"On Death and Dying", the classic book by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross first published in 1969, describes five stages people go through when they're dying. The first stage is denial. They can't believe that they're going to die. So they pretend that everything is normal. They're offended when people even vaguely suggest that they might die. The second stage is anger. When they recognize that their denial cannot continue, they get angry. Their anger may be directed toward people or circumstances that they think led to their situation. They frequently get angry at God for not preventing their impending death. Any individual that symbolizes life or energy is ...

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Our Shepherds and their spouses are required to sign a pledge each year where they promise to fulfill their duties by doing things such as pray and read the Bible regularly and attend all required meetings. Below the line for their signatures, there is another line for me to sign, where I pledge to pray for them once a week. We recently changed the wording "once a week" to "once every two weeks". We now have more than 170 house churches. I've felt that my prayers have become perfunctory because there are so many to pray for each week. So I decided to pray for half each week so that I can spend more time praying for each of them when I do. Praying ...

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The goal of the House Church movement is to restore the New Testament church. Throughout history, when the church declined and hit bottom, God raised up zealous people to restore the New Testament church. However, the renewed church eventually loses its vigor and restarts a cycle of decline. Strong church renewal movements exhibit two common characteristics: the people involved are active in evangelism and they expect God's presence in their lives. Conversely, there are also two common characteristics when these movements lose their power: the people involved lose interest in saving souls and they stop believing in God's supernatural power. Every ...

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Important U.S. and South Korean government agencies were attacked by cyber-terrorists a few days ago, leaving their servers inoperative for a brief period of time. I had a similar experience a couple years ago. My computer was infected with a virus and rendered useless so I had to buy a new one. At the time, I wondered, "Why would anyone want to destroy other people's computers by spreading viruses when they don't get any benefit out of it themselves?" I think I now know the answer: people can't stand the idea that their lives are meaningless, that it doesn't make any difference whether or not they were even born. So they try to leave their mark in ...

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Many Christians feel that Christianity is declining in Korea. One sign of the decline is that church members there are turning into mere consumers. This is especially true in megachurches. People go to churches that meet their needs. They remain in those churches as long as their needs are met. But if other churches offer better programs, especially for their children, they don't hesitate to move. Because the only reason they join a church is to get something from it, they're unwilling to make sacrifices. I heard about an episode at a megachurch in Korea where the Women's Club planned an event to make kimchee for the church. When the day came, many ...

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Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliers" has stayed on the New York Times bestseller list ever since it was released. Gladwell is a journalist, author, and pop sociologist. His book examines people who excel in their professions and make extraordinary accomplishments. One somewhat surprising conclusion he reached is that people with exceptionally high IQs don't necessarily become high achievers. Most of them live successful but ordinary lives. One critical factor that influences famous pioneers in every field is timing: they are born at just the right time. For example, he convincingly argues that Bill Gates' success could not have been the same if he had ...

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There seems to be a rumor going around that house churches that have not attracted any new members for 3 years will disband. This is not true. House churches are true churches. You don't shut down local churches simply because they don't get new members. You don't disband house churches for the same reason. The rumors likely started because of a recent decision to disband house churches that haven't had new members for three years when their Shepherd resigns or moves instead of appointing a new Shepherd. We made this decision because we felt these house churches have formed negative traditions that need to be broken. Each house church has its own ...

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