A month ago, my wife and I joined some 50 other pastors and wives for a 3-day conference held by KBEMF (Korean Baptist English Ministers Fellowship). The theme was “Pastor’s Soul Care” and it was filled with many messages by pastors who shared words of encouragement for us all.

I personally was very glad to meet these fellow pastors from across the country. There was a large group from Texas (many who went through seminary together at SWBTS) and the largest group from Gracepoint Fellowship Church in the SF/Berkeley Bay Area.

We were able to talk about ministry matters — the full spectrum of joys as well as the trials. I was especially saddened by the news that more than half of their fellow seminary graduates were now no longer in ministry for one reason or another. This is tragic news from the trenches — like hearing that the company of soldiers have dwindled down to half the original force… How can we keep standing strong together through the battles?

One thing we want to do is to spend time together more frequently, sharpening one another as iron sharpens iron (Prov. 27:17) and encouraging one another. This past week, some of us local pastors (Loren Chong, Ed Kang, William Kang, James Kim, Manny Kim, Timothy Rhee, and I) spent a few days up in the Sierras for an informal pastors study retreat. It was a good time of fellowship over meals and conversations and I am grateful for their partnership in the gospel:

“In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:4-6 NIV)

Encouraged. Discouraged. Sometimes ministry is a roller coaster ride of encouragements and discouragements. One week, there are heights of joys that no amount of money in this world can purchase — not even in Disneyland! Another week, there are depths of pains and sorrows that nothing in this world can comfort — and you’re left wondering “Why, God?”

This week’s Daily Devotional text speaks into the challenges of being a leader in ministry:

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9 NIV).

Where should leaders turn to for courage in the face of challenges? First, it has to be God’s unchanging Word. It all begins with the Lord’s command to be strong and courageous. He commands us to not be discouraged; it’s a command, not a suggestion or an option. And there’s good reason for it: It’s because the Lord will be with me wherever I go. At the highest peaks of encouragements, the Lord is there with me. At the lowest depths of discouragements, the Lord is there with me. And because the Lord (my Good Shepherd per Psalm 23) is with me, I have nothing to fear! His rod and staff, they comfort me like no other.

I need to have this courage and trust our Good Shepherd to be with me on this roller coaster ride. And it is in this courage that I am able to be encouraged and not discouraged…

It’s been a while since I was 18 years old, but the memories are still vivid in my mind: Getting the admission letter from U.C. Berkeley and seeing my dad jumping up and down when we opened the thick envelope together in our small kitchen in Southern Cal… (Actually, that was the first time I saw my dad jump!) Leaving for Berkeley in my car packed with food that my mom froze (she even froze my favorite soup in Ziploc bags!), and a heart filled with hopes for a 4.0 GPA in college! Yes, I was very fresh and very very naive. [BTW, as you can tell, Susanna had a much better photographer than I back then!]

Recently, our family went to a birthday party for an 18-year old who I’ve known for his entire existence on earth: Isaiah (son of Pastor Ed & Kelly Kang). Boy, he has grown up to be a solid young man: He was able to do 40+ one-hand push ups and even beat Hans & Franz in arm wrestling! It made me think about my life and how quickly it has passed. I used to be able to do my share of push ups, but now, I’d rather simply sit down and share old stories of those yesteryears…

Somewhere in the Bible, it says, “your old men will dream dreams.” I don’t think I’ve reached that stage of being an old man yet, but it’s a bit frightening seeing our children looking more like how we were when we were 18… And we’re looking more like what our parents used to look like… Maybe I am an old man now. Naaa…I think I’m just dreaming! After all, compared to those old folks in the Bible who lived beyond 800 years, I’m still a young teenager!

Baseball season is in full swing but my son’s batting average has dropped to .294. He’s pretty bummed, but it’s teaching him the importance of attitude and gratitude (and hopefully not bratitutde). I’m hoping that sports would teach him how to win graciously and lose graciously…

Someone recently forwarded me the April 1, 2008 David Brooks’ NY Times Op-Ed piece entitled, “Pitching With Purpose,” where he writes about H. A. Dorfman’s book, The Mental ABC’s of Pitching. Here are a few interesting quotes from the article and my comments:

“…you can’t just urge someone to be disciplined; you have to build a structure of behavior and attitude. Behavior shapes thought. If a player disciplines his behavior, then he will also discipline his mind.”

