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We had a great inaugural celebration yesterday on the campus of University of Illinois-Chicago. It was exciting to see our church enter into the campus of UIC. The part that encouraged me the most is that about 2 years ago when we planted the Evanston site, we put in the DNA of church planting and reproduction. We casted the vision of church planting, not just reaching out to the Northwestern Campus, but also to other campuses and communities in the greater Chicago area.

This past Sunday was the reality of the vision.

We had a great turnout with a lot of freshmen coming out to the service. Afterwards, we had dinner together and spent time building up the relationships. We are realizing that the harvest is plentiful on this campus and we want to do our part in spreading the Gospel and God’s fame.

We are off to a great start.
 
 
 

 
Pastor Jimmy giving the announcements at our historic inaugural celebration at UIC

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 10:22 PM | Permalink

We had a great inaugural celebration yesterday! It was exciting to see all the people come into the sanctuary of the Transformation Center. Seeing their reaction on their faces was awesome. It was quite a testimony that we were able to get everything ready for the celebration. The contractor told us that what would have taken 3 months to finish everything, we were able to do it in one month. It is a testimony to God’s grace and favor.

As I was reflecting on this, I couldn’t help but to think about the Book of Nehemiah and how the people of God came together to do something that many people said could not be done (rebuild the walls of Jerusalem). But they had a great vision and a great God who strengthen them and helped them through. This is our testimony as well – we have a great and awesome God who empowered ordinary people like us to do something that could not have been humanly done.

In fact there were some people who stayed up all night to get things ready. Even when I went in to check on the progress late Saturday night (Sunday early morning), there were so many people there still cleaning and working on the set up for the service. It really blessed me to see everyone getting involved and giving their time and energy to make the dream a reality. This is why I love pastoring this church… our members are one of a kind!

During the celebration, after my message, I had people write out a prayer for their application. We wanted our prayers to be the foundation for the T-Center to be used for God’s glory. Therefore, after collecting all the prayer cards, the Board of Directors and the Executive Team gathered later in the day to place it in the ground as a symbolic gesture. We then prayed together and asked God to use the prayers to be the foundations for our church now and into the future.

We believe that God is going to use the Transformation Center to ripples out to the nations.
 
 
 

 
It was T-minus 3 hours before the doors opened at 9:30AM
 
 
 

 
The pastors and I made the first dig
 
 
 

 
Christina played such a vital role in the renovations and also lifting up all her prayers
 
 
 

 
I was explaining the significance of all the prayers that was locked up in the box
 
 
 

 
The pastors and I placing the prayer box

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 03:30 PM | Permalink

Our married couple’s retreat was a blessing. As the theme was centered around “Radically Committed,” we focused on being radically committed to Christ, to our spouse and to God’s Kingdom mission.

Phil and Barb Tiews did a phenomenal job of sharing from their 36 years of marriage experience. Their wisdom and their love for the Lord really ministered to our group. They even shared some vulnerable things that really allowed God to them to speak to us.

It was a joy for me to see all the married couples retreat focusing in on their marriages and just expressing their love to one another.

As we start off our new season of LIFE Groups next week, we have a lot of momentum to build the couple’s ministry. We excited about building our marriages, our families and our community.
 
 
 

 
We fellowshipped together with some game and food
 
 
 

 
Our morning session together
 
 
 

 
We had breakout sessions where we collectively brainstormed together on various issues
 
 
 

 
The Tiews ministering to some of our couples
 
 
 

 
We were able to pray and bless the Tiews for their needs
 
 
 

 
I am thankful for my friendship with the Tiews for the last 12 years - it really is a joy partnering and serving the Lord together for His Glory!

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 10:40 PM | Permalink

I was encouraged to see what God was doing in Austin. The inaugural celebration went well. The whole team did a great job of getting everything ready. Even though it was a hectic morning in trying to get everything ready, they were able to assemble things together and get the service underway.

It was also encouraging to see some of our alumni who lived in various places in Texas (San Antonio, Brownsville, and Houston) come down to join us for the inaugural service. Seeing them there was a blessing to the whole team.

There were two things that reminded me of the importance of our calling down in Austin. First of all, I was amazed to see how many pre-Christians came out to the celebration. Some of the teammates have already built some relationships with the people and they were open to coming out to church. The exciting part of all this is that when they become Christ-followers, we will be able to lay down a fresh foundation and help them to grow in the Lord.

The second thing that encouraged me was that there were many international students there – some were from China, Malaysia, Korea, and Japan – and others were minorities from various racial backgrounds. It seems like God is working consistently with what we are seeing in the other campus churches.

With the momentum that they have right now, I am looking forward to all the things that God is going to do down there. God is Faithful.
 
 
 

 
Pastor Ben preaching the Word from Joshua 4
 
 
 

 
Matt shared a powerful testimony of transformation. He even wore a Transformers t-shirt for the occasion.

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 10:09 PM | Permalink

With less than 8 days away from our Grand Inaugural Celebration on September 7th, the workers are busy trying to get everything done on time. There is still a lot to do in order to get things ready for the big day.

It is hard to believe that after 12 years of being a portable church, we will have our own facilities. It has been an incredible journey of faith.

Through this whole process, God has been teaching me (again) and the rest of the leaders that it is really all about Him. There have been many miracles and God-things along the way that no human being could take the credit.

I have also re-learned the important lesson of God’s timing – it is truly impeccable and beyond words. He never comes to earlier (we get too spoiled and lose focus on Him) and he never comes too late (we lose faith and get discouraged). It is truly like a symphony conductor, who orchestrates everything together in person harmony.

I can’t wait for September 7th! I have feeling that all the people who have put their hard work and sweat into this project and also those who have put their hard earned resources into this renovation will experience an elevated sense of joy like never before.

God is building His House not with just mortars and bricks but also with people who passionately love Him and want to see His fame spread to the nations.

Therefore, “in him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Eph 2:21-22).

We are convinced that “unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain” (Ps 127:1).

To God be all the glory!
 
 
 

 
The trusses for the stage lights went up today - it's going to be rocking!
 
 
 

 
The stage that I will be walking around on as I preach
 
 
 

 
A view from the balcony. We will have some balcony seating

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 12:32 AM | Permalink

I am so proud of our guys who serve on the Publications Team and the Web Team. We try to do a major overhaul on our church webpage every 2 years. But then we try to tweak it up every year in between the 2 years.

