A few days after his discharge from the hospital-even before
the surgical wounds had healed, Pastor Cho served as interpreter
for Pastor Sam Todd who led a revival crusade at the Seodaemun
intersection.
Half a month after the crusade, which had been
full of the miracles of God, Pastor Cho pitched a large marine
tent at the site-the first expansion of his pioneer church.
By November of 1961, a church was constructed to accommodate
1,500 people and on February 18th the following year, the dedication
was held to commemorate the church sanctuary as the Full Gospel
Revival Hall.
On April 26th of the same year, Pastor Cho became
an ordained minister, and the church became officially registered
as the Full Gospel Central Church.
Three years after the relocation
to the Seodaemun area, in 1964 the church membership grew to
3,000.
Amid the rapid growth of the church, Pastor Yonggi Cho
married Pastor Ja-shil Choi's daughter Sung-hae Kim on March
1, 1965.
Pastor Cho had been working without proper rest and
without regard for his health, and he finally succumbed to overwork
and fainted as he was leading a baptismal service for several
hundred church members.
However, after a week in the hospital,
he was discharged for the Sunday service, at which time he again
fainted due to weakened health, necessitating another stay in
the hospital.
During his second stay in the hospital, he began
to realize the physical limitations in his ministry.
He further
realized, "The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle
it alone" (Exodus 18:18).
He began to understand the necessity
of delegating work to others as Moses had delegated work to
various appointed persons among the Israelites to lead them
through the desert.
The Holy Spirit gave him the understanding
of how the members of the early church, especially the women
of the church came to work and have fellowship together (Romans
16).
Home cell groups became the launching pads for the explosive
growth of the church.
A week later after his discharge, Pastor
Cho informed the leaders of the church about his vision and
began formulating cell groups.
He divided the city of Seoul
into 20 areas and encouraged the members of the church in given
areas to come together in the homes of the members for worship
and fellowship during the week.
Many of the women were also
chosen as cell leaders and trained to lead cell worship. Later,
as the men of the church felt challenged by the great organization
of women members, they also began meeting in cell groups with
other male members of the church.
Today the cell leaders in
various organizations, (women, men, young men, young women,
children and so on), number 32,500. In 1968, three years after
the formulation of home cell groups, church membership stood
at 8,000, and there were three worship services on Sunday.
Even
with three Sunday services, it became harder to accommodate
all the members of the church.
This led to the purchase of land
at Yoido for a new church building.
At the time, Yoido was an
island consisting mainly of sand, and it lacked any means of
public transportation into the area.
This led to much criticism
within the church for its selection.
To make matters worse,
the total cost for the church building was estimated at 800,000,000
Korean won, of which the church only had 1,000,000 won.
Regardless,
Pastor Cho believed in the miracles of God and went ahead with
his plan for the new church.
The strong faith of Pastor Cho
convinced the board of directors, and with the issuance of promissory
notes, church construction began in April of 1969.
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