Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

church planting

Ministry is More than Pastoring

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What you’re doing seems fine…but I still wish you would just go back to a church and preach. Isn’t that what pastors do? Isn’t that why God called you into the ministry? Isn’t that the better thing?

Those were the words of my grandmother to me when I told her how I was transitioning to work for LifeWay to launch their new emphasis in church planting and multisite (albeit, she did speak those words in Korean).

God’s call on our lives is a mysterious thing, isn’t it? There were times in my life, where I was convinced that God had called me to a specific place and role (sometimes also to date a particular girl), only to discover that the circumstances didn’t pan out the way that I wanted them to (that means I was rejected).

“Was God’s initial call wrong? Did I hear him incorrectly? Is there sin in my life?” These were the types of questions that I would wrestle through when things didn’t go the way that I wanted them to, or expected them to.

My wife and I have gone through many transitions. Since getting married, we’ve lived in six cities and three different countries. I’ve served in a number of roles in four different churches ranging from a church attendance of 100 – 50,000 people. And most recently, we’ve moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to work for LifeWay – in a role that my grandmother apparently doesn’t approve of since I’m not preaching 🙂

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I am a ligament, what are you?

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The image of a bridge, or a ligament (Eph 4:16) seems to be a good way of describing my past and the direction I sense God is leading me. Being Korean Canadian, I was born in Canada, but grew up as a Korean – eating Korean food, going to a Korean church, speaking Korean, visiting Korea – basically breathing Korean all throughout my life. In high school, God used me to be a bridge between the English and Korean speaking youth groups – I was involved with both and knew individuals in both groups. I was also involved in a city wide joint worship team, which had the purpose of uniting or bridging all the Korean speaking youth groups. I co-created a Christian club in my high school to unify all the Christians together. I also organized and ran a city-wide youth worship service when I was pastoring in Montreal. While pastoring in Korea, I co-created a network for English speaking youth pastors, where we would put on events together, pray together, plan together, and strategize together.

As the groups pastor at Beulah Alliance Church, I was part of a team that conducted a survey, which revealed the current and proposed areas of integration amongst the differing areas of ministry.  I was also leading a team that consists of several pastors, in order to bring greater unity to the group life in the church. There is now one front, instead of divided fronts.

When examining my future, I believe that there are three areas that God has ingrained on my heart: church planting, pastors, and multicultural ministry.

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