Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

Articles

“Judge not” is not about being blind

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We live in such an interesting point in time, don’t we?

On the one hand, we’re encouraged to rate and review everything—our favourite restaurants, businesses, workouts, books, podcasts, shows, and even professors and doctors! In fact, not only are we encouraged, but we’re even incentivized to do so! But at the same time, we’re also drowning in criticism, contempt, and a wildfire of seemingly knee-jerk reactions and poorly thought-out opinions to tweets, rumours, and news articles—both real and fake.

Hmm…I wonder if there’s a connection?

When Jesus said, “Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged,” was this what he was referring to? Was he warning us about the perils of five-star ratings, and industries built upon crowd sourcing reviews? Or was he perhaps talking about all of the subtle—and also overt—ways that we pass judgement onto others? Like, “I can’t believe they parked like that! How inconsiderate.” Or, “What a show off. What is he trying to prove posting that on the internet?”

It’s the latter!

When Jesus said “Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged,” he’s referring to all of the ways that we judge others through our thoughts, our ensuing facial reactions, or the words that come out of our mouths. He’s talking about the tendency that we have to often criticize, condemn, find fault with, or think that we’re higher or better than others—especially when we’re “hangry” or tired.

Let’s take a look at the whole passage,

Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. For you will be judged by the same standard with which you judge others, and you will be measured by the same measure you use. Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a beam of wood in your own eye? Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:1-5 CSB)

Now after reading this, it’s completely reasonable to think to yourself, “Alright so…to help me not judge, I’m just going to keep my head down and turn a blind eye to everything!”

Note that I said “reasonable to think to yourself,” and not “reasonable to do.” Going to an extreme like this is not the way to live out Jesus’ command to “Judge not.”

I love how the theologian and pastor, John Stott, explains this passage,

To sum up, the command to judge not is not a requirement to be blind, but rather a plea to be generous. Jesus does not tell us to cease to be men (by suspending our critical powers which help to distinguish us from animals) but to renounce the presumptuous ambition to be God (by setting ourselves up as judges).

Oh how we often fall into this trap!

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve caught myself—mid-sentence—yelling at my kids to stop yelling at each other. When we judge others like this, we’re hypocrites. We’re near-sighted hypocrites who don’t realize that we’re pointing out the splinter in another’s eye, while we ourselves have a beam of wood in ours!

So the next time you find yourself tempted to pass judgement on another person…

…what do you think would happen if you paused and first asked yourself, “When have I been guilty of this myself?” And then went to the cross and spent time in prayer for yourself and for the other person, instead of judgement?

Friends, let’s judge not!

Keeping Short Accounts

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It’s been a little over three years since my family and I moved back to Canada for me to become the next Lead Pastor at Beulah Alliance Church.

Here are a couple of posts that I did on the succession journey:

I was recently interviewed by Sean Morgan about the transition, why humility must be the chief characteristic of the outgoing pastor, and why leaders must keep short accounts.

Here’s the episode on the Leaders in Living Rooms Podcast:

Our Focus for the Next 50 Years

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If you could focus on something for the next 50 years—and give all of your best thought, focus, resources, and energy toward that one thing—what would it be?

If, as a church, we could focus on something or some thing(s) for the next 50 years, what would make the greatest difference? And when Jesus taught us to pray, “May your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” what efforts do you think he had in mind?

Recently, Timothy Keller wrote a series of four articles that are a must-read for every Christian pastor and leader on The Decline and Renewal of the American Church:

  1. The Decline of the Mainline
  2. The Decline of Evangelicalism
  3. The Path to Renewal
  4. The Strategy for Renewal

I urge you to take the time to read all four. It will probably take a good hour to read and process all of them, but it’ll be worth your time. Keller is a gift to the church.

Now when it comes to that something or those some thing(s) to focus on for the next 50 years, here are a list of eight projects that Keller is inviting us to consider. The following are his words, not mine from his fourth article:

The Projects of Renewal

This project list is not final. God will lead the leaders to his will for them. And this list which I put forward for consideration was given in the third article. For reader convenience here it is again with somewhat fuller descriptions.

