As my faith deepens, I am more and more grateful for my salvation. At the same time, I cannot help think how many people God sacrificed to save me. Because I understand that salvation is always wrought through sacrifice, I know that my salvation must have been purchased by somebody’s sacrifice. Of course, the greatest sacrifice was made by Jesus. His sacrifice purchased our salvation. However, I often feel that a person’s salvation is based on sacrifice made by others. This happened a while ago. A couple came to the States for medical training. The husband was an internist who specialized in cancer. He did not want to come to Houston, but he ...

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A while back before I was a senior pastor, I met with the ministry team leaders one at a time at our church. I anticipated becoming quite busy once I became a senior pastor so I thought it would be a good idea to meet up with them while I had time so I could hear about what they had in mind and of the work they were doing. I met with the deacons and team leaders in charge and asked them to brief me on their work like people do at work when a new leader takes over the position. We mostly met at a restaurant and all of them were well prepared in their presentation, I was able to have a rough drawing on how each ministry was doing. Now, this is a ...

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August 28th was the 60th anniversary of the famous speech “I have a dream” by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. who was an African-American civil rights activist. This speech was given in front of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Lincoln’s declaration abolishing slavery in Washington. This brought a great response and it even resulted in Reverent King receiving Nobel Peace Prize following year. This speech saying ‘I have a dream’ was included in all the texts that people studied in English reference books during my time of being a student and most of you will probably remember it. I still ...

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I feel the need to distinguish the term ‘House Church’ we use from that of China or the United States and from various other ways the term is being used. In order to clarify the difference we say ‘House Church that is restoring the New Testament church based on the 3 axes, 4 columns.’ The 4 columns are like the software in a computer and refer to the 4 types of spirits needed in the New Testament church. The 3 axes is like the computer platform that allows the software to run and refer to 3 basic necessities for the New Testament church to flourish: House Church Meetings, Bible Life Courses, and Sunday House Churches United Service. Therefo...

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There are many good traditions among Christians. One is to receive someone else’s kindness and service toward them with thanks and instead of repaying to that person, but to repay to someone else like him. When I started to attend church, and I expressed my discomfort with the kindness shown by other church members to me, one person senior to me told me this. “Christians think of being kind to others as a virtue so there is no need to be uncomfortable. Just receive it with ease and when you meet someone like yourself later, you can pay back to that person.” It was very moving for me to hear this for the first time, and this may have been ...

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Before I assumed the position of senior pastor, I enjoyed one year of free time, studying and traveling as I needed. Since I’ve had almost no free time since I went to seminary in January 2000, this one year helped me a lot in many ways. Five months I spent in libraries studying all day helped me a lot, and the time I spent visiting around missionary posts, other organizations, and churches opened my eyes and widened my perspective. Of course having this long time would not be possible for all our ministers, but I think they also need it somehow. For they need self-development and time to maintain their leadership status, to think about their ...

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I am afraid that some elderly people felt left out and displeased after reading my previous two Pastor’s Corners. One of the postings received lots of comments and there were some offline discussion on church cemetery. Some sent letters to me, too. First of all, I honestly apologize to those who felt left out and displeased. Our church respect and honor the elderly in making our decisions. What I meant to say was that our mission as a church is more important; I am afraid this was interpreted in a wrong way. At the same time, it is true that I did not fully understand the elderly’s needs and difficulties. Until now, I, rather than doing something ...

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