This year our guys just tweaked up the front page of our website and it inspired me when I saw it. I am so blessed to have guys who are dedicated and committed to seeing the Gospel spreading through every avenue. They spent a lot of time and effort in making this happen. It is such a joy to serve a church with people who know how to use their gifts and passions to build up the local church.

It is my prayer that whenever anyone clicks on to our website, they will catch a glimpse of our vision and mission, even through our front page.

Check it out here.

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 07:18 AM | Permalink

I am just coming back from our leadership prayer summit. It was awesome coming together as leaders in the church to seek God’s face.

This year we focused in on the whole book of First Thessalonians. I preached on the first chapter the first night and then Pastor Andrew preached on chapter 2 in the morning. Then, we had the leaders journal chapters 3 and 4 in the afternoon. Afterwards they shared some of their convictions with one another. Tonight, I finished off the book by preaching on chapter 5.

We had some powerful times of worship and prayer throughout this summit. If God continues to meet with us like this, then I know we will experience greater things as a church.

I feel like we are now better prepared to do the ministry for this coming year. I kept on reminding the leaders that they were “appointed” and now they are “anointed” to do the ministry. We have been teaching in our church that “everything rises and falls with leadership.”

As we elevate ourselves as leaders, we will see other members in our church get to the next level. We are excited about this new year!

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 11:58 PM | Permalink

Today is our wedding anniversary. Wow… twelve years of marriage to the woman I love! There are times when Christina and I feel like we have been married for only a few years and there are other times when it seems like forever. But either way, I am constantly reminded of how God brought us together. God really knew what He was doing.

With each passing year, my appreciation for our commitment to the marriage covenant grows. I am always humbled by her love and devotion to me. She has taught me so much about God’s character through her life. When I needed forgiveness and grace, she would always exemplify it in the most unexpected times. Christina's unwavering love for me has inspired me so many times. I can truly say that I love her more today than I did when I said the vows 12 years ago.

I can truly say that my life has been richer and fuller because of her.

This is the day that we will be renewing our commitment, love and loyalty to one another again. Praise God for wedding anniversary because it is a reminder of God’s faithfulness and His goodness on our lives.

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 05:17 PM | Permalink

Today, a handful of us from HMCC of Ann Arbor’s Board of Directors and the University Reformed Church’s Board got together to sign the contract for the purchase of their properties. It was a monumental moment in our church’s history and theirs as well.

Not only did we step out in faith to raise the funds and purchase this property, but they stepped out in faith to trust that God will provide a place for them. As we both moved forward in obedience to God, we are confident that God will provide for both churches.

Before the actual signing of the contract, we had some people from URC share some of their thoughts and feeling about their move. We were all humbled to realized that there were some charter members in the room. They were there since the church was built.

Then we had some of our Board of Directors share some of our thoughts about the new chapter in our church’s life. I think there was a general consensus that we were truly grateful to URC for all the years of partnership by allowing us to use their facilities.

I was most encouraged by their desire to see the Gospel continue to spread throughout the campus of the University of Michigan and that they entrusted us with their property to be used for that end.

Last Sunday, I was just humbled to realize that at this facility it was the “first” for a lot of things in our church. It was where we had our first revival meeting… it was where we had some of our first TEAM Community meetings… it was where we had some of our first morning prayer gatherings. Now God has graciously given us this place so that it will become a missions command center to further the work of transformation throughout the world.

What an awesome privilege! Part of our transformational vision is finally becoming a reality.
 
 
 

 
We are getting ready to sign the contract
 
 
 

 
The official signing of the contract from both sides
 
 
 

 
We were able to enjoy a meal together after the signing

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 04:20 PM | Permalink

It has been quite a journey for the last 40 days. When we started, I wasn’t quite sure how everything would turn out. All I knew is that God wanted us to respond in faith and obedience. Sometimes I wonder if some of the characters in the Bible felt what I felt going through the 40 Days to Destiny. I think about Abraham, Noah, Moses, Mary, and so many others who responded to God in faith and obedience. Many times things do not make sense or even seem possible when God tells us to do something.

This is why the Apostle Paul reminded us that, “we live by faith, not by sight” (2 Co 5:7). And faith is “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do no see” (Heb 11:1). All we knew in this journey of faith was that God wanted us to experience more of what He has destined for us as a church.

When the totals came in after the Miracle Sunday Offering, I was blown away. In just one Sunday offering we raised $137,003.93! To some churches' standards, it might not be much but in terms of where we are and the composition of our church members, it is truly a miracle and we give God all the glory!

I am so blessed to be a pastor of an awesome church that is made up of awesome people. I am truly humbled and grateful.

“And without faith it is impossible to please God...” (Heb 11:6).

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 03:40 PM | Permalink

It is humbling to think that God always gives us the privilege to participate with Him in the great work of salvation. After finding out the number of people who have made decisions to make Christ their Lord and Savior from this past weekend, it brought tremendous joy to the hearts of the staff.

It was not only the first time commitments but we were a bit humbled to see the number of people who rededicated their lives to Christ as well as the number of people who committed themselves to still seeking the truth. For some reason, all the hard work and the time that went into the preparation for the Easter Celebration was all worth it.

In these moments, it reminds me why we do what we do.

Now, the hard work of follow up will have to happen. We are excited about the strategy to help many people to start off in their spiritual journey with Christ. We are praying that God will continue to transform lives and transform the world.

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 11:46 PM | Permalink

This coming Sunday due to my travel to HMCC of Chicago, we are going to do our first video sermon in Ann Arbor. I am praying that we will expect the similar results as in Chicago, if not greater here in the “mother church.”

When we first showed the video sermon in Chicago, Pastor Jimmy mentioned that it took a few minutes to get adjusted to the new avenue of communicating God’s Word, but after that people were responding as if it was live.

I don’t think this would have work 20 years ago, but with the improvements of technology and a whole new generation of people being raised up in this media-filled world, we are now able to redeem the communication medium for God’s glory.

The beauty of this format working in our context is that after the message our response time is more prophetic through prayer and worship. No matter what is being shared through the video, the pastor on site is able to take God’s Word, which is unchanging and powerful and then direct the people to respond in worship of our God.

