We Found Our College Ministry Pastor!

From the Pastor’s Desk (246)

Lynette and I have been serving as College House Church Village Leaders for the past almost nine years. Though it was very meaningful and fulfilling to serve in this capacity, we have realized for some time that we can’t do a great job in this ministry while serving the whole church as the senior pastor couple.

College house church is unique in that there is a very high turnover rate. College students typically stay in Houston and study in their school for about four or five years. After that, many of them graduate and move away from the city. This means, our college students get exposed to and experience New Life and its house church ministry for no more than four or five years. Furthermore, our college house church shepherds typically serve for no more than two years before they graduate and move away from the city or join post college age house churches if they stay in Houston. Therefore, if we want to make any kind of spiritual impact on their life, we must maximize their time by making ourselves available for them because we have a small window of time with them. And this is really hard to do as a lay leader who has a full-time job.

For the past couple of years, I have been thinking and praying about the possibility of hiring a College Ministry Pastor. God has brought Sang and Justy Chon to my mind about a year ago and I wanted to see if I heard God correctly. So, in order to test my discernment on this, I invited Sang and Justy to each prepare a message and come and minister to our college students during the recent retreat we had at Camp Allen. They both did an excellent job sharing God’s word and I was able to see how naturally and effectively they ministered to the students. I began to sense strongly that God was in this and He was very clearly leading me through the process

During the free time on Saturday at the retreat, Lynette and I got together with them and shared with them that we would like for them to serve New Life with us as our College Ministry Pastor couple. They seemed shocked but joyful at the same time because God was also doing something very special in their life and they sensed towards the end of last year through the prompting of the Holy Spirit that there was going to be a major change in their life this year. 

We decided to spend about two weeks in prayer in order to hear God more clearly. After the prayer, it was made very clear to them that God was inviting them to serve in this role.

Leadership Team met up with them yesterday for an interview and we all had a very joyful time hearing their stories as to how God has led them to this point. There was confirmation after confirmation. All the members of Leadership Team have unanimously decided that it is God’s will that Sang serves New Life as College Ministry Pastor. There were tears, laughter and lots of joy in the room for all the servants of God heard His voice in the same way.

Sang’s bio will be inserted in the bulletin next Sunday. And we will have our Q & A session on Sunday, 4/28 after the second worship to get to know Sang and Justy better. I chose this date so that our college students before they return home for the summer will get an opportunity to participate in it.

God has brought New Life two awesome pastors in the recent past. Both Mia and Sang, and their spouses Joe and Justy are all long standing members at New Life. They are homegrown. trustworthy and faithful. They love God, they are sold out to house church and they are deeply devoted to New Life. Thinking about what our college ministry will be like in the next few years makes me thrilled. And I am happy for all the students who will be under Sang and Justy’s servant-leadership.

I am extremely grateful to God because I feel like I am reaping and enjoying the harvest of the past twenty plus years of ministry here at New Life.

Your pastor,

Eric