Jubilee Story
Jubilee Presbyterian Church began in the minds and hearts of three men who desired God's will for the Korean church in Philadelphia: Pastor Steve Park, a graduate of Westminster Theological Seminary who was finishing his doctorate as Jubilee was starting; Pastor Kenny Hong, a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary in California; and Pastor Jun Kyung "Fuji" Kim, also finishing his training at Westminster. Steve Park was already well acquainted with the Philadelphia church situation, having pastored youth and college groups during his time as a seminary student. Kenny Hong was experienced with years of the pastorate in California. Fuji Kim grew up in Philadelphia and was already experienced with many years of summer camp ministry and college ministry in Boston. Jubilee was begun with the hope that God would bring a new time of hope in the Korean church. The foresight of these men saw that as the church transitioned from being an immigrant, first-generation church to an acclimated, second-generation Korean-American church, the church was headed for trouble if nothing was done to prepare for the future. Language barriers, cultural distance, and societal differences were alienating the younger members of the church and making no room for their maturation as the next leaders. English-ministries were only being added on as after-thoughts to youth groups to try and keep the children of the older generation in the same church. Some of these English-ministries would split off from the older church and become English-only ministries. Jubilee was envisioned to meet the needs of all God's people, where entire families and generations could come to worship God and fellowship with His people. Jubilee was started with a two-congregation, one-church model of ministry. This bicameral body balances the strengths and needs of the two parts by deciding everything together. Each congregation has a ministry committee with representative members of the church. To pass any decision of importance, be it monetary or visionary, one committee must propose a plan to the other for vetoing, modification, or ratification. In the early formative years of Jubilee, this decision-making methodology was challenging for the church to adjust to, but it combined the generosity and quick-action of the Korean congregation with the principle-driven thought-process of the English congregation. This collaborative process kept the Jubilee vision close to the heart of the church. Jubilee had its first service on June 1998 in the auditorium at Westminster Theological Seminary. This first home would give way in a few weeks to the first long-term home Jubilee would have: Penn Wynn Presbyterian Church in Wynnewood, PA. During the two years there, Jubilee grew in number and it necessitated a second move into the Conshohocken United Methodist Church. In September 2010, Jubilee moved to its new home at its current campus in West Norriton.
Who We Are
Reformed We hold to the Reformed faith summarized and represented in the Westminster Confession of Faith with its Larger and Shorter Catechisms. We belong to the North America Presbytery in the Korean American Presbyterian Church (KAPC).
We continue in the spirit of the historical Reformation, abiding in the principle that "the Reformed church is always reforming (ecclesia reformata semper reformanda)” according to the unchanging Word of God in the changing world.
We live out the implications of the Presbyterian principles – plurality of leadership, centrality of the Scripture, the Lordship of Christ as the Head of His Church, and the out-working of the sanctifying Spirit in the life the saints – in all areas of the church life.
Jubilee Inside the Liberty Bell, which is safely preserved near Independence Hall in Philadelphia, is inscripted these very words from Leviticus 25:10: "Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof."
This particular verse is written in part of a larger section describing the year of Jubilee, the fiftieth year when all things are reset. Here, the rich share their belongings with the poor, and the poor are made rich through these means. Thus, the name Jubilee functions for two purposes:
(1) to depict our service as servants specifically serving the needs of the greater Philadelphia area and (2) to represent our belief in the gospel message, where weak become strong and poor become rich.
This freedom given to us comes through "our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich" (2 Cor 8:9).
Inter-Generational We are conscious of the importance of the Lord's presence with each generation that comes. In Jubilee, we delight to see families of multiple generations worship together in spirit and in truth as one body of Christ.
With such, there is heavy emphasis upon raising up future generations with sound doctrine along with correct nurture and care with love from gospel principles. The hope is that the Lord will delight in seeing families of faith come to worship him and serve to love the community.