I pray that you will be able to join us to make history in HMCC of Ann Arbor tomorrow.
 
 
 

 
We are continuing in our series, "Atmosphere" with Part 2: Diversity

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 11:48 AM | Permalink

I guess one of the ways to stop me from blogging so frequently is to cut off internet access :-) It has been hard to get internet connection (I need one of those internet PC cards) and also the conference has been busy. I am finally at a Panera Bread and writing up this post.

Thursday night we had Pastor Young share about “Heroes” and how God has created us to do great things. I shared on Friday night about needing God’s anointing and God’s assignment to do His ministry. Then Pastor Victor closed out with sharing about understanding that due to the fact that God is our Father we are able to be prophet.

In the mornings we had Dr. Clinton Arnold do expositions from the book of Ephesians. It was probably one of the best expositions I have heard on the book. It is hard to find seminary professors or theologians for that matter who have a balanced view about the spiritual gifts.

We closed out the conference by licensing Pastor Jimmy and Pastor Barry (from Church of Southland). We also ordained Pastor Ben. It was encouraging to see the importance of commissioning these brothers in front of the whole AMI community. I am a firm believer that commissioning should be done publicly in the community of faith.

Most of the HMCC guys will be catching the red-eye back to AA. I think we are scheduled to arrive at 5AM… it is going to be crazy… but worth it, especially seeing so many of the AMI members getting blessed.

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 06:53 PM | Permalink

Wow… what a weekend so far. I dropped off Dr. Tennent at the airport and as I was driving back and reflecting on the last couple of days, I couldn’t help but to think about how faithful God has been to our church.

Last night, God used Dr. Tennent to remind us about the suffering nature of advancing the Kingdom of God. As we move forward to promote the Gospel, there will always be opposition. The reality of the spiritual battle will hit us when we start to advance the agendas of God. Since Satan is against the purposes of God, he will do everything to hinder people from living out God’s will.

The leadership missions seminar was clutch. Dr. Tennent summarized a lot of what was going around the world in terms of shifts that were happening in Christianity. It was a powerful reminder that God is moving all over the world.

Then we had the last session on the topic of mobilization. He imposed some tough questions for us to consider even as we do our summer missions program.

I think the best part of this weekend was seeing God’s people developing a greater vision for the nations and eternal things.

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 09:40 PM | Permalink

I have been terribly behind in my e-mails and even in my blog posts. I think all the back-to-back revival meetings and retreats are finally catching up with me. But I would not trade what I have witnessed and experienced for the world.

This past UG retreat in Chicago was a fresh reminder for me why we do what we do as a church. Here are some quick reflections:

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 11:42 PM | Permalink

Last two nights at the retreat have been a Spirit-filled time where we have been worshipping and seeking the Lord together. There is something special about being together with close to 200 college students in a place – the praise is a little bit livelier, the prayers are a little bit louder, and people are a little bit larger (in their hearts).

Out of all the UG retreats that we have had in our church this would be up there as one of the better ones. I think it was a combination of a lot of different things. We were more desperate. There was a great sense of anticipation for this retreat… something I have not felt for a long time.

Tonight the Spirit of God fell in our gathering. We were released to cry out to God, as we prayed for God’s power to manifest in our midst. We end up lifting up some crazy prayer, not only for ourselves but for our church. Sometimes we receive not because we ask not.

We also learned a new HMCC word that we will probably hear more often from this point on: BOO YAG!

If you don't know what that means, ask an undergraduate :-)

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 12:16 AM | Permalink

God is doing some awesome things in HMCC of Ann Arbor and in HMCC of Chicago. We are trying to publish a “HMCC Highlights” newsletter to keep all of you up-to-date of what God is doing in our churches. It is an opportunity to brag about what God is doing and to make Him famous.

We are trying to keep all our alumni in the loop of God’s faithfulness to HMCC. Also, as our church is growing we are trying to keep all the various lifestages up-to-date with the other lifestages.

It is my prayer that through this avenue we will be able to see God’s Goodness and worship Him for His Greatness and constantly trusting in His Graciousness.

You can check out some of the highlights here.

I pray that many of the alumni can write in and share with us how God is using you to send ripples out to the nations. We would love to hear from you.

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 08:04 PM | Permalink

I had a great time with the guys in Chicago this weekend. As soon as I arrived, some of pastors and I, went to downtown Chicago for some Malaysian food (this is one of our family’s favorite). I wanted to taste try this one restaurant that people have been talking about it, but it was closed until the beginning of October. Therefore we had a choice between “Three Happiness” or “Seven Wives Seafood”… hmm, we stuck with Three Happiness Chinese Restaurant. It was a good time of fellowship with pastors.

Then on Sunday, we celebrated our one year anniversary of God’s faithful in HMCC of Chicago. I preached on the whole transformasphere movement. We are praying that God will continue to network various people in our churches as well as in the AMI community of churches. We also had a picnic near the beach. We praised God for the beautiful weather. It seemed like September 30th was a day of b-days. We ended up celebrating Pastor Jimmy’s and another member’s b-day.

I then met up with Pastor Reggie Ramos from Immanuel Community Church. It was great hearing about some of the things that God was doing in his church.

Afterwards, I quickly rushed over to downtown Chicago for a meeting with some of the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) students. We have started a small group right on campus and we are in the process of developing a greater presence on this growing campus. We realized that there is a good possibility of us starting up a site here on this campus. The need is tremendous as we see thousands of people who are in need of the Gospel.

The vision of reaching the campus, to reach the community, to reach the city to then reach the world is becoming more of a reality.

Afterwards, I was introduced to one of the best gyros on the face of this earth in Greektown. My spirit, soul and stomach were truly blessed this weekend. Oh, the joys of serving the Lord.
 
 
 

 
Our HMCC of Chicago 1 year b-day cake
 
 
 

 
UIC small group which is blessed to have 3 freshmen sisters, affectionately known as "The Trio"

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 09:29 AM | Permalink

 

 
 
 
This coming weekend I will be spending some time in Chicago. It is going to be a special weekend, not only because it’s Michigan vs. NU in a Big Ten football game but because it will be the one year anniversary for HMCC of Chicago.

