30-year-old Alaska Korean Church Welcomes New Pastor

Alaska Korean Christian Reformed Church in Anchorage, Ala., is one of just three CRC congregations in the state. It has been ministering to the Korean community there since 1994. Sung Kwan Kim, the church’s pastor for more than half of those 30 years, retired this fall. The congregation bid him farewell and installed Californian pastor David Dae Kyu Kim as new senior pastor Nov. 3.

David Dae Kyu Kim’s most recent ministry before moving to Anchorage was as worship pastor at Grace Korea Church in Southern California, where he served 15 years. He had also previously served Orange Korean CRC in Fullerton, Calif.

“About seven to eight years before coming to Alaska, I felt a strong calling to preach God’s word every Sunday,” Kim said. “At the Grace Korea Church where I previously served, I led praise and young adult ministries, but I didn’t preach from the pulpit every week.” Kim said he “felt a strong urge from the Lord to share the gospel with many people and bring them to life through his Word” before retiring. He is 57.

“After serving in California for over 30 years, I was called by the Lord to come to Alaska. Together with my beloved wife and son Paul, we drove 4,000 miles in seven days and eight nights to get here,” Kim said, noting he’d never been to Alaska before. His son is in the 11th grade. His wife, Joanne, is 53.

Chris T. Choe, Korean Ministry Leader with Resonate Global Mission, attended the Nov. 3 service at Alaska Korean CRC and led the installation as well as recognizing the retirement of Sung Kwan Kim. Choe wrote about the visit to Alaska in the CRC’s Korean ministry November newsletter. “It was an honorable event to celebrate the retirement of Pastor Kim Sung Kwan, who has quietly served the Alaska Korean CRC for the past 19 years,” Choe wrote. He hadn’t previously visited Alaska, he said, where more than 7,000 Koreans or Korean Americans live, according to the Municipality of Anchorage’s Sister City Commission. Anchorage is a sister city to Incheon, Korea.

David Dae Kyu Kim said there are 12 active churches in the Korean church association in Anchorage, which he appreciates being part of. “Every first Monday of the month, we have a meeting, and I attend to build good relationships with the pastors,” Kim said.

He attributes everything he has been able to do in his ministry to God’s grace. Alaska Korean CRC recently reinstated early morning prayer services, a practice that had stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in 2020. “We began to have early morning prayer with 12 members, and God poured out his grace on both me and the congregation,” Kim said. “It is a miracle among miracles that 30% of the congregation has resumed attending early morning services.” He is grateful for prayers for the church and he and his wife as they are new in ministry there. “It has only been three months since I arrived here, so I am still lacking in many areas. I am relying solely on God, praying every morning, and striving with the Word,” Kim said.