This dissertation proposes the Multi-Church model as a missional church-planting strategy to address the contemporary crisis of church planting in the Korean church and to recover the church’s missional identity. After examining the biblical and the...
This dissertation proposes the Multi-Church model as a missional church-planting strategy to address the contemporary crisis of church planting in the Korean church and to recover the church’s missional identity. After examining the biblical and theological foundations of the Multi-Church model, this study presents concrete strategies grounded in practical case studies. The researcher served for thirteen years as an associate pastor and subsequently for three years as a senior pastor at Gongju Dream Church, participating directly in the church planting and growth processes of the Multi-Dream Church network. Based on this practical ministry experience and scholarly research, this dissertation argues that the Multi-Church model offers a viable and effective alternative for missional church planting within the Korean context.
Accordingly, this study first diagnoses the stagnation of church growth and the practical challenges facing church planting in contemporary Korean Christianity. It then presents the necessity of missional church planting through the Multi-Church model as a pastoral response to these challenges. Through an extensive review of relevant literature and domestic and international research trends, the study clarifies the concept and characteristics of the Multi-Church model by comparing it with the multisite church model and the traditional division-based church planting model.
With regard to biblical foundations, this dissertation identifies the theological basis of the Multi-Church model by examining Jesus Christ, the Jerusalem church, the Antioch church, the church-planting ministry of the Apostle Paul, and the reproductive principles of the early church as depicted in the New Testament. Furthermore, from the perspective of missional ecclesiology, this study explores the missional foundations of the Multi-Church model, its congregational identity, and its church-planting practices. It emphasizes that the church exists not merely for internal growth but as a community sent into the world to participate in God’s mission, and it establishes the Multi-Church model as a strategic embodiment of this missional essence. In addition, this dissertation constructs an ecclesiological framework for the Multi-Church model through the theological structures of “union with Christ,” “union with the church community,” “union between the church and the local community,” “union among churches,” and “union between the Multi-Church and the local community.”
This study also examines the early historical origins of Gongju Dream Church, highlighting the implicit Multi-Church ethos embedded within its formative ministry practices. The church’s early ministry methods and expansion processes align with the missional ideal of healthy church growth and reproduction that the Multi-Church model seeks to realize today. Furthermore, this dissertation provides a detailed account of the establishment backgrounds, church-planting processes, growth trajectories, and reproductive developments of the Multi-Dream Churches, beginning with Gongju Dream Church and extending to Daejeon Dream Church (established in 2008), Sejong Dream Church (2012), Glory Chapel Dream Church (2017), Global Dream Church for foreign nationals (2018), and New Dream Church (2020). Based on these cases, the study demonstrates how the Multi-Dream Churches were planted through administrative, financial, and human-resource support from the mother church and preceding planted churches, while maintaining close cooperative relationships and engaging in contextually rooted, community-oriented ministries that embody missional church planting.
This dissertation identifies key factors that enable effective missional church planting, including the leadership of church planters, collaborative pastoral structures among Multi-Church networks, systematic operational frameworks oriented toward reproduction, and contextually tailored strategies responsive to regional characteristics. In addition, the study presents six stages for Multi-Church planting. It also proposes an “adoptive Multi-Church model” applicable to the Korean ecclesial context, which involves adopting declining churches to facilitate restoration and reproduction. This model is further explained in Chapter VII, “Proposals and Applications.” Moreover, the dissertation advocates for “local Multi-Church planting” aimed at strengthening regional churches rather than pursuing supra-regional expansion, and it highlights the future need for developing a Multi-Church church planter training program and establishing a network-based leadership training system.
In conclusion, this study formulates the conceptual framework of the Multi-Church model as a sustainable missional church-planting alternative capable of addressing the challenges facing church planting in the current crisis of the Korean church and of establishing enduring missional churches for the next generation. By grounding the model in biblical and theological foundations and comparing it with existing church-planting models, this dissertation identifies the distinctiveness and strengths of the Multi-Church approach. Ultimately, by presenting concrete methods for Multi-Church planting, this study demonstrates that the Multi-Church model constitutes a practical and viable alternative for missional church planting.