It is hard to believe that it has been a whole year. God has truly been faithful as we have witnessed with our own eyes the lives that were transformed and are still being transformed. This year we are seeing a greater influence on the Northwestern campus. We are also seeing a greater reach to the downtown area on the campus of UIC. The best is yet to come.

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 03:42 PM | Permalink

We just came back from our Covenant Retreat. It was awesome spending time with the other married couples in our church. Our focus for this retreat was on “Oneness.” It is easy for couples to go through their married life without experiencing oneness in their marriage. Emotional oneness, spiritual oneness and physical oneness are things that couples need to experience.

It was interesting because in one of our discussions we started to see the difference between men and women. For women they need emotional oneness in order for them to have oneness on the physical level. But for the men, they need physical oneness in order to have emotional oneness.

With this difference there is a lot of room for misunderstanding and even hurt feelings. This is why starting off with the spiritual oneness really brings a couple together. From the spiritual oneness the emotional and physical come – sometimes at the same time!

The retreat was planned purposefully so that we would have a lot of interactions with one another. We enjoyed outdoor activities with football, ultimate frisbee and organized games such as jump roping. Then in the evening we played this game called, "Bang". It was truly a hit with the married couples. It is like the card game Mafia but more Christian since we don’t have to lie… haha!

But the best part was when we had each couple come in the middle of the circle and the rest of us surrounded them and lifted them up in prayer – truly memorable.
 
 
 

 
Men vs. women jump roping contest - the women are elegant and in perfect harmony
 
 
 

 
The men... well, what can I say. But believe it or not, we won!

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 09:45 PM | Permalink

Yesterday, we had our New Encounter event. It was great seeing all the new students join us for worship experience. We were able to give people a glimpse of our worship style and also share about different aspects of our church, especially our small group ministry.

There was great interaction with one another as we played games and had fellowship with some food that was donated by the married couples in our church. It is always great to see this kind of partnership in our church.

It is my prayer that as more people experience God through our various events and channels, they will come to know this Christ who is worthy of receiving everything that we have, especially our lives.
 
 
 

 
I am enjoying the all-sensory worship experience from the back

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 07:18 PM | Permalink

The leaders and I were sensing that this year God was going to give us a great harvest of souls and in one day God gave us a glimpse of what He wanted to do.

In the previous new student outreaches, we would plan out activities where we might attract about 100-200 people new students (total) – this is what our yearly attendance record would indicated.

This year as we were planning for the harvest of souls, we released many of the students to plan out the various outreaches through the dorms. The exciting part of all this was that we had a handful of students who were Residence Hall Directors. We purposefully and actively worked with these RH Directors to plan out some events directly in the dorms.

We had various events planned in about 7 different dorms. Due to our connections with the RH Directors, our events were one of the first ones that the freshmen were going to experience.

I just got an e-mail indicating that after the one day event this past Wednesday, we reached out to approximately 800 freshmen! Some of the dorms events had about 200-300 new freshmen attend… this is just incredible! And just to think that this was just one day’s worth of outreaches. We have about 3 more in the next 5-6 days.

God is truly giving us favor… for which we are truly humbled and thankful.

The part that encouraged me the most is that people are really living out our last 2-year theme of “The Church Beyond the Walls.” People have seriously taken this call to be more missional; and they have brought the Gospel to where the people need it the most.

As we continue to focus and depend on the Lord, it is just possible that this coming year we will see the University of Michigan transformed with the love of Christ.

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 07:08 PM | Permalink

I just want to give a shout out to the Web Team, the Publications Team and many others who have put countless numbers of hours into re-designing our church website. I am proud to be part of a group of people who constantly go the extra mile to make things happen. They are truly the “can-do” kind of people and it is a privilege working with them.

As technology is becoming more accessible, I am seeing the importance of using it as a medium to reach more people with the Gospel. Even within the last several years, we have seen more people come to our website to download or watch our sermons and even just to peruse through the happenings at HMCC.

We are not content with where we are, but we are still in the process of constantly pushing the envelope and trying to find ways to further our reach and influence for God’s glory.

God’s Kingdom is truly advancing and He is even using technology to do it.

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 02:31 PM | Permalink

 

 
 
 
There are times when you just need to take a step back and realize all the great things that God is doing. Yesterday, we saw God do what He does best – transform lives. I am so privileged to pastor people who are passionate about God’s Kingdom. They are so passionate that they did whatever it took to make Easter Sunday Celebration a success.

Many of our members put in long hours into the various presentations and set up for the celebration. Some of the statistics are still coming in but I am confident that many people committed and re-committed their lives to Christ – truly a “yea God” moment!

This is a testimony to the fact that church is not a building, but a community of people who are in love with Jesus and who are passionate about seeing many more people join in on the fun. We transformed the historical Michigan Theater into a “holy ground” where the Holy Spirit was able to work in the hearts of people.
 
 
 

 
Hmm... maybe we can have all our Sunday Celebrations here - it would be free advertisement!

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 05:58 PM | Permalink

I just received an e-mail from the staff at HMCC of Chicago and they shared some good news. Someone in their small group ministry came to know Christ recently. Yea God!

The momentum is building and lives are changing.

It is things like this that makes serving the Lord a great privilege.

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 02:23 PM | Permalink

This past Sunday in Chicago was crazy. Not only did we arrive late due to the last minute driving, but the guys in Chicago were on their toes trying to get ready for anything. We were calling the Chicago staff guys all throughout our drive. I just told them to be ready for anything.

But for some reason, in spite of all the madness, God was very gracious to us. The Spirit moved powerfully as we responded to God in obedience.

To be completely honest, midway through our drive, I was wondering if it would be worth arriving past the half way mark of the celebration. I was even thinking about turning around. But with the openness of some of the guys to lay it all down and believe that God wanted to still work even though we were late, it gave me hope. I am glad that I did not give in to my doubts.

Here is an e-mail that I just received today:

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 08:18 PM | Permalink

Instead of our normal Friday night ACCESS meeting, we had our all-night prayer gathering. It was encouraging to many people who were willing to sacrifice a night sleep to seek God and pray. We were able to pray for various topics but the most significant part was when we prayed in our small groups.

