From the Pastor’s Desk (277) We are having lots of babies these days, and it is an exciting thing. And God told us to be fruitful and multiply, so we are also doing the right thing. I love seeing babies being born in our church. However, raising children in this day and age is not an easy matter. In fact, it is a daunting task to raise our children based on biblical principles because the world is getting increasingly more evil and there is so much opposition against Christian faith. Therefore, we need all the help we can get in raising our children. In order to help you with your parenting, we offer Parenting 101 and Parenting 201 taught ...

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From the Pastor’s Desk (276) Last Sunday, New Life hosted another blood drive. Before we began to host it regularly in our fellowship hall, I had given blood multiple times, especially when there were specific needs from those whom I knew personally. I honestly am not fond of giving blood because I am fearful of a big needle going through my veins. However, I do it because it is a loving thing to do. Love always requires sacrifice doing the things that we don’t want to do. I would like to share with you a few thoughts I have on giving blood. First, I truly appreciate those who have been working faithfully to make the blood drive happen in ...

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From the Pastor’s Desk (275) I would like to ask all the house churches to change their names to make them more appropriate according to these new guidelines. The ones that fall under these guidelines don't need to change their names. (This hypothetical scenario is used to show the principles that we will use going forward.) Let's hypothetically say that it is 1997, and New Life starts out with six house churches. And we will use the nation of Russia as an example to explain the principles of naming our house churches. 1. In choosing our house church name, we will first use the name of a nation where the missionary is serving to show ...

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From the Pastor’s Desk (274) When God spoke and convicted me about my less than passionate heart towards our House Church Seminar for Pastors in 2012, I repented and responded back to him by saying, “God, I am so sorry for not taking this House Church Seminar for Pastors seriously. Going forward, as long as outside invitations for speaking engagements don’t conflict with my already penciled in church schedule, I will go anywhere to do whatever you want me to do to help pastors and churches understand the New Testament church and do it well.” It's been more than 10 years since I prayed that prayer. And I think I have been faithful in ...

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From the Pastor’s Desk (273) I have been thinking and praying a lot about our next youth pastor candidate ever since the previous one resigned, which was June 2023. These are the criteria or qualities that I believe are very important for our next youth pastor to possess. So, for the past several months, I prayed and asked God to provide us with a person who have these qualities. What are those qualities? He/she must be a person of good character/integrity. He/she must be respectful towards the senior pastor and humble and teachable. He/she must be a team player working well with the existing pastoral staff members. He/she must ...

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From the Pastor’s Desk (272) As New Life grows in every age bracket, I foresee there will be many weddings taking place. I, as your pastor who knows you well and wants what is best for you, would like to suggest that you seriously consider getting married at church. There are several reasons why I say this to you. One, it is for a symbolic/spiritual reason. The physical church building where we worship God corporately as one body of Christ is not holier than other wedding venues. God’s holy presence is not limited to our church building structure. He is everywhere. However, it is a special place for us because it is the place of our ...

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From the Pastor’s Desk (271) As I spend time hearing from people who claim themselves to be Christians what they think about church, I can’t help but be surprised because they all have their own thoughts and opinions about church and what church ought to be like and doing. What they say about church makes sense from their perspective and conviction. However, it is often wrong because their starting point is wrong. If we want to know what church is and what it must be doing, then we must start by asking questions like, “Who started the church? Whose church is it, and are we building? What does the originator and owner of the church want it to ...

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