Jooseop Keum
Rev. Dr Jooseop Keum is the General Secretary of the Council for World Mission (CWM). He is also a Distinguished Professor of World Christianity at the Yonsei University in South Korea and a Professor Extraordinarius at the University of South Africa (UNISA).
Dr Keum served as Director of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) of the World Council of Churches (WCC) based in Geneva, Switzerland, from 2007-2018. During the period, he also served as the Editor of the International Review of Mission (IRM), the oldest international missiological journal incepted by the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh in 1910. He is the main editor of the WCC mission statement, Together towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes and Director of the World Mission Conference in 2018, Arusha, Tanzania. Prior to his work at the WCC, Dr Keum served CWM as the Executive Secretary of the Mission Programme from 2003-2007. In Korea, he taught as a Distinguished Professor at the Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary (PUTS), while serving the Korea Institute for Future Ecumenism (KIFE) as its Director.
After completing his BA and MDiv at PUTS, he pursued his MTh cum laude and PhD at the University of Edinburgh. Dr Keum was awarded the Honorary Doctor of Reformed Theology at the Reformed University of Debrecen and the Honorary Doctor of Orthodox Theology at the University of Sibiu. Dr Keum’s main research focus is ecumenical understanding and practice of mission in the context of World Christianity, which he actively promotes through his writings, keynotes and teachings at various global mission forums, institutions, and conferences. He was the keynote speaker for the 15th Assembly of the International Association of Mission Studies (IAMS) held in 2022, Sydney, Australia. He is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK).