As I wrote in a previous Pastor's Corner, our church will be working more closely with the International Mission Board (IMB). Some of our church members are considering serving as full time missionaries. Our church alone does not have the capability to train them adequately or support them fully, financially or otherwise. If they are accepted as IMB missionaries, the IMB has the resources to take care of them. Another reason we decided to work with IMB is that we want to develop purpose oriented mission programs. There are still many people groups who have not heard the gospel. Japan has a very small number of believers not because they lack the ...

Read More

A child pushed another child in the church yard and made him fall, bleeding. His mother rushed to the scene. But she only picked up her child and hurried away, ignoring the hurt child. A graduate student found a scratch on the side of his new car after Sunday service. There was no note, so the student posted a message on our web bulletin board asking the person who responsible for the scratch to contact him. No one did. I think I understand why people flee when they cause an accident. I have to shamefully confess that I did the same thing when I was in graduate school. I was trying to find a parking space at the university lot a few days after I ...

Read More

My sermon texts are posted on our church website. Many people seem to read them, as it gets a lot of hits. Many churches post sermon videos but not the sermon texts themselves because license issues may arise when preachers want to publish their sermons as a book. We do the opposite, and some people have asked me why. One reason we do this is because I preach specifically for my congregation, not for a general audience. So I'm not sure whether my sermons really help outsiders. Another reason is that I am not a particularly good preacher. Videos of many excellent preachers are already available on the Web. I do not feel that another preacher is ...

Read More

I have officially become a grandfather as my daughter Christine gave birth to a beautiful baby girl Ellie. This might sound foolish, but I was a little worried because people had told me that they love their grandchildren even more than they love their children. What if I didn't feel that emotional bond with my grandchild? Would there be something wrong with me? Fortunately, I'm finding that I visit Christine and Peter almost every week, whereas before Ellie was born I only went once or twice a year. I must love her. Ellie was small and thin when she was born, being delivered three and a half weeks prematurely. But now she's getting chubby, ...

Read More

The suggestion has been made that, in an effort to deal with our space problems, we start another church rather than acquiring land for more church buildings. Some churches do this when their attendance reaches a certain number. Some of the church members and leaders move to a new location and start a church with a new pastor. The revival I led in Korea last year was sponsored by four churches that followed this pattern. They were all church plants from one mother church. Churches that adopt this policy usually do so in reaction to mega-churches and their imperial pastors. It's a way to keep their churches small. One of the four churches I mentioned ...

Read More

For the last 10 years we have focused on saving nonbelievers in Houston through house churches. We have also supported foreign missionaries through the house churches and are now supporting more than 100 missionary families. I sense that God now wants our church to have a greater focus on foreign missions for the next 10 years. As we have prayed for and financially supported missionaries our attention has naturally moved towards foreign mission fields. As we have worked to save nonbelievers in Houston our attention has also naturally moved towards unsaved souls throughout the world. I think now is the time to set new goals for our church. Our ...

Read More

When I came to pastor Seoul Baptist Church, one of the first things I said was, "I will not build!" I didn't like the idea of using offering money for buildings instead of soul winning. However, since then, I've already been involved in two building projects. I changed my mind because worship and education space is sometimes essential for soul winning. As you know, we have discouraged believers from joining our church members and tried to focus on winning unbelievers. God has honored this and made our church grow. As a result, we now lack space. Our sanctuary is filled to capacity. Visitors have tried to come and have turned back because they ...

Read More