  1. Church planting and renewal. We need to double the number of new church plants in the U.S. from the current 3-4,000 to 6-8,000 annually. Current models of church planting need to be changed. First, because they are both too under-resourced among poor and working-class populations and done too expensively in the more advantaged populations. Church planters, in general, will need (a) far more coaching and support, (b) far more training and education delivered to them as they minister, and (c) more institutional support for an evangelistic model that grows through conversion rather than a marketing model that grows through marketing and transfer.
  2. ‘Counter-Catechesis’ discipleship. Christian education, in general, needs to be massively redone. We must not merely explain Christian doctrine to children, youth, and adults, but use Christian doctrine to subvert the baseline cultural narratives to which believers are exposed in powerful ways every day. We should distribute this material widely to all, disrupting existing channels, flooding society, as it were, with the material as well as directly incorporating it into local churches.
  3. Post-Christian Evangelism. The Christian church in the West faces the first post-Christian, deeply secular culture in history. It has not yet developed a way to do evangelism with the secular and the “nones” that really gains traction and sees many people regularly coming to faith. This project is to develop both content and means for such evangelism. The means will entail a mobilization of lay people in evangelism, as in the early church. The content will show how to demonstrate to deeply skeptical people that Christianity is respectable, desirable, and believable (cf. Blaise Pascal’s Pensée 187).
  4. A Justice Network. We must create a network—at least one trans-denominational ministry or maybe a network of networks—that organizes Christians and churches in communities to both help various needy populations and also to work for a more just and fair social order at the local level. Only relatively large congregations can mount effective ministries to address social problems. A network will provide any church and every church in a locale multiple ways to be involved in visible-to-the-world ways and means for tackling the most acute and chronic injustices and social issues in a community or region.
  5. A Faith-work Network. We must create a network (or, again, a network of new and existing ministries) that organizes and equips Christians for ‘faithful presence’ in their vocations, [19] to help them serve the common good through integrating their faith with their work. The network will help churches disciple people for their public life so Christians neither seal their faith off from their work, nor infiltrate vocational fields for domination.
  6. The “Christian mind” project. Evangelicalism has a strongly anti-intellectual cast to it that must be overcome without losing its appeal to the majority of the population. The goals include increasing the number of Christians on faculties, forging a robust intellectual culture for orthodox Protestantism, and increasing the number of Christian public intellectuals. This will not only entail promoting believers into the existing intellectual and cultural economy of basically (a) largely progressive universities and (b) largely conservative think tanks. It will also mean creating some kind of alternate cultural economy for scholarship and intellectual work.
  7. A new leadership pipeline. We must not only renew, re-create, expand, and greatly strengthen youth ministry and campus ministries across the country, but we must link these (more tightly than in the past) with local churches and denominations, ministry/theological training centers, colleges, and seminaries—forming coherent yet highly diverse and flexible pathways for leadership development (e.g. conversion, then student leadership, then internships, then staff positions and other leadership positions). The purpose is to produce increasing numbers of well-equipped Christian leaders.
  8. Behind all these seven projects is an eighth ‘meta’ project. Call it Christian philanthropy. We cannot renew the church or be of any help to society without strong financial undergirding. That will require a change in how Christians give and steward their wealth such that it will release far more money for ministry than has been available.

Is God calling you to focus on one of these eight? If you could focus on something for the next 50 years—and give all of your best thought, focus, resources, and energy toward that one thing—what would it be?

Living and Drifting when in Transition

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Have you heard about The World’s Toughest Race?

It was a 671 km race over 11 days in Fiji that involved paddling, sailing, mountain biking, whitewater rafting, rappelling, climbing, and canyoneering. That’s the equivalent to 16 marathons, but multiplied exponentially in difficulty! When you watch the first episode, everyone is absolutely stoked, excited, and revved up to compete. Of the 60 teams from 30 countries, some have been training for months, and others for years.

During the race, the top teams slept only a few hours a day, if even. In fact, one team who dropped out in the middle only slept four hours in four days. Others stopped in the middle because of hypothermia or infections. Some just couldn’t go on because of pure exhaustion, others dropped out because of physical, mental, and emotional fatigue. And for most, it all happened in the middle.

What is it about the middle?

Don’t you find that we often quit in the middle? We get scared, and then we quit. We run out of money, and then we quit. We run out of time, we’re not serious enough, we lose interest, we settle for being mediocre, or we just focus on the short term instead of the long term…and then we quit. And doesn’t all of that usually happen when we’re in the middle?

If there’s anyone who knows anything about living in the middle, it’s the Israelites! For 40 years, they lived in between their life of captivity and the Promised Land—that’s 40 years in the middle. As time passed—and as they got used to living in the middle—something interesting happened. They began to drift.

Their longing for the familiar led to a longing to quit because they began forgetting all the ways that God had miraculously rescued them from their former life of slavery. And eventually, their gratitude drifted into mumbling, their thanksgiving drifted into grumbling, and their hope drifted into despair. In other words, when the Israelites were living in the middle, they forgot the past, began turning inward, and eventually drifted off course.

Has this ever happened to you?

As the Israelites slowly started forgetting their past and taking their eyes off of God, their God-worship was replaced with idol-worship. And even though they boldly declared that they would never have any other god beside the one True God (Exodus 24:3), they still bowed down to an idol—all because they drifted.

As we see all throughout the Scriptures, and in fact, all throughout the news as well, our natural tendency is to drift because our hearts are full of idols. With the Israelites, I know that Aaron made a golden calf (Exodus 32:1-6)—which is kind of why Moses flipped out—but that was simply a physical expression of what the people had already fashioned in their hearts and were already bowing down to. Even before they asked Aaron to make an idol for them, the Israelites had already started living for and worshipping the idol of comfort, the idol of comparison, and the golden calf of me, myself, and I.

