In last Sunday's sermon, I quoted Jesus in saying that anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and that anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. Later that night, one of our deacons posted on our website that he had become a beneficiary of the sermon. A couple from his house church received baptism during the worship service. To celebrate, they all went to a restaurant. But after the meal, the couple insisted on footing the bill themselves because of my sermon. He ended his post with a remark: please give us an opportunity to take you out ...

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We have a strong, healthy youth ministry. This isn't just my own assessment; outsiders say the same thing. Foreign missionaries who have hosted our youth group members have commented that they are faithful and hardworking, more so than any others they had met. The Houston mission center staff, with whom our youth group works to help inner city kids during the summer, made similar comments. More evidence of our successful youth ministry is that almost everyone from our youth group becomes an active member of a local church when they go to college. Many other young people stop going to church after they leave home. Nonetheless, some people complain ...

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Mrs. Seo, our children's pastor, came to Seoul Baptist in 1994, one year after me. We have worked together for the last 12 years. The time has come where she wants to retire in April next year. She hasn't yet reached retirement age, but she wants to go out as a missionary before she gets older. Her co-worker in the children's department, Pastor Lim, will also be leaving Seoul Baptist. He will be going to the Korean First Baptist Church of San Jose, the church I served at before coming to Houston, where he will be in charge of the children's department. Right now he is in a difficult situation because they want him to start in June, but I asked him ...

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The house church movement is now a tidal wave. So many people are trying to attend house church seminars that we can't accommodate them all. The Korean Baptist Church of Atlanta held seminars for lay leaders two weeks in a row because they didn't have the heart to turn away so many people. A seminar for lay-people scheduled for June at the Ark Mission Church in Sacramento had so many applicants that they stopped accepting applications. They also decided to hold the seminar for two consecutive weeks in order to accommodate those who had already applied. Our church may also have to offer another seminar for lay-people to deal with the demand. The ...

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My grandfather was one of 6 martyrs produced by the Evangelical Holiness Church of Korea. He was kidnapped by the North Korean regime and presumably murdered. People who knew him remembered him as a person who tried to live in strict accordance to the Bible. For example, he reserved the best seats in the sanctuary, usually the first few rows in front, because James 2:1-4 instructs that the poor should not be discriminated against the rich. I must be have been influenced by my late grandfather because I have the same conviction, that nobody should be favored or discriminated against because of family, school, or hometown ties. This isn't particula...

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"People have been complaining about the following things." A church member recently sent me an email listing all the bad things people are allegedly saying about our church. I usually ignore emails like these because the writers typically present their own opinions as things other people are saying. But I felt like this wasn't true in this case and decided to take action. One complaint he mentioned concerns our policy of not allowing members of other churches to join our church. He wrote that people complain about our favoritism in allowing only certain people to join. It is true that we do not allow members of other churches to join us, but we ...

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I am taking a six-month sabbatical at the end of this year. I will be spending the first half of my sabbatical helping Korean-American churches convert to house churches by leading revival meetings and seminars, and spending the second half helping churches in Korea. Before I take my sabbatical I want to evaluate how our house churches are doing and help shepherds improve their ministry skills. It's a sad thing to live in the past. I cannot help but feel sorry for people when I visit Europe. Most countries there live off their heritage. Take France for example. Despite their renowned national pride, they have little to be proud of now save their ...

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