In just a month from now, my family and I will be leaving Houston to go to Thailand for a sabbatical mission trip. It has already been eleven and a half years since I came to Seoul Baptist Church of Houston and began serving, first as the youth pastor, then the head pastor of New Life. During sabbaticals our pastoral staff can choose to do one of the following: 1. Continue education for a semester on a full-time basis 2. Interne at another church on a full-time basis 3. Do missions work As you can see, the purpose of the sabbatical is not to rest but to equip and train oneself more for the sake of church. My family and I have chosen the third ...

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I praise God for what has been taking place in our children ministry, Joshua Cross Stars (JCS), over the past two years. Pastor Jaemo has been working very hard to develop and put structure and system into this ministry and we are reaping and enjoying the benefits of his and many faithful volunteers labor in the Lord. Let's remember to pray regularly for JCS, Pastor Jaemo and his family and volunteers. In order for us to continue to have a great children's ministry here at New Life, however, we the parents must do our part as faithfully as we can realizing the significance of our children's spiritual growth. As I shared with you last Sunday, I ...

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What Is House Church? House church is a community that is made up of 6-12 people led by a lay shepherd that meets at least once a week at members' homes in order to fulfill the mission Christ has given to His church. This house church exists in conjunction with the larger gathering of believers for the purpose of receiving God's Word from pastors, experiencing God's majesty through corporate worship, providing Christian education for adults and children and fulfilling God's mission for the world through combined resources. Christ's church is made up of both house churches and the larger gathering of believers. There are unique and distinct roles ...

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Why do we do it? When I was studying in graduate school (Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) I spent much time thinking about how I as a future pastor should build a church that is healthy and pleasing to God. I wouldn't have pondered so earnestly if churches then, as a norm, were God-honoring, being the church that God wants them to be. I would have had plenty of examples to follow after. It would have almost been like second nature to me since I would have grown up and experienced a healthy biblical church myself. But the reality was far from it. Most churches were weak and dying. This discrepancy between the church in the Bible and the ...

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As I briefly mentioned in my message last week, starting from next Sunday, 11/20, we (New Life) will be parking our cars at the Reed Elementary School parking lot that is on Tami Renee Lane. For the past several months, due to the shortage of parking spaces the Korean Speaking Congregation's (KSC) first worship attendees have been asked to leave the church as soon as their worship was over at about 10:45AM. This policy has allowed New Life and the KSC's second worship attendees to be able to park our cars on our church parking lot and be able to worship at our respective worship times at 11 and 11:45AM without experiencing too much parking trouble. ...

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