When we’re in the middle, our natural tendency is to drift because our hearts are full of idols.
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When they were in the middle of leaving behind a life of slavery and moving toward a life of freedom, their hearts wandered and they drifted. They forgot what God had done and how he had miraculously rescued them through signs and wonders. And as a result, they began turning inward, and they eventually drifted off course.

Do you find yourself in the middle of something right now? In transition? Or living in between?

If so, then beware because you will most likely end up drifting when you’re in the middle—just like the current that will take you down a river, or the tide that will take you back to shore, or push you further out. When we’re in the middle, our natural tendency is to drift, unless we are proactive and intentional to paddle the other way! And these days, while you might not necessarily create and bow down to a golden calf while you’re in the middle, your heart will often drift to an idol that you’ve previously secured yourself to, or bowed down to in the past.

When we’re in the middle, our natural tendency is to drift, unless we are proactive and intentional to paddle the other way!
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What is that for you?

Is it work? When you are in the middle, do you have a tendency to just bury yourself in work to distract yourself? Or is it perhaps leisure and trying to have fun and fill yourself with experiences? Or maybe it’s alcohol or drugs to help you relax and forget? Or perhaps it’s pornography because it makes you feel like you’re in control?

Instead of letting yourself fall into a tried, tested, and true tactic of the evil one, I urge you to do what some of the Israelites did once they recognized that they drifted—repent. Lay down your pride, confess your mistakes, and come humbly before Jesus because he cares for you.

If you’ve drifted and find yourself bowing down to an idol from your past, my prayer is that you would be overwhelmed by the unchanging compassion and grace of Jesus. And that the guilt or shame that you are experiencing would be replaced with the abounding faithful love and truth of Jesus as he washes over and forgives your iniquity, rebellion, and sin. Because here’s the truth: there’s nothing you can ever do to make Jesus love you less, and there’s nothing you can ever do to make Jesus love you more. His love is ever constant, ever present, and forever unchanging—even when we drift off course.

There’s nothing you can ever do to make Jesus love you less, and there’s nothing you can ever do to make Jesus love you more.
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*My article here was originally published on February 11, 2021 on Impactus.

Underneath the Surface of Disney’s Hit Song, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”

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Over the past month, have you caught yourself singing a song about Bruno?

Or, I guess to put it more accurately, not talking about Bruno? Because of the enormous popularity of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Disney’s 2021 film, Encanto, this song has stayed on the Top 10 Billboard chart for weeks in several countries.

Now the purpose for this article isn’t to talk about the “magic” in this movie (and to go down that rabbit hole). Rather, it’s to address the ways that the songs and themes in this movie are actually perpetuating lies about our identity—and feeding us (and our children) lies about ourselves.

When I wrote You Are What You Do: And Six Other Lies About Work, Life, and Love, I was attempting to shine a spotlight on seven different lies about our identity—and how to discover the truth on the other side. Now the thing about these lies is that they don’t actually seem harmful on the surface—they just seem more of a matter of fact than anything. But when you dig underneath the surface, and begin unpacking how these lies are shaping your relationships, your understanding of self, and your emotional, physical, and spiritual health…you start realizing that these lies aren’t as harmless as they appear to be.

Now just to be clear, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is musical genius. My family and I couldn’t stop listening to the song because it’s so catchy, fun, and mesmerizing musically. But the more I listened to the song, the more I realized that it was the music and not the lyrics that I fell in love with.

Why shouldn’t the family talk about Bruno? Why is it okay to expel someone from the family? Why don’t people know the actual reason he was ex-communicated? And how in the world can someone survive in the walls of a house?! (Sorry for the spoiler).

I recognize that yes, this is just a movie, but could songs like this be unintentionally feeding our children lies about their identity like “you are what you do” and “you are your past”?

In the movie, we see that Abuela, the matriarch of the family, had cultivated a culture where lies like those ones were the core source of everyone’s identity. Because of her past—both the death of her husband and the way her house came to be—her whole family was living proof that “you are your past.” And when you consider the way that everything revolved around an individual’s gift, what other message than “you are what you do” was being communicated to the one with the gift and everyone around them? No wonder Mirabel’s sister, Luisa, was crumbling under the surface from the pressure placed on her.

Oh and let’s not forget the lie that made the hit song, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” possible! Because Abuela believed the lie that “you are who you raise,” there was no way she could allow Bruno to reflect back on her in anyway…hence the reason no one talks about Bruno!

So What?

Friends, this is why I wrote You Are What You Do: And Six Other Lies About Work, Life, and Love. I wrote it to help us recognize the lies that our culture is subtly feeding us about ourselves. The book—and this article—are not indictments to boycott this movie or our culture. Rather, they are pleas to become more discerning about what messages we’re subtly listening to and letting shape who we are and how we live, work, and love.

