CAMPUS PRAISE: The Campus Ministry Department of Korea’s Sahmyook University mobilizes professors, students, pastors, and others to reach out to the school’s high ratio of non-Adventist students. Students here are praising and worshipping God.
Sahmyook University in Seoul, Korea, had much to celebrate when it reached its centennial milestone in 2006. Named Euimyung College when it was first established more than 100 years ago, what was once considered a small school now boasts some 5,500 students studying in 33 academic tracks in six colleges and four graduate schools. Sahmyook has provided theological education for 60 years of its 103-year history; other departments gradually have been added since 1967. It moved to its present site on 200 acres situated 12 miles (20 kilometers) from downtown Seoul in 1949.
Deluged With Students
Each January more than 10,000 anxious youth applying for acceptance to Sahmyook University pack its campus. Only about 10 percent, or 1,242, of them—mostly non-Adventists—are accepted as new students. The ratio of successful applications from Adventist students is much higher than that of non-Adventists, yet the actual number of Adventist students annually accepted hovers near 200, or about 1 in 6.
Sahmyook University faculty and staff view this situation positively as an opportunity for mission, observing that every year 1,000 new seekers of truth are “storming” the school. The exuberant youth walking around campus are reminiscent of the fish that crowded around Peter’s fishing net in response to Jesus’ command: “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets” (Luke 5:4, NIV). The question now is how to handle the situation.
The Triple-S Principle
Sahmyook University operates a multidirectional campus ministry to win these young adults to the Lord. Campus Ministry functions with the financial and administrative support of the school and fully mobilizes pastors, professors, and Christian student peers. The chaplain’s office calls this mission approach the “Triple-S Principle,” an acronym for Spirituality, System, and Strategy. Read More
