Richard M. Ho 9400 Yolanda Ave, Northridge, CA. 91324 ● richardmho@gmail.com ● Cell: 818.445.6050

Ministry Objective

To disciple people through the consistent and regular teaching of the word of God. To care and shepherd people through joyous and difficult life situations. To lead people to understand the gospel in everyday situations, which leads to transformed lives.

Education

The Master’s Seminary, Sun Valley Master of Divinity Degree (M.Div), GPA: 3.61 5/2013

University of California, Los Angeles Master of Science Degree in Electronic Materials Engineering 6/2005 Bachelor of Science Degree in Materials Science and Engineering, Electronics Option 3/2003

Work/Ministry Experience

Refuge LA Church, North Hollywood Planted a church with another pastor with a team of 7 people. In five and half years, the church grew to 80-100 people. During the time, I developed church structure as well as provided oversight over the health and the growth of the church.

Spiritual Formation Pastor 5/2016-9/2018 Preached in monthly rotation on Sunday mornings Led and developed theological content for the church’s community groups and small groups Led and developed theological classes called “Rooted” which focused on maturing believers through the teaching of

practical and relevant theological content Led and multiplied leaders in leading Sunday morning music worship Conducted various counseling as needed, including pre-marital counseling Led the church’s connection process to assimilate new comers to the church

Executive/Operations Pastor 5/2013-5/2016 Preached in rotation on Sunday mornings Developed the beginning stages of a church plant (liability insurance, business name registration, 501c3) Developed and established church’s setup and takedown procedure and team Developed the church’s children’s ministry (sign in, teachers’ roles in teaching content and children safety protocols) Developed the online donation system and the church’s giving app Established and maintained the church’s bookkeeping, payroll, and bank account.

Community Bible Church of the Foothills/Redeemer Church of Burbank 6/2007-5/2013

Sunday Preaching Preached in rotation with 2 other men on Sunday mornings

Music Team Leader/Teacher Regularly led in music worship as well as Bible studies for the music team

Missional Community Bible Study Leader Led Bible Study for the church’s missional community regularly

UCLA Grace on Campus Bible Study, Grace Community Church 4/2002-6/2007

Senior Staff Provided oversight to the men small group leaders with 5 or 6 other men (approximately 20 small groups)

Small Group Leader Led Bible study discussion within different groups of 3-6 people

Music Team Leader Managed, Arranged music with other instrumentalists and singers and led musical worship every week

Secular Work Experience

Raytheon Company, El Segundo 9/2005- Present Senior Multi-Disciplined Engineer – Failure Analysis Section

Perform or managed failure analysis projects for satellites, radars, and missile guidance systems

Personal Doctrinal Statement

The Bible

- The Scriptures are authoritative, sufficient, infallible, and inerrant in its original documents.

God

- There is only one true God, Creator of heaven and earth, holy and just, who eternally exists in

three distinct Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

- God the Father - God the Father, the first Person of the Trinity, orders and disposes all things

according to His own purpose and grace. He is the Creator of all things. As the only absolute and

omnipotent Ruler in the universe, He is sovereign in creation, providence, and redemption.

- God the Son - Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, was born of a virgin and is both fully God

and fully human.

- God the Holy Spirit - The Holy Spirit is the supernatural and sovereign Agent in regeneration,

baptizing all believers into the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit indwells, sanctifies, instructs,

empowers believers for service, and seals them unto the day of redemption.

Man and Sin

- Man is created in the image of God and exists for the glory of God.

- All humanity, Christ excluded, is sinful by both birth and action, and therefore separated from

the Holy, righteous God.

- The deserved penalty for sin is physical and spiritual death.

Salvation

- Jesus Christ died as the sacrificial substitute to pay the penalty for sin.

- Jesus Christ physically rose from the dead, ascended into heaven and will one day physically

return.

- Only through faith in the Person and of Jesus Christ and repentance from sin can one be

reconciled to God and experience true life and joy.

- God sovereignly choose in Christ those whom He graciously regenerates, saves, and sanctifies.

- All the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God’s power and are thus secure in Christ forever.

- Spiritual regeneration comes in tandem with repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, resulting in

good works that honors God.

- All who place their faith in Jesus Christ are immediately placed by the Holy Spirit into one united

spiritual Body, the church, the bride of Christ, of which Christ is the Head.

Last Days

- The Lord Jesus Christ is returning to earth in bodily Form. There will be a future physical resurrection of the dead. Only those who turn from sin and to Jesus in faith and repentance will be raised to eternal reward. Those who do not turn from sin and to Jesus will be raised to eternal punishment in Hell.

Pastoral Personal Information and Ministry Philosophy

Name: Richard Ho

Home Address: 9400 Yolanda Ave.

