Korean Church Stops Independent Investigation into Sexual Misconduct Allegations

A Korean church located near the Champaign-Urbana campus of the University of Illinois that came under fire last year for allegations of ongoing sexual misconduct has terminated an independent investigation before its completion.

Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE), an organization hired by Covenant Fellowship Church to look into the allegations against the church and its former head pastor, Min Joshua Chung, said in a statement that although all that remained in the investigation was a “minimal” number of interviews, primarily with CFC leadership, they had been informed by CFC that the assessment would not continue. 

GRACE said the termination by CFC “effectively halts” their work at this time.

“We know this may cause pain for many people, and we deeply regret that CFC has chosen this path. We have encouraged them to see this important work through to completion,” the statement said. “We pray that CFC reconsiders this course of action and chooses to re-engage with GRACE for completion of this independent assessment.”

A lengthy investigation by National Public Radio station WBEZ in Chicago last year and social media posts by past members portrayed Covenant Fellowship Church and Chung as fostering a misogynistic environment that included sexual mistreatment and oppression of women.

Chung, who founded the church in 1990 on the University of Illinois-Champaign Urbana (UICU) campus, announced in the summer of 2019 that he would transition out of the head pastor role and a team of associate pastors would lead the church. In May 2021, CFC cut ties with him. 

KJ Kim, who is currently the church’s senior pastor, previously said Chung had admitted to touching a female “over the clothing for a brief moment” about 20 years ago but had “immediately stopped” when she asked him to. 

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But The Roys Report said Kim has been accused by a whistleblower group of covering up other past misconduct by Chung. 

In an email to Roys, Kim wrote that the decision to terminate its agreement with GRACE and this decision was made “with much prayer and deliberation.” 

“We continue to seek the Lord for His leading in this season of ministry,” he said. 

The church hired GRACE to begin the independent assessment in August 2021, and had been gathering information via one-on-one interviews, documents, listening circles, and an anonymous survey. 

A final assessment was set to be published by this summer.