Edge of the Cliff
I feel like I am standing on the edge of a cliff. For past six months, I have been out of pastoral ministry in a church setting. I have been worshiping at a phenomenal church here in Virginia Beach. For the first time in my life, I have been part of a non-Korean church. For the first time in a long time, I am sitting in the pews rather than standing on the stage on Sunday mornings. This experience has been absolutely life changing for me. So much is going on in my mind on Sunday mornings as I worship God from the “other” side.
I have been working many hours at my frozen yogurt store. When I started this, I never meant for this to be my only source of income and THE place of my employment. However, it is what it is. (My new favorite saying).
Working here at the store, interacting with customers, doing the mundane work of cleaning, sweeping, mopping… have all been such a learning experience for me. I can’t explain how valuable this experience has been for me. It has been tough. I have had days where I was consumed with financial concerns. I have had days where I doubted whether God was going to get us through certain situations. There were times when I was filled with absolute desperation to hear God as I was driving to church only to have that desperation remain with me as I drove away from church. All these experiences have informed my own understanding of God, my philosophy of ministry, and my values as a Christian and a pastor.
Now, I am standing on the edge of a cliff. I am about to jump off into a new world of church planting…
Scared… excited… anxious… thankful… don’t want to do it if I had a choice… can’t see myself doing anything else… about to pee in my pants… can’t contain the excitement… ahhhh… the beauty of human emotions gushing through my system right before jumping off the cliff… screaming like a little girl…
Hi Wonsuk,
I don’t know if you remember me but my husband and I stopped by your yogurt shop about a month ago. We were talking to you about living in the area, how we knew Mia, etc. Well it’s funny how the world turns out because YOU were the pastor that Lisa Yu was trying to get me in touch with since I was moving down to VA Beach! Well we came back from our honeymoon today and are looking for a good church in the area. Was wondering if we could attend the same service as you or if you could make any other recommendations. Funny thing, I was serving at an EM church in Teaneck, NJ called Hope Church. The church was also going through a transitional/independence challenge and was building towards a new church plant. Let me know what the best way to get in touch with you would be. Thanks!
hey pdo, its nary, i have no idea if you use this thing & i didn’t even know i had an account on wordpress and lo and behold i have blogs that i never knew i wrote. lol …
but i read one part of your blog that said something about how you felt like you weren’t interacting with “real” people, just the spiritualized part of people.. and i found that very very interesting. to flip that scenario, definitely, whenever i talked with you, you always seemed like a real person to me, not just some spiritualized pastor— and that was an actual thought i had one day, just never formulated that thought into words. so somehow you stayed a real person even if every other person coming to you was spiritualized…. which is pretty cool..
im so glad you were in the korean realm cuz i can never shake off the memories of pkbc and what i experienced. can u tell i read more than a couple blogs? ha, you should consider writing a book! =D