The following biographical story
first appeared in the October 18, 2001, Asbury Park Press. It has been edited for our Website.
Principles leads man to pursue career in ministry
BY: SHERRY W. SUNG/Staff Writer
The year was 1985, and Kyewoon Choi
was a graduate student at Michigan State University. Having just emigrated from South Korea, he
came to this country that year to pursue a doctorate in economics in hopes of
becoming a professor one day. But five
years later, he abandoned the initial plan and earned his second master's
degree — in divinity. "God was
calling me to ministry so I changed my major,” said Choi.
Choi, 44, has
been the pastor at Embury United Methodist Church in Little Silver for more
than four years, presenting Sunday sermons, visiting hospital patients,
providing help for the community in light of the World Trade Center attacks and
much more.
As an
undergraduate student at a South Korean college in 1978, Choi attended a summer
retreat that encouraged the participants mainly students and young adults to
become missionaries for third world countries.
"I decided, well, I don't want to go to Africa as a missionary
because there are people eating human flesh,” said Choi, adding the Vietnam War
had just ended at that time, "so you don't want to go to that area, so I
just kind of compromised.
"I was
running away from (God's) call after I made a commitment. The plan I came up with wasn't completely
running away; it was more like a compromise.”
Choi explained he was willing to travel abroad as a missionary at the
time, but a fear of cannibalism prevented him from fully fulfilling his
duties. As a result, he said, he
attained a bachelor's degree — and later a master's — in economics instead.
At Michigan
State, Choi began to disagree with some of the principles associated with
economics. "The more you have, the
happier you are; that was the basic assumption, the foundation,” Choi
said. "When I thought about that,
that wasn't true. There is always a time
that a person cannot be happy with material things.” His doubts led him to make further
changes. "I didn't want to teach
any students that this is the truth,” Choi said. "That was kind of the turning point.”
He then
spent the next six months questioning his service to God, he said, until his
prayers were answered. "I felt that
God was calling me to be a full-time minister,” Choi said. A career in teaching "was not God's plan
for me in 1987,” he said. That same
year, Choi transferred to Princeton University, Princeton, to complete the
school's theological seminary. But he
returned to Michigan state after earning his master's degree in 1990.
Before he
was ordained, Choi said, he was required to fulfill a candidacy process. "Instead of staying in New Jersey,” he said, "I went back to Michigan
because (the bishops) wanted me back.”
"They found a church for me,” he said, "and I served a church
congregation for seven years.”
But he
moved back to New Jersey in 1997 because his wife, Sunwoo, had been accepted
into the Princeton Theological Seminary.
And since then, he's been preaching at Embury on an array of subjects
such as death, life after death, terrorism, and much more. "Preaching the sermons is not nearly
everything about my ministry,” said Choi, adding that he regularly visits
nursing homes as well as hospitals.
"If one of our members is in surgery or if they stay more than one
day for treatment or recovery,” he said, "I'll go there everyday.”
Choi was
recently invited by Red Bank Regional High School to counsel students affected
in any way by the terrorist attacks.
"I wasn't particularly representing my Christian faith,” he said,
"but rather, just helping each other.”
One of those that he admirers, Choi said, is Dr. Albert Schweitzer, a pastor who opened a hospital in Africa in 1913. "I was deeply touched by his lifestyle, his philosophy, and his principles about life,” said Choi, adding that Schweitzer's commitment to humanity "deeply affected me in the ways of living as a Christian.”