I am James Hong and welcome to the Surpassing Value Podcast. The fuel and desire for this podcast was born out of a compulsion to flesh out what's been going on in the midst of an ocean of megaphones that may not actually withstand the test of scrutiny. As a signpost theologian, I will do my best to filter out the impurities and point people in the right direction.

Berean Community Church, this is another one of those bonus episodes where the surpassing value crosses over with BCC much like the bonus episode I did with Pastor Peter Kim on the Ravi Zacharias scandal. It's sort of like that, but this one is going to be involving the rest of the elders and pastors as well.

Given our church's anniversary is coming up in a couple days and with the purchase of our new building, I thought it would be appropriate to revisit our origins. We all know the importance of studying history, but nonetheless I want to read to you some various quotes before we get into this.

Marcus Garvey said it like this, "A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots." "A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots." Robert Heinlein said something similar, he said this, "A generation which ignores history has no past and no future." "A generation which ignores history has no past and no future." Most importantly, Deuteronomy 5.15 states, "And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.

Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to celebrate the Sabbath day." I think you get my point. As God has been so gracious to Beroean Community Church, we could easily lose sight of His graciousness and take what He has given us for granted if we forget where we came from.

And I know people have heard various stories about how the church came to be from various sources but we're adding new people all the time and I thought it might also be good if we could get some linear telling of a truncated version. So with that I've asked the other leaders to carve out some time so we could accomplish just that.

And although we are called by God to honor faithful leaders as stated in 1 Thessalonians 5, 12-13, my goal here is to highlight the God who works through flawed men. With that said, I hope this episode serves to be edifying. Be warned though, this is a long-form podcast episode.

The substance of the episode is about an hour and 45 minutes. So with that, I hope you are edified and I hope you enjoy. Burien Community Church, as promised, this is the History of Burien Community Church episode. I've gathered all the elders and pastors, the entire leadership, all seven of us for this episode.

I'm going to ask everyone to just kind of introduce themselves starting from my left so that as we're talking you guys could know which voice is who for the people who don't know the leaders maybe as well as others, you can connect the voices. And so starting from my left, Pastor Peter, if you could say hi.

Hello. This is Pastor Peter Kim. This is Pastor Peter Chung. This is Elder Phillip. Pastor Nathan. Hey, it's Pastor Mark. Hey guys, it's Elder Joe. All right. So I want to start off, since this is a history episode, I think it might be prudent to kind of go in chronological order.

And I think a fact that most people might not know is that our senior pastor, Pastor Peter Kim, actually wasn't the first member. It was actually Elder Joe at the time. And so Elder Joe, if you can kind of tell us about that. How old were you when the church started?

Maybe give us a little bit before that because I know a little bit and that helps to kind of bring into clarity the entire history of Burien Community Church. So kind of, if you can talk about that a little bit. Well, I was at the church obviously before it started.

The church officially started in 1997, which would put me at my sophomore year in college. So I was pretty young back then, but prior to Burien officially launching, our church, for those of you who may not know, was named Harvest Community Church. And I remember a meeting that we had back then where we sat in our old church building fellowship hall and we were discussing what our name should be.

The interesting thing is we had some say into naming our church back then. And ultimately it came out where it was Harvest Community Church. And that retained for probably a year. And then Pastor Peter came in and we started really thinking through why we would want a name change and align with more of the philosophy.

So after the name change, when did Pastor Peter come in? So Pastor Peter was one of the pastors that initiated that name change. So he was already there by that time. You mentioned you were a sophomore in college, so you were about 20? Yeah, approximately about 20 years old and very mature church, very mature.

But that wasn't the first time you met Pastor Peter though. No, so I've known Pastor Peter since, interestingly enough, my son is 13 now, a seventh grader. And that's around the time where I met Pastor Peter. He came to the Korean church that I was part of and that's where I first met him.

He was coming in as a high school pastor, I believe. That was Irvine Baptist? Yes, it was. Okay. And that's Irvine Baptist is over here near Jeffrey and Walnut. It's still there. It's still there. Yeah. Pastor, so can you tell us a little bit about that, about when you come into Harvest Community Church at the time, what were the circumstances that led to you coming there?

