새문안교회의 첫 한국인목사 차재명, 그의 한국교회사에서의 전환기적 위치 (The Mission of the Rev. Jae-Myeong Cha, the First Korean Minister of the Sae Mun An Church, at the Transitional Period of the Korean Churches)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 평택대학교 피어선기념성경연구원
· 수록지 정보 : 피어선신학논단 / 4권 / 1호 / 7 ~ 32페이지
· 저자명 : 류금주

초록

차재명은 한국의 ‘어머니 교회’로 불리는 새문안교회의 첫 한국인 위임목사였다. 그는 새문안교회에서 1920년 12월부터 1941년 8월까지 만 20여 년의 시간을 목회했다. 그의 목회의 시작은 한국 교회가 선교의 시대에서 교회의 시대로 전환하던 시기와 맞물리고 있었다. 그리고 그는 일제말의 군국주의 전횡이 한국 교회를 휘몰아칠 때 그 압박을 견디던 중 새문안을 떠나게 되었다.
한국의 첫 목사선교사 언더우드가 세운 새문안교회, 이곳의 첫 한국인목사로서 차재명이 감당했던 사역의 시야는 근대 한국 교회의 기틀을 잡아가면서 걸머졌던 언더우드의 사명의 중량에 가 닿았다. 차재명은 교회의 시대에 임한 한국 교회 전반을 향해 일하고 있었다. 선교의 시대와 교회의 시대 사이의 연계 그것이 그의 사명의 정계(定界)였다.
그는 기왕의 선교사와 한국인 각각의 장감연합기구를 하나로 합친 조선예수교연합공의회의 초대회장과 그 이후 수년간 동 기구의 회계로 일하면서 선교사와 한국 교회 사이에서, 장로교와 감리교 사이에서 가교(架橋)의 역할을 수행해 갔다. 그가 『朝鮮예수교長老會史記』를 편찬한 일이나 한국의 주일학교교육에 지대한 관심을 기울인 일은 한국 교회의 과거세대와 미래세대를 연계하는 사명의식에서였다. 한편 1929년 제18회 총회에서 장로교 총회장으로 선임되던 무렵 차재명은 줄곧 총회 외국전도부에서 일하고 있었다. 언더우드가 꿈꾸던 한국과 세계가 복음으로 하나 되는 일이 외국전도에 기울인 그의 노력에서 구체화 되고 있었다.
한편 1938년 차재명이 피어선기념성경학원 이사를 수락한 문제를 두고 벌어졌던 경성노회와 총회와의 갈등은 우선 당시 한국 교회 내에 실재했던 서북 교회와 서울 교회 사이의 갈등을 노출시켰을 뿐 아니라 나아가 한국 교회가 교회의 시대에서 일제 말 군국주의 전횡 아래서의 생존의 시기로 옮겨갔음을 드러내주는 일이었다. 1939년 차재명이, 그의 교회 위주의 보수적인 신학에도 불구하고, 조선신학교 기성회 이사로서 활동한 일은 일제말 신학교육의 중단과 그로 인한 한국 교회 미래의 단속을 염려한 그의 충심에서 비롯되었다. 그것은 서울과 서북 그 신앙지형(信仰地形)을 넘어선 것이었다. 그것은 한국 교회의 ‘어머니 교회’인새문안교회의 첫 한국인목사로서 한국 교회 전반을 향해 가진 그의 사명의식에서 촉발되고 있었다.

영어초록

The Rev. Jae-Myeong Cha was the first Korean minister in charge of the Sae Mun An Presbyterian Church, which had been called as ‘the Mother Church’ of Korea. The length of the term of his ministry in this church extended over forty years. Incidently his ministry started with the transitional stage when the Korean churches switched over from the ages of Mission to the ages of Church, and it came to an end under the brutal atmosphere of Japanese military reign which had unceasingly menaced the existence of Korean churches.
As the first Korean minister of the Sae Mun An Church, the Rev. Cha’s sense of the evangelical mission ranged over to that of Dr. Horace G. Underwood the founder of this church. Underwood, as the first minister-missionary to Korea, had long cherished to complete his divine mission as it was set up from above, id est, the building modern Korea and her churches on the foundation of the Christian Gospel. With this sense of mission, he founded the Sae Mun An Church in Seoul the capital city of modern Korea, and that was one of the reasons why this church had been called as ‘the Mother Church’ of Korea. As the minister of this ‘Mother Church’ of Korea, the Rev. Jae-Myeong Cha had never lost for a while the enlarged sight of his ministry extended over to the territory of the entire churches of Korea. He assumed his missions were to cover the whole area of the Korean churches, and to make connection between the period of the Mission and that of theChurch. He assured himself that it was his assigned tasks to be completed within his defined time of ministry.
When he was the first Moderator of the Korea National Christian Council in 1924 and after that as the Accountant of this Council for several years, the Rev. Cha accomplished with great efforts building a bridge between the Western missionaries and Korean pastors as well as the Presbyterian churches and the Methodist churches. In reality the Korea National Christian Council was the first ecumenical organization which called to set up uniting the two councils of the Presbyterian and Methodist churches. There had been two Councils: one was the General Council of Protestant Evangelical Missions in Korea founded in 1905 among the Missions, and the other was the Federal Council of Presbyterian and Methodist Churches founded in 1918 among the Korean churches. These two Councils were finally united in 1924, and the Rev. Cha was its first Moderator.
It is to be noticed that the Rev. Cha connected the past and the future of Korean churches by compiling the Chosen-Yesukyo-Changrohoe-Saghi [An Annals of Chosen Presbyterian Churches] on one side, and by drawing Korean churches’ attention to the importance of Sunday School Education on the other. While he was serving for a considerable length of time as a board member of the Foreign Missions of the General Assembly of Presbyterian Church, he envisaged and cherished the brilliant world which came together as a one Body of humanity by the Gospel propagated thoroughly by the Korean churches. Actually such was the lofty dream of Dr. Horace G. Underwood.
The unfortunate accident of the expulsion of Rev. Jae-Myeoung Cha from the Kyeong Seong Presbytery in 1938 on the basis of his consent at his own personal decision to the appointing himself as the Trustee of the Arthur T. Pierson Memorial Bible Institute demonstrates incidently two critical problems which troubled Korean churches in those days. Firstly, it exposed the struggle and jealousy between the Kyeong Seong Presbytery and the General Assembly of Presbyterian Church. The General Assembly of Presbyterian Church was then suspected by the churches in Seoul which were members of the Kyeong Seong Presbytery that it was in every case manipulated by the North Western churches. Secondly, it indicates the historical transition of the Korean churches, id est, the transition from the ages of Church to the ages of Surviving. In 1939 the Rev. Cha willingly accepted the position of the Trustee for raising fund for founding the Chosen Theological Seminary in Seoul which was regarded a Seminary standing against the conservative and conventional theology of the traditional Korean churches. Under such circumstances his rather eccentric behaviour like this seems to have been caused by his lasting sense of the mission which was to link together the differences of the Korean churches: the progressive and the conservative. His ardent desire was simply not to suspend the vital theological education under any circumstances of trials and pressures of the Japanese War System. Again it was his firm conviction that the Korean churches should overcome the tensions and antagonism between the churches of Seoul and the North Western Presbyterian churches.
The glorious image of the Rev. Jae-Myeong Cha stands high far above the horizon of the history of the modern Korea for his immense contribution exerted upon the overarching between the churches in Seoul and the North Western on the one hand, and between the modernistic theology and conservative theology on the other, which geographically overlapped precisely with the demarcation line of the Southern and Northen churches.

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