Someone once described the difference between cell churches and house churches by likening the purpose of the former to getting married for the sake of having children, and the latter to getting married after falling in love, and having children as a natural outcome. For both, evangelism is important, but it is the only goal of cell churches, while for house churches, it is a natural side effect of restoring the New Testament church. Cells disband and are reorganized when they don't multiply after a period of time, because cell church advocates believe that such cells are like cancer cells in a physical body that make the whole body sick. But house ...

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Jesus said that we should worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). To be faithful to this, I have constantly changed the order of worship based on three principles: 1 - The congregation must participate in worship instead of being spectators. 2 - The congregation should have worship experiences as diverse as possible. 3 - The order of worship should change when I, as the worship leader, feel that it's no longer meaningful. Based on principles 1 and 2, I introduced a time of silent prayer. But lately, I've felt that we're doing it perfunctorily. So based on principle 3, I'd like to change it and do something different during that time. Someone ...

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When I recently visited an area in Queens that used to be called Koreatown, I was surprised to find that most of the businesses there are now owned by non-Koreans. A resident explained that other Asians in the area pooled their financial resources, bought buildings and leased them to their compatriots, so the Koreans there had to move elsewhere. Megasized shops and franchises are the trend of the future, and it will become harder for small businesses to survive. Small business owners must form partnerships with others and pool their resources to start bigger businesses or at least buy merchandise in bulk at a lower price. Some of our church members ...

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When I used to write Christmas cards, I was always late in writing them. I often ended up not sending them at all. I felt so guilty that I decided to not send any Christmas cards, some 10 years ago. I also stopped getting a tree each year. Our family used to go to Christmas tree farms to buy our trees and decorated them while playing Christmas carols on the stereo. We did these rituals to help our children have happy Christmas memories. Now that they're grown, married and have their own children, we no longer see the need for a Christmas tree. I have many fond memories of Christmas. I vividly remember being woken by the sound of our church choir ...

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"We encourage visitors who have already received Christ as their personal Savior to go to and become members of a church where they are needed more." This message now appears on our Sunday worship bulletins. The phrase "a small church" has been changed to "a church where they are needed" because some people felt that the old phrase could give the impression that we're bragging about our size. Most churches that have implemented the house church put similar phrases on their Sunday worship bulletins to discourage people who are already believers from joining their churches. The reason for this is that when membership increases from believers coming to ...

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While visiting Korea last spring, I happened to catch a daytime drama. I'm really drawn to kind women, and one of the young characters looked so kind that I became an ardent fan of the show. The girl is a stepsister of the main character. The main character is very ambitious and scheming. She wants to marry the son of the CEO of a large corporation. However, he is in love with the kind girl. The main character tries to hide the fact the girl he is in love with is her stepsister and tries to get the man for herself. That's the basic story. The main theme of the drama is deceit. One lie begets another lie. One falsehood leads to another falsehood. As ...

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On Thursdays, my day off, I usually relax by watching a DVD. I prefer movies that make me think about life over comedies or action movies. When I watch these movies, I cannot help but feel that we take many blessings for granted. Sometimes I watch movies with characters who struggle to overcome their addictions to alcohol or drugs. Their main goal in life is to conquer their addictions. I am reminded that most of us don't suffer from addictions, but we don't feel blessed. Sometimes I watch court dramas where the protagonists are falsely accused - betrayed by false witnesses or corrupt judges and wrongly sentenced to prison. Their only goal in life ...

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