My family took a trip to Dallas and my daughter came home from Austin to go with us on our two day trip. In the past, we couldn’t take a family trip during the holidays because I used to serve as a Shepherd for the singles’ House Church and most of the members did not have a family in the U.S. I couldn’t imagine leaving them by themselves knowing they had no place to go. But this was the first holiday break since I started working as a senior pastor, and since all the busy work I had been doing was somewhat under control, I figured it would be a good time to take a break. Luckily, our trip was economical since we were able to book a hotel for a ...

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The biggest purpose of House Church is to share love among the body of Christ and to allow unbelievers to experience God, and the best way to obtain power to self-propel is to save souls and to raise-up new shepherd. But how can a House Church not lose motivation in places like Houston where the Korean population is low, making it harder for House Churches to find VIPs and grow in size? I shared last week how we should not stop saving souls, but grow in faith together and how the Survival Kit is a great tool for this. I am planning on providing other methods to help. For example, more standardized teaching guides for the Survival Kit will be provid...

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I would like to continue on the last week’s story about “When Fish Fly.” What made the most impression on my mind is the concept of ‘Self-Propelling’, which the man claimed to have established in his store-an idea of self efficient organization. Because he shared his vision of the fish store clearly with his employees, objectives were not missed allowing the organization to generate tireless energy on its own and stay alert. This story shocked me because if a fish store in this world, by sharing its vision and goals can generate tireless self propelling energy, allowing people to work enthusiastically, how can our church that has clear and ...

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Our church staff recently read a book called “When Fish Fly”, written by Yokoyama. It was Pastor Chai’s last book recommendation before he retired. The author is a second generation Japanese-American who was once a poor young man and now runs a fish corner at ‘Pike Place’ in Seattle. Despite its moderate size, the business generates a significant amount of income through unique marketing. He became famous when his distinctive business philosophy was known to the world, and he started speaking in various leadership seminars hosted by private companies and broadcast stations. “When Fish Fly” introduces his business leaderships in detail. ...

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A person who gave out a baptism testimony during the Wednesday service last week shared about how giving thanks changed her. She said in her testimony that in House church, she was asked to share about things she was thankful for and was puzzled at first because she couldn’t understand why she was being asked to do so when she didn’t have much to be thankful about. However, every time she went to House church meeting, she searched in her heart for something to be thankful for to share with others and listened to other members giving thanks. Then gradually, she was changed into someone who gave thanks to little things she had never appreciated ...

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When I have the sabbatical for getting myself ready for the senior pastor position about a year ago, I used to spend the whole day studying in a library at a local college. Many students would come and go between classes to spend time at the library and some would actually study but others would come in groups of 5 or 6 and chat. They normally have a great time, laughing and talking loudly without lowering their voices even though they are in an area designated for quiet individual studies and not for study groups. After a while, I would glance their way signaling them for some discipline since they were way too loud for way too long. Even though some ...

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It seems Youth Mokjangs (Youth House churches) are well settled in now. Visiting pastors and parents at our church mentioned to me that they were impressed with the leadership of the youth leaders, the kids sharing frankly, and praying for each other sincerely when they observed the meetings. There were some concerns when it first started but through our hopes and patience, it's going well. It will take more time for the spirit of laymen ministry to shine forth but I believe that our children are maturing through Mokjang, and developing leadership skills. Since Mokjang meeting, which is one of the three axes of a house church, is doing somewhat well, ...

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