Sunday Service
- Adult 1st Service: 9AM
- Adult 2nd Service: 11AM
- Youth Service: 10:45AM
Order Of House Church Meetings
I'd like to ask all house church leaders to follow a standard format for house church meetings. The order and time distribution should be:
1. The Love Feast
2. Praise (25 minutes)
3. Announcements from the Sunday worship bulletin (3 minutes)
4. Bible study (20 minutes)
5. Sharing (1-2 hours)
6. Intercessory prayer (15 minutes)
7. Mission challenge (15 minutes)
You may change the order when you have a visitors but it would be good to follow the set order as much as possible for regular meetings. This format has been refined by trial and error and has proven to be best, ...
Men Who Heard God’s Voice
Each week, we read from a book chosen by one of the staff members and share our thoughts on it during our Wednesday staff meeting. The last book we read was the Koran, the most sacred book for Muslims, in an attempt to understand their religion better. We read 30 pages and discussed it each week. After reading through it with the staff, I learned a few new things about the Koran.
The Koran is not a collection of many books like the Old and New Testaments; it is a collection of sayings by a single person, Mohammed, the founder of Islam. He could not read or write, so one ...
The Art of Losing Myself
Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Does this mean we need to love ourselves first in order to love others? Someone said, “Yes, we need to love ourselves before we can love others.” If the condition to love others comes from our ability to love ourselves, then we will never be able to love others as ourselves. Why? Because, self-seeking love always has self-interest at the core of one’s being.
Another name for self-seeking love is called pride. Pride is the presumption that we can be happy and our source of happiness can care for others to find ...
Happiness Depends On Expectations
I recently read an article about the happiness quotient of different countries. The results surprised me; I had expected that economically rich countries would have a higher happiness quotient than poor countries, but surprisingly, the opposite was true. One of the countries with the highest measured level of happiness was Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world.
The seminary I attended is located in one of the most expensive areas in Northern California. The seminary bought the land and erected their buildings when the land was cheap. Later, rich people ...
So Blessed!
This past Sunday, our youth group partnered with Emmanuel Baptist Church to host their Fall Festival. The weather was gorgeous, the game booths and attractions were really fun, and there were tons of people from the surrounding community who came and had a great time. But as I walked around and saw all that was going on, the one thing that stuck out to me was how much of a blessing it was for us to serve in that way.
Over and over again, different leaders from Emmanuel came up to me, thanking me and our church for what we did for them. And over and over again, my ...
Debate Over The House Church
I just came back from an 8-week trip to Korea.
In Korea, most of the churches that have successfully converted to house churches are Presbyterian.
Many belong to the Korean Presbyterian Church denomination, one of the most conservative in Korea. They have been successful in converting to house churches because their denominational motto is "According To The Bible", and house churches are the Biblical model of church. Unfortunately, the Pusan Synod made a recent resolution declaring that the house church goes against Presbyterian tradition. So at least two pastors there ...
Pure Joy
I can’t believe how quickly time is passing by. Our little tomato (he’s more like a butternut squash now) is already four months old! As parents, Gina and I are always looking for signs of healthy development, commonly known as milestones, and this past Friday marked a huge milestone for our son George. While Gina was playing with him, she discovered a way to make him giggle for the first time! I’ve heard other babies giggle and it’s really cute, but when it’s your own child and he’s giggling for the first time, it’s the sweetest sound in the world. ...