“I was a lawyer there in Cape Town, South Africa. And then we thought God called us to the mission field. And we went to South Korea. We were there for eight years living in international school setting and my wife and I worked as dormitory parents. . . but during that time, I felt God speak to us and say that I need to go study theology. And we said, well, where shall we go, and it just came very clearly to us that it has to be Regent college, and that’s in Canada. And so we came from Korea, we came to Canada to study at Regent. And when I finished my studies say, I got a position at a church, multicultural church, mostly Chinese, but also English speakers as well. That was a multi site church with three different congregations on each site. So all in all, there’s about nine congregations, English, Mandarin, and Cantonese. That was my initiation into pastoral ministry in Vancouver was this Chinese church which was multisite. I was there for just over five years. Then I was looking for a change, and this small church in Burnaby, 60 to 70 people, I got a call from them.”
“The planning is so much less in a small church than in a large church. When you have one site, using the same buildings, three different congregations, you need to plan everything away in advance. . . But when you’re just in a smaller church like we are now and the only pastor you can pretty much do some things on the fly. You still need to kind of give people notice where you can, but you don’t have to book the room that you want. It’s the only room. It’s there.”
[Adjusting to COVID] The first thing for us is good communication, regular meetings amongst the leadership. And the second thing we did is we said we want a schedule for our people that there will be a kind of a rhythm for them of church. . . . The one thing is definitely we want to keep on streaming going forward. . . . I think to do to do that well we’re going to have to expand our AV capabilities. So I think we’re going to need people more trained, get more skills, maybe get some more equipment, and so forth. . . . The other thing that’s on my radar right now, is I think that COVID has really given us an opportunity to stop, to pause. And to kind of reset in a way. . . . So, for us, I think this has given us an opportunity to form new goals, and to kind of rethink what we’ve done in the past. And what we want to do in the future.”
“So just one man’s opinion, is I don’t think that every church can be a multicultural church. I think some churches have a calling to reach people from the same people group that’s predominantly in that congregation. And that could be whatever ethnic or cultural background the folks are in that church, they’ll be really good at meeting the needs of those people and of bringing in new believers from that same sort of people group or that same culture or ethnicity.”
“But I think some of us are able to transcend and to cross those cultural and ethical boundaries. You know, I look at the church spoken of in Revelation from every tribe, nation and tongue around the throne. . . . In our own church, we have about 60 to 70 people where we have 15 different nationalities. So we are very, very multicultural. And it’s something that’s on my heart personally. And I would always advocate for that. And I would always aim and drive towards that. But, but it’s not an easy road to walk.”
“I’ve seen some some churches where they would say, from the pulpit, and in the literature, they would say we multicultural. But at the same time, what they actually mean is we do things in a certain way, which is the predominant culture. But we are open to all the cultures to come and join us. But it’s a blind spot. . . . Okay, I’m open to serving some African folks in my church. And next Sunday, we will start at nine, maybe go to four o’clock, you know, we’ll see – that’s when the African person will feel very comfortable. But not for some other folks. And so, subconsciously you do have this phenomenon, where there is a dominant culture that kind of does things their way. But they have a blind spot. They don’t see it that way. They think this is just the proper way to do church. . . So for leadership, if you really want multicultural, you really have to pay attention and listen to all your cultures every step of the way. Every time you assume this is a decent way to do it. It just might be a dominant culture bias that you have.”
“For myself, having been in law, two things that stand out. The one is that you get to know people. . . . in the legal profession you deal with people from all walks of life, from the bum on the street, right to the guy who’s a corporate crook, to doing contracts with companies. There’s a whole range of people that you work with and that’s really helpful because in ministry our focus is people.”
“Secondly, I think what’s really helped me is in law you have this way of thinking that’s kind of methodical, that’s analytical. In many ways, you’re able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. I can hear one story from my client, but I know that there’s another person on the other side, and that lawyer will hear a different story. And if I just go with what my client is saying, without trying to think through what it looks like, from the other side, I’m going to get to court and I’m going to fall short, . . . I think it’s the same thing in ministry. We have to think what it looks like for us as Christians, but also what does it look like for non Christians? And certain doctrines that we just accept, that we don’t question. What questions would that raise for a non Christian and unbeliever or for someone from a different tradition?”
[For someone considering going into ministry in a small church setting?] “The first thing that you need to do is realize that the people that you have are the people you need to work with. You need to build a team, the pastor and the elders, if you have deacons or whatever your situation is, but you’re the people in leadership in your church, you need to bring unity amongst them. So do your best to work really hard for unity amongst your leaders. Because if you have them working together as a team, if they’re all on the same page, you’re going to be successful, and you’re going to enjoy your ministry. If there’s infighting in a small church in leadership, there’s nowhere to go. . . . The second thing is to think about what exactly you want to accomplish, and to see what you can accomplish with the people you have. So don’t try and do 20 things. If you only have people to do 10 things, then choose your 10 things and do those 10 things and get them done, because you’ve got the people for that. Don’t try and do 20 things and say, well, I’ve only got 10 people and so you know, I I can only do 50% of what I want to do.”