(Pastor Ock Soo Park's Faith) 1. Pastor Ock Soo Park's Faith and its Formation

In the church I attended before I was born again, the pastor and elder alike accepted that we were sinners. Everyone prayed for repentance after committing sins, but no one seriously worried about sins or had the urge to completely be resolved from the problem of sin. Nevertheless, I really wanted my sin to be resolved. I struggled not to sin, received counseling, prayed for repentance, and did volunteer work. However, I was still in pain because the problem of my sin was still not resolved." (Pastor Ock Soo Park, April 2001, Monthly JoongAng, "Korea's New Christian Leaders")

Influenced by his mother who attended church as a young woman, Pastor Ock Soo Park attended a Presbyterian Church in his hometown, Seonsan. However, he always felt guilt and pain due to his problem of sin. Most of the Korean churches at the time taught prayer of repentance as a solution for sins. However, the churches did not know about eternal redemption obtained through faith in the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 9:12). Only to make matters worse, these churches acknowledged that people were saved if they came to church and confessed that they believed in Jesus. As a young man, however, Ock Soo Park was questioned of his salvation through Missionary Kays Glass (WEC Mission, United Kingdom). Since then, he could not take the matter of sin and salvation lightly. So through methods of individual counseling, prayers for repentance, all night prayer, fasting, and volunteer work, he tried to resolve his problem of sins.

Sadly however, the church he attended did not have the true gospel that could resolve the problem of sin. By 1962, a young Ock Soo Park experienced severe pain that even made him suicidal, but through the grace of God, on October 7 of that year, his sin was resolved. During an early morning prayer that day, his problem of sin was resolved through believing in the word that Jesus Christ cleansed us of all our sins when Jesus was crucified on the cross. This process made Pastor Ock Soo Park feel sorrow toward those in pain because of the problem of sin. This also gave him the strong aspiration to deliver the happiness of redemption through the gospel. This desire naturally led him to focus his faith and ministry on evangelical preaching, and this led him to get the nick name of "Redemption Pastor". We should be reminded that most of the evangelists that God used throughout the history of Christianity, such as Martin Luther, John Wesley, and Charles Spurgeon, all poured their hearts to resolve the problem of sin while attending a church that was not born again.