What were you doing before? Well, I was a youth pastor at Irvine Baptist where Elder Joe was a student and then I was also his older sister's youth pastor. And then, so I was there probably about five years and I was a youth pastor for one year and then I was a college and EM pastor for the four years after that.

And then there was a lot of problems happening in the Korean side and then my former youth pastor asked me to come and join him at a church in Gardena. And so I actually went there for a year and then that church ended up falling apart. And then, so I was in between churches and so I heard that the former EM pastor came in after I left and he's the one who got permission, got it inaugurated, registered and all that.

But then two to three months after it started, he ended up leaving. And so the official launch of the church happened 1997, I think in January or something. And then they had the inauguration service in April of 1997, which I was supposed to come and participate in but I couldn't because my first son was born on that same day.

And then I didn't officially join the church I think until August of that year. So it was already like they were physically meeting, again, you know, within that church for about six months or so before I came. So that's kind of how it started and I came in because the guy who got it inaugurated ended up taking off.

- Oh, okay. - Yeah. - So, you know, it's funny here because as I'm kind of going through a timeline of events, it's January of 1997 and the church's name is Harvest Community Church. And then, you know, the inauguration event is April 17th of 1997. - 12th. - April 12th, I'm sorry, April 12th of 1997.

And it's still obviously Harvest Community Church at that time. If you're picking up on this, the name of our church is not Harvest Community Church. So if you kind of take us through that as well, Pastor Peter, you come in about August of '97, take us through the events and up until the name change.

- Well, name change actually didn't happen until maybe about a year and a half after I came in. And to be honest, I never liked the name. And the reason why was because it was so generic, there's so many Harvest Churches. And then what actually kind of was the catalyst to change the name was because there was another church, EM Ministry, that came out of Bethel, and they came out with 180 people.

And so they were named First Harvest Church. And so our church was constantly being, thinking that that was the church, you know, I would meet people and say, you know, I go to Harvest Community Churches. And then they would say, oh, yeah, I know your pastor, Pastor Rick, right, so actually I'm the pastor.

And then so I would always have to re-explain that we're not that church, because that church was much bigger at that time. And this is when our church was like 30 or less with, you know, half high school students, half college students. So no one knew who we were.

And then to be honest, the name that I actually wanted was Axe, because that was a name that I was using for our homeless ministry, Alliance of Christians Training for Service was the acronym for Axe. In fact, my Costco card still has Axe on it. But Berean Community Church was something that we collectively, at least the people who were in leadership at that time, wanted, because it kind of represented our church vision, the name wise.

So that's how that happened. Yeah, well, so after the church is inaugurated in April, and then August, you come on board. I know this pastor kind of left, and then you become the sole pastor. Can you kind of walk us through that? How did that happen? Yeah, that's a very complicated story, because he's somebody that I knew, and he was the former EM pastor before I came.

And he's the guy who invited me to come to Irvine Baptist to begin with. He's actually Luke King's uncle. And so I came in, he actually wanted to work together for a while at Irvine Baptist. But again, I was in between churches at that time, and I was kind of wrestling with, you know, if I wanted to continue in ministry, to be honest.

And I actually had friends who were asking me to plant a church, but I wasn't in a state of mind wanting to plant a church. So when I heard he left, I think Joe was the one who called me saying that, you know, there's nobody here, you know, like if you're in between church, you know, would you come?

And so I came really to kind of help, not necessarily to plant the church. The church was already planted, like technically. And so I just came to help, because these are guys that I knew since they were a youth group, and I just didn't want that group to fall apart.

I was afraid that they were going to fall apart and they were going to leave the church. So I didn't really come for the church plant. I came to continue the work that I was doing with them, because I was concerned about them. Yeah. - So when you come in August, who are the pastors there?

- So technically there wasn't a pastor, because he left. And then the youth pastor at that time, a guy named Jay Kim, he kind of stepped in, was preaching on Sunday, but there was no pastor. But basically he was left vacant for probably three or four months before I came.