If you haven’t yet picked up a copy of the book, I’d be honored if you would do so either by going to Amazon or checking out my book page to learn more about it.

A Pattern for Prayer

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If you were to describe your prayer life with three words, which of the following three words would you use?

Here are a few that you can choose from:

Brief, dusty, faithless, abiding, fresh, faith-filled, duty, boring, lacking, privilege, courageous, fulfilling, me-centered, depressing, fickle, others-centered, joyful, persevering

It’s interesting how differently we all view prayer, isn’t it?

In the church I grew up in, prayer was dependence, it was surrender, it was pleading, it was passionate, and it was a duty. Daily, there were early morning prayer gatherings at the church. Weekly, the congregation would come early before the service started to pray and prepare their hearts. And annually at youth retreats, the prayer time went for hours.

In fact, when Christina and I first moved to Seoul, Korea to pastor there, we were staying in a guest room at the church, until we found an apartment. The next morning, I remember being awoken to, what sounded like, thousands of people talking…which I later discovered was actually the case because thousands of people were talking to God at the early morning prayer service!

The congregation we served in Korea understood that spending time with God was the essence of prayer, as David Benner describes:

Spending time with God ought to be the essence of prayer. However, as it is usually practiced, prayer is more like a series of e-mail or instant messages than hanging out together…It should not be a surprise that the result is a superficial relationship.

Spending time with God ought to be the essence of prayer. – David Benner
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They understood the importance of spending time with God together with others. They didn’t see prayer as a duty which must be performed. They saw prayer as a privilege to be enjoyed.

And as E.M. Bounds so aptly put it, “a rare delight that is always revealing some new beauty.”

Prayer is a rare delight that is always revealing some new beauty – E.M. Bounds.
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How about you? How do you currently view prayer? And how do you want to?

In Philippians 1:3-8, Paul presents a pattern for prayer: to pray with thanksgiving, joy, and perseverance.

I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you, always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Indeed, it is right for me to think this way about all of you, because I have you in my heart, and you are all partners with me in grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how deeply I miss all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:3-8 CSB)

This pattern for prayer isn’t a rigid structure for prayer, nor is it comprehensive. Rather, it’s more of a pattern that describes Paul’s prayer life—and I believe that this pattern is one that we should reflect on, and measure our prayer life against.

1. Pray with thanksgiving

Instead of grumbling, Paul chose to give thanks. He didn’t allow his circumstances to lead his response. Instead, he saw his circumstances through the lens of who he knew God to be, as revealed through the Scriptures.

He knew that God was in control, even if his circumstances felt out of control. He knew that God was faithful, even if things felt uncertain. He knew that God was always present, even if he felt abandoned. And he knew that God saw him and was always with him. In other words, instead of looking around, Paul looked up and he gave thanks.

2. Pray with joy

The interesting thing about joy is that you can’t choose it. You can make yourself laugh, and you might even be able to make yourself feel happy, but you can’t choose joy. This is because joy is a fruit of the Spirit and evidence that you have a personal relationship with God and are filled with the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22; Rom 14:17).

In other words, joy isn’t circumstantial. Joy is a result of the gospel. You don’t experience more joy when everything feels certain. Joy is not a result of a better job, a better relationship, better health, or a better address. Joy is a result of having and cultivating a personal relationship with Jesus.

Joy isn’t circumstantial. Joy is a result of the gospel.
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This is why you can grieve and still rejoice, why you can have joy in the midst of sorrow, and why you can have nothing, yet possess everything.

3. Pray with perseverance

Perseverance is something that was cultivated in Paul’s heart and prayer life because he did life together with the Philippians. As Paul regularly practiced gathering, growing, giving, and going together with the Philippians, he grew in perseverance with them. And as their bond strengthened with one another, they went from being acquaintances to co-workers.

We see evidence of this because the Philippians never turned their backs on him. While he was in prison, they supported him in prayer and with financial support. They weren’t ashamed of him—even though imprisonment would’ve brought great shame in that time. Instead, they supported him as he shared the gospel with his captors, fellow prisoners, and judges over him.

So in conclusion, what needs to happen for your prayer life to be marked with thanksgiving, joy, and perseverance?

My dear friends, let us “Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thess 5:16-18 CSB).

*My article here was originally published on September 8, 2021 on Impactus.

How to Actually Make Friends (these days…)

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These days, isn’t it so easy to make friends?

All you have to do is click “confirm” or “add” and you’re done! You now have another friend. Long gone are those awkward “getting to know you” conversations. All you have to do is scroll through their feed, like their photos, post a couple comments, and in no time you’ll be getting hundreds of friends saying happy birthday to you annually.

