New Home Missions Director Listens to God's Call

Rev. Moses Chung was attending a revival at his father's church when the guest preacher asked people to come forward and commit to becoming pastors. Moses, a fifth-grader in Korea, was the first to stand up.

"I knew right then that God was calling me to be a pastor," he recalls. "I ran down that aisle, knowing God's Spirit was working inside me."

Today, Moses is still following God's call. In February the Board of Trustees of the Christian Reformed Church in North America appointed and approved him as the next director of Christian Reformed Home Missions. Starting May 1, he replaces interim director Ben Vandezande. Moses recently relocated to Grand Rapids, Mich., with his wife, Eunae, and children, Alvin, 12, and Jewel, 10.

In early 2010, he was asked to apply for the Home Missions position. Initially, he wasn’t interested because he always saw himself being a local church pastor. Then he read the Home Missions strategic plan: starting new churches, raising up leaders, and revitalizing established churches. “I was hooked,” he says. 

 “Moses brings a deep passion for mission and a broad study in current missiology, along with an eloquent vision for the mission of the Christian church and the Christian Reformed Church in North America,” says Sandy Johnson, the church’s director of denominational ministries.

 Born in Incheon, South Korea, Chung graduated from Calvin College in 1993 and received his Master of Divinity from Calvin Theological Seminary in 1999. Since 2008, Chung had been an associate pastor and executive administrator of a large staff for Sooyoungro Presbyterian Church in Busan, Korea, which draws 30,000 people to worship each Sunday. Before that he helped to grow churches in the U.S.

“People who know me say that one thing I have is a deep, passionate love—love for people, the church, and God,” he says.

Moses believes in leading by building bridges between people, churches, and cultures—and by listening. “I want to listen well and engage in good conversations, starting with co-workers, local church leaders and pastors, other agency leaders, our neighbors, our society and culture, and most importantly with God.”