My wife and I had the privilege of participating in this year’s Shepherds’ Conference hosted by our Korean Speaking Congregation at Sheraton Brookhollow from this past Thursday to Saturday. This was their 10th year conference and it was attended by about 170 shepherds and shepherds’ wives from the US, Canada and Mexico. In addition to these shepherds and shepherds’ wives, there were ten plus pastors and pastors’ wives who came to serve during the conference along with many volunteers from the KSC.
I decided to participate in this year’s conference for three reasons. One, I wanted to see and experience what the conference was all about so that in the future if New Life were to host something similar, I will be prepared for it. Two, Pastor Chai was going to be the plenary speaker and he was going to talk about the basics and foundations of house church. It is always good to review and go over the basics. And three, I wanted to spend some time with the Korean speaking shepherds getting to know them, hearing from them what they are going through and being blessed by them.
The conference was truly amazing and beautiful because I clearly sensed that God was deeply pleased with what all these pastors and their wives, shepherds and their wives are trying to do in, with and through their churches. God the Father first reached out to us through His Son Jesus to save us from sin and death. And then, Jesus has called us so that we can build His church together that will save the lost and make them His disciples. Finally, the Holy Spirit empowers and enables us to do the work of building Christ’s church. And the kind of church that Jesus wanted his followers to build is a community where they taste God’s love through warm fellowship, experience inner healing through transparent life sharing and witness God’s power through answered prayers.
Unfortunately, this is not the kind of church that we see in today’s world. Therefore, if Jesus were to come and visit today’s churches all over the world, He will feel very weird and out of place because they are nothing like what He imagined and intended in the first place. House church ministry is an attempt to do church according to the Bible. We want to do what the Bible says the church must do no matter how hard it is and how odd it may look. This is not an easy thing to do because it is going against the stream. It is entering through the narrow gate and walking on the rugged road. However, it is totally worth it because we are trying to build Christ’s church the way He wanted it.
During the conference, I heard three testimonies shared by shepherds from Chicago, Toronto and Orlando. I wish I can translate all their testimonies word for word because they were deep and powerful. Unfortunately, I don’t have their manuscripts and even if I have them, I don’t have the time to translate them.
One common thing about their testimonies is that they take their shepherding ministry extremely seriously because they know that it was God who has called them to be a shepherd and the task that God has entrusted to them with is nothing other than restoring the church the way it is supposed to be so that the lost people will come to know Christ and they will be made Christ’s disciples. When they had only $200 in their bank account, they spent $100 to prepare for house church dinner. When they were down to nothing, they sold a little gold that they had to do house church ministry. When they lost their job, their spouses worked and they barely made it through. When their house church members that they had poured their heart and soul to love and help complained, betrayed and left their house church, they looked to God. When they prayed for their house church members to get a job or get married and their prayers got answered but they themselves were without a job or spouse, they held on to God. They literally experienced what Paul experienced in his life.
“Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; … dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” (2 Cor. 6:4-10)
I couldn’t believe what these shepherds from different churches are going through in order to restore their churches to be more like the one that Jesus had in his mind. The amazing thing was all these shepherds were glowing in their faces because they have experienced God and His power and love through their house church ministry. They learned from our KSC and now they are growing and possibly surpassing us. Through the conference, I have committed myself to sacrifice more for Christ’s church so that through my sacrifice and death, more fruit will be borne.
New Life, you have been doing well up to now. But we must do better until Christ returns. It’s a glorious work that God has called us to participate in. This truly is an awesome privilege. If you go all in, you will never regret when Christ appears.
Your pastor,
Eric
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