A Demanding Church

Some of our church members half-jokingly complain that our church is too demanding. In a way this is true. We insist that people make a commitment to the church on their own. In many churches, visitors become members automatically as soon as they fill out a visitor's card. In our church people need to come forward in order to fill up a commitment card to become a member. To become full members, ones who can vote at church business meetings and become church officials, they must accept Christ as their personal Savior, be baptized, and apply for membership. Their applicat...

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Lunch With Shepherd Candidates

When we implemented the house church system about 10 years ago we started with only 23 house churches. Our church membership was not large either. So at that time, I had the luxury of being able to rotate through the shepherds and having lunch with one of them every other week. Now, as the church has grown, it has become impossible to do that. Our church membership is several times larger, there are now more than 100 shepherds, and I have become much busier. When I have lunch with someone I need to set aside 3 to 4 hours, including driving time. It is impossible to do ...

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The Price Of Fame

Whenever I read the newspaper I can't help but feel sorry for President Bush. All the political cartoons make him look ridiculous. His physical features are exaggerated and they portray him as stupid. No mistake he makes is too small to be the subject of the cartoonists' jokes. Sometimes I wonder how his wife and daughters feel when they see these cartoons. I can say this for sure: I am glad I am not the President. People seem to feel it is OK to ridicule people or be extra critical of them if they are public figures. They have no problems saying something rude about ...

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How To Help Those In Financial Need

It is a blessing for our church that there are so many members who help those with needs in secret. I usually learn about them by accident from the people who received the help or a third party. God will reward these people richly because our Lord said, "Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you (Matt. 6:4)." As the number of members in our church grows, the number of those in need grows as well. Some members have began to ask me what our church policy is concerning financial assistance. Before I talk about our church policies, let me lay down some ...

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Why Many Conversions Occur In Our Church

Many traditional churches have been successful in converting themselves into house churches. But few of them are successful in soul winning. And a church that is not successful in soul winning is not a house church in the true sense because a true Biblical house church cannot help but attract and convert the unsaved. Many people have been saved through our church. I want our church members to why this is so that they can answer pastors who attend our house church seminars or spend time here as interns. First, our church places its highest priority on obeying the Great ...

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June Is Our Rest Month This Year!

Many of us will be going on a short-term mission trip in June. Our children's vacation Bible School will also take place in the same month. Therefore, we will rest from our house church ministry in June this year. We began this tradition last year and the response and the results have been marvelous. Please read last year's "From the Pastor's Desk" that I wrote to communicate and explain to you why we have decided to do this: Let's Rest from Our House Church Ministry in July! From the Pastor's Desk (69) / June 16, 2002 Our Heavenly Father created the heavens and the ...

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Child Rearing Principles

Parents need to invest time and effort into child rearing. In the past, with large extended families living in close proximity, child rearing didn't require as much effort because children had many models to observe and learn from. These days parents are the only source children have to learn proper behavior. So young parents need to make a conscientious effort to learn about parenting, for example by reading books or taking parenting classes. If I had to list the two most important words for parenting, they would be love and responsibility. I think all good parenting ...

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