As blatantly sarcastic as I’m being, if you were to be brutally honest with yourself, I’m sure there’s been a moment when you’ve called a Facebook friend an actual friend—even though you’ve never actually seen them face to face. Or you at least know someone who has done this.

Is this what friendship has come to? Why does it seem so hard to make genuine friends? And keep them?

I know we often use busyness as an excuse for not making or cultivating friendships—I’ll be the first one to admit to that—but have you ever considered the consequences of delaying the formation of genuine friendships?

Have you ever considered the consequences of delaying the formation of genuine friendships?
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To answer that question, let’s take a look at James 5:13-14. While this passage is often quoted when someone is sick and is needing the healing touch of Jesus, I also believe it has a deep measure of insight to the topic at hand.

Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? He should call for the elders of the church, and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. (James 5:13-14 CSB)

What do you think James is getting at when he’s asking, “Is anyone among you…?” Do you think he’s just asking whether or not you are aware of what’s going on around you? Whether you are connected enough to others to know and notice if anyone among you is suffering?

While I recognize that there are some people—like my wife Christina—who can intuitively sense and feel the emotions of others, I’ve lived long enough to know that this doesn’t come naturally to everyone. I actually need to know that something is going on in someone’s life to be able to do something for them and be a friend for them.

To know this requires several things:

  • It requires me to lift my head up, get out of my own little world, and take my headphones off.
  • It requires me to begin eating with others, asking questions, and listening—both to them and to the promptings of the Holy Spirit to know what to say and what not to say.
  • It requires me to go earlier and stick around longer, so that I can have conversations with others beyond whatever meeting I’ve come to.
  • It requires me to budget a little bit more to eating out, so that I can go out to lunch with others after church, or go out to coffee with my neighbours and coworkers.
  • It requires the use of a slow cooker when I have others over, so that I can have more time to listen, talk, and engage with others when they come over.
  • And it also requires me being okay with my home—and not obsessing over how it looks, what type of floor I have, or even how clean it is.

In other words, to know whether something is going on in someone else’s life, I need to first be present and be a friend—something that just doesn’t happen overnight!!

So let me ask you a few questions:

  1. Is anyone among you suffering? Instead of just telling them to go and pray, what if you were to go and pray with them?
  2. Is anyone among you cheerful? Instead of just being happy for them, what would happen if you celebrated with them?
  3. And is anyone among you sick? Instead of just saying that you’ll pray for them, what would happen if you were to drop off a meal for them? Visit with them over FaceTime or Zoom? And also help mobilize the elders of your church and prayer team to pray for them?

In today’s world where it’s so easy to “use” people and treat them as a means to an end, let’s resolve to be the kind of people who can easily answer the question, “Is anyone among you…?”

*My article here was originally published on January 5, 2021 on Impactus.

Goodbye and Hello – My Old and New Podcast

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Goodbye New Churches Q&A Podcast. Hello 1 Ministry Question Podcast. 

THANK YOU to everyone who listened to the banter, interruptions, and occasional nuggets of wisdom between Ed Stetzer, Todd Adkins, and I on the New Churches Q&A Podcast. It was an honor to serve all of you church planters, pastors, and leaders over the last 6 years with 619 episodes downloaded 1.5+ million times from 172 countries. 

So, what’s next?

Well, in the same way that every church planter eventually needs to just call themselves a pastor, Todd and I (along with Dan Iten) have decided to take the same Q&A format from the New Churches podcast and bring it over to a brand new podcast for ALL ministry leaders. 

It’s called the 1 Ministry Question Podcast and it’s for anyone leading within the local church. Our new podcast seeks to provide you with practical strategies, actionable ideas, and often templates and exercises to help you and your team grow. 

  • Episode 1: How to recruit new volunteers
  • Episode 2: How to onboard new volunteers
  • Episode 3: How to continue to grow spiritually as a pastor or leader
  • Episode 4: How do you prevent burnout?

I hope you can check it out everywhere you get your podcasts. Just search for “1 Ministry Question Podcast” or head on over to:

Preface to the Korean Version of Planting Missional Churches

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The book I co-authored with Ed Stetzer, Planting Missional Churches (2nd edition), is now in Korean! A huge thanks to 설훈 and 요단출판사 for their work to translate our book.

I had the opportunity to write a new Preface for the Korean edition. Here’s what it says in English:

I am who I am today because of church planting. My love for Jesus is stronger, my faith is rooted deeper, and I believe my ministry has experienced a greater measure of fruitfulness because of the church plant I grew up in, and the church plants I’ve been a part of.

My parents (Byongnam and Soonim) immigrated to Canada in the 1970s from South Korea. They brought their faith in Jesus, their love for the church, and their desire to start afresh and anew to Canada. Because of a desire to be in community and on mission, they helped plant the church that I grew up in, The Philadelphia Church of Vancouver.