As I looked out, my spirit was uplifted as I saw all of us really “doing” church. People were getting prayed for one by one, as we were ministering to one another.

After a few hours of sleep I met up with a handful of men in the leadership. We talked about the importance of hearing and discerning God’s voice. Then I met up with the rest of the TEAM Community (leadership team).

Even though many of us did not get much sleep, it is refreshing to know that every minute and hour was expended for God’s Kingdom. It is this kind of tiredness that I love!

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 08:27 PM | Permalink

Yesterday was a crucial “Yea God” moment as we had our first Sunday Celebration in an auditorium on the Northwestern University Campus. It was humbling to think that God showed us His favor and open this door for us.

We are now right in the center of the campus. It has been truly an answer prayer and a dream come true. It is hard to believe that about a year ago God used a UM vs. NU football game to speak to us about starting this church in Evanston. The faithfulness of God is amazing.

We also celebrated our 2nd wave of people who decided to become members in our church. The words of Jesus in Matthew 16:18 says, “I will build my church” and this is exactly what He is doing to glory Himself.

As God continues to build up this church, we are already praying and planning about another campus that God is paving the way for us to enter into – transform a campus, transform the world!

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 06:43 AM | Permalink

It has been a 7 month process, but God has finally answered our prayers! We have been trying to get recognized as a student group at Northwestern University, so that we can have our regular meetings on the university campus. After a lot of delays and paperwork, we are going to finally have our first Sunday Celebration this coming Sunday.

This is a momentous time for our church in Chicago.

We have already seen God transform lives and even open new doors for us to reach out to other communities outside of Northwestern University in the last 3 months.

Our new location will be Fisk Hall (1845 Sheridan Rd, Evanston). Fisk hall is inside the Medill School of Journalism.

Here are some old pictures that I found, but I heard that they renovated the chairs and other things to bring it up to 21st century standards. I am pretty excited about this. What a great way to close out of our “Punctuation” series with the “!”… truly it is a time to rejoice.
 
 
 

 
Outside of Fisk Hall
 
 
 

 
Ignore the "Mascot Auditions" - we will have worship songs projected up there.
 
 
 

 
By God's grace, we are hoping to fill this auditorium with passionate worshippers

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 03:29 PM | Permalink

I am finally catching my breath at Chicago O’Hare Airport. The retreat was a landmark retreat. I was able share the vision and values of our church. I realized that after 10 years of being in the same place, it is easy to take things for granted or just assume that people know the DNA of the church.

The 3 messages that I was able to share covered the theme of transformation. We talked about:

In fact, the last message that I gave on “Transformative Spheres” is pretty much my life’s passion and goal. I am praying that we will raise up “world shakers and history makers” for Jesus.

For those of you who could not make it to the retreat, hopefully you can get a hold of some of the sermons.

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 09:27 PM | Permalink

I got an update from Dr. Steve regarding the mortuary project and I wanted to share it with all of you. It seems like things are on track. If they can have it built by the time our married couples’ missions team goes out in December, then it will be an extra blessing.

Once again, I wanted to personally thank all of you that gave sacrificially to make this project a reality. I know we have been asking you to give to a lot of things within this year, but I just wanted to let you know that your giving is making a difference, not only here locally but globally.

I am reminded of Jn 12:24, when Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

Your sacrificial planting of seeds in God’s work is producing some incredible fruits all over the world.

Here are some pictures:
 
 

 
People working on the main structure of the mortuary
 
 
 

 
The main structure is being completed

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 10:52 AM | Permalink

Yesterday, we had one of our largest attended Sunday Celebration since the inaugural service. The word is spreading and God is moving. We really sensed the Holy Spirit ministering to the people.

As we have been covering the “Kingdom Living” series, both in AA and Chicago, I am reminded again about the importance of Ac 3:19, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” Too often, we don’t experience the “times of refreshing” because we forget the prerequisite – repentance!

We talked about how hypocrisy in our lives will exhaust the life out of us. It makes our lives hollow and lifeless. The cure for hypocrisy? Repentance and accountability.

God is bringing a sense of expectancy to our group for every gathering – we expect God to show up and He does… it doesn’t get any better than this.

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 05:09 PM | Permalink

God did some incredible things at the Undergraduate Retreat this year. It was good re-connecting with the heart and soul of our church – the college students. As I was hanging out with them, it brought back a lot of memories of my college years, as well as the first two years of our church. Things were simpler then… but the heart was the same. If the Lord allows me, I don’t mind doing college ministry for the rest of my life!

I still won’t forget the last night of the retreat – the Holy Spirit descended on the place and met us powerfully. Instead of going through the routine of things after the message, the Holy Spirit was leading us to wait upon Him. As we were praying there was a breakthrough when the Presence of God fell into the room. Even as the pastors, staff members and intercessors were praying for people, there was a tremendous anointing.

More and more, I am coming to the conclusion that when God blesses people it is not necessary because He loves us (no matter how scandalous that might sound)… he blesses people because His Name and glory are on the line. In spite of our lack of prayer and preparation, God worked powerfully because of His reputation. It is all about Him!
 
 
 

 
God met us during the powerful times of worship
 
 
 

 
God doing spiritual surgery through the hearing of His Word
 
 
 

 
The Holy Spirit descended upon us and ministered unto us on the last night

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 10:15 PM | Permalink

Wow! The past 3 weeks have been a time of birthdays… well, in terms of church b-days at least. About 3 weeks ago, we celebrated the birth of HMCC of Chicago. Then 2 weeks ago we celebrated the 10th year b-day of HMCC of Ann Arbor. Then yesterday, in San Diego, we celebrated the birth of Kairos Christian Church.

I had the privilege of witnessing the birth of Kairos Christian Church. There is something about being part of the first service of any church plant. I could feel the excitement in the air – the anticipation was very contagious.

It was encouraging to see many people from Church of Southland filling up 2 buses right after their service to witness this church plant. On behalf of the Trans-Local Team (leadership of AMI), I was able to give a greeting and some words of exhortation. We closed out the service with Pastor Keith leading us in the Communion.

No birth should be experienced alone – whether it is a birth of a child or a birth of a church. This is why being part of something bigger than just HMCC is important. I can’t wait for the future when we see more churches planted throughout the world, we will all be able to witness it together with the greater body of AMI, whether it is live in that city or live through a video feed. Either way, it is going to be quite a sight!

