COME & SEE in AUSTIN!!!

 It's been almost a half a year ever since we consistantly uploaded our testimonies in English!

 And we would like to share how we met Jesus, our Lord, and what changed our lives!!

 This March, our pastor, Sung-Ro Kim, is visiting Austin to share more about the gospel.

 Wanna hear more about this life-changing testimonies and gospel?

 Have you ever wondered why your life remains the same even when you pray and read the scruptures?

 Wanna know more about Jesus and have firm faith?

 Are you looking toward the growth in your faith?

 Come and join us for the special conferecne at Korean Baptist Church of Austin from Mar. 5-8th.

 God bless you all and hope to see you there!!! 

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The Right Gospel Certainly Produces the Healthy Church - HMU CHURCH

The Right Gospel Certainly Produces the Healthy Church 

– Sisa Magazine(June, 2011) 

The grace of the Gospel leads the former junior-high school teacher to walk the way of ministry…Gospel is the life itself, and the reason of the life

Hanmaum (HMU) church is very special for the most remarkable achievement in the school missions in less than 25 years since the pastor Sung-row Kim, the former junior high school teacher, developed this church. With no incidental support or materials, this church, where the testimonies of members are alive, is proving the power of the resurrection only with the prayers and words of God.

A school teacher believes in Jesus and experienced the grace of salvation. This is the beginning of the restoration. He didn’t mean to be a pastor at first, but his burning faith for spreading God’s kingdom with the love for souls was leading him to walk the way of ministry. He became a believer of Jesus Christ when he was 31 years old. Then a few years later, he began a campus ministry in KangWon University while he still worked as a school teacher. His ministry began with the campus bible study with 6 students of the university. He didn’t mean to be a pastor at the first time but his great conviction and passions that the gospel is the only key to make change of the times brought him to be a ministry.

This generation is stained with numbness against how valuable the life is and how the human nature is wrecked. The various social issues including suicide and game addiction gets this generation to sink down to a deep morass of incurable despairs. There are lots of voices to point out this problem, but there are not many who show the solution and consistently follow the way. Pastor Kim presents the gospel for the solution of this generation. He is assured that gospel can make change the major trend culture and values of the generation as well as one single individual’s life. Whatever he is asked, his only answer is the gospel. Gospel is the life itself and the reason of life for him. He said with great conviction that gospel is the fundamental solution not only for every trouble of one’s life but for all the social problems.

The church building converted from cattle shed reminds the Early Church 2000 years ago

HMU church is placed in a small rural town in Choonchun, Korea, has opened on 20 Aug, 1990. The former cattle shed is remodeled to be a church building, where now around 1,200 members are coming for worship. As you may guess, the exterior of this cattle shed converted church is just shabby.

Professor Park YongChul, a world authority on Cell Church, from Korea Baptist Theological University witnessed, “I have searched over the world for a church like the Early Church. I have never seen a church like HMU church in ChoonChun before. HMU church is a model for a church in the New Testament times that rarely found in this era. This church presents desirable characters for churches in today.” The pastor Kim said, “Essence of the mission from God to the church, the body of Jesus Christ, is to make disciples for every nation as in Matthew 28:18~20. As the Early Church community arisen by the gospel carried out the world mission, HMU church has the vision of the world mission as well with the community standing firm on the gospel. Currently, the young people including university students cover 40% of total attendance, and 90% of the members are under 50 years old. Most of the members are young, this is impressive as well.

So-Youn Ji, national women’s soccer team player, is the fruit of the gospel,

“Only gospel can make change people”

Recently, HMU church has been a blaze of various media publicity for the attendance of the national women’s soccer team player, So-Youn Ji. According to the pastor Kim, the gospel is testified to from one player to another player, and the small church arose in the team. In the 2010 U20 national soccer team, 11 of 23 players are now attending HMU church including SoYoun Ji, HyunYoung Lee and NaRae Kim. The small church could arise, beginning with HyunSook Seo, the captain of the team, who continued to testify to the gospel.

On Saturday evening, the most exciting time in the world, people from everywhere in the nation including Seoul, KyungGi, ChungNam, and KangWon-do are coming to church for Saturday’s praise worship beginning at 8 pm. People don’t leave until noon praying to God.  Sunday worship actually starts from Saturday’s praise worship and prayer. According to the pastor Kim, the spiritual power of HMU church is mostly brought out from this prayer. He said, “the change of one single individual is followed by the change for his or her whole community he or she belongs to, so only the gospel is the key for this era.”

