One of the wonders of the Gospel lies in its power to naturally flourish. We often hear that the Gospel is richly sowed in areas where no Christians live. Last summer, I visited Kazakhstan, and my experience with ethnic Dungans was no different. In a Muslim village, a boy began to have doubts about Islamic doctrine. When he questioned the village elders about it, they were not able to give him clear answers. One day, the boy somehow came across a leaflet about Christianity, and the boy again questioned the village elders, this time about Jesus, but the elders ignored him. Later, the boy accepted Jesus with the help of the one-page Gospel. The Gospel ...

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One of most prevalent conditions of worldly culture today is the fact that people will easily trade their good conscience for a small, short-term gain. Because it's so common, Christians seem to do the same thing without discretion. One example is copying CDs. CDs can be copied more quickly and easily than tapes. So people frequently burn CDs. But as you know, this is against the law, and can inflict a great loss to others. To produce a worship CD, many people are involved; they practice long hours, buy recording time at a studio, and invest a significant amount of time and money. When we copy CDs, we do them great harm. A while back, I wondered why ...

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The senior pastor of the church I attended in Korea when I was a young Christian used to say that he felt elated when he heard about wonderful things happening to his church members, as if it were his own doing, and devastated and when things went wrong with them, as if it were his fault. When I heard this, I questioned its validity. Since I've been serving as acting senior pastor, the greatest change I've experienced has been that I'm now really getting to know, little by little, the life of our congregation. Before, I had only experienced life in the States as an expatriate employee of a Korean company. Now I get a sense of the kind of life our ...

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In churches like ours, where Sunday Services start off with announcements and greetings, it seems that many people mistakenly believe that the worship service actually starts with praise and prayer, after the announcements. So sometimes people loiter outside the sanctuary, doing things like making calls on their cell phones, and they hurry to get back in the sanctuary only after they hear the sounds of praise beginning. (I am not saying I see this often. In fact, it's not easy to see such people at our church). Do you realize that the times of announcements and welcoming are the parts our Heavenly Father enjoys the most? As Pastor Choi famously ...

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On Labor Day, I went to the mall and bought my daughter - who just started high school - a cell phone. This was not an easy decision to make; I had been pondering it for quite some time. My daughter had asked for a cell phone a few years back, but at that time I told her no because I firmly believed that having personal belongings before coming of age and understanding the responsibilities involved would instill a faulty concept of material goods. She seemed to be hoping for a cell phone this year, but I again told her no because she got a digital camera as a birthday gift from one of my house church members. When I was in middle school, I saved ...

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We held a Church family meeting last Wednesday and approved the fiscal year 2007 ministry volunteer list. The total number of names on the list was 560. The Sunday worship attendance of the Korean Speaking Congregation is about 1,000, so this represents 56% of the total. Moreover, we estimate the total to be closer to 60% of the congregation if we include non-voting members not accounted for in the list. These people will serve in various areas during this fiscal year. It's more amazing when we count those serving in the house churches. All of our 150 existing house churches are required to have a Shepherd, a Shepherdess, a Bible study instructor, ...

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There are many, many books written about marriage, but I like "A Lasting Promise" by Stanley Scott best. He studied 135 couples starting from when they were engaged and continuing through 12 years of marriage. By analyzing the data he was convinced that he could predict with 90% certainty which couples would make a successful marriage and which would not. He found that certain communication patterns that began when the couples were engaged and continued through marriage were the primary determinants in the success of the marriages. Let me share the four most common communication patterns that lead to failed marriages. The first is Escalation. The ...

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