Rev. Eric Foley Promotes Amateur Church Planting in American and in North Korea

Rev. Eric Foley of Seoul USA is a man concerned with church planting and growth. In his recent book, Church is for Amateurs, he has promoted the principle that churches have been planted for thousands of years by and for lay people who use their knowledge of God’s word to worship and to preach. His book outlines methods and encourages people to plant their own amateur churches. 

Many organized denominations would likely disagree with Foley’s stance on church planting, however, Foley’s attitude is likely fostered by his extensive work planting churches and encouraging Christian evangelism in the country of North Korea – a country whose hostility towards Christianity is extreme. 

Foley’s techniques for church planting in North Korea involve short-wave radio broadcasts of sermons, and air-dropping Bibles into the country via home-made hydrogen balloons. 

Foley’s team uses GPS to identify rural regions in Korea where the air-dropped Bibles can be picked up with less chance of being intercepted by government officials. 

The penalty for being caught with possession of a Bible in North Korea is imprisonment along with 3 generations of the person’s family. 

Regarding Foley’s promotion of amateur church-planting, it is true that countries hostile to Christianity – as well as generations of church communities – have had to rely on un-educated lay people and what knowledge they have through studying and memorizing scripture. Additionally, “the sufficiency of scripture” – meaning that the Bible is the only thing necessary for understanding salvation and for Christian growth – is a principle that has long been promoted by theologians. 

With this understanding, it may be that such rhetoric would discourage American Christians, who have unique access to generations of scholarly research on the transmission of scripture as well as the legacy of how certain doctrines have been understood from scripture, from utilizing these resources to better educate themselves. 

Whatever the case, Foley’s ongoing actions in meeting the high demand of the over 100,000 Christians in North Korea are certainly bold, and not unappreciated by those he is assisting.