HMU church is putting all of its efforts to nurture the worker of gospel and the worker of the church, focusing on secondary schools and campus ministry. In the part of this ministry, 15 training dorms for young people are operated by HMU church. As Jesus lived and worked together with his disciples, the young people study together, live together and get trained to be disciples of Jesus Christ.

More than 120 members of this church are working as school teacher, who are nurturing their students with the gospel. In case that extracurricular program is approved for Christian contents in the school, the trained workers from HMU church enter to the school as instructor to testify to the gospel and to nurture the students. Besides, HMU church is contributing to make Korean society more healthy with various activities such as suicide prevention seminars (for various institutions including secondary school and university) and game addiction testimony (aired on <Rejoice Everyday> from CTS, 28 Feb 2011). In this way, HMU church is making its effort for both spiritual restoration and the social innovation, that’s to say, social restoration.

The early members are still together with the pastor Kim for 22 years

One of the most remarkable fruits of the HMU church is this: Gospel is spread beyond the boarder to USA, Canada, Indonesia, and Germany. The greatest pleasure for a pastor is probably to see the true change of a man by the power of the gospel. Gospel has the power to make change those who killed Jesus to martyr who lay down the life for Jesus. This true change can be seen in the ministry site on 21 century, which is the greatest joy for the pastor. Gospel has the power to unify the different people with various backgrounds and nature as one family, as the word of Ephesians 3:6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

The true gospel unifies each one as one body with the head of Jesus Christ. The early members the pastor Kim firstly evangelized and nurtured are still together until now for 22 years. Pastor Kim said, “I am so happy to have many fellow workers who can share the life.”

Those who repent the sin and surrender to Jesus Christ are true Christians

Though we can see many churches anywhere in Korea, it’s not easy to find a spiritually healthy church around us among them. We have asked to Pastor Kim how to be a true Christian.

Pastor Kim has agonized for long time to find the reason why people don’t change no matter how much trained. Then, HMU church is experiencing the restoration by the power of true Lordship firmly based on the word of resurrection on 2001, and true repentance and the sin of John 16:9 on 2006. “True Christian is whose heart is changed by repenting the sin of being his own master to believe in Jesus as his Lord, surrendering to Jesus Christ”, Pastor Kim said. The one who believes in Jesus as his Lord is the true Christian, and the community of them is the healthy church. True Lordship only comes from the repentance of the sin. Without true repentance and Lordship, the healthy church cannot be expected. Only when people repent the sin of being their own master and surrender to Jesus Christ, believing Jesus as the Lord, the healthy church could arise. With the gospel founded, the prayer should come with it. Most of the HMU church members come to the dawn prayer from 5 to 7 am. After the prayer, they have breakfast together and go out to each one’s work place. When prayer is consistently fired with the gospel founded, the healthy church could arise.

Young and active church, restoration comes along with the living testimonies of the members

There is no artificial program or organization for the evangelism in HMU church. A senior pastor alone is leading more than 1,000 members. This is possible because this church consists of many small churches led by the lay believers. Every believer starts small church wherever they belong to including schools, work places and neighborhoods. And these small churches scattered all around come to HMU churches every weekend for Saturday praise worship and Sunday worship. So, HMU church is young and active. One of the most remarkable points of HMU church is ‘every believer ministry’. That’s to say, this church is lay believer-oriented. This is distinguished from the traditional authoritarian ministry. This is one of the reasons that HMU church can be recommended as a good role model for desirable church.

More than 700 testimonies come out every week, which is a significant key to lead this community

The worker for every small church is approved by the community, through the training such as prayer, evangelizing, and testimonies. For HMU church to arise as a healthy church, testimonies play the key role. Most of the members keep writing the testimonies, which close to more than 700 pieces in a week. The sermons are not one-sided. Instead, they are all interactive sermons, for the testimonies supporting the sermon are proclaimed together with the pastor’s preachment. This interactive type of sermon is very exceptional, leading every service incredibly alive and active. In HMU church, workers of ability are raised through these testimonies training. And the true change is made in real life by applying words. These testimonies are not just an impression note, but they are used as a significant key to lead the whole community. These testimonies are chronically filed as more than hundred books of testimonies for many decades. The interactive community could arise by these testimonies. Normally as the numbers of people increase, the interactive communication seems not easy inside the church. But the testimonies written based on the pastor’s sermon could be a way to communicate with the pastor and each member. Besides, the testimonies preached out in sermons, accordingly the fellowship among the members could come with it. The sermon in HMU church is not one-sided at all by the pastor alone. Rather, it’s interactive with all members. Probably, this makes the worship of HMU church so active and alive.

