A Bilingual House of Worship in Virginia Beach
Tidewater Korean Baptist Church gathers on a quiet stretch of Overland Road in Virginia Beach, a few blocks east of I-264 and the Witchduck Road exit. The congregation has been shaped by the city's Korean-American community for half a century, and the building now serves as a bilingual home where Korean and English services run back to back, and where a senior center opens its doors to neighbors in their sixties and beyond.
The church identifies with the Southern Baptist Convention and affirms the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. From the first gathering of thirteen adults and three children in 1975 to today's two-service Sunday rhythm, the community has stayed focused on three commitments: worshiping God wholeheartedly, training every believer as a minister of the gospel, and reaching the Korean-American Tidewater region together with the nations beyond it.
Two Sunday Services, One Congregation
The weekly Sunday schedule is built around a simple bilingual model.
The 1st Service in Korean begins at 10:00 AM in Grace Chapel. The 2nd Service in English follows at 11:30 AM in Vision Chapel, the larger sanctuary that anchors the front of the building. Youth, college students, and young adults all attend the 2nd Service and then gather separately after lunch for their own age-level meetings.
On the first Sunday of every month, the two services come together as a single Joint Service at 11:00 AM in Vision Chapel, with translation provided so that no one is left out of the sermon or the prayers. Every second and last Sunday of the month, the 2nd Service sermon is preached in English with live Korean translation; on the other Sundays the sermon is in Korean with live English translation. The English-language worship team draws on contemporary songs such as those by CityAlight, and the church's combined choirs - including the Hosanna Choir (1st service), Hallelujah Choir (2nd service), and the Ainos Praise Team - support both hours.
Children's programming runs alongside the 2nd Service at 11:30 AM. Nursery care is available for infants through two-year-olds, and a children's Sunday School welcomes ages three through fifth grade. Teaching follows Lifeway's Explore the Bible curriculum, with the children worshiping together first and then dividing into small groups for Bible study.
Weekday Rhythms of Prayer
Beyond Sunday morning, the church keeps a steady week-long prayer cadence.
- Early Morning Prayer, Tuesday through Saturday at 6:00 AM, meets in Grace Chapel.
- Friday Night Worship at 7:30 PM gathers in Vision Chapel. Missionaries on home assignment, visiting preachers, and members of the congregation share the pulpit. On the third Friday of the month, the youth group meets for a Fun and Fellowship night in the upstairs Cafe Matrix, and English speakers gather for a parallel prayer meeting in the same space at the same hour.
A Thursday intercessory prayer group also provides the flowers that decorate the services each week.
Becoming a Member: 101 and 201
The discipleship pathway is structured but welcoming, with two formal courses that move newcomers from first visit to full participation.
101 - New Life is a thirteen-week course described by the church as the first required step toward becoming a member. Each week opens a foundational topic: orientation, sin and God's love, repentance and faith, regeneration and assurance, Christian life and maturity, the Bible, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the church, Christian identity, victorious living, and the motivation and method of commitment. The class closes with a written exam. Anyone can attend, including those who are still exploring whether to follow Jesus.
201 - Bible Point is a twenty-week sweep through the whole Bible, split into a Spring semester of eleven weeks on the Old Testament and a Fall semester of nine weeks on the New Testament. The course walks students from Creation and Fall through the divided monarchy, the exile and return, the life of Jesus, the birth of the church, the missionary journeys, the general epistles, and the apocalyptic return of Christ, with the goal of letting the storyline of the Kingdom of God and salvation carry the learner from Genesis to Revelation.
Next Generation: Nursery Through College
Children and students are not folded into the adult congregation; they have a full program of their own.
Nursery (Infant to 2 years)
Nursery care is available during the 2nd Service in Vision Chapel. Parents check children in at the Welcome Desk by the main entrance of the Vision Center at least fifteen minutes before worship begins and pick them up in person when the service ends.
Children (Age 3 through 5th Grade)
Children gather for worship at 11:30 AM and then move into small groups for Bible study. The stated goal is more than Bible stories: the teachers want children to learn the meat and deeper truths of God's word so that they can grow as functioning members of the body of Christ. Children experience God's presence on a regular basis and are equipped for the work of the ministry in age-appropriate ways.