City: Northridge

State: California

Zip: 91324

Telephone: 818.445.6050

Email: richardmho@gmail.com

Years Pastoring:

Upon graduating from Master’s Seminary in 2013, I was called to help plant Refuge LA church

(church plant in North Hollywood). In the first 3 years of the church, I served as the Executive

Pastor of the church, handling both the ministry side as well as the operation side of the

church. Afterward, I switched my role to become the Spiritual Formation Pastor. In that role, I

provided organizational leadership in regard to discipleship over men, women, as well as other

general discipleship at Refuge LA. I organized the discipleship structure at Refuge LA church as

well as developed the theological content for it. I served in this role for 2 and half years. At

Refuge LA church, I served a total of 5 and half years as a pastor.

Refuge LA church (located in North Hollywood) closed in September 2018. The church closed

healthily and the members of the church are merging with existing church in the surrounding

areas. I desire to continue to serve as a pastor of a church. In addition, when I was pastoring

Refuge, I did not serve as the preaching pastor. However, I feel the call to regularly preach and

teach God’s word for a church, and continue to grow in this gifting. I am humbly learning,

waiting, and praying to the Lord that He leads me to serve in a church in which I can exercise

the gift of teaching and preaching.

Ministry Emphasis:

My spiritual gifts reside primarily in teaching/preaching and shepherding. I readily dive into

discipleship relationships with men who desire discipleship and with mature believers who

desire to lead.

Over the years, I discovered my gifting reside primarily in teaching God’s word and shepherding

God’s people. Over the years of ministering, I saw that when I preach and teach about Him

faithfully and relevantly from the word of God, it makes an indelible impact in people’s lives. I

desire to do so over the long term and see God’s people cared for, transformed, and impacting

their surrounding communities for Christ

Regarding evangelism, I can evangelize fearlessly to unbelievers. However, I do not feel I am

particularly gifted in building relationships with unbelievers for the sake of evangelism. If a

person does not show initial enthusiasm for the gospel message, I sometime can miss

opportunities to further evangelize the person.

I can serve in making decisions in administrative issues. However, I mainly do so from the angle

of assessing the spiritual impact of the administrative decisions. I do not make good

administrative decisions if the decision is made on the basis of efficiency or logistics. If I am

called to do it, I can do it. However, it take me a long time, and I do it in a task oriented

manner.

Knowing my strengths and weaknesses, I desire to serve in a lead pastoral role that primarily

functions within the roles of teaching, shepherding, and leadership development. Hopefully,

other godly people can support with administration and logistics. Prayerfully, all of us can grow

together in the gift of evangelism, so that we can impact the surrounding communities for

Christ together.

The emphasis of my ministry is going to be building a solid foundation of understanding the

word of God in the men and women of the church. In teaching, I seek to always teach the

relevancy of the gospel of Jesus Christ in every passage of the word of God. My goal is to

present relevant application and understanding of how the gospel actually impact lives. I do so

through pulpit preaching, bible studies, and leadership development in the setting of leadership

cohorts. Generally, I plan to pastorally care and shepherd people in ways of pointing people to

Jesus and create an environment where people can learn and encourage each other to trust

and depend on Christ.

My most challenging ministry areas are:

I struggle mostly with administration. I discovered this when I served as the executive pastor of

Refuge LA church. I can direct where we need go as a church, however, I do not always take

into account the logistics of getting there. For example, when we baptized people, the blow up

pool we used ended up leaking air. We still baptized, and the Lord utilized our difficult situation

to point us to Jesus. However, in retrospect, I think we can do that better logistically. I can

point people toward the spiritual journey we ought to head to, even cast vision for new

ministries. However, it takes other people to check me, keep me accountable, and make sure

that I considered all the logistics of the situation.

What would I do differently if I was beginning ministry all over again?

Five and half years ago, we started Refuge LA church with the goal of transforming our

surrounding communities with the gospel. The problems facing the surrounding communities

in North Hollywood are complex. That led us to plant a church with many moving parts that

required many leaders. In the longer term, we ran into several problems. First, we were

understaffed in what we desired to do in our city. Second, we did not start the church with a

well-planned out discipleship structure. When people who are broken come into the church,

we did not plug them into an existing discipleship structure in which they can grow. The

discipleship responsibilities fell upon the pastors in an unorganized way. As more and more

people come into the church, it became harder and harder for pastors to sustain the ministry.

Starting differently, I believe church health can be maintained if we built out a solid discipleship

structure before we start any initiatives in the city. Also, working with existing organization

that served the needs of our city would have allowed us to build a church that is not too

complex in the beginning. Only after we vet the specific leader who can develop a viable plan

for a specific initiative, the church begins to start its own initiative that serves our city. That

initiative (whether be afterschool programs, rehabs, etc.) starts as a separate organization from

the church, while the church continues to focus on teaching and discipling people to Christ. The

godly people in the church can then funnel into these different organizations that serve as the

hands and feet of Jesus, and thereby proclaiming the gospel to the unbelieving world. These

organizations by nature is going to invite unbelievers to come to the church, hear the gospel of

Jesus, and receive salvation.