The true gospel should bring out the healthy church

Pastor Kim said, “Normally, many ministries may want to make his church grow up bigger. However, the healthy church should focus on ‘one person’ as Jesus did so”. To raise each member with the gospel and to nurture him until Christ is formed in him, this is what church should do. The true gospel should bring out the healthy church. According to the pastor Kim, the gospel should be founded first to solve any issues occurred in the church. The true gospel is same as the one that Jesus has preached out and the apostles had proclaimed in the early church. In addition, he said, “the fruit of the ministry belongs to God. God will make the most beautiful fruit of healthy church, if only we defend the true gospel. The only thing we have to do is defending and testifying to the original gospel untouched as Jesus accomplished.”

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A minister of the Gospel who demonstrates a solution to korean churches in crisis - HMU Church

A minister of the Gospel who demonstrates a solution to korean churches in crisis 

– Gyeongjaein(Economy magazine) 

July 2011

As Crisis of Korean churches has been raised, it is being urged to work on measures. In Novemver last year, about two hundred pastors from twelve denominations participated in a Future Ministry Forum and resolved the declaration of self reform of pastors. At the Future Ministry Forum, they avowed their strong commitment to reform themselves by indicating issues needed to ve renewed in the declaration. The issues were classified into two sections of pastors and Korean churches. The sensitive issues pointed out throughout the declaration included ‘authoritarianism and mysticism of pastors’ ‘unjustice in a selection prosess for a replacement pastor’ ‘elder pastors’ ‘excessive intervention in church operation’ ‘pastor’s false degrees and desire for fame’ ‘senior paster-centered church management’ ‘reorganization of proliferating denominations’ ‘growing number of independent churches’ ‘exclusive localism and growth supremacy of church’ ‘missionary dilution’ and ‘bribing voters for an election’.

Nevertheless, Crisis of Korean churches is still being raised both inside and outside of churches. Of course, the issues cannot be resolved overnight, but lack of role-model can be considered as one of the reasons for the problem. Here Hanmaum Church in Choonchun (Senior pastor Rey. Sung-Row Kim, www.hmuchurch.com) is recommended as a role model for Korean churches.

-Hanmaum Church in Choonchun, a Roll model for Korean Churches.

The first impression of Hanmaum Church, located in Choonchun, Korea, was somewhat surprising. The exterior of the church looked too shabby considering that the church had been in a blaze of various media publicity for the attendance of the national women’s soccer team players So-Yun Ji and Hyun-sook Seo. As the interviewer and his company entered the entrance of the church, members of the church in small groups of three to five under shades greeted them first. All of them were unfamiliar, but they greeted very friendly. The greetings were so affectionate. Led by an elder Nong-do Kim, the interviewer went into an office of the senior pastor Rev. Sung-Row Kim. As if to reflect his character, the interior of the office was rustic and cozy. Any fancy sacred treasure of decoration was not seen at all.

Rev. Kim looked like uncle Sam in next door. He with a big welcoming smile radiated softness and warmth. Although it took just about one minute from the entrance of the church until to meet him, the reason why Hanmaum Church has been valued as a role model for Korean churches could be sensed to some extent. With the deep impression of the church, Rev. Kim was interviewed about his overall ministry.

-Jesus Christ of the Resurrection, the Lord of Mine

“I became a believer of Jesus Christ when I was 31 years old. Then, 7 years later, I began a campus ministry and had put all my efforts into disciple training. However, no matter how much trained, people did not change. Since then, I started deeply thinking about ‘Why don’t people change?”

Rev. Kim had agonized to find out the answer to the question for long time. Then, he could realize that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day from His death was truly the wo가 of mighty God. Soon, Rev. Kim found himself sincerely serving Jesus Christ of the Resurrection as his true Lord.

“The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is the Gospel itself, proves that Jesus is God and that the words in the Bible are true. Thus, it is reasonable for us serve Jesus Christ risen from the dead as our Lord.”

Rev. Kim’s philosophy of ministry which is focused on the Good News of the Resurrection seems to be making Hanmaum Church in Choonchun to spread the Gospel and to reproduce disciples lively. The church preached the Good News of the Resurrection as it is called as a church of the Resurrection. Indeed, each of the over a thousand members of the church considers himself as a military of Jesus Christ. Believers who were evangelized by Rev. Kim repented the sin, according to John16:9, of not believing in Jesus but living as masters of their own lives and accepted Jesus Christ of the Resurrection as the Lord of their hearts. They are continuously causing changes in families, schools, work places, and communities where they belong to.

Ministry of the Gospel that Brings Miracles

“A change of ans individual carries over into the individual’s whole community. Thus, the Gospel that makes changes in an individual is the only solution to this era.”

