The founder of South Korea’s biggest churches which doubles as the world’s largest megachurches, David Cho Yong-gi, has died. He died at the age of 85.
According to a release issued by the church, Yoido Full Gospel Church, Yong-gi died in Seoul, after a protracted battle with a brain haemorrhage that he suffered in June 2020.
According to Leadership Network, an international organization of church leaders, Yong-gi established the Yoido Full Gospel Church in 1958, which grew to be among the world’s biggest churches with over 480,000 attendees per week.
The church has over 500 branches in South Korea, Europe, the Americas and Asia, and has deployed thousands of missionaries to many countries over the years, according to the church’s release.
The release noted that the late cleric himself had participated in religious rallies and movements in 71 countries.
According to the website of the church, the church started as only five members gathered under a tent in Seoul.
Yoido became Korea’s best-known representative, boasting of over 700,000 members by 1993, with the numbers increasing as the church went international, spreading to include a giant mountainside retreat in South Korea’s Gyeonggi Province and a Christian university Yong-gi established in California.
