Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

thoughts

Why I’m Getting Ordained

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Growing up in a Korean Presbyterian church, I was always starkly aware of the difference between an ordained pastor and a non-ordained pastor. In Korean, it’s the difference between being a Moksanim and a Jundosanim. The difference is so stark that you are almost, in a sense, involved in child’s play until you become an ordained pastor.

It wasn’t until I responded to this call to ministry that I began questioning the whole matter of ordination. Why did it bother me so much that Koreans were calling me a non-ordained pastor? Why did they treat me very differently from the ordained pastors? Why would their mood and attitude towards me shift once they discovered that I wasn’t ordained?

Yes, I understand that in Acts 13 the church set apart Paul and Barnabas for the work of ministry, and then prayed for them and sent them off. And I also understand the whole concept of the priesthood in the Old Testament and their required role for the Israelites.

But what about the call in Ephesians 4 to the whole church? That “grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift?” That God has given EACH OF US a calling and a measure of grace to do the work that God has set out for us?

I guess what bothered me about this ordained and non-ordained distinction was that it felt like the plain wasn’t level.

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Top 10 Insights to Successfully Launch and Grow Mid-Size Communities

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From my research and years of leading mid-size communities, coaching others, and forming them, here are my top 10 insights to successfully launch and grow mid-size communities:

10. Plan your gathering schedule 3-4 months out at a time.

9. Meet bi-weekly with your leadership team to have a meal where you are discipling one another, rather than a meeting where you are planning together.

8. Share resources, lessons, and email template ideas with other mid-size community leaders.

7. It’s better to delay the launch date of your mid-size community than starting it with a thin or small leadership team.

6. The gathering focus of your mid-size community (affinity, geography, or societal need) becomes your mission focus.

5. Don’t create rules to obtain behavior; instead, be a cultural architect that shapes an ethos, which leads to your desired behavior.

4. Inclusivity and smaller groups meeting in the off weeks are key factors for depth and growth.

3. Don’t let attendance become your success factor. Instead, look for vital behaviors that you can control to measure success. In other words, create a dashboard for health.

2. A clear mission focus for your mid-size community will keep it on track and ensure that it does not become a lame social gathering without purpose.

1. The health of your leadership team determines the health and longevity of the mid-size community.

What are your thoughts?

Mid-Size Communities or Small Groups? Interview with Rick Howerton

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Back in May 2013, I was featured on Rick Howerton’s Blog with NavPress for a four day interview on “Small Groups or Mid-Size Communities?”

Rick Howerton is one of the most genuine guys that I’ve met and I’m so grateful for his ministry to me and to the global church! Since then, he has joined the staff at Lifeway, and thus the previous posts have gone away. So I’ve taken the content that I wrote for that interview and put it up on my site in the links below:

I encourage you to read through my answers to the following questions on his site and engage in a conversation with us about this viral concept. Click on the links below to see my answers.

Let’s talk!

Mid-Size Communities Part 4: The Theological Rationale

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horse

In part 3, I shared a FAQ list regarding mid-size communities (MSCs). You can get a good feeling as to what an MSC is by reading through the FAQs, or by looking at this infographic, but what’s the theological rationale for them anyway? Are MSCs just a repackaged version of Adult Bible Fellowship? Are they just the new hot thing? Or are they merely a different version of missional communities?

Well, let’s dig in. In order to look at the theological rationale for MSCs, we first need to ask more of a fundamental question: What is the church and what is her mission?

Is the Church, as Hans Kung suggests, the visible church building that people can belong to, as well as the invisible global Church composed of all true believers? Or is the Church better described, in a biblical way, as “God’s household” (Eph 2:19), “the body of Christ” (1 Cor 12:27), and a place where all of the biblical “one another’s” are lived out?

There is nothing wrong with describing the Church in those ways, but perhaps a better way to understand the Church is to begin with the end in mind? What if the Church was defined and understood through the lens of its mission? If it were, then the Church would not fall into the trap of being a loving community for its own sake or be mistaken as a rotary club. Although William Rush states that “the more the Church understands its own nature, the more it gets hold of its own vocation,” I actually believe the opposite is just as true. The more the Church understands its own mission or vocation, the more it will grab hold of its own nature.

So what is the mission that God has given the Church?

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A Framework for Discipleship

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Framework

Can we use research to discover the core attributes of a disciple? Or is this a purely biblical matter?

In a previous post, I shared different methods that we use to filter whether or not someone is a disciple of Jesus. The only problem with those common methods is that they are often anecdotal, and purely based on situational experiences.

Take Greg Ogden’s list, for example. He presents a biblical standard for discipleship by outlining how disciples:

  • Are proactive ministers
  • Live a disciplined way of life
  • Understand that discipleship affects all of life
  • Are a countercultural force
  • Are an essential, chosen organism
  • Are a biblically informed people
  • Are people who share their faith

This is a fantastic list, and very difficult to disagree with, since it is biblical. The problem with his list and everyone else’s is that they are merely anecdotal good ideas and frameworks. There is no evidence that these ideas, when transformed into a discipleship pathway, will actually produce the attributes of a healthy disciple.

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