OPEN MIND

“God’s Vision Church Wimbledon’s Needs” – Rev. Young Joo Lee

Because our church experiences many changes every year with people coming and going, we have become accustomed to change. Personally, instead of finding new people or new situations difficult my personality is such that I enjoy new things, so our church’s situation was not unfamiliar to me. Of course sometimes unexpected things happen and there are many things that need to be adjusted, the fact that things are always changing is evidence that our community is alive and it is something to be thankful for.

It’s now been a month and a half since the new worship service in Wimbledon has started. Because God had led us from long before, the location and timing was good, and we had plenty of time to prepare so the first time we had the worship service there it didn’t feel busy but instead felt comfortable as if we had been worshipping there for a long time.

Almost every week new people visit the church. There are people who have decided to attend as well as people who are still looking for a church. While the church in central London has many young adults and tourists who come to visit, the same thing happening at Wimbledon is uncommon. As expected, there are more visitors who are parents of older children than who are young adults.

But something that is of concern is that the children of these families don’t speak Korean well and have difficulty when attending a worship service in Korean. These families have had to find English services to attend so they can’t all come to the Korean service. After hearing about this, I asked our very first English interpreter, Jiwon Choi, to interpret the service and we have had interpretation since last week. It was a similar scenario at the church in central London long ago, and it made me think of those old days.

With English interpretation starting last week, a non-Korean husband came to the worship service with his wife. Although there was a problem with the microphone so the sound was a little small, it was perfect timing. During the week we purchased some additional equipment and now we are thinking about a space for interpreting. We actually didn’t think we would need interpretation at the Wimbledon church but seeing how we are preparing for it so soon; God seems to be planning something new.

I especially think that a teen service will need to start soon. Originally, we planned to start a service at the Wimbledon church in September when students in the younger groups will move up to the teen group as the number of students in the teen group is too small to divide between the Central church and the Wimbledon church. But if we start a teen service in Wimbledon now, we would need more teachers but I don’t know if that’s possible. At the current time, teachers need to come early to lead Sunday school at the Wimbledon church and go up to the Central church to worship in the afternoon so it’s not easy.

But you never know. Because God has started a new work, he may send someone. If it’s not possible to start the teen service, we will start by providing translation services. Just like always, God leads our church. You and I just need to support what God is doing. If you compare our church to a restaurant, I am an employee and Jesus Christ is the owner. The owner plans and leads the work. You and I will become devoted employees working diligently next to Jesus Christ. Let’s see how our owner will run our church.

예배시간 변경 안내(service time change)

  • 3월 3일(3월 첫 주만) 센트럴 주일예배가 영국교회 행사 관계로 오후 3시로 변경되었습니다. 윔블던 예배는 동일하게 오전 10시 30분 입니다.
  • Sunday’s service(3rd, Mar) of Central campus will be held at 3 p.m. due to an English Church event. Wimbledon campus’s service is the same as usual(10.30a.m.).