Last Thursday, we signed a contract with Priory Church of England Primary School. We are now able to use the hall as our place of worship, two classrooms for our church school, and the wide playground at lunchtime. Praise team practice sessions will take place on Saturday morning. The fees are higher than expected, and we used up quite a lot of funds for our new praise team equipment, but God prepared us for this by blessing us richly during the pandemic, so we were able to finalise all this with joy. Most importantly, I was overjoyed by the fact that we are able to establish one church.
When I first came to London in 2008, our church had two separate services, one in Wimbledon and one in central London. That autumn, we combined the two to be one service in central London, where we worship to this date. But thanks to God’s blessing over the years, we were able to grow in His grace, thanks to which we are now able to open a new place of worship in Wimbledon.
Personally, if I were to serve the same amount of time I have done so far, it will be time for me to retire – it is like facing half time in a football match. As I have finished the first half in His grace, I hope that God will allow me the same blessing for the second half, and plan to humbly pray for the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and to obey Him in carrying out my ministry.
The past 14 years in central London was focused on Christians in their 20-40s, who in Korea we label as “young adults”. This was the same audience that I regularly served while serving in Korea as well, so I really enjoyed serving this group, as this seemed like an extension of my previous experience. I still love their energy, and while I am now physically in my mid-fifties, my heart is still in its 20s when I first passionately met God. 😊
I also have quite a lot of experience serving the elder adults. I was able to build good relationships with elders of the church who were much older than I was even when I was in my 30s – so I think we will do well even if God sends us more Christians from the older generation. Twenty years have passed since my previous experience, so I hope to be able to understand and serve them better than I previously was, with the experience of life and faith that I have since accumulated.
Though I am not sure what God has in store for us in Wimbledon, I plan to continue to pray as I always have and be guided by Him. Unlike the church in central London, where we have newcomers and leavers each week, I suspect that we will see more members join on a longer-term basis. We will see the older population grow in our church as well. Perhaps serving in central for 14 years was what I needed to serve well in Wimbledon. When serving the younger generation, it was easy to share the gospel in its raw, original form rather than having to sugar coat it – but for the elder generation who have more experience with life, there are more complicated matters that must be taken into account.
During my 40s, I made a lot of mistakes out of passion, and the messages that I shared were quite strong, without much regard to the audience’s feelings, which at times may have been considered quite rude and difficult to accept. However, our young adults thankfully accepted it as loving advice. Thanks to their perseverance and acceptance, I have become more flexible over the years – to the extent that in God’s eyes, I have finally become capable of addressing the elder generation as well, which is probably why He is sending me to Wimbledon. “Nice to see you again, Wimbledon!”
