My 31st B-Day!!!

Joy totally rocks!!! My Birthday was awesome.  June and Ben watched the kids the entire day (I think Caleb dropped by for a bit). I had a wonderful date with my wife.

 

She looks so pretty!  This is Joy taking me to our first destination.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My B-Day Card and My Favorite Junk Food!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve been wanting to go to the Tea at the Gallery.  It was as awesome as I expected.

Then, I had a perfect timing for taking a picture of a lizard.

Horseback riding…

Then, we went Go-Carting… I got all my reckless driving out of my system. B-D

We had our dinner at a Brazilian Grill restaurant… Thanks, June, Ben, and Caleb!!!

Anti-Bullying Video made by teens…

This video must have taken some amazing mobilization skills.  I think I need to get back in touch with some things that students have to deal with on daily basis.  I need to fight against doing student ministry with a “remote” attitude.

Compartmentalized…

If I were to be self-critical about the past year of student ministry, it is lack of prayer and lack of time for communication with other leaders.  This is actually quite difficult, because our structure is very compartmentalized.  Youth ministry is it’s own.  College ministry is own.  English Worship Ministry is its own.  Charis (young adult group) is very independent.  There is no sense of continuity among these groups.  I would love to get together with the representatives of these groups to pray together and to reflect on each ministry.  I hope that, through prayer and communication, we begin to discern one vision under God.

Misconceptions about Catholicism…

I just read a book called What Catholics Really Believe: 52 Answers to Common Misconceptions About Catholic Faith.   It is a very easy read for the most part.  It does have some stinginess against Fundamentalist Christianity, but I think much of us Reformed Protestants do, too, toward Fundamentalist convictions.  I did notice that many Korean-American church members use “evangelical” and “fundamentalist” interchangeably, and I would warn them from any possible misunderstandings beforehand if they decide to read it.  It seems that modern Catholics find much of their “clash” against 20th century American Fundamentalists, not against Protestants in general.  Also, it has an ecumenical overtone to it.   It’s a very quick read, took about 2 hours of speed-reading.  Surprisingly, I learned that I misunderstood some things about Catholicism… Gee, I thought I really studied while I was in seminary.

Some highlights about Catholic belief:

• Church structure is clearly not democratic.  The goal is to model after monarch with God on the throne.
• Mass has a deep understanding of the “communion of saints.” I think our Presbyterian “Bible” emphasizers have something to learn about this one.
• Some important traditions are abandoned by the Protestants, for some, may be all of it.

Some highlights about misconceptions about Catholic belief clarified:

• (Eucharistic controversy) Catholic view of Transubstantiation is different than Consubstantiation held by Lutherans and Anglicans.
• It is a misconception that only priests or qualified religious can teach Scripture classes.  Probably a Protestant propaganda.
• Catholics did not believe that Jesus dies and is sacrificed again at every mass.  Actually it’s the Fundamentalists who stood for this, the “altar call” every Sunday ones.  Some Catholics were impacted by this popular Fundamentalist view and got confused.
• Divorce doesn’t lead to ex-communication.  Remarriage (while former spouse is still alive) does.
• Annulment IS different from civil divorce.  I can actually explain this one if you want.
• The following popular Protestant criticism is quite shallow: “We don’t need to go to confession because sins are forgiven by praying straight to God.”  After Protestants got rid of this, we re-established it in the general category of “pastoral care.”  Catholics well-understand that confessing to God privately can lead to running the risk of only feigning sorrow.  Also, sometimes we need someone to help discern our confessions.
• Immaculate Conception does not mean that Mary did not need a Savior.  Keating quotes from Luke 1:47 of Mary’s declaration of her Savior.  For Catholics, Immaculate Conception is an anticipated salvation.
• Rosary… Man, this one needs a personal conversation.  Some things are a bit weird to me, but for the most part it can be well articulated in an ecumenical sense. Surprisingly, it’s quite biblical… I mean quite… not 100% but quite biblical.  We Reformed Protestants aren’t 100% biblical either, so I think this is a good place for us to have a friendly conversation.
• “Indulgence” is gravely mistaken. Actually, I misunderstood this for a while until my Church History professor corrected me.  Enchiridion of Indulgences is still on my “to read” list.
• Catholics do not believe that they can earn salvation by good works.

What I’m discovering is that many who belong to a certain denomination are not necessarily familiar with the distinctive doctrines that differentiates one denomination from another.  In other words, just because they are Presbyterians, it doesn’t necessarily meant that they are more Calvinists than others.  Just because they attend Catholic mass, it doesn’t mean that they have a huge problem with consubstantiation.  So, what sets people apart in different denominations?  I think that’s the ongoing conversation.  People have been using the term “post-denominationalism.”  Does it mean denominationalism is meaningless in today’s Christian climate, I don’t think so.  I think there will be those who completely move away from the denominational categories.  I think there will be those who value the confessional heritage as the guiding principle for looking into the future.  Interesting times we live in…

Form and Content (the clip is for those who understand Korean)

I often hear compliments like, “Peter, I didn’t think you weren’t born in the US, I don’t hear any accent in your English!”  I celebrated my well-polished English pronunciation… yay me!  I think it was about 5 years ago that I began to listen to some brilliant speeches done in English by non-native speakers.  The pronunciation isn’t so perfect, but the content is well filled with substance for thought.  I think it’s actually really cool to hear foreign accent embedded into speech.

