Wheaton College Choir to perform in Seoul

Wheaton College Concert Choir / Courtesy of FEBC-Korea

By Park Jin-hai

Wheaton College Concert Choir came to Seoul for an annual concert.

Starting Thursday evening with their Daejeon concert, the 50-member choir will travel to Seoul and Busan for concerts there until May 17.

Philip Ryken, Wheaton College president and well-known author of 2012 book “Loving the Way Jesus Loves,” accompanied the choir.

Philip Ryken, Wheaton College president

“The Wheaton College Concert Choir is comprised of 50 beautiful, energetic voices. The young men and women come from all over the United States and from countries as far away from America as Egypt and Korea,” Ryken said during the interview with The Korea Times. “Many of them are preparing for careers in music, but many are also pursuing university degrees in business, economics, biology, history, and many other subjects. Under the direction of John Trotter, the choir is known for its technical excellence and its passion for sacred music.”

Invited by Far East Broadcasting Corporation Korea, the choir will perform spiritual, gospel, and Baroque chorals and Korean traditional folk songs during their ten-day visit.

Ryken who is here for the third time, said apart from the concert, he also wants to meet with leaders in education and the government. As the first stop, he and his choir visited the Daejeon Institute of Science and Technology and KAIST, Thursday.

“I hope to invite secondary students to consider attending Wheaton College, and preach the good news about Jesus in some of Korea's leading churches,” he said. The mission of Wheaton, the college that is dubbed the Harvard of Christian schools, is to serve Jesus Christ and advance his kingdom through excellence in liberal arts and graduate programs that educate the whole person to build the church and benefit society worldwide, he says. “The university frequently shows up on lists of schools that offer the best value in higher education. We are known for combining academic excellence across all disciplines with a strong commitment to Jesus Christ. We are known for producing a very high number of students who go on to earn PhDs, and also for sending many graduates on to Christian ministry.”

After the Korean tour, he will continue the trip as part of a student and faculty exchange with Tokyo Christian University and give lectures on "Faith and Learning for Growing Kingdom Leaders."

Former senior minister at Philadelphia’s historic Tenth Presbyterian Church and the author who wrote or edited more than 30 books, including “Loving the Way Jesus Loves,” and recently published “When Trouble Comes.”

Regarding his latest book, published in December here, he said it is about the heroes of the Bible and how they overcome their troubles. “During a time of trouble in my own life, I wanted to learn more about what the great heroes of the Bible did when they were in trouble, and how God helped them,” he said. “As it turns out, almost everyone we meet in the Bible had trouble. So we should not be surprised when we have troubles, too. Even Jesus suffered many troubles. But God has grace for all of us, in all our troubles, as I try to show in this little book.”