Orlando Green Hill Presbyterian Church

Florida is a peninsula state located in the southeast part of the United States. It is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Its best known city is Miami. While Miami is an ocean city located at the end of the peninsula, Orlando lies in the center of the peninsula. Orlando, by the size of population, is the 80th biggest city in the United States. It became a world-famous tourist city when the mega-sized theme park, Disney World, was built in 1971. A ten-minute drive from the Orlando International Airport towards the north gets us to the “Orlando Green Hill Presbyterian Church (7255 Pershing Ave., Orlando, FL 32822),” where Golden Road and Pershing Avenue meet in the southeast part of Orlando.



Ministers of the Orlando Green Hill Presbyterian Church
Orlando Green Hill Presbyterian Church was founded on July 29, 1991. Four ministers including the head pastor Rev. Paul Kim, the assistant pastor Rev. Sung-joon Yoo, and two American pastors, Rev. Barnabas Phipps and Rev. Kristin Beatty are working for the church. Rev. Paul Kim is busy from diligently working at the church, taking only 3-4 hours of sleep per day. Rev. Sung-Joon Yoo is leading all things related to serving the church. Rev. Kristin Beatty, who is a symbol of integrity and uprightness, preaches in a loud voice as if he is scolding the listeners. Rev. Barnabas Phipps, a Bible expert, is gentle and full of a keen sense of humor. The American pastors were originally appointed to be elders, but then ordained as pastors in 2005. Their vision is to make this Korean church in American society a global center of the gospel. They say it is very rare that two American pastors serve in a church founded by foreign ministers in the United States.

Departments of the Orlando Green Hill Presbyterian Church
The church has an Elders ministry, Men and Women ministry, Gabriel Choir, Samuel Sunday School, Infants ministry, Barnabas Sunday School (middle and high school students), and Gabriel Youth Group (College group/Youth group). Also, various activities are done by the broadcasting team, editing team, internet ministry team, designing team, planning and general affairs team, praise team, and the translation team. Since most of the congregation have fought hard to keep their faith strong from when they were back in Korea, their faith is especially fervent. Being at the church with the most missionary events among all the collaboration churches in the US, the congregation devote their time and wealth from arduous immigrant lives to prepare for assemblies and welcome guests. Their tearful prayers and dedication became a foundation for Green Hill Church as an advance base for the missionary work in the US.

Gabriel Choir 
Orlando Green Hill Presbyterian Church provides Sunday service, Wednesday service, special services, and Tuesday Bible Academy classes. The Gabriel Choir, composed of youth and unmarried adults, leads praise at the Wednesday night service. The Gabriel Choir became well known in the Korean community for its musical excellence and has been leading Praise Night services from September 1997 to September 2010. At a Praise Night service held on September 26, 2010, it included an orchestra ensemble by Barnabas Sunday School students, special praise by the Michael Choir, and 40 members of the Senior Welfare Center. Gabriel Choir was formed with Elder John Park as the main axis, who had been serving as an elder in charge of the choir from the beginning. The Choir originated from the love of Elder Park, to lead the body of believers on a right and faithful path, who were experiencing confusion in their identities and were having difficulties in adjusting to society as they moved to a foreign land in their adolescence.



A pride of the Orlando Green Hill Presbyterian Church
The biggest pride for the Green Hill Presbyterian Church is the children’s praise from the Korean Language School and Sunday School. The children are singing English-translated praises including the song of Jesus’ Genealogy. Their praise has surprised the audience at gatherings of Koreans in Orlando and at other church events. Americans are particularly shocked, much more than just being moved by the little children’s outstanding knowledge of the Bible. At the History of Redemption Series Seminar held in the Green Hill Presbyterian Church in May 2011, the children received a standing ovation. And finally, at the Praise Night of the Gabriel Choir in September 2010, the song of Korean history sung by the Sunday School children deeply moved the Korean war veterans.   

Mission work of the Orlando Green Hill Presbyterian Church
An important means of the mission work of the Green Hill Presbyterian Church is satellite broadcasting. In 2000, in the light of the globalization of the word and opening a new chapter of missions, new millennium satellite broadcasting was aired simultaneously in New York, U.S., Canada, and Seoul, Korea. In 2001, Rev. Abraham Park had a sermon broadcast via satellite when he visited one of the American churches in Orlando. Since 2007, the Green Hill Presbyterian Church has been actively preaching the History of Redemption series to ministers in American churches and deans of theological seminaries. As a result, thank you letters and letters of encouragement are flooding in. The History of Redemption series seminar in May 2011 had 1,670 participants including more than 500 Americans and over ten Korean pastors in attendance.



Vision of the Orlando Green Hill Presbyterian Church
The vision of the church is to accomplish the mission of preaching the word of the History of Redemption that has been given to us in these end times throughout the United States via the ‘Green Hill Retreat Center,’ the cradle of prayer, and the new sanctuary which was a gift from God.

Orlando?located in the center of Florida the “Sunshine state” where the annual temperature does not go below 20 degrees Celsius?is a city with people crowding for its attractions such as Disney World and Universal Studios. In midst of the city is the Green Hill Presbyterian Church uplifting its loud, strong voice to praise and preach God’s word with zeal hotter than the sun.

Written by Jung-hwa  Seo