“If a pitcher doesn’t actually feel this way when he enters a game, Dorfman asks him to pretend. If your body impersonates an attitude long enough, then the mind begins to adopt it.”

We’ve heard the adage “Mind over body” before, but Dorfman seems to suggest that it can be “Body over mind” as well. I found this to be increasingly important in this feelings-driven culture — there are times when in the very act of doing something loving, I begin to increase in feeling love. So instead of waiting for the warm, fuzzy feeling to lead you to serve others, maybe just getting up and serving would warm your soul…

The article also noted an aspect of pitching that I can apply to preaching:

“A pitcher shouldn’t judge himself by how the batters hit his pitches, but instead by whether he threw the pitch he wanted to throw.”

In other words, the pitcher should be evaluated by how many pitches were actually executed (e.g., 50 pitches out of 73, instead of 3 runs in 9 innings). Here’s the connection to preachers (with a changeup): The preacher shouldn’t judge himself by how many people hit home with the message, but rather, by whether or not he communicated the Word of God as he should have. This is comforting, especially for those Sundays when no one makes a life-transforming decision after your sermon. But it is also discomforting since even if there were 100’s of decisions made, if you didn’t preach as you should have (in truth & love before God), then you’ve struck out…

Last week, I went down to Alameda to visit my best friend, Tony, who was recovering after a surgery (he got his appendix removed). I grabbed some takeout from Sushi House (”Fuji’s of Alameda” but alas, not a buffet) and ate an oishi lunch together at his house. We got caught up on things going on in our lives (he works in SF and serves at Gracepoint Fellowship Church) — the time spent was so short, but so sweet…

I remember my first time meeting Tony at church when he transferred into UC Berkeley in 1987. He immediately got connected with our class peers, and soon, he was the one planning for our birthday parties and get-togethers. He’s quite an organizer and he brought an infusion of life and excitement in our college days — we were quite a boring and lethargic bunch before Tony came along!

Interestingly, he’s got the exact same personality type as my wife. Many times, when I just cannot understand Susanna, I talk with Tony and he’s able to help me see from the perspective of an ESTJ (per Myers-Briggs). (BTW, I am an INFP — 100% opposite!)

One of my fondest memories is when we would pray over the phone during our lunch breaks. He was working in San Rafael and I was working at Berkeley, and it was the days before cell phones so it required extra effort to connect! That was 12 years ago, but I still vividly remember being in that public phone booth in Donner Lab, sharing prayer requests, praying for him and listening to him pray for me. Thanks, Tony, for being my best friend and for your prayers & support over the years and many more to come!

I’ve always envisioned a leader with charisma as someone being extremely extroverted, with ever-exciting conversations, standing on stage rallying up a super-sized crowd. In many ways, my personality type does not match up with that description. So charisma is something that I had been thinking about off and on in my role as a leader: How important is it? Are some people just born with it? Will others never be able to develop it?

I found an interesting leadership lesson from “Maxwell’s Law” (per leadership guru Dr. John C. Maxwell) on charisma. He simply states that charisma “is the ability to draw people to you. And like other character traits, it can be developed” (p.10). He also lists some roadblocks to developing charisma: (p.12)

• Pride. Nobody wants to follow a leader who thinks he is better than everyone else.
• Insecurity. If you are uncomfortable with who you are, others will be too.
• Moodiness. If people never know what to expect from you, they stop expecting anything.
• Perfectionism. People respect the desire for excellence, but dread totally unrealistic expectations.
• Cynicism. People don’t want to be rained on by someone who sees a cloud around every silver lining.

Lots of leadership lessons here (and not just on charisma). Seeing charisma from this angle, it gives a lot of hope to those who think, “We just weren’t born with it.” It also gives a lot of warning to those in positions of leadership. If we leaders can reduce these roadblocks, not only will it be easier to draw people, but more importantly, it will make for a straighter path for them to be drawn to Jesus Christ – our ultimate reason for charisma in the first place.

This is a P.S. edit on my previous post on our production, Waypoint Live: GPS (God, Purpose, Story). Let me just say, the entire evening was amazing, awesome, all-of-the-above! It was such a thrill seeing all our amateur actors and actresses getting their lines just right, all the props positioned in the proper place, and audio/video at their finest hour! And seeing all of our YA members helping out with all the background work of cooking, cleaning, and serving in so many ways…and doing everything in love (1 Cor. 16:14). Way to go, Waypoint!!

