NE W ORLEANS -- At 5:30 a.m., all is quiet on the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary campus. The sky is a deep purple, and the campus is illuminated only by the soft glow of the old-fashioned, wrought-iron lamp posts. Except for a few lone joggers, it seems nearly everyone within the seminary’s gates is still sleeping. At the Sellers Music Building’s recital hall, however, there is the sound of music and the quiet murmurs of people praying.
The Korean Student Association (KSA) of NOBTS hosts an early morning prayer meeting each weekday from 5:30 to 6:30. During this time, devoted Korean students slip into the darkened recital room and begin their day in prayer.
“We just follow what Jesus did,” said KSA president Jin Kwon. “In the Gospel of Mark, chapter one, He did many things in one day. He healed, and he preached, and he taught. And then, the next day, He woke up early and He prayed alone.”
The students began last year hosting a weeklong early morning prayer meeting to open the semester. “It was a kind of ceremony for the beginning of the semester,” Kwon said. “But this year, we will have [the meeting] all semester because many students have requested it.”
Kwon contacted the Dean of Students and was given permission to continue meeting in the recital hall of the Sellers Music Building. He points out, however, that these meetings are different from the traditional Korean prayer services. “It’s a little bit different because we don’t have a hymn or sermon,” he said. “Normally, at a Korean prayer service there would be some worship and the pastor would bring a short message.”
The student prayer meetings are very informal. Though they gather together, each person prays individually and simultaneously with the others gathered. The meeting is designed to make it easy for students to come and go as needed.
“We turn out the lights and play the music so that everyone can pray personally and leave freely,” Kwon said.
For the students from South Korea, early morning prayer is a part of their religious culture. Kwon estimates there are about 30-35 students attending NOBTS. Two-thirds of these students live on campus. They are primarily Baptist and Presbyterian, he says, but all are accustomed to daily prayer services in their home churches.
Shin Deok Ra, seminary student and worship leader at Korean Agape Baptist Church in New Orleans, says that many of the Korean churches in New Orleans also hold early morning services. “At my church we do every weekend, Saturday and Sunday morning at five-thirty,” he said. “We have a service with the pastor and myself as worship leader. There is about a 10-minute message, and then everyone prays freely, and then they go home.”
Kwon adds that the call to prayer is not unique to Korean Baptists. “A prayer service like this is one of the common features in the South Korean church; it doesn’t matter the denomination. The Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians – they all stress the prayer meeting.”
Ra describes early morning prayer as a spiritual discipline that is rooted in South Korea’s history and culture. “Fifty years ago, one of the major industries was agriculture,” he said. “Everyone had to wake up before sunrise. But the church emphasized prayer, so the people would come to the church before work. They opened the day with prayer.”
Ra adds that for many Korean students, early morning prayer time is not just a matter of self-discipline, but of spiritual need as well. “This isn’t a mandatory meeting,” he said. “Year by year, I have realized that I needed prayer, so it’s self-discipline. We want to be faithful pastors. It’s not just discipline for us, it’s a very important time.”
He tells of one student’s wife who felt moved after their beginning semester prayer, to attend daily prayer meeting for 100 consecutive days. “During the week, she can come here, and on the weekends, she can go to church. So she never stops,” Ra said. “She’s a pastor’s wife, and she said, ‘I need to pray.’ This is a very good opportunity for her.”
Korean students aren’t the only ones who have felt the need to commit to early morning prayer. Ra notes that when he moved on campus three years ago, he served a church that had a daily prayer service. Each morning he would leave Hamilton Hall in the predawn hours to attend his church’s service before going to class.
His faithfulness had an impact on his roommate. “At the time, my roommate was very surprised in the beginning when I started to attend the early morning service,” Ra said. “but he was very challenged and eventually he made a small group for early morning service, not at five o’clock, but at six o’clock. He talked to some of the guys in Hamilton Hall, and about five people would gather at a friend’s room and they would have a prayer meeting. They continued meeting for one semester.”
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