Happy Father’s Day

Boy, it’s Father’s Day again it kind of crept up on the Summer.  It’s a nice idea to honor dads but as a holiday compared to Mother’s Day we are a distant second, an afterthought. Last month when the church Mission Support event was scheduled for this afternoon none of the 3 pastors (all fathers) even realized it was on Father’s Day. I think my wife pointed that out to me later, oops. So not even the Dads are paying attention to our own special day either.
I joke of course. But we fathers don’t necessarily need that kind of outward gesture of appreciation and affection. Unlike mothers we don’t automatically relate to or identify with the emotional bonds that exist, or ought to exist, with our children. It’s complicated. We’re not comfortable with the emotion of it. We were raised by a generation of fathers of a past traditional paternal role where all this touchy feely kind of close relationship was not expected.
So the modern role of the father has changed for the better but we struggle with it. Our own fathers were not that relational or affectionate and so we’ve had to find a path to our children’s lives on our own. It’s especially challenging for a father and son to be close. I love being a father to my 11 year old son Julian but I struggled early on with my own issues before he and I had a stronger relationship. I wasn’t close to my own father growing up. Oh sure I have fond childhood memories of doing lots of fun things with my father like on family vacation at the beach and going salmon fishing together.  But later on as I grew older it was more difficult to find common ground between us. And as a young adult I didn’t want to listen to my father or anyone else for advice and so my relationship with him became even more strained. So after high school and even college he and I were distant, even though I still loved him but we had no way of expressing it.
But there comes a time as we grow older that we start to know and appreciate our parents as adults and so the relationship evolves to a mutual friendship. Of course the Bible says for us to honor our parents and I think it’s a challenge for the guys especially to honor their fathers. But as time goes by we age and mature and all of those obstacles that held the relationship back before hopefully fall by the way side and what remains is the love and appreciation for one another.

Happy Father’s Day!

From Pastor Mark’s Heart
June 21, 2015

Happy Father’s Day from Calvin and Hobbes!

Fathers, contrary to popular belief, we actually do listen to the things you say=)!
There’s a story about my father that I will never forget – a story of his character and actions that speak to me about life and ministry.  This story was told to me in a leadership group by our previous senior pastor.  Many years ago when my father was an oikos leader, he and a leader in training were sitting under a seminar/teaching from our then senior pastor.  The topic was on care ministry and the role of the oikos leader and subjects as love, compassion, leadership structure were all being spoken on.  There came a point in the seminar, where the senior pastor wanted to use his life as a personal example and how the people sitting under his teaching can relate to him.  So he asked a simple question, “who is your pastor?”  Thinking that all would point to him, since he was the pastor, there was a brief moment of silence, and with a quiet but confident voice the leader in training pointed to my father and said, “he is my pastor and mentor.”  When I heard the story, I couldn’t help but beam with pride.  You see, my father is not a pastor by title.  In scripture, Paul talks repeatedly about gifts given to people from the Lord to admonish, encourage, and challenge the church.  Often times the role or gifts of “pastor” and “shepherd” are limited to that of the elders or capital “P” pastors of the church.  My father never told me this story, but what he taught me was that compassion, love, and care for the flock that the Lord (and no one else!) has placed under you is a serious responsibility and calling.  He showed me that though he was “only” an oikos leader by title, he went the extra mile to love and care for his people as any Pastor or Elder would and should. 
Friends, Jesus gave a new commandment (singular!) to his disciples during the last meal He would have with them – love God and love others.  He said do this simultaneously, not one after the other.  Fathers and future fathers, the greatest gift you can give to your children, wife, the people around you, the flock God has placed before you, is to love and care for them as Jesus loved and cared for us.  We look to you to lead but more than that, we look to you to love as Christ loved the church.  As Paul prayed over the church in Ephesus, I leave you with this prayer:
 “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
God bless you and keep you.  Amen.

From Pastor Keeyoung’s Heart
June 15, 2014

This is the column I wrote for last week:
I had a conversation with Mike Chung during a Timothy teachers’ meeting whether to do something special for the Father’s Day. We were mourning over the fact that there is always a huge hype over Mother's Day but we seem to just skim over Father's day without much celebration. Every Mother’s Day has been filled with special events and the church even sells special corsages for mothers. But we, the fathers, do not get anything special on Father’s days. As the conversation went on, I began to think about how the children usually do not appreciate their dads as much as their moms, especially when they are young. Perhaps one of the reasons is that the children see and receive more tangible love from their mothers. Mothers in general, are more closely involved with children's life whereas fathers tend to be less involved in their kids' life because of work schedule and other obligations. However, we know fathers have a very important role of bringing security and stability to their families. These are the situations that I see in many families but certainly do not apply to every family. So don’t be offended if you are a mother or a father who’s totally different from what I described above.

As i think back to my childhood, I remember my mom always being around. She was there to send me off to school in the morning, cook me a warm meal, dressed me in proper attire until i was old enough to take care of myself. Disciplining can spanking were almost exclusively done by mom except for a couple times when i got into major trouble and dad had to step in with a stronger force. However, as I entered middle school, I started to notice my dad being more involved in my life. I am not so sure whether he was intentionally doing it but my dad came into my life at a critical time when I needed him the most. Being a typical middle child did not help as I was going through the teenage years. I always felt incompetent in everything and felt like I didn’t get enough love and attention when my siblings were always the focal point of our family.
Whether my dad was being intentional or not didn’t really matter because he was able to embrace my longing to receive more love. He was exceptionally encouraging to me, or at least I felt like it. He not only talked about love, he went over and beyond in my opinion to carry out his love for me and my family. I simply cannot get into all the details in this short writing, but I have so many good memories of my dad within the first 2 years of my middle school years when our relationship was taken up to a whole new level. It has never been the same ever since. As I realized how much this man love me and cares for me, I not only became a good son, my attitude towards life and myself completely changed.
As I get older and became a father, I am appreciating the sacrifice and love my father poured upon my life even more. I pray and hope that I can show the kind of love that my father showed me to my own kids. It will be a true challenge but a worthy one because I want my kids to have the same love and respect for me as their father that I have for my own father.

From Pastor Brian’s Heart
June 23, 2013