Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

thoughts

God’s Providence Over Our New Place

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A few days ago, before heading out to go to church, I noticed some spots on our wall by the curtains. So when I looked closer and looked behind the curtains, guess what i found? Mold. Ew!

Since I was running late, I ran out the door and went to church. Meanwhile, Christina began investing the rest of our house and discovered that we had mold all over our house wherever there were curtains by the windows.

We had been praying about moving for a while, so it seemed like this was the perfect opportunity. So I contacted our landlord, and she came down right away, while Christina was home and I was at church, and she looked at the mold. Immediately, she began blaming us because we had the humidifier going and we were drying our laundry in the living room. Her solution? Just open the windows.

Great solution, eh?

Anyway, when I came home, I looked at all the mold, and Christina told me just how dangerous and harmful it was to our daughter, so I immediately went up to our landlord and demanded that she either clean the mold or we’re leaving. She chose the latter. She told me, “Sure then leave.” Upon asking her what she’s going to do about renting out our place, she replied, “That’s not your problem, it’s mine.” (I know her response sounded a bit harsh, but it wasn’t actually that bad. She understood we had to take care of our daughter).

So that night, I went to Dongdaemoon and looked at a few places. We thought, if we moved a bit out of central Seoul, we could get more space for a cheaper place. No luck. I didn’t like the places I saw. So while I was driving home, I was praying about this whole situation and then all of a sudden, God placed an impression on my heart to go look at Bogwang-dong (a location that is central Seoul and close to church). So I did.

When I got there, it was 8:40 pm and only one real estate agent was open. I parked and when I tried to go in, it was locked. So I phoned the place and one of the real estate agents answered and told me that he would be there in 10 minutes. When I told him what I wanted, he told me he knew of a couple of places. So when he came, we went to this one apartment in Bogwang-dong, and right when we entered it, I knew that this was the place.

The next day, I brought Christina to the place, and she agreed.
So we’re moving! We’re moving next Tuesday!!

Wow, what a testimony to God’s providence and his perfect will.

Missional and Organic Leadership

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I’ve been interested in the issue of leadership and how we can contextualize biblical and secular leadership principles to our churches so that more people can come to know the hope that we have in Christ Jesus.

I loved reading Neil Cole’s Organic Church a few years back as it transformed the way that I view the church. I recently picked up his book, Organic Leadership, and can’t wait to dive into it!

Ed Stetzer’s books have always been good as he is very much of an intellectual like myself, but he uses his intellectual gifts and talents for the church and for practical purposes and means. I love that and that’s what I am striving to do, as that is where I’m discovering my talents and giftings lie. One book he co-authored with David Putman, Breaking the Missional Code, is a must-read for church leaders as it practically describes how to contextualize the gospel to your immediate situation.

On his website, he recently posted a seminar he did for church leaders on missional leadership. I saw it once, and i’m definitely going to be revisiting it again and again until I can truly understand and apply the biblical principles he outlines.

Here it is,

Training for Ministry

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Today, during our 2009 Onnuri Spirituality and Leadership Conference, Richard Foster said something along these lines – “After coming to know the Lord, Paul spent three years in the desert being trained (Gal 1:17-18) – this wasn’t seminary…this was after seminary” (my paraphrase).

He went on to talk about how the Lord taught and trained Paul during those years and how as pastors, we must be ready to go through a time of “tucking away” or being trained so that God can teach us the prayer of relinquishment. Just as Paul went through that type of training, so did Jonah, David, Job, and Abraham. And who can forget Jesus (Matt 26:39), who had to learn the prayer of relinquishment in one of the most difficult ways – through facing death.

Often times, we think that going to bible college or seminary automatically grants us the God-given-privilege to pastor and lead others. What many of us don’t actually grasp is that pastoring isn’t a job, it’s pure honor and a serious, yet joyful calling. One can’t just learn in a classroom – ministry is best learned in the field, while doing it. [Read more…] about Training for Ministry

Worship Services in the Early Church

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I’m currently preaching through 1 Corinthians 12-14 to our youth ministry, Nine37, on the topic of spiritual gifts. As I was preparing my message for tomorrow’s service, I stumbled upon 1 Cor 14:26 and began wondering what worship services looked like in the early church.

1 Corinthians 14:26 NIV – “What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.” [Read more…] about Worship Services in the Early Church

Where to go to Seminary? A preliminary comparison between seminaries in Canada, the United States, and Korea

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This post arises out of a unique journey of mine. Believe it or not, I am actually enrolled in 4 seminaries at the moment, pursuing my Masters of Divinity (M.Div) at all of them! Okay, before I qualify that statement, I am actually only taking courses at one of the four seminaries, but I still have student numbers at all of the other ones.

Let me briefly explain my  journey, and then I’ll do a brief and preliminary comparative analysis between three out of the four seminaries. [Read more…] about Where to go to Seminary? A preliminary comparison between seminaries in Canada, the United States, and Korea