Youth (6th through 12th Grade)
The 180 Youth Ministry partners with parents to build students who are firmly grounded in the gospel, growing in love for and knowledge of the Lord, equipped with a biblical worldview, and committed to making other disciples. Students join the 2nd Service at 11:30 AM, then move upstairs to Cafe Matrix for a youth gathering at 1:00 PM. The Friday Night youth meeting at 7:30 PM in the same upstairs space alternates teaching weeks with Fun and Fellowship nights on the third Friday of each month. Each summer the 180 team runs a multi-day retreat, and the church hosts a Vacation Bible School for children of the wider community.
College and Young Adults
From college freshmen through the years before marriage, the young adult ministry meets for the 2nd Service at 11:30 AM and gathers in an upstairs room at 1:00 PM for age-specific study, accountability, and fellowship. The group has worked through books together and hosts an annual retreat. Senior Pastor Hamin Jung himself came up through a similar young adult ministry, having served as Associate Pastor of Young Adults at Semihan Church in Texas before returning to Virginia Beach.
Hampton Roads Senior Center
The church runs the Hampton Roads Senior Center for residents of the surrounding neighborhoods who are sixty and older. The center, hosted on the church campus, offers five categories of programming:
- Corporate Meals - nutritious food together
- Life-long Education - classes on the practical skills of daily life
- Recreational Activities - indoor and outdoor exercise and games for body and mind
- Mutual Aids - a community where members help one another
- Community Services - group service projects in the wider Hampton Roads area
The center takes its name from the Hampton Roads metropolitan area that includes Virginia Beach, Norfolk, and Portsmouth, and it functions as the church's primary bridge to the older adults of the city.
A Missional Church: From the Yi Family to the 5/100 Vision
Tidewater Korean Baptist Church calls itself a missional church, and that identity is rooted in a specific piece of church history.
Chu Hon Yi and Kye Wol Yi, the first missionary martyrs sent out by a Southern Baptist Korean church, were faithful members here before they were deployed to Khabarovsk, Russia, where they were killed. The church honors their memory in two concrete ways. First, the last Sunday of every March is set aside as Missions and Martyrdom Sunday, and the entire morning offering of that service is directed to the church's mission fund. Second, the church has established the Chu Hon Yi and Kye Wol Yi Memorial Missionary Fund to underwrite its current vision, the 5/100 Missions Vision: to raise one hundred local pastors and plant one hundred local churches within five years.
Today the church is investing in seminary students and church planters in Myanmar, Nepal, and Cuba, and it has sent two of its own former associate pastors as career missionaries - one to New York with YWAM and Haiti, the other to Turkey with KBOM. Twelve additional missionaries and mission organizations partner with the church, working in India, North Korea, Vietnam, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, a country the church refers to only as T nation, Venezuela, Cuba, and Nepal.
Local Evangelism: Goguma School and the VIP Festival
Closer to home, the church treats evangelism as a regular discipline rather than an occasional event. Members go out for street evangelism on a recurring schedule, and the church hosts a yearly evangelism festival that invites the very people members have been building relationships with throughout the year.
Twice a year, in summer and winter, the church runs the Goguma (Sweet Potato) Evangelism School, taught by Pastor Kidong Kim. Training is offered in both Korean and English, so that members can reach Korean neighbors in Tidewater as well as the English-speaking community of greater Virginia Beach. The school's playful name and its dual-language format have made it one of the church's most consistent evangelism tools.
What the Church Believes
The church's statement of faith is the full text of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, in both English and Korean, posted for anyone who wants to read it.
The eighteen articles cover the Scriptures as the divinely inspired, fully trustworthy revelation of God; the one true God who exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; humanity created in God's image and fallen into sin; salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, including regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification; God's purpose of grace in election, with the perseverance of true believers; the church as an autonomous local body of baptized believers, with baptism and the Lord's Supper as the two ordinances; the Lord's Day as a Christian institution; the Kingdom of God; the last things - the personal return of Christ, the resurrection, final judgment, heaven, and hell; evangelism and missions as the duty of every believer; Christian education; stewardship of time, talent, and money; cooperation among churches; Christian responsibility in the social order; peace and war; religious liberty and the separation of church and state; and the family as the foundational institution of human society, defined as the lifelong covenant union of one man and one woman.
