First, sermon.
The morning program came with a special message on the Importance of Prayer and the Holy Spirit that unite people through the World Mission, by Pastor Insoo Chung.
Holy Spirit ought to come upon, dwell-in, and walk with his servants.
Three sources of power people consider rely upon - Holy Spirit, your character, and money.
He is 1.5 gen pastor, and traveled 49 countries. He witnessed God's work in mission fields is done not through man's power, money power, but the power of the Holy Spirit who ought to come upon, dwell in, and walk with His servants.
Second, Pastor Sungkwan Yoo (a member of the Board of Director of SIM) talked about the mobilization of man-power for world mission. He presented a video clip entitled Discipleship Training and World Mission, focusing on the late Pastor Hanoum Ok, the founder of the Love (sarang) Church, who came up with discipleship programs. They have 2000 cell groups, where they established 650 disciples (cell leaders). Pastor Ok established Pastor Jung-hyun Oh as his successor (recognizing Pastor Oh's successful ministry in LA). His philosophy on the ministry is to love one soul by raising him or her as Jesus' disciple.
We need to make that which is uniquely Korea into a package (putting together early morning devotion prayer, disciple program, etc.)
Go (king)--> Make disciples (prophet) --> baptize (priest)--> teach (missionary)--> obey focusing on the area belonging to the 10/40 windows belt in which Korea is the beginning point; this territory is in need of bread and gospel. The key is lay man movement. He attended the UBF World Mission Conference in Europe and received much grace from the examples of UBF missionaries making disciples. We need to mobilize 7.3 million Korean Diasporas in 180 nations, riding on what God does such as Korean pop culture spreading vis news media like Video Clips like Gangnam Style by Psy.
There is the change on the environments of the world mission, that is, globalization, urbanization, and specialization with everything going digital. Note drastic reduction of Unreached People. Consider onslaught of Islamic Influence. Multi-cultural trend. Holistic Mission is needed. Gateway City Mission is necessary. Multi-directional trend (meaning gospel spreads not one direction like east west or north south etc. but multi-directionally). Spiritual power, economic power, man power are three key factors for a spiritual power nation. In Sarang Church every year 1,200 people come to receive discipleship training. Make all (nations) as disciples. Who should go? You. Where? Begin where you stand. When? Now.
Pastor Sang-cheol Song responded saying what we need is healing, discipleship training, and missionary training. Once at a monastery monk candidates were going through a training program. One monk was problematic. He once was asked to preach a sermon. He took the podium and said, "Who knows what I am going to preach today?" All said, "We don't know." Then the man said, "when you don't know what I am going to preach, you don't deserve to hear what I am going to say. All of you are dismissed." Next Sunday they gave him another opportunity to speak. Then he asked the audience the same question. People all raised hands saying, "We know what you are going to preach." Then the man said, "Since you already know, I do not need to speak. Go and do what you know." Next Sunday he was given another chance to speak. The man took the podium and asked the same question. About half raised hands saying, "We know", but the rest said, "We don't know." The man said, "Those who know teach those who do not know." Then he stepped down. The chief of the monastery was deeply impressed, so he hung out at the front of the monastery a sign, "from those who know to those who do not know."
Korean church has many problems like: Extreme dualism; return to Roman Catholicism (clergy vs. laity) [pastor is exercising too much authority]; mega-size going business-mindedness, adopting commercialism, absorbing small churches; fragmentalization, so those who are with money and power do not listen to others such as denominational leadership; shamanistic trend; demoralization of pastors; secularization.
The solution is discipleship training which comes from training and the work of the Holy Spirit. The key is to produce not just tech person but godly man.
North Korea
After the coffee break from 10:00 - 10:30 a.m., Pastor Hyun Soo Lim of Hanbit (Great Light) Church, Canada presented the Present Condition of the N. Korea. He visited N. Korea 94 times. They suffer from drought, robbed of freedom and human rights; the drought is the worst in 140 years, they suffer from poverty with many orphans starving to death,
10,350 children are being fed by his line of service per contract with the government. Flower girls are many. Since they built a trust relationship with the N. Korean government via last 18 years of continuous help, so they have no problem to get visas, signifying the importance of the relationship based evangelism. About 80% of Korean churches are negative in providing for the N. Korean people material support. But we have reasons to support them. The reasons are:
- God's command and providence (Mat 28)
- It is our duty to help them.
- They are our own flesh.
- God's time has arrived.
- We need a mediator of peace.
- We need to practice love as fellow human beings.
- Serving is the duty of the strong.
- We are debtors of gospel.
- Many defected from N. Korea.
- The time is come. Matt 24:14
Closing message by: Pastor Ji-il Bang John 17:18
Jesus is the first ambassador sent by God. How did he do? He did it as seen in John 17. He only served what he heard from the Father. He did not mix his ideas. We need to follow the same thing. We should not be like Samuel Muffet who wanted to know first and then believe. Faith means believe and then know.
He spoke of the great men and women of 'faith' such as Kwon-nung Choi, Ki-chul Choo, Yang Won Sohn, Sarah Barry, etc. Memorize John 17:18. As Daniel 5:25 says, weigh what you say or do on God's scale, for your words or own doings coming from your ideas amount to nothing: only do as God says in the Scriptures. .
Visitation:
After lunch, we visited two places - Billy Graham Library and SIM HQ
Billy Graham Library was located about 10 minutes away from the Charlotte church. Dr. Billy Graham is now 93 years old, and is going to be 94 as of Nov. 7. He is writing a book which is about to be published. His wife Ruth died in 1994 two weeks before the opening of the Billy Graham Library.
SIM HQ (Sudan Interior Mission) (which now changed Serving In Mission) is also located about 10 minutes from the Billy Graham Library. It was founded in 1893 to support the Sudan Inner Area Mission, founded by three young men. Thus far they sent out 1,600 missionaries to 50 different countries particularly Africa and Asia. Their purpose is to operate as a bridge between church and mission fields, so as they accept missionary candidates from church organizations they train them, equip them, send them, and follow up on them. And their mission includes recruiting empowering them and caring for them until they retire. The facilities include administrative buildings, residences for trainees and staff members sitting on about 90 acres. About 100 staff members work at SIM HQ. Admin functions include financial, fund raising, media relations, maintaining websites, literature, etc. Fund raising for general operation and special projects come through one on one presentations and contacts based on mail list. Training program also includes 2 week start up program (get to know session), cross-cultural studies, language acquisition, etc. Each year 60-80 missionaries are being sent out. Dinner fellowship: the church served a dinner with music programs
The end
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