Embarrassing Prayer Request

SBC has many new believers.  This sometimes causes certain laughable situations, but sometimes I experience an embarrassing moment.  On Sunday, during the time of dedication, I had a prayer request which put me at a loss.  It went like this, "My beloved grandmother passed away.  She did not receive Jesus, but please pray so that God will send her to a nice place."  The Bible states that only people who received Jesus can go to heaven and the opportunity is given only during the time on Earth and no second chance will be given after the person passes away.  Therefore, ...

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Gratitude for the Heartwarming Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was especially bleak.  As the price of oil hit new lows daily, many oil-related companies in Houston are going through unprecedented recessions and as a result many church members are laid off.  Around the world, the terrorist activity of ISIS was enough to make us depressed as Thanksgiving approached us. Nevertheless, as I read the shepherd's journal, it looked like most homes shared heartwarming moments in their house church.  Many gathered in their house churches and some had joint house churches to celebrate Thanksgiving together.  They ...

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Deacon Jae Dong Lee Will Start Master of Divinity Program

As I wrote last week, Pastor Barnabas Choi's sudden departure placed me in a quandary.  Not only is there a disruption in the Family Youth Program, but also there is no pastor who can share the burden of preaching.  Even though we do not have an associate pastor, we need a pastor who can preach once a month and who can lead the service when I am out of town. However, it is not that we urgently need an associate pastor because the Family Youth Program is still in the development stage and all that is needed is someone who can preach once a month.  After I spent some ...

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Pastor Barnabas Choi is Moving

SBC is a church where laymen are the main forces of ministry.  Therefore, we do not have an associate pastor.  Instead we have pastors who are specialized in certain areas.  This is one of the main principles of our church.  When we invited Pastor Barnabas Choi under the title of associate pastor, it was because we did not have a special ministry area for him to work on.  Then, we found family with youth ministry for him and it was very pleasing to us. This area was very much needed among SBC members and we all know the importance of building strong relationships ...

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Pastor Tae is Resigning

Pastor Tae has been with us for more than nine years as our Missions Pastor, so we will miss him greatly and feel a tremendous vacuum when the Pae family leaves. There are a couple of reasons why he is resigning and moving on from New Life Fellowship. First is God's calling. Pastor Tae came to New Life after experiencing much bitter conflict, confusion and lack of direction in local churches. At one point, he served as a lead pastor for an English speaking congregation in Virginia for a few years. He wanted to reach out to unchurched unbelievers, whom we call VIPs, to ...

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Focus of the New Year’s Eve Party

From last year, we decided to separate the New Year's Eve Party and New Year's Eve worship in two different days.  When those were on the same day, the program was too long and VIPs as well as SBC members got too tired since they came to church at 6 pm and stayed at church for 7 hours until 1 in the morning.  Therefore, we decided to have the party on Friday before Dec. 31 as a joint hour church activity and have the year-end worship on December 31. However, this year, we cannot do that because the target Friday falls on Christmas day and the week before is the ...

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Dear New Life Fellowship Family

I thank and praise God for all of you at New Life Fellowship. I have been most blessed serving here with you during the past nine years. I am deeply thankful to our God and you for blessing and showing grace to my family. I cannot begin to express all the joy I have experienced here. I am humbled by the abundant love and care that has been showered upon me. My heart is deeply sad to announce that I have submitted my resignation as missions’ pastor for New Life Fellowship, effective December 31 of this year. I feel the time has come for my family and me to follow ...

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