Seoul Baptist Church of Houston is comprised of two congregations: the English Speaking Congregation (ESC) and the Korean Speaking Congregation (KSC). The pastor of the congregation with a greater Sunday worship attendance and larger budget becomes senior pastor of Seoul Baptist. This means that if the ESC has a larger attendance and bigger budget two years in a row, Pastor Eric will become the Senior Pastor of Seoul Baptist Church of Houston, and I will be pastor of the KSC. This understanding and agreement between the ESC and KSC have been formulated by leaders of both congregations and will now be incorporated into the bylaws of both. KSC members ...

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Our intern pastor Soo Kwan Lee will have his ordination examination at 10 o'clock tomorrow in my office. The examination of the ordination candidate is an oral exam. An examining board composed of several pastors asks questions to determine whether the candidate has sound doctrine and is sufficiently qualified to become a pastor. In other denominations, the examination belongs to the synod or denomination. For Baptists, the authority for forming an examining board and the subsequent ordination belongs to the local church, because Baptists believe in the autonomy of local churches. Qualifications for ordination are also different for Baptists ...

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We are in the midst of our annual revival meetings. Our guest speaker this year is Pastor Thomas Park of Sacramento Ark Mission Church. Many people have complimented us for inviting good guest speakers every year. If this is true, it might be because we have good criteria. I don't necessarily invite speakers who have reputations of being good preachers. Anyone with a keen understanding of human psychology who enjoys talking can develop a reputation for being a good preacher by honing his preaching techniques. I don't necessarily invite pastors of big churches either, because with a knack in management and zeal, I believe anyone can make his church ...

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A shepherd came to me and lamented that someone he had been trying to witness to refused his invitation to come to house church meetings. He said that the person jeered and said, "You brag about your church but I saw a shepherd from your church at a bar." Alarmed, I asked Brother Kwon to investigate. He found that it was not a current shepherd but one who had resigned from his position. The person also promised to not visit bars in the future. Drinking beer or wine is not a sin. But I believe that our members are mature enough to understand that whether or not something is a sin is not the main criteria in determining proper behavior. The primary ...

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It is our church's policy that people who are already believers may not join our church. This stems from our commitment to focusing on leading non-believers to the Lord. But it is impossible to impose this policy strictly. Some people who come to live in Houston for a year or two plead that their pastors in Korea asked them to learn more about the house church by joining our church. Others insist that they should be allowed to join our church so that their non-believing spouses have a better chance of becoming Christians. Some simply continue to attend house church meetings and Sunday worship services even after they've been warned both verbally and ...

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We just wrapped up a House Church Seminar for Pastors. Attendees stayed at our members' houses during the seminar. When we assigned participants to our church members we didn't ask if they were willing to provide lodging. We just informed them which two participants would stay at their houses, assuming that a member of each house church would provide lodging unless they had serious, legitimate reasons not to. We did this because their houses belong to God and they are just stewards. Juan Carlos Ortiz writes about true stewardship in his book "Disciples". He was a pastor of a conventional church in Argentina. Under his leadership, the church had ...

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What do you think is the most pleasant sound in the world? I think that it's the sound of laughter. As you might know, my wife is prim and proper. When Danny and Christine were small children, she was a quiet disciplinarian mother. But things changed after our granddaughter was born; she turned into a clown. She makes funny faces or moves her body in uncoordinated ways just to get Ellie to laugh. When she succeeds and Ellie bursts into laughter she seems the happiest woman in the world. I often heard the pleasing sound of laughter during our Three-Strand Prayer meetings. I continued to pray in the sanctuary after the meetings were over and someti...

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