Meet a delegate: John Chung

At age 24, John Chung was likely the youngest delegate at the synod convention. How he came to be a delegate and what he experienced as a delegate illustrate the power and love of God.

John, a member of Bethlehem, Carmel, Ind., grew up in the United Methodist Church, where his father, Joon Ho “Paul” Chung, was a pastor. Paul was finding inconsistencies with his church’s teachings and the Bible. He came into contact with WELS Pastor Charles Found and joined WELS.

Paul began ministerial training at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary (WLS) through its Pastoral Studies Institute (PSI) program. He currently serves as pastor at Peace, Santa Clara, Calif.

John Chung followed his father by joining WELS. After high school, he left California for Indiana. He had his own thoughts of what the future might hold, but now he recognizes that “my plans were derailed, and I was derailed onto a better track.”

He enrolled at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Ind. There he met Emily, who would become his wife. After graduation, John gained employment as a mechanical engineer.

He and Emily both joined Bethlehem, and it was not long before the congregation gave John an opportunity to serve in an official capacity. He was nominated to be the recording secretary on the church council. John remembers asking, “You guys want a 24-year-old kid as a council member? Okay.”

Not long after John began serving in that position, his pastor announced at a council meeting that the congregation needed a delegate for the synod convention. The pastor asked if there were any volunteers, and John recalls, “They all looked at me, and I go, ‘Sure.’ ”

He admits, “I didn’t know what I was signing up for. I had no idea of the gravity of this.”

John was assigned to the floor committee that reviewed the work of the Commission on Inter-Church Relations. He noted that his work on the committee gave him a special perspective on the way WELS develops and maintains relationships with other church bodies.

But it was not just his floor committee’s work on his mind at the convention. After John heard the demographic reports that revealed the relatively low numbers of young adults like him in the synod, he said, “I love all the written stuff we do. I don’t think we should ever stop doing that. It’s really good stuff. But it’s not packaged in a way that my generation uses. We need to be exhausting all our avenues. We should put more effort into producing content that we can share on social media.”

John shared those thoughts with this self-assessment: “I’m a dreamer. I guess you can call me an idea guy. I have big ideas for WELS.”

Serving as a delegate to the convention was meaningful to John as a part of his journey of faith. “In this past year,” John notes, “my passion for his kingdom has really, really sparked. Especially now, the fire is roaring. Being here at convention, I realize that I am part of a legacy of something that is so much bigger than me. 175 years! I’ve only been alive for 24 years of that. There have been generations of people who spread the Word of God truthfully, and I don’t want that to ever end.”

So would he do this again? Would he be a delegate to another synod convention? “In a heartbeat,” John says.

For more coverage of the 2025 WELS convention, visit forwardinchrist.net/convention.