Chae Cho will be serving as our new director of children’s ministry beginning in January. The team leaders and I have been thinking and praying for the past five months to seek God’s will to know who should be the person and we unanimously sensed that it needs to be Chae. Two things helped us in discerning God’s will. First, we strongly felt that it would be for church’s best interest to find this person from within our congregation. New Life is founded upon house church ministry. There are some unique things that we do that other typical/traditional churches don’t do. We are not driven by programs. Instead, we are focused on saving the lost and helping them become fully devoted followers of Jesus through house church ministry. A potential candidate from outside may have a difficult time understanding and embracing New Life and its commitment to house church. He may say he agrees with our house church ministry initially but it will become a major issue for us to find out later that he is not fully on board with us. Chae has been a fully functioning member of New Life for the past five years and he knows what house church is and why we do it. We trust him when it comes to the most foundational ministry of New Life.
Second, Chae has been sensing God’s call to full-time children’s ministry for the past few years. He has been getting encouragement and confirmation from significant people in his life. In order to follow and respond to God’s call, he has changed his career from the advertising industry to teaching middle school students, and more recently, to teaching elementary school students. He has been also taking a few classes from Dallas Theological Seminary extension in Houston to better equip himself. We couldn’t help but to acknowledge that God has been orchestrating and preparing him for the ministry.
He will be working fulltime at church and going to school part-time. His official title will be The Director of Children’s Ministry until he finishes his studies and gets ordained as a fulltime pastor.
I believe that it is very important for the staff to possess three qualities for them to become a strong team and serve together for a long time. They are character, chemistry and competency. Therefore, as with all the other staff members, the “One year no question asked” policy will apply to Chae. Although we do our best to seek God’s will, we are fallible and also liable to make mistakes. After one year, if Chae or New Life senses that we are not the right fit for each other, we will give each other freedom to move on.
I would like to mention a few things about Suemy, Chae’s wife, as well. Let’s remember that we are not hiring Suemy but Chae. Chae is our Children’s Ministry Director and not Suemy. Therefore, do not expect Suemy to be there all the time and serve as if she is another children’s ministry director. We are grateful that Suemy is also very passionate about children but we must not expect or demand her to be that way all the time. We are not getting two for the price of one.
Often times, churches expect their pastors’ wives to be super Christians and put inordinate amount of pressure on them to perform, stressing their lives. But I personally believe that pastors’ wives should be mature members who are committed to God and His church just like any other committed lay leaders, no more, no less. This means New Life should not rely on pastors’ wives to come up with all kinds of ministries and be responsible for them as if they are the leaders of women’s ministry. If they are mature, gifted and called by God to do that, then they should. Otherwise, they should just serve faithfully behind the scene as committed members no different from you. I am saying this because I have noticed over the past few years that some of us think and believe that pastors’ wives must serve as the top leaders over other women teaching all the classes, speaking at all the events and mentoring all the women, which I don’t see in the Bible and never taught at New Life.
I would appreciate very much if you could pray for Chae and Suemy and give them all the support and encouragement they need as they begin to serve New Life as the new director couple for our children’s ministry.
Your pastor,
Eric
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