조기연은 아버지 조남홍 장로와 어머니 이정희 권사 사이에서 육남매의 다섯째로 1958년 3월 15일(음력) 부여에서 태어났다. 조기연은 성결교회가 뿌리 깊은 부여에서 나서 자라며 부모의 신앙유산을 이어받아 성결교인이 되었다. 구원의 확신을 계기로 서울신학대학교 신학과에 입학면서 신학의 길로 들어섰고, 미국 드루대학교에서 그의 두 스승 이정용의 예배의 문화화 사상과 제임스 화이트의 예전갱신운동 사상을 전수받았고, 이것은 조기연의 예배신학의 두 축이 되었다. 그는 기본적으로 한국인으로서 한국의 문화에 대한 깊은 이해와 사랑을 가지고 예배를 생각했고, 이를 토대로 말씀과 성례전이 균형있게 조화된 예전갱신을 위해 노력했다. 그에게 있어서 예배의 개혁은 성서와 초대교회의 원형으로부터 출발한다. 조기연은 학자로서 서울신학대학교 교수로 봉직했으며, 한국예배학회 회장, 한국실천신학회 회장과 이사장을 역임했고, 한국그리스도교 신앙과직제협의회 전문위원으로 활동했다. 또한 2004년과 2016년 두 번에 걸쳐서 기성 교단의 『예배와 예식서』의 집필을 주도했다. 공직에서도 사역을 했는데, 그는 국가지속발전위원회 위원으로 6년간 활동했다. 그는 한국 교회가 지속 발전하기 위한 한국교회의 예배갱신을 숙고하고 헌신했다. 예배신학자 조기연의 삶의 이야기에서 떠오르는 상징적 언어들은 가난, 노동, 청소, 성실, 질병, 학문, 목회 등이다. 그의 예배신학은 이러한 그의 삶의 자락 속에서 피어난 신학사상이다.
Ki Yeon Cho was born on March 15, 1958 (based on the lunar calendar) in the city of Buyeo as the fifth of six children to elder Nam-Hong Cho and senior deaconess Jeong-Hee Lee. Cho grew up in the city of Buyeo, where the Korean Evangelical Holiness Church (KEHC) was deeply rooted, inherited his parents’ religious heritage, and was baptized as a member of the Korean Evangelical Holiness Church. With the assurance of the salvation and vision of an evangelist, he entered the department of theology at Seoul Theological University. After graduation, Cho had an opportunity to do a further study of liturgy and worship at Drew University (U.S.A.). At Drew University, Cho focused on the theory of liturgical inculturation taught by Professor Jung Yong Lee and the liturgical movement led by Professor James F. White. These two professors and their teachings became two pillars of Cho’s reconstruction of Korean worship and liturgy. As a Korean liturgical theologian, Cho contemplated over worship with a deep understanding and love for Korean culture. Based on this, he has attempted to rebuild the Korean church worship as presented the balance between the Word of God and the Sacrament within worship service and paid attention to the task of indigenization in worship and liturgy. For Cho, the reform of worship starts from the harmonious perspective of the World of God and the liturgical tradition of the Early Church. As a liturgical theologian, Cho has served as a professor at Seoul Theological University, president of the Korean Society for Worship, president of the Korean Society for Practical Theology, and an expert member of the Korean Christian Council for Faith and Order. In addition, he led the writing of Worship and Ritual of the Korean Evangelical Holiness Church twice in 2004 and 2016. Cho also served as a member of the National Sustainable Development Committee for six years. Specifically, he considered and devoted himself to the renewal of the worship service of the Korean Church, for its gradual and sustainable growth. The story and process of Cho’s life as a liturgy and worship theologian symbolically reminds us of the hard struggle for existence, such as poverty, labor, cleaning work, sincerity, disease, education, and ministry in poverty. Cho’s theology of worship and liturgy is deeply rooted in Sitz im Leben and succeeded in producing a specific theory and practice of the worship and liturgy that consists of his perspective of worship of the Early Church, theology of the Fourfold Gospel, Christian life with sympathy for the poor, the outcast, and the oppressed.