Spouse Information:

Name: Karina Ho

My spouse cares and loves me. And together we raise our family. She does so much to lead

our kids. She serves as a spiritual support for me when life and ministry gets difficult. She does

not serve in a formal role in the church. Informally, women in our church naturally congregate

around her to learn from her. She meets and disciples other women on informal basis.

Children: Yes, three, Sofia (4), Emilie (2), Matthew (1)

Thoughts about Leadership

My Style of leadership is:

My leadership style is to maintain a steady course toward a goal over the long haul. I do so by

first clearly communicating a vision that is based in the gospel. I create that vision with the

existing leadership, so that we all know that we are on the same page. First, in creating the

vision, we make sure that the vision finds its basis in the gospel. Second, we make sure that

vision does not change for the next 3-5 years. In doing so, we give the leadership team and the

rest of the church a sense of security that they can pour themselves into accomplishing the

vision without the vision changing midcourse. With other godly men and women of the church,

we carefully select godly men and women to be part of the leadership team. We set up specific

ministry goals together and the plan that accomplishes that vision. After we established all this,

I then provide largely a hands off approach to the ministry leaders in terms of accomplishing

specific details within their ministries. Once I pass the responsibilities to them, I provide an

environment for them in which they feel safe to carry out their own vision and direction within

their ministry boundaries. I consistent meet with the ministry leaders to make sure that we are

1) spiritually healthy, 2) working together toward the same goal.

Relationship to the ministry leaders:

I relate to ministry leaders with humility and servant leadership. Together we create a vision,

goals, and plans to accomplish what we believe God is calling us to do within our ministry

boundaries. The ministry leaders does a lot in serving and meeting the day to day needs of the

church. My approach is to come to learn from them, so I can feel the heartbeat of the church. I

plan is to form discipleship relationships with the ministry leaders. In the disciple relationships,

I plan to care for the individual leader’s spiritual health and growth. My goal is to learn from

them and to relate to them in their personal live so that we can feel like we are family. My

relationship with the ministry leaders is going to grow in two ways, 1) leading the organizational

aspect of the church together, and 2) becoming family with one another. Out of deep

friendship and relationship, I seek to lead the deacons in the visions and tasks that the Lord

assigns them.

I relate to the elder board, staff, and ministry leaders with humility and servant leadership.

Together we create vision, goals, and plans to accomplish what we believe God is calling us to

do within our ministry boundaries. I plan to lead the organization of the church with them as

well as we become a close knit family with them. Overall time, I plan to develop each member

of the elder board, staff, and ministry leaders in their ministries in leading others to Jesus. With

other godly men and women, I plan on developing and selecting godly men and women to be in

these leadership roles. Over time, I desire to work with men and women in humility and gospel

centeredness in vision.

My plan/approach for leadership development?

If I am stepping into an existing leadership team, I plan on gathering the leadership team in

order to learn from them, hear their stories, and build relationship with them. If the ministry

leaders are already working toward a vision, I can work with them to discuss how their vision

can fit into the overall vision of the church. We may initially spend time in the word of God, so

that we can together build a solid foundation on where our authority comes from. Hopefully

through working with each other over time, we grow together in both vision and as family.

If I am developing a leadership team. First, I spot men and women who exhibit humility and

who desire discipleship. He/she who leads must first exhibit humility and that trait must

characterize everything he/she does in ministry. We then gather these men and women

together. We learn from the word as well as gospel implications specifically relating to

ministry. While doing this, I then set up specific tests where we can help each member discover

their gifts as well as their personalities (how God created them). Through this, we can then

begin to offer ministry responsibilities to them and assess ministry faithfulness. Those who

demonstrate ministry faithfulness over time is given more ministry responsibilities. Eventually,

the ones who everyone recognize as servant leaders of the church are given official ministry

roles. They are given official roles so they can proliferate in their ministries.

Developing and nurturing a vision means:

Developing a vision means to take the vision that Jesus gave to the church in Matthew 28:18-20

(The Great Commission) and apply that vision in the setting of our specific church and our

specific people. Ultimately, we are all working off of the vision that Jesus gave. We

dangerously step into the wrong vision for the church when we do not follow the vision that

Jesus gave.

In developing the vision, I consider three components. First, can this vision be developed as an

implication of the gospel? The gospel is the good news that Jesus came, die for our sins, rose

on the 3rd day, so that all who believe onto Him is restored to the perfect relationship with God

and receive eternal life. Second, does this vision cause the people in the church to become

more like Christ? This requires me knowing the gifting makeup, personalities, and the stories of

the people currently attending the church. Can people work together toward this vision over

the long haul and feel fulfilled in Christ? In this step, I do not develop this vision in a vacuum.

