For my weekly Pastor's Corners, I write 30 to 40 in advance and choose an appropriate one each week to include in our church bulletins. The following was written 10 years ago. Although it's no longer applicable, it may still be interesting, so let me post it again. -- I plan to serve at Seoul Baptist church until I retire. However, if the following things happen, I will leave earlier. Before I explain the circumstances that might force me to leave, let me tell you when I won't leave. An elderly pastor with a lengthy experience in ministry once told me: "If there are ministries to be done and the church members love you, don't ever leave." So I ...

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Most our church members have probably heard about the 4 pillars and 3 axes of the house church but many are not quite sure exactly what they mean. As members of the first implemented house church, our members should know. The 4 pillars are the 4 principles on which the house church is built. The first pillar is that the purpose of church is to reach non-believers and make them disciples of Jesus (Matt. 28:19-20). The second is that the church should make disciples not solely through instruction but by modeling life as Jesus did (Mark 3:14-15). The third is that church ministry must be divided among pastors and lay people according to Scripture; ...

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Every year, many of our church members relocate. Over the past 5 years, an average of 110 people leave our church each year, with 73 of them returning to Korea and 37 moving to other areas in the U.S. It's estimated that less than half of those who returned to Korea are currently church members, and only a very small number attend house churches. We baptize an average of 3 people every week thanks to the sacrificial ministry of our shepherds and their spouses. Despite the high number of baptisms, our adult Sunday worship attendance has remained at around 1,000 for the past few years because most of the people who are saved through our church reloca...

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My daughter Christine and her family, including their three small kids, recently took a mission trip and visited Thailand. My son and his wife are actively involved in their church and other ministries. When I decided to quit my job to become a pastor, my greatest concern was about my children. I feared that they might stray from church because I had seen many other pastors' kids fall from the faith. Perhaps they were tired of not being able to do what they wanted to because their families had little money. Perhaps they were hurt by church fights. But all I could do was to pray for them. My fears haven't materialized. I thank God for helping them ...

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Many of you may have heard that the youth group is going to implement house churches. We decided to do that because we've begun to see adolescence from a different perspective. We used to think of adolescents as "grown children" but we've decided that we should really consider them "emerging adults." This change in perspective requires a change in how we minister to them. Adolescence is a stage where young people find their identities and become independent. Parents get upset when their teenage children criticize their parents' ideas and lifestyles, but they must understand that it's their way of finding their own identities. If we can teach them ...

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Many people don't think of Jesus as smart. They accept him as their Savior or that he's the son of God, but not as a smart man who can help us as people living in the 21st century. Jesus is the creator of all things, visible and invisible. He created our universe and every human being on earth. Just like a car's designer knows everything about it, Jesus knows everything about the natural world and human affairs. Scientists learn bit by bit about the principles that govern nature, but he has known every natural law from the beginning because they come from him. He is the authority in physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine. He knows nuclear physics ...

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Korean churches are getting old. It's not unusual for Korean churches to have 70% of their members be 60 years or older. Young people are not coming to church. House churches attract young people because their emphasis on relationships and servant leadership appeals to them. Still, even many house churches are getting old, because they maintain division by age. For example, many churches keep college groups after they implement the house church. College students have separate worship services, listen to sermons by college group pastors, and have their own programs. They don't feel like their churches' senior pastors are their own pastors or that ...

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