The ministry of SOON Movement Global in the United States began with the vision of one man. Rev. Jun Gon Kim, founder of Korea Campus Crusade for Christ (KCCC), recognized early on the spiritual significance of the growing diaspora that was gathering in America from around the world. He foresaw that God would use these diaspora communities to open a new chapter in world missions. Sharing this vision with Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC), KCCC embarked on a highly unique and unprecedented ministry in the history of CCC: a Korean diaspora ministry within the United States. Thus, in 1981, the ministry officially began with the commissioning of Rev. Soon Young Kang to the West Coast and missionary staff member Yong Won Kang to the East Coast.
In the years that followed, as KCCC ministries in North America were integrated into and later emerged from the broader Cru ministry structure, Dr. Sung Min Park passionately advocated before the international leadership that SOON should become more than a ministry for Korean Americans. He believed it should embrace all diaspora peoples living in the United States. Through this vision and persuasion, SOON Movement Global was granted a status comparable to that of an independent national CCC under the international CCC. It was reborn as an independent multi-ethnic diasporic movement dedicated to reaching diaspora communities from every nation.
After a seed was planted, countless storms and hardships followed. Yet both the One who planted the seed and the One who sustained it were God Himself. In His mysterious and sovereign ways, God protected, nurtured, and brought the ministry to maturity.
God is the true author of history. The Great Commission is God’s command, and it is ultimately His work to accomplish. As He declared, “What I have planned, that I will bring about; what I have purposed, that I will do” (Isaiah 46:10–11). God will surely fulfill His purposes through his chosen people, and diaspora Americans are one of those.
As the ministry approaches its 45th anniversary and looks ahead to its 50th Jubilee, we believe a new era is approaching—one marked by a great global mission movement through the revival among young diasporas in America.
The National Higher Calling Conference to be in December is intended to serve as a bridge toward that revival. The theme, “To The Ends,” carries both our earnest prayers and our deepest hopes. The “ends” may refer to distant geographical regions. Yet they may also represent a soul trapped in spiritual darkness, a broken relationship that seems beyond restoration, or marginalized people whom no one has yet reached with the gospel. At every end, however, there are nations waiting to be reached. And at those frontiers, young people like the dew of the morning will rise up to embrace the nations. Their pain will become a crown of glory, and their tears will be transformed into holy devotion.
“To The Ends” is also a declaration of our desire to follow Jesus all the way to the end. Jesus obeyed the Father even unto death and loved us to the very end. Likewise, this theme expresses our longing to obey Him completely and to love others faithfully until the end.
Both Scripture and history testify that sacred gatherings that please God have often become pivotal milestones in His redemptive story. This year marks the first National Higher Calling Conference ever hosted since the ministry began in North America. We pray and anticipate that this gathering will become a defining milestone in diasporic movement to raise leaders among them and help them to bring the gospel to all nations.