Rather, I do so with other godly men and women of the church. Thirdly, does the vision drive

toward gospel evangelization to our surrounding communities? The vision must speak to the

sins, pain, sorrow, hurt, etc. of the surrounding community and cast a viable direction to

unbelievers so that they can embrace Christ as the solution, as their Lord and Savior.

Involving others in lay ministry means:

In involving others in lay ministry, I consistently communicate the importance of serving from

both the pulpit and other ministry settings. The individual leaders must be vetted and

recognized by the congregation to be leaders. They must also be developed to produce

ministry effectiveness. With effective ministry leaders, we can create a clear pipeline for

people to become involved. The general direction that we can point people toward is that they

1) meet the pastor, 2) go through the membership process and become a member, 3) regularly

participate in church community, 4) join in a ministry team to serve. In this, we work toward

the goal that all the people who are regularly serving are also members and regularly

participate in the church community.

Each ministry may require different levels of demonstration of faithfulness and is guarded

through the leadership and communication of the ministry leaders. For example, we can

readily involve people serving in some aspects of set up and take down, music, and evangelizing

the community with the gospel. However, for ministries that involve actual work of leadership

in shepherding people’s souls in the church (e.g. preaching, worship ministries, children’s

ministries), those ministry may require different kinds of vetting and demonstration of

faithfulness of the individual over time. Working with the ministry leaders, we can define what

all these are within the specific ministries. The ministry leaders can also regularly announce

ministry opportunities and approach individuals in community to become involved in ministry.

I mentor others by:

I mentor others best when we 1) sit, study, and reflect on the word of God together, 2) talk

through life and specific issues that we decided to work toward, 3) Reflect upon how the gospel

applies to the specific situation and issue, and 4) offer practical steps and directions to work

toward. When we focus the process of mentorship on utilizing and coming around the word of

God, the Holy Spirit always leads and guides the individual to become the person God intended

for the person to be.

I foster commitment and accountability by:

I foster commitment by teaching, mentoring, and modeling. Over time, the person I teach can

learn to become more committed to ministry as the Holy Spirit grows him in maturity. As more

and more people in the church adapt to the culture of commitment, people become

contagiously affected by the culture of commitment. If we start with one or two people who

exhibit this culture, through teaching, mentoring, and modeling, the culture of commitment can

be developed for the whole church.

I foster accountability by teaching, modeling, and allowing the culture of vulnerability at the

church. That means that every person can feel free to share what they are struggling with, and

areas where they fall into sin without feeling judgement from people. By sharing vulnerably,

they can experience love, care, understanding, as well as invitation into further discipleship by

Godly men or women to grow in Holiness in the specific areas they are struggling with. This

culture of vulnerability must come from the leadership and then is taught and infused into the

congregation.

I handle conflict and confrontation by:

I handle conflict and confrontation in the attitude of humility and gentleness. I follow the

biblical process in handling conflict and confrontation. Specifically, I teach, model, and walk

people through the Biblical Conflict Resolution process (also known as the church discipline

process) as detailed in Matthew 18:15-20. In this process, it is indicated that if a brother feels

that another brother sinned against him or sinned against God, he must go to that brother and

confront that brother in love and humility. If the other brother accepts what is said and

repents, or reaches clarification of a misunderstanding, and the brothers reconcile, the conflict

is resolved.

If not, then the offended brother is to bring 1 or 2 other witness and approach the brother

again. If the witnesses corroborates with the accounts, and the approached brother recognizes

the validity of the charges and repents and reconciles with the brother he sinned against, the

conflict is resolved. In this process, the witnesses can also help to work out any

misunderstanding.

If the conflict is not resolved at step 2, the last stage is to bring more members, and eventually

all the members of the church, to this potentially sinning brother and confront this brother.

Prayerfully, reconciliation is reached at this level. If not, the person is considered by the church

to be an unbeliever, since he refuses to repent and reconcile. At this point, with the agreement

of the members of the church, this brother is put out of the congregation.

I follow and accept this process for myself. I teach and exhort brothers or sisters to practice

this biblical process whenever conflicts happen between them and another brother or sister.

The church must learn to be the church, and I do all this in the humility and gentleness. It is

however, imperative that we surface all hidden conflict and deal with them biblically because

all hidden conflict causes division within the church and eventually divides the church.

My plan of pastoral care and visitation in the church and community is:

To begin with, I plan on setting a schedule to care for and meet with all members of the church.

I see this as temporary stage before developing other leaders of the church to also do this work.

The reason is that when the church grows above 60 on an average Sunday morning, it becomes

physical impossible for one pastor to meet with all the members regularly. With a team that

provides care and visitation, adequate pastoral care and visitation can be provided for the

whole congregation.

