I had three dreams for my ministry. The first was to restore the New Testament church. The second was the peaceful coexistence of the Korean-speaking and English-speaking congregations. The third was to have an honorable retirement. I feel that the first dream has been fulfilled as our church successfully converted to the House Church. The second dream has also been fulfilled with the English-speaking congregation becoming a healthy, vibrant part of Seoul Baptist Church. But my third dream has yet to be fulfilled. I have this dream because I saw many churches fail to peacefully succeed their head pastors right around the time I was ordained. Many ...

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When I have too much to do, I feel stressed. When I have less than that to do, I get bored. There’s no in-between; I’m always either stressed or bored. I’m conservative and feel more comfortable with what I am accustomed to, but I can't stand doing the same things the same way. When I go somewhere, I try new routes if I believe that it might save me even a minute. It usually ends up taking more time and makes me late for my appointments. Because of my idiosyncrasies, daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly routines tend to make me bored. My sense of boredom has increased as I’ve gotten older and feel time go by faster. Even annual events feel like ...

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I just came back from a month-long trip to Korea. I spoke at a House Church Conference for Pastors, led two seminars, one for pastors and one for lay people, and also led 2 revival meetings. This conference broke the attendance record as 480 people registered for it, and many more would have attended if hotel rooms were available. I’m not sure whether the high interest is only temporary, but we decided to hold two conferences simultaneously next year to accommodate everyone who wants to attend. My wife led the Married Life class for the last time at this conference. This class requires both husbands and wives to attend, so the number of people ...

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The retirement age for deacons and pastors at our church is 67 - they retire at the end of the church calendar year after their 67th birthday. My birthday is October 15, 1944, so my retirement date will be August 31, 2012. I asked our board of deacons to form a pastoral search committee in October this year and find my successor in 6 months. The head pastor of the Korean-speaking congregation represents both the Korean and English speaking congregations, so the candidate must be approved by the English speaking congregation as well. 2/3 of the members of the search committee will come from the Korean speaking congregation and 1/3 from the English ...

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I once led a revival meeting at the request of a young pastor who was trying to convert his traditional church to the house church. He was having a hard time because the retired senior pastor was sabotaging the house church through the church's elders. When I preached on Sunday, I noticed the retired pastor sitting in the first row. At the end of my sermon, I invited the congregation to stand up if they wanted to rededicate themselves. Almost the entire congregation stood up. I felt that the magnitude of this response would give the retired pastor a good impression of me and help change his opinions on the house church. After the service, I was ...

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A few days ago, I received an email from a pastor. The subject of the email was "President's Obama's Dhimmitude". (Dhimmitude refers to unfair laws against non-Muslims in Muslim countries.) He claimed that the Obama's health care law is a Dhimmitude, designed to give an unfair advantage to Muslims in the U.S. He insisted that unless this law is repealed, the U.S. will become a Muslim country. Then he quoted a long article that had a lot of exclamation marks. Naturally, I was alarmed and decided to investigate. But what he wrote is far from the truth. Under the new health care laws, everyone in the U.S. is required to buy health insurance. There is ...

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At a recent Saturday morning prayer meeting, Pastor Eric preached about the house church meeting he attended the day before. "When I looked around and saw the members' faces, the thought occurred in my mind: what would everyone be doing on a Friday night like this if they weren’t Christians? They’d probably be drinking at a bar or staying home watching TV alone." I agree. Most non-believers spend their weekends getting drunk, watching movies in dark theaters, idling away their time surfing the internet, frantically shaking their bodies at clubs, or playing cards until the early morning with bloodshot eyes. These activities give some measure of ...

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