Why am I blogging about this?  I hope that the first generation Korean-Americans find courage that it is the content (not pronunciation) that they’ll hand off to the next generation.  Also, to the 2nd generation, judge by the content.  I see sometimes that FOBs’ “off” pronunciation being made fun of by the 2nd gen.  Here is the clip.  It’s actually striking that the 1st generation’s lack of confidence in themselves play a profound role in this dynamic.  I think the question is, “Am I comfortable with myself?”  I think, at time, “standard” is overrated.

The Value of “Exit Interviews”…

Okay, it’s a bit weird calling it an “exit interview,” but I think it’s a church equivalent that I’ve been doing at Korean Church of Knoxville (KCK).  There are graduating seniors and there are folks who were asked if they would like to renew their commitment to serve at the church, so not every one’s conversation with me is necessarily like an exit interview.  The questions were more geared toward reflecting on some of the following questions:

• What did you appreciate and value in the past year while serving at KCK?
• What did you find to be difficult to deal with while serving at KCK?
• Did you find that you were being equipped?  Did KCK nurture your growth? How? and how did it not provide equipping/nurture?
• (for college Students) What did you find to be challenging in campus life?
• (for graduating seniors) What are some advices you would give to incoming students to college?
• How did you get plugged into serving at leadership capacity?
• What did you feel KCK lacked or needed the most?
• Any comments/complaints/kudos…etc.?

There were other questions for each person I talked with, and each person I had a conversation with took a unique approach/focus.  I have yet to speak with 8-10 more people before the end of the academic year (meeting with 5 this week), but here are some things I’m learning thus far:

• As to leadership accomplishing a certain task, they emphasized the value of “teamwork” rather than just getting the work done.  In other words, they valued “how things were accomplished” (relationship dynamics, feeling like they were a team, deepening of relationship, communication..etc.), not just a simple solution to the task.
• The students were given opportunity to express their thoughts freely without feeling judged, or sense of guilt for saying anything critical.  Since they were told beforehand that I wanted to welcome even negative feedback for the growth of KCK, they didn’t have to withdraw some thoughts from being expressed.  I never know, because only the people interviewed would truly know whether they really expressed their thoughts.  At the very least the opportunity was given.  Self-criticism, even for a church community, is necessary for growth.
• I’m relatively new here at KCK, and I learned a lot about the history of student ministry at KCK.  This even led me to schedule a time to meet up with a former KCK leader who currently attends a different church.  He graciously and gladly agreed to meet with me.
• They know much more about ministry than I assumed.  Besides, it takes some guesswork out of things I could “teach”.
• Having another insight to the ministry is extremely helpful. Besides, the students tend to be closer to their peers than I am.  I get to learn the student culture through these opportunities.

One of my mentors advised me that great leadership is preceded first by follower-ship.  I used to think that it referred to one’s humble relationship to God, but I think it also applies to one’s humble relationship to those I “minister” to.  I must learn, and resist the temptation that I MUST teach.  Teaching first requires learning…

My First Blog About Student Ministry @ KCK

Almost a whole year flew by since we moved to Knoxville.  I began in mid-August as a Youth/College (EM-ish) Pastor (in Korean, “JunDoSah” – a designated title for un-ordained pastor – it literally means “evangelist”) at Korean Church of Knoxville.  It’s been quite hectic learning about the church, the city, University of Tennessee in Knoxville, non-profit organizations, other ministers in this area…etc.

Most of my mentors advised me not to change too many things during my first year.  I REALLY tried not to change things, but I think some things were inevitable.  In November, 2011, our church had a schism that led to my involvement in somewhat of a “modified” capacity.

In my first year of full-time ministry, here are some things I’m realizing so far:

1. It’s really nice to get paid to study the Bible!
2. I need to get back in shape.  The students are very energetic, and it’d be nice to keep up with them… maybe 50% of the time.
3. It’s nice to have student ministry advocates alongside me: Elder Sam, Rocky, KJ, and Jeanie have been wonderful advocates for the 2nd gen. Korean-American students.  What a blessing to have these folks supporting the student ministry in such a small congregation.
4. Not changing things during first year is a temptation that’s quite difficult to defeat.
5. I’ve come to be comfortable about saying “I don’t know.”
6. It’s nice to have mentors.  During the turbulent time of this church, I must have called experienced pastors at least once/week.
7. Middle School/High School students love to volunteer their time to serve the city community. I’m very proud of them.

Challenges:

1. It’s an overwhelming task to learn how to use educational curriculum.  I still don’t know how to utilize them effectively.
2. My talks tend to get a bit too academic.  For this reason, I’ve been writing less and trying to turn toward conversational speaking.  I’m definitely not a natural-born to do public speech.
3. The cultural gap between the first generation (mainly Korean-speaking part of the congregation) and the second generation (mainly English-speaking part of the congregation) is not to be ignored.  on April 14, I will be speaking at the “Praise Night” about solidarity in the midst of diversity.  I still don’t know what I should talk about… Perhaps I should pray like a pastor should.

I’m not much of a blogger.  I mostly read others’ blogs in the blogosphere, but perhaps this may be an opportunity to bounce some ideas with whoever bothers to read my blogs in the future.