I’m sure I’ll be posting more about all that we experienced the past three weeks, but for now, here is a picture of our cast having some fun!

Last week, as I was exercising, I watched an interview that Pastor Bill Hybels conducted with Dr. Noel Tichy based on his book The Leadership Engine (from Willowcreek’s 1999 Leadership Summit DVD). Dr. Tichy, a professor at University of Michigan Business School, made the following generalized observations about bad leaders:

• Bad leaders are Egotistical.
• Bad leaders are Mean-spirited.
• Bad leaders have No respect for the dignity of other people.

Basically, bad leaders don’t think much of others (in more ways than one). As leaders, we ought to think of others, in fact, it is integral to the task.

I also read a few quick chapters of John Maxwell’s The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, where he cited some lessons from [bad] leaders who fell. He cites Steven Berglas (The Success Syndrome) who says these are people “who achieve great heights but lack the bedrock character to sustain them through the stress are headed for disaster. [...T]hey are destined for one or more of the four A’s: arrogance, painful feelings of aloneness, destructive adventure-seeking, or adultery. Each is a terrible price to pay for weak character” (p.5).

Character is the common denominator in the above failings of leaders. This is where John Maxwell reminds us that something can be done about it:

We have no control over a lot of things in life. We don’t get to choose our parents. We don’t select the location or circumstances of our birth and upbringing. We don’t get to pick our talents or IQ. But we do choose our character. In fact, we create it every time we make choices — to cop out or dig out of a hard situation, to bend the truth or stand under the weight of it, to take the easy money or pay the price. As you live your life and make choices today, you are continuing to create your character. (pp.4-5, emphasis mine)

So true. We are creating our character today one decision at a time, one truth at a time, one day at a time. Lord, may my life never outpace my character that needs to be shaped by Your hands and Your truth!

6:45 AM - 7:30 AM, Tuesday through Friday, the few, the strong, the awake, the ones-who-battled-the-alarm-and-won, the mighty men of Waypoint gather around my dining table for morning daily devotional time together. We’ve been meeting for a while now, giving the firstfruits of our day to God. To be sure, sometimes our firstfruits aren’t ripe (as some don’t get ready until Starbucks diffuse into their brain cells), but nonetheless, my morning fellowship of the band of brothers is sweet. (BTW, there are other brothers who cannot make it because of work/school schedule who meet at other times, and many sisters meet elsewhere and even earlier than our men!)

But every morning, I walk downstairs to meet my band of brothers and it’s truly an honor to be with these brave men who fight slothfulness in an attempt to discipline body and mind to be in obedience to God’s Words for the day. It’s the kind of camaraderie that you’d expect in a fierce time of war and these men are there in the trenches with me in this spiritual battle.

Sometimes I wonder how the early church met for their devotions. I could picture them getting up from their mats with bad breath and all, just barely making it in time for Paul’s exegesis of Isaiah. Men and women wanting to meet God through the study and meditation of Scripture, to have the living Word of God be incarnate once again. Maybe they sensed with excitement that someday, in a land far far away, a group of brothers will be encouraged by their morning fellowship, and do likewise…

As Hebrews 10:25 says, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Yes, and especially as we see the start of the new day approaching!

We recently went through Romans 12 for our Daily Devotions, which has become a chapter that I’ve been reflecting on for the past couple of months. One verse became a deeper reality today: “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:15 NIV).

At 6:45 AM this morning, I got a call from a dear brother whom I’ve known for 10 years, and I immediately felt something was wrong. Any phone call that early in the morning is an urgent call for help and I braced myself for what I would hear. He told me his brother was shot 6 times and that they were in the hospital. All I could say was, “Oh my God, oh my God…” After a prayer over the phone, we rounded up some close friends and made the drive down to the Bay Area to be with him and his family during this time that seemed like a terrible nightmare. We couldn’t do much there in the sterile hallways of the ICU, except to pray and wait. And when the final tragic news came, we mourned with those who mourned…

Across the Bay, this day was also a day of rejoicing with a wedding celebration and all the festivities that many were rejoicing over. Pastor Ed Kang, immediately after officiating the wedding, drove over to the hospital to be with the bereaving family. The full spectrum of emotions and expressions of love within one short day: Rejoicing with those who rejoice, mourning with those who mourn. Such is the calling of a pastor on a Saturday in this broken and frail world where we are called to love with the love of Christ…