There are times when special circumstances come up when someone becomes sick, or becomes

homebound or hospital-bound because of age, or other issues. These are the situations that

the senior pastor must pay special attention to in the work of pastoral care and visitation. For

others pastoral care situations, we can set up meetings at the church office or nearby coffee

shops. Meeting in public locations allows me to meet with members of the opposite gender.

Meeting with members of the opposite gender in their homes requires me to meet with them

in the presence of another person.

My conviction and pastoral practice relating to divorce and remarriage are:

I believe that God designed marriage for life, and people who become married are also called to

view marriage as such. Ultimately, the purpose of the marriage is to reflect Christ’s love and

sacrifice to the church. Those in the Lord must marry those in the Lord. With that, I believe

that God offers biblical reason when one can consider to leave the marriage, and can do so with

God’s approval.

The first reason is stated in Matthew 19:3-12, where Jesus allows divorce in the specific

conduct of the sin of sexual immorality in marriage unfaithfulness. When a spouse commits

adultery, I do not command the other spouse to stay in the marriage. They may divorce.

However, if the spouse decides and feels led by the Holy Spirit to stay with the sinning spouse

because she/he feels that God can use it to lead the sinning spouse to repentance, I then

encourage, lead, and guide them through the restoration process.

The second reason is stated in 1 Corinthians 7:10-16, where God allows the unbelieving spouse

to leave the marriage. The spouse who is leaving demonstrates an unbelieving heart, and God

calls the believing spouse to live in peace with the decision in allowing the unbelieving spouse

to leave. Leaving can take many forms. It can be physically leaving. It can also be leaving in

terms of not caring and providing for the family (when they can). Severe physical abuse,

resulting in long time legal separation (due to police intervention), due to the sinning spouse’s

unwillingness to repent of the physical abuse, can also be considered as abandoning one’s

spouse.

The third reason is given to us in Romans 7:2-3. We are released from our marriage, if our

spouse passed away. In those cases, the surviving spouse is free to re-marry.

As for remarriage, I believe God opens the door for remarriage if one is divorced under the

biblical, God allowed reasons as stated above. If divorce happened apart from the biblical

reasons stated above, then God is calling us to pursue reconciliation with the divorced spouse.

If reconciliation is not possible (due to the previous spouse being an unbeliever, or already

married to someone else), the spouse is released from the previous marriage. At that point,

remarriage can be pursued.

In situation where remarriage happened apart from the biblical reasons for divorce, I believe

that God can forgive that as long as we confess that to the Lord and ask for forgiveness from

the previous spouse we sinned against. The new marriage relationship can move on from that

point and become dedicated to God.

My view of women’s ministry role in the local church is:

God places a high calling for women in the church. I land on the complementarian view of

women and men’s role within the church, that is, God gives different callings to men and

women in the church and they complement each other. God places equal importance on men’s

women’s ministry.

In this, God designed men to lead the church and their families. God laid this out clearly in 1

Timothy 3:1-7 in speaking regarding the qualification of elders. The men who leads the church

well also leads their families well. In this, the Lord designed the elder board to be held by men.

This does not mean the elders function apart from the help and input of the congregation

(including women and women leaders). A good husband and father of the home leads with the

help and input of his wife and children. He listens to them, follows their advice. However,

when it comes to leading, he takes the helm. He takes the responsibility of servant leadership.

Women can serve as leaders/deacons of any ministries as men can. However, pulpit preaching,

most of the time, is reserved for elders, as it represent a time of vision casting and instruction

for the whole church. Women can teach, serve, and offer leadership in the realms of their

ministries, even give their testimonies from the pulpit at times, as long as they submit to the

leadership of the elders. Men must also submit to the leadership of the elders as well.

Therefore, under the leadership of elders, men must submit to the leadership of the women

who are serving under the leadership of the elders of the church.

God uses women tremendously in leading a church. Throughout history, especially in the

mission field, God tremendously used women in church history to plant and build churches

where churches did not exist. In those cases, women initially led the church, discipled men, and

as soon as reasonable, turned the church over to capable and godly men who can lead the

church, because they believed that it was God’s design for the church. One such example was

the work of Elizabeth Elliot among the natives of Ecuador.

In the settings where godly and qualified men are present, upon being called by the

congregation, they can function as church elders. Women can lead ministries under the

leadership of the elders. They can also serve in leadership in administrative roles in ministry

teams. They can focus on teaching and pursuing discipleship relationships with women, as the

men in the church can focus on teaching and pursuing discipleship relationships with men.

Thoughts about Administration

Administration of the church should be:

Administration of the church occur on every level of ministry. Administration occurs so that we

can effectively and efficiently do the work of Jesus in providing for both physical and spiritual

needs of the church. The value of administration multiplies in importance as the church grows

larger. We can see this in the example of Acts 6 when the Hellenistic Jewish widows were being

neglected in their daily distribution of food, largely because the church was growing larger and

larger. The widows were being neglected not necessary because of an intentional mal-intent,

though it initially appeared to be so. However, when the deacons were established to lead the

administrative roles of taking care of the widows, the church overcame this problem and grew

tremendously as result.

