Cho Yong-gi, Korean founder of world's largest megachurch, dies at 85
(Hong Chan-Sun / Newsis via AP)
The founder of one of the world’s largest megachurches has died, according to news reports from Korea. The English-language Korean Herald reported that Cho Yong-gi died at a Seoul hospital on September 14. He was 85.
Cho, known in the United States as David Yonggi Cho, was the founder of the Yoido Full Gospel Church, a Pentecostal megachurch with hundreds of thousands of members.
Cho founded the church in 1958. It would eventually claim the title of the world’s largest church, according to Guinness World Records, with close to 800,000 members. As many as 200,000 people attended weekly services, drawn by Cho’s hopeful preaching and optimistic messages about a better life.
