Lee Young-hoon, senior pastor of Yoido Full Gospel Church, speaks during an interview at the church in Seoul, in this Sept. 23, 2022, file photo. Lee has called on churches to play a greater role in promoting Christian family values and helping more people discover the joy only children can bring. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

For Christians, having children is supposed to be felt as an invaluable gift from God. But that is not the case for many young people in today's world in which children are often perceived as obstacles to professional ambitions or material success.

To help such people find the joy only children can bring and restore Christian family values, faith leaders and churches should play a greater role, said Lee Young-hoon, senior pastor of Yoido Full Gospel Church, the largest Protestant church in the world.

"After creating the world, the first command God gave was to ‘be fruitful and multiply.' This is the will of God and the mission of His church," Lee told The Korea Times in a statement on the occasion of the Aug. 29 roundtable discussion on the nation's demographic crisis.

A family is not merely a conglomeration of people who share the same space and bloodlines. According to the Bible, it is the foundational institution of society and a small church of sorts, where Christian virtues are taught and shared, he said.

Citing Psalm 127:3, which declares, "Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from Him," Lee urged churches to intensify their efforts to address the concerning trend of declining and delayed childbirth. He called on churches to offer both spiritual and practical support to families in need.

"Offering financial help for those in need is one way of practicing God's will," Lee said. "This could help create an environment where children can be appropriately nurtured by healthy families."

In recent years, Lee has been actively promoting the benefits of having and raising children, particularly in light of Korea's declining fertility rate, which reached a record low of 0.72 last year.

For that effort, he was given a Moran Medal, the second-highest Order of Civil Merit, by the government on July 11.

As part of the campaign, his church has so far offered more than 5.4 billion won ($4 million) in childbirth subsidies to 5,016 congregants since 2012. Since the beginning of this year, the amount for each family has doubled: 2 million won for the first newborn, 3 million won for the second, 5 million won for the third and 10 million won for the fourth and onward.