SBC is a church where laymen are the main forces of ministry.  Therefore, we do not have an associate pastor.  Instead we have pastors who are specialized in certain areas.  This is one of the main principles of our church.  When we invited Pastor Barnabas Choi under the title of associate pastor, it was because we did not have a special ministry area for him to work on.  Then, we found family with youth ministry for him and it was very pleasing to us. This area was very much needed among SBC members and we all know the importance of building strong relationships between parents and youth.  Therefore, for a long time, importance of developing ...

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From last year, we decided to separate the New Year's Eve Party and New Year's Eve worship in two different days.  When those were on the same day, the program was too long and VIPs as well as SBC members got too tired since they came to church at 6 pm and stayed at church for 7 hours until 1 in the morning.  Therefore, we decided to have the party on Friday before Dec. 31 as a joint hour church activity and have the year-end worship on December 31. However, this year, we cannot do that because the target Friday falls on Christmas day and the week before is the Children's musical.  Therefore, this year, we decided to combine those two events as ...

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Some of you may remember that this is about time of the year when we have Mission Festival.  That is true.  SBC used to have the event around the first week or the second week of November.  However, this schedule will be changed.  Last July, we had mission ministry meeting.  Many issues were discussed and it was proposed that it would be better to have Mission Festival in early February rather than November.   That proposal was accepted and it will be in place from this year.  Therefore, mission festival will be February 5th through 7th of 2016. There were several reasons for this change.  First of all, it is not easy to form short term ...

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To prepare for weekly sermon, I tend to spend lots of time.  I read many reference materials to form the body part of sermon.  Also, it takes a long time to write it out.  This habit of mine used be no problem.  However, when there is a special activity such as conference or seminar, I am under stress because of shortage of time.  For example, during the pastor's seminar, I have almost no time from Tuesday evening.  Those weeks, we normally have Living Life bible study on Monday evening and I have to prepare for the seminar during the day time.  This leaves no chance to work on the sermon. When I became the senior pastor, however, I realized ...

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People have different opinions about the starting point of marriage.  Some argue that the wedding ceremony is man-made so it should not be regarded as a defining moment.  All that is needed is a marriage certificate and living together is the beginning of marriage.  That is what they claim.  In that case, the next question is why a marriage certificate is necessary.  A marriage certificate is a mere format made by the government to administer family records.  Therefore, the only important thing is to live together and when they do that and share a bed, some claim that is the beginning of marriage. However, these days so many people live ...

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Some of you may have read the director’s corner on the home page of House Church Ministries International.  In the column, Reverend Chai talked about the internship procedure for house church ministry.  When a seminary student, a pastor or a missionary wants to experience the house church system, we will actively help them while they are in SBC so that when they are ready to start their ministry work, they will be prepared and armed with knowledge and experience of house church system. The only prerequisite of this internship is attendance of house church seminar.  There are three kinds of internship; intern church member, intern shepherd and ...

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It is said that faith is a struggle with habit.  We all have our own undesirable habit.  Since it is so difficult to overcome it, sometimes spiritual growth is hindered because of that.  This kind of habit tends to be deep rooted and almost becomes part of ourselves.  Sometime, we think that we conquer it, but then it comes back.  After several of these experiences, we become discouraged and can even lose interest in walk of faith. Charles Duhigg, a non-Christian, wrote a book titled ‘The Power of Habit’.  This book provides some guidance to overcome habit.  Mr. Duhigg explains how habit is formed based on MIT study of brain function. ...

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