Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

worship

The Experience Economy and the Church

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When was the last time you bought a mattress?

Did you walk around a showroom and awkwardly lie down on several of them? Did you close your eyes, try to get comfortable, and imagine what it would be like to sleep on it day after day? Did you then pay too much, and wait too long for it to be delivered to your house?

No wonder the mattress industry was ripe for disruption. In the same way that Amazon disrupted brick and mortar retail, Uber disrupted the Taxi industry, and smart phones disrupted camera, calculator, and flashlight sales, Casper has done the same for mattresses.

Casper, an online mattress retailer, has been so effective at upending a $29 Billion industry, that other companies have quickly followed suit. And just last month, they took things to the next level by building their first brick and mortar store—except, at this one, you can’t buy a mattress.

You buy a nap instead.

Instead of designing their store like other mattress retailers, such as Mattress Firm, The Brick, or Ikea, they decided to create an experience, where the mattress was secondary. It’s called the Dreamery in New York City. Here’s how they describe it on their website,

At Casper, we want everyone to sleep better and live better. So we created The Dreamery, a magical place in NYC where you can rest and recharge whenever you want. Because when you snooze, you win.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Book a nap session: Choose a 45-minute time slot whenever you could use a boost. Walk-ins are welcome, too.
  2. Get some rest: Wind down in the lounge, change into pj’s, and lie down in your own Casper Nook—a perfectly private, quiet pod with an outrageously comfortable bed.
  3. Feel recharged: Embrace your post-nap pep. Freshen up and enjoy a coffee before taking on the rest of your day (or night).[i]

Do you see how the mattress is peripheral to the whole experience? The point is the nap, not the mattress. But what’s genius about this strategy is that they’re actually creating the ideal conditions for customers to fall in love with their mattresses, without having to box it up and ship it back to them if they’re not satisfied.

[Read more…] about The Experience Economy and the Church

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

Dangerous Worship

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Worship is not about a powerless people coming together to sing. Worship is dangerous because it is the children of God coming together, in the name of Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to proclaim the praises of the high king of the universe. As a result, when individuals worship, they are submitting themselves completely to God. It is not to gain anything or to coerce God to give them something. However, while humans relinquish their agenda, their will, and their power, they actually exchange that for the heart of God and the power of God. Thus, the power of God is proclaimed and unleashed into this universe (spiritual and physical) through the words, prayers, and actions of the worshiper. As a result, worship is not just humans singing, but it’s spiritual warfare.


What is your definition of worship?

healing power of God

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Does God still heal people today?

Watch this short clip – it’s a testimony to what God still does today.

I believe that God still heals people today. However, we need to understand that God doesn’t just heal us for the sake of healing us. He will heal us, of whatever we have, whether it’s a sore thumb or cancer, IN ORDER TO ____________ (fill in the blank). God always has a reason. We may never discover the reasons, but he always does have them. We may even discover one of the reasons, but God is so much more multi-dimensional than us. Even when we think he has healed us in order to do ________, he might have even healed us in order to ___________, _____________, _________________, etc.

My prayer is that you will be encouraged through watching this clip and that you would discover the ways that God has been pursuing you your whole life. I pray that you would understand and experience the almighty power of God.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/aZ_ny8hMgRY&hl]

prayer in the morning

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Visit any traditional Korean church on a weekday morning between 6:00 – 7:00 am. You will most likely find people there praying and worshiping God. It’s called – Seh Byuk Gi Do.

Why is this such a phenomenon and why do we see this mainly in Korean Churches and not in Western Churches? Does this fervency and disciplined morning prayer attribute to the rapid growth of Christianity in Korea and amongst Koreans? Or are there too many variables that have attributed to the growth of the Korean Church? What can the Church in the Western World learn from this spiritual discipline of corporate morning prayer?

3 weeks ago, I went to a prayer meeting at my church and I honestly had a difficult time entering into prayer and worshipping God. It got to the point where I actually just wanted to leave because the time felt useless. However, I didn’t end up leaving – I don’t know if that’s just because that would make me “look bad” as a pastor (whatever that means) or if the Spirit of God was holding me back – but in the end, I didn’t leave. About 10 minutes after that internal battle, I felt the Holy Spirit doing something in my heart and all of a sudden I felt raw passion and began to fervently pray for the church in the 3rd world and individuals in Montreal, Quebec, and Canada. After that, I just sensed that God was calling our community of faith to gather more frequently to pray and worship. I didn’t know what it would look like, but I sensed that it would be okay and that God just wanted me to go ahead with it.

As a result, after 3 weeks and 5 early morning prayer and worship times, here I am writing this post and reflecting. I really wonder what kind of impact the early morning prayer and worship times made. I personally enjoyed them and loved connecting with God and with other followers of Christ, but I just wonder what kind of impact this made on others? Number wise, we consistently got about 5-6 people every time, but that’s hardly the issue. It’s not about numbers, it’s about transformation and impact.

“God…I obeyed and held those early morning prayer and worship times, but what do you want for the future? What are you calling our community of faith to? Please lead us and reveal your way to us. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”