Portrait of Sungkook Kim. IMB Photo
Sungkook Kim, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in East Asia, died March 18, 2026. He was 77.
Sungkook was born Oct. 15, 1948, in Seoul, South Korea, to the late Hong Kyu Kim and Dong Yun Chu. He received the Bachelor of Science from Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts; the Master of Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York; and the Master of Divinity from Northwest Baptist Seminary, Tacoma, Washington.
He attended Seoul National University before immigrating to Hawaii with his family during his junior year. Sungkook continued his studies at the University of Hawaii, where he met his future wife, Imsun Lee Kim. They were married on March 30, 1972. Shortly after, they moved to Boston, where Sungkook finished college at Northeastern. After graduation, he worked at Stone and Webster, planning electrical systems for some of the major nuclear power plants in the U.S. When they moved to New York, Sungkook completed his graduate studies and received a Master of Engineering degree. He was offered a job at Systems Control Inc., in Palo Alto, California, as a power system analyst, and given the opportunity to do doctoral study in engineering economic systems at Stanford.
While seeking missionary appointment he wrote, “When I was about to finish all the required coursework for my doctoral study, the Lord made me realize that there was something more important in my life than degrees and success. … It had taken me 30 years of my life to realize that I needed the Lord in my life. Without Him, my life had been a constant struggle of simply trying to make it better. I finally accepted the Lord Jesus as my personal Savior in 1979.”
Soon afterward, Sungkook and his family moved to Seattle, Washington. During this time, he began to sense God’s call to become a pastor and teacher. He wrote, “With an unusual privilege given by my superior, I started to attend Northwest Baptist Seminary during office hours.” After 10 years as senior pastor of the Korean American Calvary Baptist Church, Sungkook sensed the Lord now leading him to international missions. This conviction grew stronger over the following years as he continued pastoring several different churches.
He wrote, “I have seen people in the fields suffering without knowing the Lord because there has not been anyone to deliver the gospel to them. Too many are perishing every day without knowing that there is hope in the Lord. My heart aches for them, especially for all the Asian people. What if I could be the one who could bring the Light to them!”
In 2007, the International Mission Board appointed Sungkook and Imsun missionaries to East Asia.
He is survived by his wife of almost 54 years, Imsun Kim.
A funeral service was held March 27 at Dream Baptist Church in Los Altos, California.