We tend to be impressed by big things. We feel affirmed when a brand we like is liked by others. We want our investments to grow. More importantly, we want everyone to follow Jesus and see our churches grow in him. Usually, we don’t fully understand the perceptions behind what we think we want and why.

My reflections here are prompted by reading a fascinating, detailed account of the rise of both the church and the leadership in North Korea. In his just released 751-page book, Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea’s Personality Cult, author Jonathan Cheng chronicles this story in amazing detail.1

It describes the mission efforts in the late 1800s which led to the largest churches in Asia at the time. The sacrifice and commitment of these missionaries is profound. Those who first arrived in the 1880s were the early result of a mission mobilization thrust known as the Student Volunteer Movement, which produced commitments from some 100,000 young people—20,000 of whom were sent out to serve around the world, while the rest supported.

In the 1940s in united Korea, there was a surge of churches and new sects. After US General Douglas MacArthur captured Pyongyang, three thousand people packed into the Fourth Presbyterian Church there. It was known as “Jerusalem of the East.” But things shifted as power moved into the hands of self-centered leaders who demanded complete obedience. The book describes things that are beyond painful to read. The leader who rose to prominence, Kim Il Sung, had strong family connections with Christian relatives. He saw their devotion and, at first, engaged with them because they were a force that he felt would help him. All of that changed and—it seems—faith and ultimate devotion became focused on Sung. One chapter in the book is “A Cult Without Parallel.” Many Christians fled to the South.2

If you looked at the church in North Korea before things deteriorated, you would probably be very impressed. The missionaries and church leaders watched God pour out his Spirit and bless them. There are solid, suffering believers there now.

If you live in a place where the church has been established and looks like it is doing well, be grateful but also reflective. It is very easy to complain when we evaluate our churches. And because of my exposure to believers around the globe, I may critique too harshly at times. But we should also evaluate ourselves. I am learning to examine my own faith path and how I am passing that on to my family, community, church, and the world. I wonder: What is it that makes some people pursue the Lord and others not so much? Most of us cannot understand what those Korean believers were going through as the country's leadership shifted from persecution to protection to persecution again. I understand why thousands fled. I feel sure I would have also.

I also wonder what was imbedded in their cultural worldview that allowed so many to turn their affection to a charismatic, iron-fisted leader and treat him like a messiah? The social pressure in a collective society is beyond what most of us can understand—especially in our Western individualistic, freedom-focused culture. Amid the murderous leadership of a whole nation, survival must play into their motivations.

We should all be careful since this leadership mentality can invade any culture, church, and family. It is a part of every one of us since Adam and Eve chose to get God’s wisdom in their own way. It is the opposite of the one man who walked a different path, lived a perfect life before God, and modeled the ultimate leadership characteristics of humility, love, and sacrifice.

Which one characterizes leaders in your family, church, business, or country?