In Hanmuum Church, Rev. Kim is concentrating all his abilities on raising workers of God for spreading the Gospel and serving the church. Nevertheless, this church does not have an artificial program or organization to train these workers. This is the difference of Hanmaum Church from other churches.

“I believe that everything is done by the Gospel. I don’t dedicate to a special program for evangelism or mission. I don’t want anything arbitrary or contrived for running a such programs. The sincere change of each individual solely by the Gospel builds up the Christ-centered community, and the evangelism and missions come after spontaneously.”

Rev. Kim’s philosophy of ministry is doubted by some because his church does not have any special program or organization for the evangelism, missions, and a revival. However, actually, his philosophy is powerful because it is the result of a great deal of efforts for several decades to restore the Gospel in church and the community of the Early Church, not the result of knowledge from curricula, books, or educational programs.

Even before going into the ministry, as a middle school teacher, he was so eager to evangelize college students in spite of his busy schedule. It was because of his belief that the more young members in a church are, the stronger is the church. However, to bring people to church was not as easy as his thought.

“I felt the previously learned methods for evangelization was not working well in reality. As nurturing disciples, I found the reason for the problem. It was overlooking the importance of the fundamental Gospel, which is the most critical. After realizing that the accurate Gospel must be seeded before any training us proceeded, I have placed all the focuses of nurturing disciples on the Gospel only. Then, I started community discipline to raise those who completely surrendered to Jesus Christ by the Gospel. Before long, the fruits of the Gospel began to appear in real lives.”

The key factors of the successful changes found by Rev. Kim were the Gospel of the Resurrection, the Gospel of life, and the Gospel of community. With the restoration of the original Gospel that Jesus Christ proclaimed and that was proclaimed in the Early Church, the power of the Gospel was enormous. The Gospel made transformation not only of an individual, but also of his or her family, work, school, and the society where he or she belonged to.

A good example can be found in the national women’s soccer team. So-yun Ji attended Hanmaum Church drawn by the Gospel in the life of Hyun-sook Seo, another soccer player in the team. Later, the Gospel was continuously spread to other players by these two, and finally, most of the players in the national women’s soccer team and their university soccer team became believers in Jesus.

In addition, the power of the Gospel has been revealed in other church members’ schools and work places. The members transformed by the Gospel perceived the true meaning of life, and turned away from selfish life to the life for God and others. The miracles of transformation are still occurring in Hanmaum Church.

Desirable Characters for Churches in today

Rev. Kim was anointed to be a pastor when he was 47 years old. Nobody thought his ministry would be successful because he was too old to enter the ministry and did not have reputation to get attention from public. There were many oppositions because he could take his rest of life easy instead of taking risks at such a late ago.

Nevertheless, Rev. Kim courageously started off the church with the firm faith in the Gospel and his calling to nurture the followers of Jesus Christ. After 22 years from the church establishment, he keeps on taking steps out on the path of his calling with the community in which people get transformed by the Gospel, and the community that transform the world with the Gospel.

“The Gospel is the only one key to solve all the problems of life. The Gospel is to repent the sin of the believing in Jesus Christ (John 16:9) and to accept Him sincerely as the Lord (Roman 10:9). Jesus who is God who came to the earth in person, died for us, rose again, and gave us all the everlasting blessings. In Jesus Christ, there are all treasures, joy, and peace. In fact, I had no fear nor worry in facing death because of the faith in Christ. Rather, I had joy overflowed and peace filled in my heart. The Gospel transforms a person. Morerover, it transforms the times and the society. I hope every single one in the world enjoy the everlasting blessings in Jesus Christ.”

By the way, professor Yeong-chul Park, a world authority on Cell Church, from Korea Baptist Theological University witnessed, “I have searched over the world for a church like the Early Church. I have never seen a church like Hanmaum Church in Choonchun before. Hanmaum Church is a model for a church in the New Testament times that is rarely found in this era. This church presents desirable characters for churches in today.”

A Message from Rev. Sung-Row Kim to CEOs

CEO is a significant position that determine the direction of a company. A decision of a CEO is very influential not only on his or her company, but also in the overall society. Discernment is the most important character for a CEO to have in the rapidly changing market environment and the harsh economic reality in which a misjudgement is never condoned. Roman 12:2 says about ‘discernment’ “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”(NKJV)

Discernment requires not being conformed to this world. If a CEO moves along the pattern of the world only for his or her company’s instant profit, the company will be backfired soon or later. Therefore, the CEO should make all judgements with renewed minds in the Words of God without being conformed to this world. Good judgement is given to those who fear God. Rev. Kim hopes that CEOs nonconform to the pattern of this world, renew their minds daily, run their companies within good and acceptable will of God, and be valued in favor with God and men.

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