From the Pastor’s Desk (271) As I spend time hearing from people who claim themselves to be Christians what they think about church, I can’t help but be surprised because they all have their own thoughts and opinions about church and what church ought to be like and doing. What they say about church makes sense from their perspective and conviction. However, it is often wrong because their starting point is wrong. If we want to know what church is and what it must be doing, then we must start by asking questions like, “Who started the church? Whose church is it, ...

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From the Pastor’s Desk (270) In our last life coaching session for pastoral staff couples on May 24, Pastor Jabez came to life coaching saying he was tired and burning out. In response to this, I suggested he take a sabbatical and get some rest. Pastor Daniel Oh suggested that it was time for him to quit or restructure the youth ministry, so he will not burn out. Pastor Jabez did not agree with the suggestions presented in life coaching and resigned from his position on June 2. Since his resignation, there have only been email exchanges between Pastor Jabez and ...

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Over the past 25 years, I have officiated 129 weddings for New Life members. We have always had weddings every year, but the number will most likely increase as the years go by. This is a good sign because it means New Life is getting older and younger at the same time. We have close to 100 college students, but we also have that many members in each age bracket, those in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. In just a few years, we will also have that many in their 50s and older. Here, I would like to address two things that are related to weddings. One is the size of the diamonds ...

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New Life started house church ministry in July 1999 with 6 house churches. One of the shepherds was a single female college student named Catherine Lee. She did everything exactly the way I taught all the potential shepherds who were asked to go through the 11-week shepherds training from April to June. Catherine’s house church grew the fastest and multiplied the most. As the church started to grow and got older, there was a need for us to hire a children’s pastor. We were blessed to find one. He and his wife worked very hard to lay down the foundation of our ...

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It's 6AM on Saturday. I am done with the lecture part of House Church Seminar for Pastors. I spoke for three full days from Wednesday to Friday on house church and Living Life Bible Study. I am losing my voice a little but feel greatly privileged. "Who am I and who are we to host these pastors and missionaries for six days to teach and share with them what we have been doing as a church for the past 25 years?" But we feel compelled to do this because the condition of the church all over the world is not what it needs to be according to the Bible. And if we can do ...

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From the Pastor’s Desk (266) Merry Christmas, everyone! God made us to have love relationship with us. Where there is love relationship, there is conversation. Therefore, we converse with God because He loves us and we love Him back. We call this conversation with God prayer. God chose to use our prayer to do His work. When we pray something happens. When we don’t pray, nothing happens. Therefore, people of God all throughout the Scripture prayed. When good things happened to them, they offered up to God the prayer of thanksgiving. When they sinned against ...

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Today was the last Leadership Team meeting of the year. Everyone was present. Team leaders take turns to provide breakfast for each other. We don’t use church budget to buy food for ourselves. This is how I have been running New Life for 25 years. I have taught you to tithe from your gross income as faithfully as possible. I have tried to be generous towards others but frugal on myself. I have emphasized the work of missions and evangelism. I think I have done my best to stay close to the truth I see in the Scripture. God seems to have been pleased with this effort I ...

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