Church Affiliation

   In his childhood years and early youth, Kenneth Street grew up under the Sunday School training of the Presbyterian church denomination. In 1980, after quite a bit of world travel, he became a convinced believer in the Bible and a follower of Jesus Christ, and in Jan. 1988 (after the passage of over 7 years), he became a Baptist. Just a few months later, he officially became a member of a Southern Baptist church.

   In Jan. 1988, he was baptized by immersion in a ceremony performed by the Korean pastor of the Korean mission of the First Baptist Church of Winston-Salem, NC. Not long afterwards, he joined the First Baptist Church of Mount Airy, NC. It was not until about 2006 that he discovered a rather interesting fact, that he had repeated the pattern of Rev. Billy Graham in this regard. Both had started out as Presbyterians and had later ended up being Southern Baptist church members... after the completion of a second baptism ceremony. (The first one is the infant baptism/christening of the Presbyterian denomination.) So, just like the world's most famous living evangelist, Ken has been "double-baptized."

   He likes the Baptist churches because they are often more conservative and energetic than some of the Presbyterian churches that are found in the U.S. He complains that the Presbyterian churches in the U.S. are often too liberal, unlike their South Korean counterparts. Nevertheless, Ken continued to maintain for several years after becoming a Baptist that Rev. Dr. D. James Kennedy, a televised pastor in Florida, was still writing some of the best sermons he had ever heard. (It is rather amusing to note this fact, as the late Rev. Dr. D. James Kennedy was a Presbyterian minister, not a Baptist, although he was one of the more conservative sort.) But their separate views of eschatology (what's coming in the future) now distanced him a bit from Dr. Kennedy.

   [ -- Dr. D. James Kennedy has since gone on to his heavenly reward. He is well-remembered as the founder of Evangelism Explosion. Ken is still around, and now likes especially the weekly TV messages of J. R. Church & Gary Stearman (founders of Prophecy In The News), of Hal Lindsey, of David Wilkerson (founder of World Challenge), and of Dr. Jack Van Impe. Ken also likes to view on the 'net the weekly TV show of the Messianic Jewish believer Sid Roth, who hosts Messianic Vision and It's Supernatural. Needless to say, their understanding of eschatology (future things) is quite different from that of the late Dr. Kennedy. ]

   Later in 1988, Ken Street entered a Baptist seminary for additional studies. Over a period of several years, he did a lot of graduate study in a divinity program at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, an institution that was established in Wake Forest, North Carolina, USA, by Southern Baptists. About 7 years later, he was awarded an M.Div. degree, and his wife got an M.Div./Chr.Ed. degree at the same time. In 2005 and part of 2006, he and his family frequently attended church services at the Christian Life Center, a non-denominational church in Williamsburg, Virginia, USA. Officially, though, he remains a Baptist. His Korean translator and wife, one Nansook Kim by name, is also a product of the Baptist denomination, having become a Baptist (and the first Christian in her family) during her elementary school years in South Korea.

   From Oct. 3, 2006 till Feb. 27, 2008, he and his wife were living in Seoul, South Korea, and all through 2007 he was teaching English classes as an instructor at the Yonsei University Foreign Language Institute. During this time, they primarily attended services at the New Harvest Ministry mission church (an English service) of the Sarang Presbyterian Church of Seoul. But they occasionally worshipped also in services of Rev. David Yonggi Cho's Full Gospel Church of Yoido, and on several occasions they worshipped with the Baptist congregation of the Suwon Central Baptist Church in nearby Suwon City.

   The latter church is the same Baptist church in which Nansook grew up and in which she was married to Ken. This Korean Baptist church was originally founded by Rev. Billy Kim, a pastor who also married the couple during the wedding ceremony he performed in Suwon during the summer of 1984. His church in Suwon is one of the largest Baptist congregations in South Korea, and he is very well-known in South Korea.

   Rev. Billy Kim is remembered especially as the pastor who publically translated the messages of Rev. Billy Graham (via simultaneous oral translation) at the time when Rev. Graham had crusades in the Yoido area of Seoul. As the translator for Rev. Billy Graham, he was then speaking to crowds with over 1 million South Koreans gathered together in the Yoido area of Seoul. That was long ago, but Rev. Billy Kim is also remembered as a long-time head of Far East Broadcasting ministry in South Korea, and he has now retired from his position as the head pastor of Suwon Central Baptist Church.

   During the past two decades, Ken and Nansook have sporadically done some work as Sunday School workers for four Korean churches in North Carolina and Virginia, these being both Presbyterian (2) and Baptist (2). In the latter three cases, they served as directors of the small Sunday School department for each church.

   Having returned from South Korea to the U.S., they are now once again attending chuch services at the First Baptist Church of Mount Airy, NC, and are occasionally also worshiping with Ken's mom at the First Presbyterian Church of Mount Airy.

   The latter is the same Presbyterian church that Ken attended back in the 8th grade, when his parents' family first moved into Mount Airy. And the former is the same church that Ken joined in 1988 before pursuing an M.Div. degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

   Ken was very much encouraged to learn in 2006 that Rev. Dr. Billy Graham's grandson, Will Graham (the oldest son of Rev. Franklin Graham) had graduated in 2001 with an M.Div. degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary -- the same institution from which Ken and Nansook got their own M.Div. degrees (in Dec. 1995) just six years earlier!

   Ken then thought: Wow, this is so cool! Rev. Dr. Billy Graham and Rev. Franklin Graham must have had a lot of confidence in the quality and fidelity of a Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary education... since they were willing to entrust to it Billy's grandson (and Franklin's son), putting him into this institution for his advanced theological education.

   That means Ken must have gotten a far classier education than he ever thought possible!