KBEMF 2007 Conference

KBEMF (Korean Baptist English Ministers Fellowship) conference was held in Rockville, VA from April 24 through April 26. It was a time well-spent. It was great to see those people I had met last year and even two years ago. One thing unique about this conference was that I stayed late at night engaging in discussions about different issues related to English Ministry at Korean American churches. The first night I stayed until 2:30, the second night until 4:30, and the third and last night until 2:30. It dawned on me that some issues never fail to be brought up such as the relationship between KM senior pastors and EM pastors who are usually one of the associate pastors. One thing that I noticed was that seasoned EM pastors know how to get along with their KM senior pastors. If the relationship between them is not strong, the EM would suffer, and usually the EM pastor would leave the church and the KM congregation would ever be wary of EM pastors. Unlike last year, there were one Caucasian elder (Thom), a Chinese American (Louis Lee), and several pastors' wives and their children. As suggested at the last night's meeting, we might be able to meet in places such as Hawaii with our spouses and children. That would be nice.

David Hong and his wife brought their son, Jonathan, and I found out that Sonya is pregnant with her second child. David shared with me that he's intending to go to the mission field in a couple of years. I also had a good chat with John Huh and James Kim both from CA. In particular, James' insights gained from more than a decade of doing EM were very helpful and I believe they would serve as guiding lights to me as I pursue EM myself. I hope that I would continue to network with him and other seasoned pastors. Conversations with Peter Lee, Loren Chung, Jim Bae, and Sam were very productive. Sam's experience working with 60 plus youth helped me to connect the dots in terms of the possibility of using cell group model in youth ministry. He shared with me that he had been discipling student leaders who would lead and disciple their own cell group members.

The theme of this year's conference was missions, and that's why it was held at IMB facilities. Having a tour around the IMB headquarters gave me a close look at how IMB works. I also happened to meet Dr. Grant Lovejoy with whom I took a seminar at Southwestern when he taught as a preaching professor. There were several people who used to work in Korea as missionaries. Their greetings in fluent Korean made us smile.

As I think back to the conference and the many conversations I had with other participants, I realize again that it's up to me if I really want to network with them and get support from them. I don't think people will go out of their way and help me. As with anything, I believe I need to take initiatives and get help. Thank you KBEMF board members and Loren for hosting the conference. Love