Growing up, I didn’t know anything else. Of course you would start new churches to reach new people. Of course you would sacrifice your time, talent, and treasure to help the church grow. Of course you would have people over to your house to fellowship, worship, study the Bible, and pray. Of course you would be incredibly welcoming and evangelistic to reach the lost. Of course life would revolve around the church.

I didn’t know that Christians lived any other way. I didn’t know that for many Christians, faith is a once or twice a month commitment if it suits their schedule. I didn’t know that some could call themselves Christians simply for the social benefits that it gives them. I didn’t know because church planting was my all and everything.

The first two churches I served in were church plants. The third church was a global church planting church. And the church that I’m now the Lead Pastor at, Beulah Alliance Church in Edmonton, Canada, has planted over 30 churches in its 100 year history.

I love church planting because it’s one of the most powerful means of spreading the gospel. Ed Stetzer and I are convinced that church planting is, and will always remain, a key part in the advancement of the Kingdom of God.

Now while Ed and I worked on this book together, we’ve chosen to write the rest of the book in first person and in Ed’s voice. However, since I’m a second-generation Korean Canadian, and this is the Korean translation of the book, we decided that I, Daniel Im, would write the preface.

So before we get into the book, let me end this preface with a story about a heroic church planter.

He rises up early in the morning—earlier than anyone else like Jesus did (Mark 1:35)—to pray and seek God’s face for the salvation of his city. He single-handedly raises more than enough finances to cover all of his church plant’s expenses for five years because of his earnest faith in our Father who gives us our daily bread (Matthew 6:10). His church plant quadruples in size every single year because of his anointed preaching and dynamic worship services (Acts 2:41-47). Every month, he plants church after church after church because the fields are ready for harvest and he’s cracked the code on rapid multiplication (John 4:35).

Do you know anyone like that? Is this who you want to become? This person sounds incredible, don’t they? Intimacy with Jesus and fruitfulness in ministry—what else would you want as a pastor?

The only problem is that it’s a myth!

Now let me clarify before you close this book, or throw it away.

I’m not saying that intimacy with Jesus and fruitfulness in ministry is a myth. I’m saying that the individualistic heroic church planter who single-handedly accomplishes and grows their church plant because of their own skills and abilities is a myth! Growing spiritually and ministering effectively is not a solo endeavour. And the key to success isn’t charisma and a master plan. 

The path to planting missional churches that multiply for God’s glory is one that can only be taken together with others, with Jesus as the Head, and the Holy Spirit’s empowerment. And that’s the path that we want to take you on in this book. So let’s get started.

Daniel Im

Edmonton, Canada

If you are interested, you can pick up a copy of the book here.

What is Your Church’s Posture Toward Jesus?

By

*** If you’d like to dig deeper into the content of this article, I want to invite you to pick up a copy of my newest book, The Discipleship Opportunity: Leading a Great-Commission Church in a Post-Everything World. In this book, I unpack everything in this article in a deeper and more thorough manner. ***

Take a look at this quadrant that I’ve been developing over this past year.

Where would you place yourself and the people in your church?

The Interested Disinterested Matrix - Daniel Im
FIGURE 1
  • SEEKERS are individuals who are interested in Jesus, but not yet Christian
  • CONSUMERS are individuals who are Christian, but not quite interested in Jesus
  • SLEEPERS are individuals who are spiritually asleep to Jesus—so they’re neither Christian nor interested in Him
  • And DISCIPLE-MAKERS are individuals who are both Christian and interested in Jesus

Do you remember the Engel Scale?

It’s a scale that represents an individual’s spiritual journey from non-Christian to Christian (see the horizontal axis in Figure 1). At the far end of the left side, you have someone who doesn’t know or understand the gospel. At the far end of the right side, you have someone who is living fully surrendered to Jesus—proclaiming the gospel in word and in deed. And the middle point is the point of salvation where an individual repents and confesses with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believes in their heart that God raised him from the dead (Rom 10:9).

For the last few decades, one of the predominant models of ministry in the West was doing anything and everything to help people move along this line.

However, the problem with this model is that it’s linear—it assumes people are interested in Jesus. As a result, it assumes that non-Christians are interested in becoming Christian, which would make them SEEKERS. And it assumes that Christians are interested in fully living out the Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19), which would make them DISCIPLE-MAKERS.

But as we’ve seen over the pandemic, not everyone is actually interested in Jesus.

When churches went exclusively online, there was less and less of a reason for non-Christians to “go to church.” Especially if they weren’t actually interested in Jesus…and the only reason they went was because of some sort of external or extrinsic motivational factor, like social pressure, a parent dragging them, or because they wanted to meet someone.

Although, to some extent, this has always been happening on one level or another, we’ve seen over the past year—en-masse—what happens when a non-Christian is disinterested in Jesus, and there’s no external pressure on him or her to “go to church.” They fall asleep spiritually; in other words, they become SLEEPERS!

