South Korea Pastor, Yonggi Cho, With World Largest Congregation, Is Dead

By Akinwale Kasali

David Yonggi Cho, Pastor of the world’s largest mega-Church,  died in the early hours of today, Tuesday, September 14, 2021,  according to a Press Release by the Church.

The 85-year old founder of Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korean Capital, spent decades spreading the Gospel in that country.

According to information from his Church, Pastor Cho, before his death, was receiving medical treatment for a brain hemorrhage he suffered in 2020.

Cho was born in 1936 to a Buddhist family and lived during the Korean War. He converted to Christianity at 17 when doctors told him he would die from a serious case of tuberculosis. Cho credits God for his “miraculous” recovery from the disease.

According to him; “I will never forget God’s blessing and grace over my life, through which He chose me to be His Servant when I was just an insignificant child with lung disease, and He saved me by His grace through the atonement of the Cross of Jesus Christ, so that through prayer I might receive wisdom and preach by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wherever He placed me,” Cho wrote in a statement on his church’s website.”

Pastor Cho graduated from Full Gospel College in 1956. Just two years later, he opened a tent church in Seoul, which later turned into Yoido Full Gospel Church.

The Church grew into one of the most popular mega-Churches in the world and boasts of more than 750,000 members.

Yoido has more than 500 Church locations across South Korea and has sent thousands of Missionaries to countries around the globe, according to the Church’s press release.

Pastor Cho became one of the most influential Christian leaders in his country. He wrote several books, founded a Christian daily newspaper, and established a humanitarian organization.

Pastor Cho’s wife died in February, 2021.The couple had  three sons.