Administration is governed by biblical truth and motivated by the gospel. Administration

describes the specific ways and plans the church committed to do in ministry. With every

vision, a plan is required to accomplish that vision. Beyond that, it requires a person who is

gifted in administration to lead a team of people to accomplish the ministry.

The elder board and ministry teams assist in church administration by:

The elder board and ministry teams assist in church administration by forming specific plans to

carry out the vision that is previous set in place for the church. The elder board and ministry

teams must be composed of and be led by godly men and women whom the congregation can

look to as spiritual models of following Jesus. They also function as models in the actual

planning and doing of the ministry. In forming specific plans, the elder board and ministry team

discuss the logistical impact of the decisions. The elder board and ministry teams discuss if the

specific planned ministry can be practically accomplished at this moment, and if it accomplishes

the overall vision of the church.

How should be church be governed?

Scripturally, God designed two offices for the church. God designed the offices of elders and

deacons. God called the elders to lead and provide the oversight over the church, and God

called the deacons to assist in that leadership in accomplishing administrative tasks.

In leading, the elders provide the overall vision and direction of the church. The elders do not

lead with an iron fist or coercion, as they must function as elders who live among the flock (1

Peter 5:2). They listen and hear the needs of the flock. The elders lead in teaching, guiding,

and giving instructions. However, the congregation only move forward with congregational

affirmation and rule. The congregation can demonstrate affirmation or disagreement in the act

of voting on decisions that involve the whole congregation. This gives the leaders of the church

a feedback of where the congregation stands, and therefore helps the leaders to lead better. In

1 Timothy 3, God compared the aspiring elder’s ability to lead the church to his ability to

manage his own household. A godly man who manage his household well does not rule with an

iron fist, rather he leads by servant leadership. That means that in setting direction for his

family, he is not just telling his family members what to do. He is also listening, learning,

teaching, and modeling.

In biblical eldership, no one elder can make decision for the church unchecked. In biblical

eldership, the elders must function together to contribute to and pushback on each other. A

good elder requires years of ministry experience and understanding of the word of God. God

did not design the church to be led by rubber stamp eldership team. A feedback loop must be

created for all who leads. When I led with other elders, my decisions were often challenge by

other Godly elders who functioned independently from me in the sense that they obeyed only

the authority of the word of God. We agreed and functioned well as a team because we

followed the Bible. In my interaction with other elders, my errors were often brought to light

and decisions challenged. Knowing our authority comes from the word, we then submit to the

word. As result, the church benefits from our collective leadership.

In addition to a healthy elder team, the congregation must function in a polity in which they

give feedback to the leaders. Through modeling, teaching, and gentle shepherding of the

elders, the congregation is led by the elders, and grows in maturity and unity over time. The

elders must never coerce congregation.

In all we do, no factions, divisions is allowed to exist. The agreement of the elders and the

congregation is required in order to preserve unity of the church.

How to handle a case of scandal or immorality by a church member:

In handling immorality conducted by a church member who is not leading a ministry at the

church, I plan on taking the approach of biblical conflict resolution as stated in Matthew 18:15-

20. The sinning brother who refuses repent of sins against God and sins against the members

of the congregation violates the word of God and the church covenant. The brother or sister is

called to repentance by an individual, then by individuals, then by the whole church. If the

brother or sister refuses to repent and follow Jesus, then out of love for the soul of the

member, the brother or sister is excommunicated the church. If the brother or sister repents of

the sin and decides to follow Christ, then the person is restored to fellowship. Due to the

nature of the immorality, the brother or sister may undergo consequences of the sin, which the

church can walk with the person in love.

In handling scandal or immorality conducted by a church member who is leading a ministry (a

deacon or an elder), the process must be decided by the elder board before the actual

occurrence of the sin. If the process of dealing with issues is not decided ahead of time, the

church can split due to disagreement on what to do. One group can lean toward giving grace to

the sinning individual. One group can lean toward exacting justice toward the individual. This

can potentially split the church apart. The decision becomes incrementally harder to reach if

the sinning individual is someone we loved and known for many years.

It is important from the start to decide what to do when individuals who are leading ministries

sin against God. We must decide on 1) if the individual can continue to serve in the capacity

that he/she is currently serving. The decision is made on assessing the qualifications of elders

and deacons in 1 Timothy 3. Once the brother/sister does not meet the qualifications, then the

brother/sister is asked to step down from official ministry position. If the brother/sister

repents, the brother/sister must be given time again to reestablish a pattern of faithfulness in

meeting qualification of 1 Timothy 3 before asked to serve as an elder or deacon again. Still,

the congregation is informed of the situation. In the communication, the brother/sister who

repents is given a soft pillow to land on (figurative speaking) in that we teach the congregation

to love and give grace and walk with the brother/sister in love. For the brother/sister who does

not repent after walking through the process of Matthew 18:15-20, then public announcement

of excommunication occurs. We must decide also on 2) the severance package if the staff is

paid. As we decide on all this before the time of the sin, even writing this into the church’s by-

laws, it allows all of us to process the situation without being clouded in judgement by our

emotions at the moment. We can then stand in unity in leading the church in the process.

