The Rev. Jung Eun Yum was recently welcomed to the Carleton United Methodist Church. Rev. Yum began his duties on July 1, 2024, after being appointed by Bishop David Bard.
Rev. Yum was born and raised in Chuncheon, South Korea. His home church is Chuncheon Central Methodist Church, which was planted by the Methodist Episcopal Church South on Easter Sunday in 1898. While studying in college, he did the mandatory military service as a chaplain assistant in KATUSA (Korean Augmentation Troops for the United States Army) for twenty-six months. There, he met a US chaplain, Rev. Hardie M. Higgins, who was a Methodist pastor from the Oklahoma Conference. It was he who strongly encouraged Jung to go to a seminary. After prayers and counsel with his home church pastors, he could discern and obey God’s calling to ministry. At that time, God spoke to him about his calling to ministry through Romans 12:15.
After completing his military duty, Rev. Yum married Somi Nam, whom he met on the worship team at his home church, which is “the safest place in the world.” They came to Pasadena, CA, on December 28th, 1998, to study at Fuller Theological Seminary. He served at Glendale Korean UMC as a student pastor while studying there. Glendale KUMC was the place where he learned the importance of practicing John Wesley’s Class Meetings for Christian formation.
After Fuller, Rev. Yum was called to serve at Detroit Korean UMC as an associate pastor, where he was involved with the young adult ministry, missions, Christian education, and class meetings for six years. Then, he was appointed to serve Christ Korean UMC in Woodbury, Minnesota, as senior pastor for three and a half years. There, he led a short-term mission trip to Mindoro, Philippines, in 2012, where CKUMC dedicated a church building with the church members after years of prayers and financial commitment. In 2014, he received his first cross-cultural appointment at Midland First UMC in Midland, Michigan. He served as associate pastor there for eight years and as senior pastor for the last two years.
The Yum’s have three children. Son, Abraham, is attending Asbury Theological Seminary after graduating from Michigan State and has just completed his first year of the Masters of Divinity (MDiv) program. Daughter, Rachel recently graduated from the University of Michigan this past spring, where she majored in sociology in law and American culture. She is taking a gap year to discern where God is calling her to go for her career. And daughter, Hannah will be a junior at Michigan State and is in the nursing program with aspirations to become a prenatal nurse.
The Carleton United Methodist Church holds worship services each Sunday at 9:30 a.m. at 11435 Grafton Road, in Carleton. The church is just north of the Airport School main campus.