 
 

 
Kairos Christian Church's Inaugural Service in San Diego

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 12:13 PM | Permalink

I spoke at Church of Southland yesterday… Pastor Keith was gracious enough to open up his pulpit to me. More than blessing the people with God’s Word, they blessed me with their desires to love God and to live out the Gospel message.

This past Sunday was pretty special because one of the pastors (Pastor Eddie) and his wife officially adopted a little baby girl. It was an incredible testimony. This baby was born into this world as an unwanted child – the mother didn’t want anything to do with the baby. But thank God that the woman did not abort the baby. Pastor Eddie and Min felt called to adopt the child even though they had two of their own.

How would the baby respond and adjust in this world as she grew older? What kinds of emotions would she feel knowing that she was an unwanted baby and that her mother abandoned her?

This is when the Gospel message has to be lived out.

Now as this baby girl grows up in a loving Christ-centered home, she will know the love of the heavenly Father. She will know that she will never be abandoned. She will know that she is wanted and desired. She will know that she will be cared for and loved.

Haven’t we experienced these things because God has adopted us into this family? It is truly incredible.

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1)
 
 
 

 
Sunday Celebration at Southland
 
 
 

 
Pastor Eddie, Min and baby Kara being prayed for in front of the whole church family

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 08:31 AM | Permalink

God is truly faithful! We had many alumni come back for our 10th year celebration. We started off the weekend with a Reunion Service on Friday. We even had a video greeting from some of the alumni from Singapore who could not make this out this weekend. I talked about the importance of partnership in the Gospel and the importance of prayer. It was just refreshing to worship with people who believe and support the vision of transformation.

Then on Saturday we gathered just the alumni and had a brunch at Palmer Commons. It was great having that special time with just the alumni in our HMCC family. Many of them are placed all over the United States and doing some great things. I had one of the brothers in our church share about a company that he started with another HMCC member. It is an investment company called Rain Capital, LLC. It is all about leverage – and we want to leverage everything we have for the Kingdom of God.

Then in the evening, we went to the Marriott Hotel to hold our special banquet. It was a formal/semi-formal attire and we had a great time of reconnecting and reminiscing the last 10 years of our church. Some of the presentations and interactive activities were ridiculous… totally hilarious. Thanks to all of you who made that night a success. Some people then gathered at various apartments to watch Michigan defeat the Minnesota Gophers.

We capped everything off with the big Sunday Celebration at the Power Center of the Performing Arts. It was a moving moment for me as I was backstage getting ready to preach the message. All the presentations were incredible! I am more and more humbled to know that we have so many talented people who want to use their gifts for the Lord. I talked about: remembering God’s faithfulness, rejoicing in God’s favor and recommitting ourselves in faith to the vision and mission of transformation. The highlight was when we were able to lay down “10 stones of remembrance” (one for each year) at the foot of the big cross. It was a symbolic gesture, as a witness to God and one another that we wanted to commit ourselves to transformation. We ended with a great shout of praise and worship unto the Lord.

The “best is yet to come”…

Here are some pictures:

 
Alumni Brunch - reconnecting with one another
 
 
 

 
Sunday Celebration - testimonies being shared from various generations
 
 
 

 
The "stones of remembrance" for every year of our church
 
 
 

 
Sunday 10th Year Celebration at the Power Center

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 11:13 PM | Permalink

God is truly amazing! Talk about impeccable timing… we arrived at the hotel at 5:05PM. Yup, you guessed it – our flight was delayed again. We were on the tarmac when the plane’s engine shut down. In one of those “ah-ha” moments, I was reminded that this new church plant will never “take off” without prayer and God’s anointing.

When I finally walked into the conference room, I was shocked to see so many people already gathered and ready to worship the Lord. After we praised, we had Pastor Keith from Church of Southland share some words of encouragement for us. The church in Ann Arbor then gave a greeting via video (we recorded during the 1st celebration in AA). It was encouraging to know that this church was being planted with the love and support of Acts Ministries International – planting churches needs to be a team effort.

I then laid down some foundational truths about the Church of Jesus Christ and shared the vision for the church. We then took candles and placed them at various places in the room, representing our desire to be a light in the greater Chicago area. We closed out the night with communion, prayer and worship. We had close to 160 people for our inaugural service in Chicago and we had about 60 people gathered in Ann Arbor through a live feed (praise God for technology). We are just humbled that close to 220 people participated in this historical moment for our church.

After the service, we went to a local Thai restaurant to celebrate together with food and a cake that was donated by the Covenant small group (married couples) from Ann Arbor.

I know that planting a new church is not easy, but for some reason I felt like we were in the middle of a current that we just happened to jump into – it is at the right place, at the right time. This church plant could not have happened without all your prayers and support. I just wanted to personally thank all of you who helped out with this inaugural service. It is times like this that remind me how blessed I am to be your pastor – thank you for following my leadership, even though at times you think that I am crazy!

Here are some pictures from the night:

Pastor Jimmy giving the announcements
 
 

Worshipping in response to God's Word
 
 

Preparing the candles
 
 

Fellowshipping together at the restaurant
 
 

The mother of all cakes

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 12:46 PM | Permalink

I can’t believe the time has come for the church plant in Chicago. This past year flew by... especially as we were trying to lay down the foundations for this church plant . I keep thinking back to that October 29th, 2005 Northwestern vs. Michigan football game when the Holy Spirit deposited the vision and the burden in my heart. From that point on, everything has been about trusting in God.

I am feeling some of the same emotions that I felt waiting for the births of my 3 children… but this time it is a bit different because I know exactly when this church will be born – September 24th, 2006 at 5:05PM.

I can’t wait!

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 10:57 PM | Permalink

As we rolled into the Hilton Garden Inn for our last preview service, I was reminded that church is not a building or a place, but it is made up of people – God’s people. This was the beauty of the early church. Due to the persecution, they were scattered all over the known world at that time. They could not meet in big cathedrals or “churches”; therefore they met in their homes, various places in the marketplace, and “unlikely” places in order to worship. In our generation, the call for being the “church beyond the walls” is being declared once again.