Thoughts about worship

The worship style I prefer is:

I don’t actual prefer any style as long as it 1) honors Christ, 2) reflects scriptural accuracy, and 3)

engages the congregants to sing their heart out for the Lord. I believe that worship is

congregational activity. Whatever style that we worship in must be sing-able for the

congregation in the time and culture of our days. That is, people who come to the church can

enjoy and assess that we are making good music that is easy to follow and honors God. I prefer

music that is upbeat because I believe in the celebratory nature of Sunday worship. After the

sermon, we can sing meditative or reflective songs. By playing songs that are sing-able and not

far removed from contemporary culture, we can attract servants to come and play and sing and

lead.

My Preaching and teaching styles are:

I preach to faithfully exposit from the word of God. I do not make up or give my opinion when I

preach. When I preach, I speak authoritatively from the word. I also preach relevantly to the

culture. That means that I am constantly comparing and contrasting between the narratives of

the culture with the narrative of the Bible. While preaching expositionally, I am always bringing

the message back to the gospel. In this, I preach evangelistically. Hopefully in every passage, I

am not just teaching the text, I’m also preaching the gospel. My goal is to preach the gospel to

every person who walks through the doors, and at the end of the message, they can know that

they sinned against God and how they can embrace Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Though I

preach expositionally, my sermons always find a main theme in the text, so it always carry a

topical message.

Lay Participation in the worship service should include:

Preaching and teaching only presents a slice of the worship experience on Sunday morning. As

we come together on Sunday morning, lay people can participate in singing, scripture reading,

giving in tithes, praying for one another, connecting, serving, and welcoming new comers. As

the children are learning in Sunday school, lay people can also apply to teach and care for the

young ones. Before and after the service, lay people can participate in assisting in set up and

take down. For people who does not operate in specific ministry responsibilities, they engage

in worship by following the leaders in singing, listening to and engaging with the word of God

being preached, and fellowshipping with other believers.

Instructions were given in Romans 12:1 on worship. It indicated that when one comes to

worship, he/she is “presenting [their] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,

which is your spiritual worship.” Therefore, when we worship, we are bringing our body, soul,

and life before Him and giving our all to Him. This attitude impacts the way that we come to

God. When we sing, we are singing our hearts out. When we hear from the word, we are

listening to know Him, in order to conform our hearts and thoughts to His. When we serve and

give, we come giving our treasure, talents, and time because in giving these things we are

indeed presenting ourselves as sacrifices before God in worship.

My view on technology in the worship service are:

I think we can use technology as long as it contributes to the worship experience. The usage of

posting lyrics on projection screen allows the congregation to sing while having their hands

free, which they can use to clap or raise to the Lord in worship. The projections can also show

slides that remind people of the upcoming events and activities. Amplified sound with singing

and instrumentation allows people to be able to follow the worship leaders better, and sing

together with one another. More and more people are reading their bibles off their phones, so

allowing that is fine. Basically, I accept and even sometimes promote the use of technology

within worship service as long as it assist and does not distract people from worshipping God.

My practice as it pertains to personal and family worship:

I wake up in the morning to pray and read the word. Typically, I spend 30-45 minutes doing so.

During night time, my wife and I spend time praying together. At this time, I teach my kids

organically as I ask them about their daily experiences. As they grow older, we plan to establish

weekly time of worship in sharing and in reading the word.

Thoughts about Evangelism

Evangelism should be:

Evangelism is the actual professing and sharing of the gospel to another individual, so that the

individual can make a decision to follow Jesus. The gospel presented is that Jesus came to

earth to die for our sins. Our sins separate us from the Holy God and destines us for eternity in

Hell. However, Jesus died on the cross and paid the penalty of our sins and was raised 3 days

after. Those who believe onto him live for Him as Lord and Savior and receives eternal life.

In our day and culture, the unbelievers are making assessment of Christianity way before the

gospel is presented to them. In our postmodern culture, they are making the assessment

through if they feel loved by Christians. Evangelism is Christians pointing unbelievers to the

love of God through the path of exhibiting love to the world and to one another. When we do

so, we proclaim the gospel message to them, and people are going to embrace Jesus as their

Lord and Savior.

