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By Cho Yeon-hyun, Religion Correspondent　

David Yonggi Cho, the 75-year-old emeritus pastor of Yoido Full Gospel Church, the world’s largest, is resigning his position as the church’s chairman of the board. As chairman of the board, Cho controlled all property rights for the church and its related foundation.

Yoido Full Gospel Church senior pastor Lee Young-hoon abruptly announced Cho’s retirement at a meeting of the church’s steering committee Sunday. Cho had previously promised to step down as chairman of the board three years before, with the deadline set as April 14 of this year. Observers say Lee’s sudden acceptance of Cho’s resignation after previously waiting to determine his true intentions was based on the determination that the church itself might end up facing a major crisis. The reason is the major concern that greater repercussions may result from the privatization of a megachurch than from the succession of its leadership if Cho went beyond his retirement deadline.

Cho’s resignation as chairman of the board effectively means his retirement from the church. Cho previously retired three years ago, handing over the position of Yoido Full Gospel Church senior pastor to Lee. However, he continued on as the church’s effective leader in the capacity of chairman of the board with the launched the Full Gospel Church Corporation, which carries all property rights for the church and its foundation and receives 20 percent of contributions from Yoido Full Gospel Church and twenty disciple churches.

Three years ago, Cho met with officials in the Christian Alliance for Church Reform, which was set to lodge an accusation with prosecutors regarding improprieties by his family members, and asked them to hold off on their accusation for three years. Cho said he would exclude his relatives from employment and could not immediately quit as chairman of the board, pledging to retire within a maximum of three years.

Over the past year, however, charges surfaced that Cho and his family members were plotting to make the church their private property. These surfaced as allegations of plans for a takeover with Cho’s wife, Hansei University President Kim Sung-hye, and oldest son Cho Hee-joon’s Kookmin Ilbo became the topic of criticisms. Kim and others were subsequently the subject of an accusation to prosecutors by the Kookmin Ilbo labor union on charges of improprieties, and the Christian Alliance for Church Reform placed pressure on Cho to follow through on his pledge.

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