We’ve seen over the past year what happens when a non-Christian is disinterested in Jesus.
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This is a major theme in the Scriptures—that though someone might look alive, they’re actually spiritually asleep.

“Besides this, since you know the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, because now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is nearly over, and the day is near; so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.” (Romans 13:11-12 CSB)

“Wake up, my soul!” (Psalm 57:8 CSB)

“Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” (Eph 5:14 NLT)

In the same way, when there’s no external pressure on a Christian to “go to church,” and someone is actually in fact, disinterested in Jesus, we see that they often drift into consumption mode and become CONSUMERS.

  • e.g. “If I miss out on this week’s service, no one is going to notice…I’ll just watch later I guess…”
  • e.g. Or, “Oh wow, look I can stream the service from _______ church, _______ church, and _______ church!!!”

When there’s no external pressure on a Christian to “go to church,” and someone is actually in fact, disinterested in Jesus, we see that they often drift into consumption mode and become CONSUMERS.
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So What?

Do you know that saying, “to focus on everything is to focus on nothing”? Or, “trying to do everything means you’ll eventually accomplish nothing?”

Well, I believe that’s true for ministry—especially in light of this quadrant. Trying to find a silver-bullet strategy that reaches all of these quadrants at once is like looking for the silver bullet—it’s a myth and it doesn’t exist. There are no silver bullets.

And then, to try to find a different strategy to reach each of these squares in an equal and unique way would also be ineffective, especially if you know what the 80/20 principle is.

So, in light of this quadrant and everything that’s happening in our increasingly post-Christian culture, where should our focus be?

Well, if you want to begin developing a culture of DISCIPLE-MAKERS in your church, then my recommendation is to focus on the interested, and here’s why:

  • The SLEEPERS (the disinterested non-Christians) have already left your church because why would they tune in online? And why would they wear a mask and put themselves potentially at risk by going to your service in-person? They’re asleep spiritually.
  • The CONSUMERS (the disinterested Christians) will keep on consuming whatever you put in front of them without giving back. And if they don’t like it, they’ll just change churches if they haven’t already done so! You can never satisfy consumers.

So, to begin developing a culture of disciple-makers in your church, you need to focus your preaching, programming, and plans on the interested! You need to focus on those who are SEEKING after Jesus, and those who are MAKING DISCIPLES of Jesus.

So here are a few practical ways to begin developing a culture of disciple-makers in your church through your preaching, programming, and plans:

1. Preaching

This first point is all about being aware of who you are communicating to.

In the heyday of the seeker-sensitive movement, many churches focused predominantly on non-Christians. They would put on musicals, play secular music, do large outreach events, and preach felt-need sermons to try to interest non-Christians in Jesus, in order to eventually lead them to a decision of faith.

And while their focus was predominantly on non-Christians, I don’t know of any seeker-sensitive church that did this at the exclusion of making disciples—they obviously wanted the Christians in their church to be and make disciples! As a result, many of these churches created opportunities for Christians to dive deeper on Wednesday night because the weekends were for non-Christians. And for the Christians who took advantage of opportunities like these, many of them did in fact become DISCIPLE-MAKERS.

But what about the rest of the Christians who didn’t? They unintentionally drifted into becoming CONSUMERS, and then many of them subsequently either left their church for another church that would give them “meat,” or they just stayed and consumed because they were never challenged on the weekends to become a disciple-maker (See Figure 2).

The Interested Disinterested Matrix Movement - Daniel Im
FIGURE 2

Because the predominant paradigm was to focus either on non-Christians or Christians, this is what we got!

We either had seeker-sensitive churches that won many non-Christians to Christ, but ended up producing more CONSUMERS than DISCIPLE-MAKERS (see Figure 2). Or, we had churches who focused on Christians hoping to make disciples, but unintentionally ended up building a wall where evangelism was very weak or non-existent—and along the way, also ended up contributing to the problem of consumerism in the church (see Figure 3).

The Interested Disinterested Matrix Drift - Daniel Im
FIGURE 3

So what do you think your preaching would look like if you focused on the interested?

…which, in this new paradigm includes both non-Christians and Christians?

In preaching, you aren’t trying to convince the SLEEPERS to come to church with a topical series, nor are you trying to interest them in Jesus or the things of the soul (you aren’t ignoring them either). And regarding the CONSUMERS, neither are you catering to whatever they want or being content with having a low-bar to discipleship. Instead, you are preaching to those who have made the effort to come and worship together with you—to the interested who are there today.

Preach to those who have made the effort to come and worship together with you—to the interested who are there today.
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So on the one hand, you’re preaching to seekers who are interested in exploring life, faith, and meaning together with others (while also inviting them to cross the line of faith). And on the other hand, you’re preaching to Christians who are interested in knowing Jesus deeply and being known by him fully (while also challenging them to not just be disciples, but to become disciple-makers).