In applying this to cold contact evangelism, we must show the people walking the streets that

we love them. Oftentimes we see people holding up signs of condemnation of certain sins in

cold contact evangelism. In the culture of our days, this gives off the message that the church is

condemning and judging the sins of the world. Actually, only God judges. We are called to love

people. In loving people, we speak to them honestly the reality of their sins, and the salvation

they can receive in Jesus. In cold contact evangelism, one thing we can do is to set up a table of

food and refreshments in a busy public area. When they stop, we can serve them food and

refreshments. We can introduce ourselves to them, ask about their lives, and if the Lord leads,

pray for them. When we approach evangelism in this way, opportunity for sharing the gospel

and telling them about our church always comes. With love and care demonstrated, some of

them eventually shows up at church.

In applying this to relational evangelism, we must show the people in our city that we care. We

see our neighbors. We speak to them, care for them, invite them over to our homes for dinner,

and hear about their lives. As they walk life with us, they hear the gospel, see the gospel lived

out, and actually witness the power of the gospel that changes lives. God can work through this

process to save an individual. Evangelism also come in meeting actual needs. James 2:18 says,

“I will show you my faith by my works.” This means that the world is watching how our faith

impacts the surrounding communities. Initially, as we begin small, we can join in with local

initiatives, whether be homeless shelter, food pantry ministries, crisis pregnancy centers,

rehabs, associations that revitalize at risk communities, etc. In doing these things, we become

the hands and feet of Jesus, and people are led to meet Jesus because they feel the love of God

through us. As we grow larger, we can start our own initiatives that may work better in the

context of our immediate surrounding communities, and beyond.

The place of Foreign missions in my ministry:

It begins by selecting the foreign missions. We can speak to foreign mission and missionaries to

find out 1) if their ministries find its basis in the gospel, and 2) if they are actually doing work

serves the community and draws people to Jesus, and 3) if their ministries multiply disciples for

Jesus. A broad base of ministries does these things. We can look into church planting (both in

the states and abroad). We can look into supporting overseas seminaries and pastoral training

centers. We can look into ministries that provide food, clean, water, and housing. In

supporting, we can give finances to that foreign mission. We can send them our best people to

support them in the field. We can use technology to conduct interviews to help our people

better understand the ministry work that is overseas. Ultimately, I think we can walk with them

as a congregation to makes sure that they feel loved and care for. If possible, we can initially

tithe 10 percent of our budget to give to foreign missions and local church planting. When our

church grows, we can give more.

Thoughts about Fellowship

Good church fellowship is:

A good church fellowship demonstrates the undertone of vulnerability in the conversation of

the people in the fellowship. It presents a certain kind of rawness in which people do not feel

that they have to pretend to be someone in order to be accepted. They can share their

excitement as well as their struggles because they do not fear being judged. We can speak

honestly into each other’s lives to encourage and advice. Ultimately, this only happens because

people believe in the gospel, and that in Christ, they are forgiven and being made new, so

therefore, they do not fear men’s opinions. We must also protect this culture by warning those

who judge or hold people to legalistic laws and standards instead of the gospel. This culture is

both taught, learned, and felt. This vulnerability must come from the leadership down. The

church imitates how the leadership functions. In this case, the leadership team also

demonstrates this kind of deep friendship and vulnerability with one another.

I think visitation is:

Though scripture commands specifically the elders/pastors to visit the elderly, sick and those

who struggle physically, all members are actually required to demonstrate this love and care for

one another. In visiting, I plan to spend time talking and fellowshipping with the individual.

With the leadership team, we can also discuss the practical things we can do to serve the

people who are sick, elderly, or homebound. Many times, it may just be visiting them. Other

times, it is may be setting up meals, helping with cleaning, etc. I think we can create a system

and a plan so that visitation does not just fall on a few leaders, rather this way of loving and

caring for one another is exhibited by all members of the church.

Caring for each other means:

Caring for each other means that we know each other’s needs and we meet each other’s needs.

We can serve and care for one another by fulfilling these needs through the utilization of our

spiritual gifts. God gave us spiritual gifts to serve and build up one another. Caring for one

another may mean praying for one another. For many, it may mean to give financially. For

other, it may mean helping with physical labor, or visiting and spending time with them. The

list goes on.

My opinion toward other denominations and interchurch cooperation is:

The local congregation is led by local leadership. In this way, each church function

autonomously (independently). However, churches do function interdependently in the sense

that as long as we teach, preach, and live by the gospel, we all love and care for one another as

one body of Jesus Christ. Though we may be represented through our local congregations, we

ultimately represent the one body that worships Jesus together in the New Heaven and the

New Earth. That means that on this earth now, we hear other churches’ advices and concerns,

and work with other churches to impact our city for Christ. We can partner with other local

churches as long as we agree on the essential doctrinal issues in our statement of faith such as

the trinity, the virgin birth, Jesus’s atonement, etc. When the churches work together, we

make greater impact for the city, and represent a greater picture of God’s love to the

unbelieving world.