Father, Son and Holy Mess: Family Succession in Megachurches

Seen from the back of a high balcony, pastor Kim Sam-hwan cuts a small figure. “Amen!” he calls into two microphones suspended on long wires from the ceiling above. “Allelujah!” responds his flock of five thousand. “Allelujah!” he counters. “Amen!” they roar. If Kim appears tiny, it’s only because the church he has built around himself is enormous. Myungsung Presbyterian Church rises from the suburbs of eastern Seoul, an architectural cacophony of Western-style twin-spired brick ecclesiasti