On the office of pastor, the statement reserves that role to men as qualified by Scripture, while affirming that both men and women receive gifts for service in the church. Baptism is by immersion of believers, and the Lord's Supper is a symbolic memorial of the Redeemer's death.
Three Senior Pastors and a Kingdom Story
The pastoral team today includes a third-generation senior pastor, an associate, and a pastor emeritus whose ministry stretches back to the church's founding.
Senior Pastor Hamin Daniel Jung was installed in 2024 and is leading the church into its next half-century. He holds two bachelor's degrees from American University (international studies and Asian studies) and a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has served as Associate Pastor of Young Adults at Semihan Church in Texas and as Director of International Student Services at Southwestern, and he served as TKBC's own associate pastor from 2021 until his installation as senior pastor. He is now guiding the church to be a biblical and healthy church that proclaims the gospel and makes disciples locally and globally for the glory of God.
Associate Pastor Sangyoung Joshua Park joined the pastoral staff most recently. A graduate of Christ For the Nations Institute, Dallas Baptist University, and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, he spent three years as youth pastor at Life Church in Texas before coming to Virginia Beach. He preaches regularly in both Korean and English and shares pastoral responsibility for the 2nd English Service.
Pastor Emeritus Dr. Jiduk Dho is the founding pastor of the present-day church. He was serving as a regional Southern Baptist missionary over Norfolk and Portsmouth in 1976 when he was installed as the first senior pastor. The church was renamed Tidewater Korean Baptist Church under his leadership in August 1976, and he served for twenty-seven years until 2003. He went on to serve as President of the North America Korean Baptist Association in 2001 and 2002, and he holds degrees from Yonsei University, the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Korea, United Theological Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
The second senior pastor, Rev. Nakhyun Joseph Cho, was installed in 2003 and devoted his ministry to the gospelization and discipleship of the Korean immigrant community in the Tidewater region. His tenure bridged the church from its thirtieth to its fiftieth anniversary year.
A Building That Holds Two Languages and Three Generations
On any given Sunday, the Overland Road campus is in use from the early nursery drop-off through the late afternoon youth gatherings. The 1st Korean Service uses Grace Chapel; the 2nd English Service and the monthly Joint Service use Vision Chapel, the larger space at the front of the building. Children's ministry takes place in the Dream Chapel, and the upstairs level houses the Cafe Matrix, where youth and young adults meet after the 2nd Service, along with a second-floor room used by the college and young adult group.
The Mission Center is the church's fellowship hub. Sunday lunch is served there most weeks, prepared by rotating church teams and individual members. The kitchen takes a planned seven-week summer break each year for rest and restructuring, with simpler fellowship food during that window. A welcome desk in front of Vision Chapel is the distribution point for the bimonthly Daily Bible devotional, prayer request cards, and sign-ups for special studies.
The church's worship services are livestreamed on YouTube at youtube.com/@tkbcmm, where an archive of several hundred Sunday sermons is also available. The church holds a CCLI Copyright License and a CCLI Streaming License for its music.
Visiting Tidewater Korean Baptist Church
The church sits at 301 Overland Road, Virginia Beach, Virginia 23462. From either direction on I-64, drivers take I-264 east toward Virginia Beach, exit at Witchduck Road (Exit 16), turn left, stay in the right lane, and turn right at Amberly Road. The building is at the end of the road.
For those who want to get to know the church before walking through the door, the Newcomer pathway offers a clear route: visit a service, fill out a visitor card, attend the 101 class, and then register as an official member. The next-generation ministries are open to visiting families; the children's check-in opens fifteen minutes before the 2nd Service at the Welcome Desk by the Vision Center main entrance. Summer services from June through August observe a casual dress code.
For more information, the office can be reached at (757) 497-0799 or admin@tkbcva.org. Senior Pastor Hamin Jung can be reached at Hamin.jung@tkbcva.org, and Associate Pastor Joshua Park at sangyoung.park@tkbcva.org.