that Chung urged a woman not to go to police when she sought his counsel after being sexually assaulted by another church member. Mark 5:20-34 "Healing Touch" (Pastor Min Chung)
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