I couldn’t help but sense the excitement and anticipation as we began our praise and worship. We had about 40 people gathered together for our last preview service. The room was filled with some of the students that we were reaching out to during last semester. We also had some new students from Northwestern as well as from University of Illinois-Chicago. The single adults and married couples made up the rest of the congregation.

I preached on “The Greatness of the Gospel.” The challenge for the church was to be “consecrated to the Gospel” and to be “committed to the Gospel.” Evanston and the greater Chicago area is a tremendous mission field. The words of Jesus are true – “the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” We spent some time in response to God through prayer and worship.

As we were fellowshipping together after the celebration, I was blessed to see so many people connecting and building relationships with one another. It is my prayer that whenever people step into our new church, they will experience God in a special way. We got a glimpse of this when I heard from one of the members that someone walked into the celebration because of our sign that she saw in the hotel lobby. We found out that the person was from Wisconsin, but she would come to the Northwestern hospital every 3 months or so. She was also looking for a church but couldn’t find anything. But on Sunday, she “happened” to see the sign – can someone say, “divine appointment!”

We are less than a week away from the official inaugural service. We are humbled by His greatness and His grace… hope to see you there to celebrate with us. Blessings.

Hilton Garden Inn in Evanston
Sunday, September 24th at 5:05PM

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 09:31 PM | Permalink

Dr. Steve Lee sent some pictures about their progress in the building of the income-generating projects like the mortuary for the hospital. They have laid the foundations down and the mortuary building will probably go up soon. It is exciting to see the partnership at work.

I just wanted to thank you guys at HMCC for being so generous… I am still amazed at the amount that we raise to help support the work in Kapsowar, Kenya. The HMCC family never fails to amaze me when it comes to giving.

As you know, the married couples group will be going to visit Dr. Steve in December. It is going to be cool to actually see the various projects first hand. We will send some pictures when we get there. But in the mean time, here are some pictures from the early stages of the mortuary.
 
 
 

 
Laying down the foundation for the mortuary
 
 
 

 
The finished foundation
 
 
 

 
Road being widened so that ambulances can have access to the mortuary

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 12:56 PM | Permalink

Yesterday, while I was still in Chicago, I had an opportunity to meet one of the local pastors in Evanston. I really didn’t know what to expect because from the last couple of meetings with other pastors and church leaders, I did not receive a warm welcome - to put it bluntly, they were a bit aloof, stand-offish and cold. Many of these pastors were trying to say to me in so many words, “We don’t need another church here because there are so many in the Evanston area.” My flesh wanted to go through this mentality exercise: 1) How many people are in the Evanston area? 2) How many of those people are churched or even believers? 3) How many of them go to your church? 4) Who will reach out to the rest of the __% of people? 5) Do you feel that one church or the churches that are in Evanston can do it all alone?

But the Spirit of God put a check on me and reminded me that this would not help with unity, and it would not be a good way to start a church in the area. :-)

This is the reason why I was so blessed to meet a fellow pastor who had a Kingdom vision and a Kingdom heart. One of the first things he said to me as we were talking was, “I wanted to say ‘Welcome,’ and it is great that you are starting a church here!” I was a bit taken aback since I did not get that kind of reception from my last few meetings with other pastors. As we were talking, it dawned upon me that there are so many pastors who are territorial for their own kingdom. Usually churches do not go very far when this is the pervasive thought, especially in the minds of the leaders.

It was refreshing to talk with this pastor about raising the water level in Evanston. The phrase that many people in the Kingdom-minded camp use is – “If you raise the water level (spiritual climate and see more people brought into the Kingdom), all the boats go up (all the churches benefit). It is so easy to forget this. When the water level gets higher, it is not just one boat that goes up but ALL the boats in the pier rise! This is why we need to cheer other churches on… this is why we need to desire other churches to do well… why? Because… if they do well, then we will do well. Lord, help us to build YOUR Kingdom and not our own.

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 10:37 AM | Permalink

We were blessed to have one of our small group members open up their parents’ condo in Oscoda, Michigan for our married couples’ retreat. Right after our Sunday Celebration, we headed up north to get away from the ordinary things of life and strengthen our marriages and our relationships with one another.

We had a great time playing Battle of the Sexes Sunday night. Thank God for some of the men in our group who knew some “girly” stuff, but in the end the female gender won (if we'd just had more of the sports trivia and beer commercial stuff then the outcome would have been different). After some sessions on building up our marriages and building up the church, we went out canoeing on the famous Au Sable River. We had a little scare with our oldest son, but we all made it through the 1.5 hour journey down the river.

Even though retreats are for building up our spiritual lives, I realized that sometimes it is simply “doing life” in a different environment. This is when a lot of teaching moments come – and there are always plenty of lessons. Our group got closer to one another and renewed in our purpose. Now we are ready for a new season of ministry.

Here are some pictures:
 
 

Hanging out
 
 

The first 3 canoes to come in
 
 

Everyone else is slowing coming in

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 11:12 PM | Permalink

Last night we ushered in the start of the 626 Mandate by praying together as a church. I was encouraged to see so many people come out to pray even though it was at 12 midnight (hopefully many of the working people got some sleep). Since our church is also located in Chicago, we decided to webcam to bring a sense of unity – it was awesome!

I think we were all encouraged to see each other live, albeit it was over the computer through a webcam. As I looked out on the big screen, I was blessed to see the number of people gathered in Chicago to join us in prayer. After we greeted one another, we had our separate prayer gathering. Then at the end, we turned on the webcam again and closed out with an unified prayer for the nations.

It just felt good to be able to be connected in this way even though we were at two different locations. I am wondering if the new paradigm for church will be done in this way in the future… hmm? Regardless, I love redeeming technology for God's purposes and His glory.

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 11:15 PM | Permalink

We just finished off our leadership prayer summit tonight. By God’s grace, our prayer times this year were deeper and sweeter. On Friday, the first night’s focus was on our devotion to prayer (Col 4:2). We then spent a lot of time just praying on our own and seeking God’s face. Saturday was declared a day of fasting. There is something important about feeling the pangs of hunger to remind us of our need to hunger after God.

I ended up praying for all the small group leaders and the ministry team leaders. Even though I couldn’t pray for everyone extensively, I prayed for God’s anointing and blessings on their service for this coming year.

