Disciple Making Since 1988Q & A with Pastor Jeff Hyun on the 25th Anniversary of Sa-Rang Community Church

April, 2013 No. 149

Published by Sa-Rang Community Church / Editor: C.Y. Jung / Editor in Chief: Heidi Ahn

Q: What do you love the most about the SRCC?

A: I say this all the time at our Starting Point orientation…but I can honestly say that the thing that I love the most about SRCC is the people. What makes SRCC so special is not so much the pastors or the programs – it’s the men and women who serve this church and make it what it is today.

Q: From what you know of SRCC, can you describe its how it grew (past), where we are (present), and where we are going? (future).

A: Sarang Community Church was founded in April 1988 by Pastor John (Jung Hyun) Oh and 12 founding members. Together, they shared a powerful vision to raise up disciples of Jesus Christ that would make an impact in this world. Through this unwavering commitment to disciple-making, the church began to blossom very quickly. When I look at where our church is now, I can honestly say that God has been faithful!SRCC is and always will be a church that is committed to making disciples that will make an impact in this world.Honestly speaking though, I do feel that we may have lost a little bit of the “spirit” of disciple-making that helped grow this church over the past two and a half decades – where discipleship wasn’t just a program but about people investing in people.I say this because my life was powerfully transformed when my discipler decided to invest in me and began pouring his life into mine. He taught me, he trained me, and he shared life with me – just like Jesus did.God used him mightily to raise me up as a true follower and disciple of Jesus Christ.

My hope and prayer is that our church would get back to the spirit of making disciples again.In my understanding of discipleship, there are three key components to making disciples:

• The first is to reach out and make new disciples. Biblically speaking, disciple-making isn’t just about taking existing Christians and making them better Christians. When Jesus gave the Great Commission and said, “Go and make disciples of all nations”, I think He meant that we reach out and make new disciples from those who do not yet know Christ.• Secondly, once these new disciples are reached, the next step of the disciple-making process is to raise them up in Christian faith and maturity. This has been the key staple and strength of our church over the past 25 years. • Lastly, once these disciples are reached and raised up, we need to release them – so that they can go on make new disciples. When we understand disciple-making in this way, discipleship is all about disciples making disciples – through reaching, raising, and releasing.SRCC has been and always will be a disciple-making church.I am proud to say that our church is deeply committed to the Great Commission.But I’m also reminded that before the Great Commission, comes the Great Commandment – which is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and strength and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.My prayer is that in the next 5-10 years, our church will be known not only for our commitment to the Great Commission, but the Great Commandment as well.

Q: What role would Holy Wave play in this greater plan?

A: HolyWave ministry was started six years ago under the leadership of then senior pastor Daniel S. Kim. Our church envisioned that through HolyWave, a new generation of disciples would be raised up to make an impact both locally in our community and globally as well. I believe that with the launch of HolyWave ministry, the church was symbolically passing the torch of disciple-making to the next generation. Our spiritual fathers/mothers from the 1st generation have done much to pave the way for us. They have left behind a great legacy of disciple-making and what it means to make an impact – especially amongst the Korean American community. But I believe that the impact that HolyWave is going to make will extend beyond the walls of the Korean American community – even reaching to the ends of the earth.

Q: Message for SRCC as we celebrate 25th anniversary.

A: God has been so faithful to SRCC for the past 25 years! I look forward to all the great things that He will do in the next 25 years!

by Justin Choi jkchoi77@gmail.com

2013 Easter Hope Festival

March 13, 2011 :: No. 141

There is so much to share about our awesome adventure inviting our neighbors to the Easter Hope Festival but I will need to save the details for a later time. In short, we were blessed with amazing testimonies of how God has transformed several lives in such powerful and intentional ways!

Members of the BFAM (Brothers from another mother) and New Heart Oikos worked together to prepare our hearts and set out to invite neighbors of SRCC to the 5th annual Easter Hope Festival. What an incredible blessing it was to have the Holy Spirit lead us in serving this amazing community just a few steps from our church! Spirit filled testimonies, joyful children who just couldn’t wait for Easter to come, wonderful families and heartwarming smiles abounded. We split up into groups of 2’s and 3 and had opportunities

to get to know many folks. As we were finishing up our route, we made a few new friends in an alleyway that is not marked on the maps but within the block we were reaching out to. As our groups headed back to church to go for lunch, I felt a tugging in my heart to go back to one of the neighbors in particular and ask him for his name. Sandra Yi volunteered to come with me. As we approached his home, he was just getting into his car and backing out of his driveway. Then he noticed us standing across the street and was overjoyed that we came back to ask for is name. His name is Henry Vargas and as it turns out, he was a fellow warrior in Christ. He shared perhaps one of the most powerful testimonies I have heard of how God has not only transformed him and his family through the Holy Spirit, but how God has saved each of their lives in the most incredible

ways. If you’re interested to hear more about his testimony, I’d be happy to share it with you in person as Henry has given us his permission and encouraged us to do so and, God willing, he would be more than happy to make time to share it with everyone himself. We spent nearly two hours listening

as he shared his testimony with us and I believe we only scratched the surface of how deeply God has been transforming him and his family and using them to encourage others to pray faithfully and seek after God and to serve with joyful and privileged hearts.

