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La Cañada church hosts newly-formed Korean congregation

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While most La Cañada churches have deep roots dating back a century or more, one group of Korean Americans is hopeful a tender seedling planted just this month will take root and answer a growing need in the spiritual community.

The Church of God’s Mission — a Presbyterian church that holds Korean language services on Sundays at 1:30 p.m. and Fridays at 6 p.m. from inside La Cañada United Methodist Church — held its first service on Jan. 3 to an audience of more than 200 newcomers.

That was the beginning of what church officials hope will be a fruitful partnership between leaders of the new endeavor, who hail from Korean megachurch Young Nak in Chinatown, and those of the 51-year-old La Cañada Methodist church, led by Pastor Elaine Cho.

“It’s not easy to start up a brand-new church and have it survive its first year, but we have a five-year plan,” said ordained deacon and La Crescenta resident Joseph Shim, a voice student of Cho’s husband who helped build in-roads between the two groups. “[Rev. Cho] was so generous to have us share her facility. Otherwise, there was no way we could do this.”

Services at the Church of God’s Mission are led by Pastor Hyoun D. Lee, one of four former associate pastors at Young Nak charged with the task of starting offshoot churches in Greater Los Angeles to help ease overcrowding and build new spiritual homes for Koreans living where few options exist.

Shim said church leaders hoped to recruit new members from La Cañada and the surrounding communities of La Crescenta, Montrose, Tujunga and Burbank.

In an interview Tuesday, Cho said she saw the collaboration as an opportunity to broaden and diversify her own congregation, while responding to the growing demands of an expanding local Korean-American community.

“As a Korean person, I’ve noticed there are a lot of Koreans who don’t go to church or have to travel great distances,” Cho said. “Sharing facilities is not really easy, but we wanted to be a part of something meaningful. It’s not going to be ‘your church’ and ‘my church’ — we’re going to try and be a church, the church, together.”

The reverend said La Cañada United Methodist’s small congregation is aging and predominantly white. By comparison, the Church of God’s Mission hopes to serve congregants in their 30s and 40s, many of whom have small children and would be able to actively participate in missionary work.

Both parties affirmed the two evangelical denominations are largely compatible and expressed hope at some point LCUMC might offer joint youth programs in English to minors from both congregations.

Shim said one emphasis of the new church, the subject of Lee’s first sermon, was to help reach younger congregants.

“We’re passing our torch to the next generation,” he said.

La Cañada United Methodist Church is located at 104 Berkshire Place, in La Cañada. For more information on the Church of God’s Mission, email Pastor Lee at thechurchlee@gmail.com.

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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com

Twitter: @SaraCardine

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