They started as just a handful of seeking students, and has since grown to over 300,000 graduates, with 100,000 graduates in 2019 alone.
Zion Christian Mission Centre is a free Bible Centre established in 1990 and based in over 200 countries around the world. Their aim is to share the Word of God and provide a comprehensive, in-depth study of the Christian Bible to everyone, everywhere regardless of religion, denomination or educational background.
The Zion Christian Mission Center, held a Graduation Ceremony of Class of 113th of the Zion Christian Mission Center Class at the Daegu Stadium on November 20. A total of 106,186 graduates were in attendance, The commencement will celebrate students’ completion of a 9-month theology course that covers the 66 books of the Christian Bible. Despite the pressures of a worldwide pandemic, this is the second 100,000-person graduation from Shincheonji Church’s Zion Christian Mission Center that has taken place in the midst of the COVID-19 crisisFor safety purposes, the number of participants that attended the ceremony in Korea was limited to 80,000, while 300,000 more participated by watching the live broadcast on YouTube which is available to the whole world in nine different language. This was the large-scale in-person event was hosted in Daegu, where Shincheonji Church of Jesus is focused on contributing to revitalizing the local economy and peacefully coexisting with local residents.
.The event consisted an opening ceremony with praise worship, congratulatory speeches, congratulatory messages, representative prayer, and a commemoration speech by Chairman Lee Man Hee. The graduation ceremony that followed showed graduates in Korea and overseas, along with congratulatory performances, awarding of certificates, turning of the tassel, graduates’ speeches, and special performances. Dee Jackson, a representative of the graduates overseas, is a pastor in India who signed an MOU after seeing Shincheonii Church of Jesus’s online Bible study last October. He also changed the seminary he was operating to “Hepto Zion Christian Mission Center” Currently, the head pastors and the 294 congregation members of the two churches that are affiliated with the denomination have completed the entire course of the Zion Christian Mission Center and are listed as graduates of Class of 113.
Compared to the past years, the numbers of pastors that graduated increased significantly for Class of 113. The reason why the number of members of Shincheonji Church of Jesus are increasing after the outbreak of COVID-19 is interpreted as a result of desiring a life of faith centered on the words of the Bible. It is reasoned that there are many people who started studying out of interest after encountering the high-level Bible education provided by Shincheonji Church of Jesus, especially as an environment was created where people could access various lectures through YouTube and other online resources instead of face-to-face religious activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Their vision is To bring the people to the full knowledge and understanding of the Bible by giving them the seed of God- Word of Truth, thereby becoming the reality of the people who will be recreated in God’s image and likeness.
