Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

Daniel Im

Don’t Be Dead Weight

By

Your church or organization is like a train.

There are things you’re doing that are causing the train to move (the coal).

There are things outside of your control that are either speeding up the train or slowing it down (hills and air resistance).

And there are things within your control that are slowing the train down (baggage and needless weight).

The next time you gather your team together:

Try identifying what’s core to your team and what needs to happen to keep things running, like casting vision, celebrating, or having the right metrics.

Then, identify the things outside of your control that are moving your team forward or slowing you guys down, like neighborhood growth/decline, market growth/decline, change in leisure activities, or time of year.

And then identify what’s within your control that could be slowing your team down, like toxic team members, a weak culture, or a lack of planning.

And for you personally, reflect on whether or not you want to be on the train that you’re on.

[Read more…] about Don’t Be Dead Weight

The One Thing Husbands Need to Know About Their Wives

By

The following is a guest post written by my wife, Christina Im, on the one thing that she wants every husband to know. I pray that it encourages you as much as it has encouraged me.

Marriage is hard.

Marriage takes work.

Marriage isn’t always what we thought it would be.

Marriage takes sacrifice.

Daniel and I have recently entered our 12th year of marriage. During our engagement, if someone were to have had told me any of the above statements, I would have scoffed at them. “Actually, marriage is going to be amazing because I can finally have sex,” is what I would have wanted to say. But honestly, I would have NEVER had the audacity to be that abrupt.

On a perfectly sunny August day, I married my best friend. And, we lived happily ever after, right?

Well, like you always hear from those who have gone before us, the first year of marriage was difficult—we had A LOT of “iron sharpening iron” moments. However, nothing could have prepared me for the agony and the deep soul searching that awaited me.

I can recount two times where I cried out to God, “Hey…I think you’ve forgotten me.” The first time was when Daniel felt a strong calling to leave everyone and everything behind and move to South Korea. I was just entering my second year at a job that had GREAT potential and I was toying with the idea of going back to school to get my Masters of Social Work. Moving to Korea was not on my radar, and while I begged God to change my husband’s heart…God changed mine instead.

Have you ever felt put on the sidelines…by God?

Click To Tweet

The second time I felt that God had put me on the sidelines was the moment I saw the blue double lines appear on the pregnancy test. “Oh God, we are living in Korea with no family around. We are BOTH just about to start our second semester of school. We don’t have time to be pregnant.” In the end, Daniel and I chose to put my schooling and career on hold while I became a full-time stay-at-home mom.

I never wanted to be a stay-at-home mom.

I wanted to wear heels during the day and slippers at night while I rocked my precious children to sleep. However, with Daniel working full-time, writing part-time, and the cost of having three kids under five in daycare, it didn’t financially make sense for me to go back to work. So, life tumbled on.

A year ago, a theme began to appear in my life.

Whether it was the latest Bible study I was doing, or the new hit song that would play on the radio—the theme was “SEEN.” Slowly, God’s past whispers of “I have not forgotten you,” turned into billboards screaming, “THE UNSEEN IS SEEN.” Suddenly, through one event catapulting to another, my dormant dreams, passions, and aspirations emerged from their cocooned state.

What is unseen to you is SEEN by God.

Click To Tweet

Husbands, I share my story with you because we have something in common.

[Read more…] about The One Thing Husbands Need to Know About Their Wives

What’s Wrong With This Statement? “I want to do great things for God”

By

“I want to make my life count. I want to do big things for the kingdom. I only want to do things that have an eternal significance.”

Have you ever prayed such prayers? I know I definitely have.

In fact, when I was getting serious about my relationship with Christ, this is what I regularly prayed for because I wanted my life to count. I wanted to make a difference in this world. I didn’t want to live for what was temporal—my fame and my glory—but for what was eternal.

I wanted to be like the great missionary, William Carey, who famously said, “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.”

If I wanted to see great things from God, I figured that there was only one way to get there—by doing “great” things for God. Not small and insignificant things, but rather, big, significant, and influential things.

“Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.” – William Carey

Click To Tweet

My intentions were right; the only problem was my heart—my prideful and self-centered heart.

I judged doing “great” things for God and kingdom significance according to size. Here’s what I thought:

  • Pastoring at a small church = Small impact
  • Speaking at a small conference = Not significant
  • Having a small platform = Lack of the right gifting

So to do “great” things for God, I had to do. I had to be the pastor. I had to be the speaker. I had to be the preacher. I had to be the hero.

I wonder what would’ve happened if I knew earlier that God wanted me to be a hero-maker, rather than the hero? I wonder if I would’ve gone through as much heart break and sorrow?

[Read more…] about What’s Wrong With This Statement? “I want to do great things for God”

Why Every Church Planter Should Plant Pregnant

By

Planting a church is like having a baby.

It’s hard to know when you should start trying. During pregnancy some babies thrive, and others have more of a difficult time. When the baby is delivered, it’s messy and painful, but in the end a beautiful life is born, the labor is forgotten, and we often want to have another.

Planting a church is like having a baby

Click To Tweet

In the same way it’s difficult to know when you should start plans for a daughter church; after all, there always seems to be a countless number of reasons to put it off:

  • “We aren’t even two years old, and I’m the only staff member.”
  • “When we begin to hit budget, I’ll consider starting a daughter church.”
  • “We’re too small. If we start a daughter church, that’ll cannibalize our people and finances.”
  • “Isn’t that the denomination’s responsibility anyway?”
  • “I’m barely keeping my head above the water, and you want me to add something that big onto my plate?”

Sound familiar? If you’ve found yourself saying similar things, you’re not alone.

However, once you get past those initial hurdles and decide to plant a daughter church, sometimes the assessment, training, and preparation of the planter goes well; however, other times the process unfortunately ends prematurely.

And when that daughter church is finally ready to be launched, it’s painful because everything changes.

You lose leaders, people, tithes, and your sense of normal.

[Read more…] about Why Every Church Planter Should Plant Pregnant

Top Quotes on Every Good Endeavor by Timothy Keller

By

As many of you know, this year I’ve committed to reading/listening to as much of Timothy J. Keller as possible.

It hasn’t gone as well as I thought. Partly because I’m writing my next book (I wasn’t anticipating this), and also because I like reading broadly. So instead of one year of Keller, it might end up being a few years of Keller.

In any case, I previously listed my favorite quotes here for Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters.

I’ll do the same for Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work, my latest Keller read.

  • “The Bible begins talking about work as soon as it begins talking about anything—that is how important and basic it is.”
  • “In the beginning, then, God worked. Work was not a necessary evil that came into the picture later, or something human beings were created to do but that was beneath the great God himself. No, God worked for the sheer joy of it.”
  • “The book of Genesis leaves us with a striking truth—work was part of paradise.”
  • “Work is as much a basic human need as food, beauty, rest, friendship, prayer, and sexuality; it is not simply medicine but food for our soul.”
  • “Without meaningful work we sense significant inner loss and emptiness. People who are cut off from work because of physical or other reasons quickly discover how much they need work to thrive emotionally, physically, and spiritually.”
  • “According to the Bible, we don’t merely need the money from work to survive; we need the work itself to survive and live fully human lives.”

[Read more…] about Top Quotes on Every Good Endeavor by Timothy Keller