2. Programming

So if our focus is on the interested—both the interested non-Christians and the interested Christians—how do we approach programming?

In one of my previous books, No Silver Bullets, I present this paradigm to help churches understand the components they need to develop a discipleship pathway in their church (see Figure 4).

Figure 4

First Steps are all about helping newcomers take their first step at your church. So this could include a newcomers class or your guest services process. Next Steps are short-term, temporary experiences to help people take their next step at your church (In No Silver Bullets, I articulate three different types of Next Steps: Discover, Deepen, and Deploy Next Steps). And Ongoing Steps are the practices for spiritual growth that an individual will never grow out of. Ongoing Steps are all about helping people learn how to own the responsibility for their own spiritual growth and how to feed themselves. Essentially, Ongoing Steps help individuals grow into DISCIPLE-MAKING disciples.

So, when you consider designing programming for this quadrant, there are specific steps to focus on in each square:

  • For SEEKERS, you want to focus on First and Next Steps. First steps will help you meet these individuals, so that you can help them take their Next Step to Discover who Jesus is (perhaps through a class like Alpha), or to be deployed into a service opportunity.
  • For DISCIPLE-MAKERS, you want to focus on Next and Ongoing Steps. In a Deepen Next Step, you can teach things like spiritual practices or disciple-making tools to help these individuals learn to self-feed and own the responsibility for their spiritual growth. The point of Next Steps is to then direct them toward Ongoing Steps, so that they can continually grow as disciples who make disciples.
  • For SLEEPERS, there is no formal programming. Rather, the point is to equip and empower the DISCIPLES and DISCIPLE-MAKERS in your church family to pray and to neighbour well with those they live, work, study, and play with by living out paradigms like B.L.E.S.S.. You want to help your church recognize that just like Jesus partnered with Ananias to help awaken Saul from his spiritual slumber (see Acts 9), Jesus wants to partner with you and I to help awaken the spiritually asleep to new life in Christ. Jesus is the one who does the work of awakening and heart change, but he chooses to use us (see 1 Corinthians 3).
  • For CONSUMERS, there is no formal programming to reach them either. Instead, the point is to equip and empower the DISCIPLES and DISCIPLE-MAKERS in your church family to continually be in relationship with those in and around them, be available for God to use them, and to pray for the spiritual consumers that they know. But you should never try to appease the consumers in your church because it will never be enough. Instead of lowering the bar, you need to raise the bar and focus your programming on those who are interested, not disinterested. It’s the Holy Spirit’s role to awaken the disinterested, and it’s our role to be ready to partner with the Holy Spirit when the time is right (which is why we need to stay in relationship with those who are disinterested). By the way, the tell-tale sign to identify a CONSUMER is to look for someone who is jumping from one Next Step experience to another (they don’t want to enter into Ongoing Steps because they want everything done for them).

You should never try to appease the consumers in your church because it will never be enough.
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3. Plans

What does planning look like if our focus is on the interested—both the interested non-christians and the interested Christians?

Well, instead of focusing on people’s felt-needs, we need to re-learn and re-emphasize a robust Kingdom theology to be able to minister to our increasingly post-Christian culture. We need to recognize that the Kingdom of God is here, it’s growing, and it will eventually be everywhere like we read about in the parable of the mustard seed and leaven (Matthew 13:31-33).

So this means that Jesus is King—today.

And he is ruling as King over his Kingdom—today.

But today, his kingdom isn’t everywhere.

Yet his kingdom rule is continuing to grow.

And it will continue to grow until he is ruling as King everywhere!

As a result, instead of thinking that it’s our responsibility to change someone’s heart, move them across the line of faith, or guilt and shame them into a deeper relationship with Jesus, we need to trust that Jesus is King and the Great Shepherd who is watching over, and aware of all of his sheep—his found sheep and his lost ones too!

So our responsibility is to be like Ananias who was invited to partner with Jesus to awaken Saul to Himself. And we need to be like Ezekiel, who was invited to partner with God to awaken the dry bones. God is the one who awakens, so let’s focus on those whom he has already awakened—the interested (both the seekers and the disciple-makers)—and let’s be ready to partner with him to awaken the SLEEPERS and CONSUMERS when He sees fit.

God is the one who awakens, so let’s focus on those whom he has already awakened—the interested.
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So let me end with this question, when you look at this quadrant, who do you want your church to be full of?

And who do you need your church to be full of, in order to be a part of seeing God’s Kingdom come and His will be done in your city as it is in heaven?

The Interested Disinterested Matrix - Daniel Im
Figure 5

*** If you’d like to dig deeper into the content of this article, I want to invite you to pick up a copy of my newest book, The Discipleship Opportunity: Leading a Great-Commission Church in a Post-Everything World. In this book, I unpack everything in this article in a deeper and more thorough manner. ***