On Saturday, November 24, 2012, the iHike Ministry embarked on

our very first adventure together! Ten anointed brothers and sisters met up in the morning and rendezvoused at the Trails Cafe in Griffith Park. The park boasts miles of well-defined trails and a variety of route options anyone could appreciate. We were truly blessed to meet some new faces and getting to know one another as we shared in our appreciation for what our Lord has designed all around us. Our hike was fraught with spectacular scenery and

exceedingly perfect weather. With beads of sweat on our brows and laughter that could chisel abs even Pastor Stephen might admire, we hiked a scenic 6+ miles, took many photos, toured the Griffith Observatory and enjoyed some delicious Thai cuisine to cap off a great day. ;) What a perfect opportunity this was to burn off some post-Thanksgiving calories and leave the guilt of those extra slices of pecan pie and one too many servings of stuffing in the

dust! We are actively planning our next hike so stay tuned for updates on our Facebook and Google groups mailing list! If you are not already a member and would like to join us for a physical challenge and wonderful fellowship, please contact me at bryantkwon@gmail.com. If you have a Facebook account, you are invited to add yourself to our Hiking ministry page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/iHike/

You Belong! - Reaching out to the community through the Easter Hope Festival

Surrounded by the beauty of His Majesty - Hiking iGroup

by Bryant Kwon

Don’t waste the e-waste, use them for His Kingdom!Don’t just throw away your unwanted e-waste, donate them for a good cause. Last year, the e-waste recycling team has collected enough items to generate over $10,000 that was entirely used to support overseas missions. Please bring ANY unused computer or electronic hardware to the recycling station next to the room 139 in the main kitchen area across from the L’abri café. Your participation is greatly appreciated.

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April 2013 | www.sarang.com2

STEM Mission Report

(STEM stands for Sa-Rang Team for Evangelism and Mission. STEM is one of our English college ministries focusing on short term missions for both domestic and overseas projects)

I spent this past year studying as a student at UCSD and serving both at church and in my campus ministry. As the departure date to China drew closer and closer, I reflected on not only this past year but also on my walk with God since I was saved… and I thought that I had begun to understand what gratitude was. I thought I knew what being grateful looked like and thought I knew how and when to show it. But most of all, I thought that I was genuinely grateful for the ultimate sacrifice God gave to save us: His blameless Son, Jesus. But God did a humbling work in my proud heart in China.

During the second half of our month in China, God afforded us the privilege to work with a village house church out in the countryside there. Countryside is an understatement. After getting off at the train station, we were helped into vans and started on an hour-and-a-half Indiana Jones-like ride, wherein our poorly-suspended automobiles rolled in and out of many potholes. We passed by endless fields of corn and eventually came upon a humid, jungle-like place, where we knew we had reached the village. The church building was rundown, maybe half the size of the average elementary school classroom, with no air conditioning. The church

elders who greeted us informed us that there were going to be around a hundred and forty people meeting in that room for the next five days, as our host missionary gave seminars. Inwardly I sighed, thinking about how long and hot the next five days were going to be.

In hindsight, they flew by. During my time there, I was blessed to witness the fervor with which the church members worshipped God. I can’t wholly describe the intense passion and love they had for Jesus in words. In a packed, smelly, hot and humid room, these brothers and sisters, though some are in their 60’s and 70’s, sing at the top of their lungs with no music and call out to God through feverish cries of “Yesu (Jesus)!” They have so little in this material world, but they are so rich spiritually; they don’t have sophisticated sound systems or dimming lights, but they have Jesus and an undying fire for Him. Out of the people I met, one brother yet had less. He was a brother who, in his early adulthood, had been afflicted with some condition that left part of his back paralyzed. As a result, he can’t sit for too long, nor can he freely turn his head. One night, our missionary told us the simple testimony of that brother: he was born free of this affliction; it just suddenly struck him one day. For a while, he was angry at God that this had happened and his anger leaked out harmfully to those around him. However, after he met Jesus his heart slowly filled up with peace and joy, even though he was not healed.

It is not an “incredible” story, but this is what God told me: it is incredibly precious to Him. Every lost sheep saved brought back into His fold is preciously unique. That means every salvation story, every testimony, is beautiful; every single person in that church, every single believer – including me – our testimonies are powerful. But this is not because our testimonies are about us, per se. Our testimonies exist because of the ultimate sacrifice God the Father had to make in order to save sinners like us. They exist because of God alone and every testimony is a story of Jesus’ love, a reflection of God’s overwhelming mercy and grace. In light of this, how can I respond in any way except tearful repentance and joyfully telling others about Him?

This past year, I would walk around campus, doing random evangelism, afraid that my testimony wasn’t “enough”. Consequently, this under-appreciative attitude of my salvation affected my view of how precious Christ is to me and I am to the Father. I regarded God as good, but only from a distance; I was content to cheapen both the grace of God, by using it as “insurance” as I sinned, and the value of my relationship with Christ. But God reminded me through that church that my testimony is an intricate story penned by God Himself, and that to regard His work as lowly is to reject my inheritance as a son of the Most High.

The house church had nothing

in their worldly possession to be proud of, yet the tears flowed heavily from their eyes because Jesus was so sweet, so worth all things to them. Brothers and sisters, I pray you hold this truth dear to your heart: if we believe that our testimonies are extraordinary because of our extraordinary God and Savior, then we don’t need flashing lights, emotional music, or a nicely furnished building to worship in. We need only to look to our Savior on the cross to remember the grace that covers us, to remember the debt that had to be paid, to remember the greatest love ever displayed: that Someone once laid down His life for you and me. Now, if Jesus is worth it all to us, then “if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy…[be] of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind” (Phil. 2:1-2). For in the end, we are all called as Christians to live missionary lifestyles, to “make disciples of all nations [including our own], baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that [He has] commanded us” (Matt. 28:19-20). And we will do so by loving our neighbors as ourselves (Matt. 22:39) and loving one another as Jesus loved us, in order that all people will know that we are His disciples (John 13:34-35), so that one day, the world might be saved through Him (John 3:17).

Yearning for “Yesu” - STEM Mission Report

by Daniel Cho / E-College

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