King David in Ps 141:2 wrote, “May my prayer be set before you like incense.” With all the prayers that we lifted up at this summit, I feel as if we filled the retreat center with a sweet aroma. Now, we have to emanate it to the spheres of influence that God has placed us in. Reality check!

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 11:18 PM | Permalink

What a great conference! It was exciting to see so many students from various universities around the States gathered together in Ann Arbor to worship and pray together for the purposes of God to be fulfilled in our generation. Seeing so many people come up to the front of the stage to place their commitment cards on the altar of God was a blessing. Many of them committed themselves to missions as well as reaching out to their campuses.

God is doing a fresh thing… over a hundred years ago there was a powerful movement of the Spirit that inspired and challenged many college students to commit themselves to world evangelization. We desire to see another Student Volunteer Movement in our generation… students who have received God’s love and are ready to respond to that love.

The missions teams are in intensive training right now. In about 4-5 days they will all be released to be God’s ambassadors to Peru, China, India, Japan, Vietnam and Dearborn. It is truly a privilege to be a part of what God is doing all over the world.

We will try to have some pictures up soon at the
AMI Revolution website.

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 07:04 PM | Permalink

We just finished off our leadership summit. The leaders of our small group ministry and ministry teams got together to pray, plan and prepare for what God has set forth in our church. There was a different feeling in the air - with all the new and first time leaders, there was a sense of freshness as I shared from the Word of God. God has great things in store for us as a church.

As we head into a whole new season in our church, God knew exactly what we needed. The changes that we will see in the future were practiced at the summit. A principle that I tried to teach the peple is that we, as leaders have to live out what we expect people to live out.

We want to recapture the vision for a 1st century church in the 21st century - a missional church filled with radical Christians who desire to transform the world. We are off to a great start... I can´t wait to witness what God is going to do. Testimonies are forthcoming...

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 09:21 AM | Permalink

It was a full house! We packed out Mendelssohn Theater. This year’s Easter Celebration was filled with exuberance and creativity. Our first church choir did a great job. The dance team’s presentation of the resurrection reminded me of my dance party days… I don’t know if my body can move like that anymore… haha!

Why is it that every Easter we put so much prayer, energy and time for just one service? I am wondering what would happen if every Sunday was like Easter? But isn’t every Sunday service a celebration of the death and resurrection of Christ? We cannot settle for "business as usual."

It is my prayer that we will see more of what we saw this past Sunday, in all of our future Sunday celebrations… excitement, expectancy, excellence and exaltation of the King of Kings.

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 04:51 PM | Permalink

We decided to try something different this year for our Good Friday service. For the response time after the message, we asked people to pick up a candle and head out to the Diag (the center of campus). We put a big cross in the Diag for public display and we just ended up worshipping the Lord through our praises throughout the night.

What turned out to be a risk, ended up glorifying God in a huge way.
The forecast of rain never came.
The fear of public hostility didn’t matter because God was going to protect us.
The guitar string breaking didn’t stop the people from singing.

You just had to be there.

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 04:17 PM | Permalink

For the last four years, many of the churches in the Washtenaw County gathered together to worship the Lord on Palm Sunday. This year the worship gathering was special. The theme and focus of the night was: “All the Nations.” It was incredible to see all the flags that were represented. But the most enjoyable part of the night was being able to hear all the languages spoken yesterday through the songs and prayers. Some of the languages sounded familiar to me due to the various missions trips over the years. It is fascinating to think that God understands them all.

Last night was just a confirmation for me to continue to have a vision for the nations and how God loves all the nations. The Lord is preparing a time when there will be a gathering of “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb” (Rev 7:9).

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 04:03 PM | Permalink

What a night! It was our first time in the Power Center (center of the performing arts). It almost seemed so surreal. Three months ago, I saw the Nutcracker in the same place. In that December night people were applauding the ballet performers, but last night God received all the praise. All the presentations by the various small groups pointed us to Christ, who is the only One worthy of all the praise, glory and honor.

The highlight for me was looking out into the crowd as we closed out the night worshipping our Savior together. We were the performers (lifting up our praise and worship) and God was the audience (the audience of one)… I think He smiling down on us in pure delight! If you want to check out some pictures go to:

http://www.hmcc.net/media/index.php?transform=photos/praise_night_06

“Let everything that has breath praise the LORD” (Ps 150:6).

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 02:14 PM | Permalink

It was a crazy trip out to Chicago. The family and I drove out to Chicago Tuesday morning. We celebrated Jake’s b-day (the kids’ uncle) in the afternoon. Then on Wednesday evening we met up with people who wanted to know more about the future church plant on the Northwestern University campus.

I was telling the group that if it wasn’t for Jesus and the church plant then the likelihood of all of us gathering together like this was very slim… haha! But it was a great mix of people from different backgrounds and personalities.

I shared about what God was doing in HMCC and how He has led us to this point of starting another HMCC church in Chicago. I fielded some questions and then we ended up spending some time in prayer.

As we were driving back late into the night with all the icy rain, I couldn't help but to be thankful. I just remember how I used to drive the other way around when we were in the process of planting the church in Ann Arbor. Christina and I were sharing about how we had a good feeling about what God was going to do in Northwestern. It truly is a God thing.

We got back home at 3:30AM… everyone was so tired. But the momentum is building and the revolution is starting!

Praying together for the vision...

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 11:17 PM | Permalink

Yesterday we gathered for our Transformation Vision Sunday. I really sense the Holy Spirit working in the room. We worshipped… we recognized the new members… we saw the video… we heard the challenge… we took communion… we gave our pledges… we prayed… we celebrated.

It is amazing to see that God called a rag-tag group of people back in 1996 to start a church with a vision for transformation – not only seeing lives being transformed, but the nations being transformed with the Gospel message. And the journey continues.

I could not help but to be so thankful as I saw so many of our church members come forward to place their pledge cards on the altar. I realized that even though we did not have much, we were all making a proclamation of faith – we believe that it is God’s vision, God’s timing and God’s faithfulness that will move us forward. It is true that “the righteous will live by his faith” (Hab 2:4)

I am reminded of what King David said after they gave to the building of the temple – “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand” (1 Chr 29:14).

Posted by Seth S. Kim at 11:37 PM | Permalink