- So initially, you're coming in thinking you're going to help out, and you come in and all of a sudden, you're kind of like the last man standing, but you're also the new guy. Is that kind of... - I am the new guy, because I just came in, but I'm also the old guy, because everybody there were guys that I ministered to when they were in high school and college.

So I was actually their pastor before I left. So I was just gone for a year. - So when you came in during that time, I know Elder Joe was there. Was there anyone else at church that was there at the time? - Tonya was a freshman. She was not a believer, but she was there.

And then the others were in high school, so they weren't part of our group yet. They were still in high school. They were junior in high school when I came. So the guys who are turning 40 now were 16 at that time. - So in August, what are you thinking at this point?

Because I mean, you're coming into a situation... - I came in because I felt like my Korean was good enough that I could have a good relationship with the Korean adults, and really to protect the group and protect the... I mean, at that time, they were kids. And I wasn't sure exactly if I was going to endure in ministry.

And so if I am restored, my thought was I need to be restored here. Because even after I left, I could never... I was always thinking about this church and the guys who were there. So if I was at another church, obviously I couldn't come, but I was doing telemarketing at that time, just to pay bills.

- So you weren't getting a full-time salary at the time? - No. So I had a church that wanted me there, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to be. That's why I was doing telemarketing, just to kind of make the ends meet, which I was pretty miserable. It was probably all the jobs I had, I hated that job the most.

Yeah. Anyway, but it was during that time that I got contacted by them. But interestingly enough, the Korean side also called me at the same time, asked me to come and basically pull that ministry away, shut down the church and start the EM. And I told them I couldn't do that.

And that's what eventually led to us having to leave that building. - Yeah, okay. So walk us through the first couple of years when you come on board in August. I mean, you mentioned leaving the building, and I know the details about that, but walk us through what that was like and what happened.

- Well, not to rehash everything, there's a lot that happened, even with the pastors. After I came back, the guy who left actually ended up rejoining us, because he's always wanted to work together, but once he found out that I came back, he actually came back to support work.

And then Pastor Jay, at that time he was a pastor, he's not a pastor anymore. So the three of us were actually working together. So we were at the church for about a year. And then the church went from 20 to, I think at one point 70, within the first year.

So everybody at CCM and a lot of people in KCM was coming, mainly because our praise team was really good. And so they came for the praise, and then at the end of the year, we decided we need to do membership. And at that time, our membership was like six months long.

So basically, they would have service, go have lunch, come back, and then about an hour and a half for six months. And that thinned out the church. We went from 1520 to 7080, back to maybe about 2025, after the membership happened. Yeah, so it was really exciting. So you're saying we should go from eight weeks to six months.

Okay, got that. Got that. Okay, well, we'll investigate that, Pastor Peter. But anyway, what led to us leaving was the senior pastor, interim pastor for the Korean side, our visions didn't line up. He wanted us to be more Korean, he wanted us to be more charismatic, and there's a lot of other stuff happened.

But at the end, he didn't feel like we fit in. And so how many years was at that period where you are just kind of naturally detached? From the Korean side? From the Korean side. Oh, from the get go. So I would say two years? Two years. Two years.

And so two years, you're with the Korean side. And then after two years, physically leave. This is we're talking probably 1999-2000 at this point. So when you leave the Korean side, 1999-2000, around there, how many people do you have with you? The people in the EM that was actually physically with us that was not in high school, probably 14.

14. And when you say not in high school, the high school kids didn't come with you, obviously. They did. Oh, they did. Okay. A few of them. Actually, the parents sent them. Okay. Parents sent them because once we left, there was nobody in the EM. Like all the teachers were, even though we only had 15-20 people.

Oh, actually, we had probably about 25 in the EM, but a good chunk of them, when we left, they stayed there or something happened. So we had maybe about 15-20 come with us. And then the college, some of the, sort of their senior in high school, they didn't graduate high school yet.

So some of them joined us because the parents wanted them to come with us because we were their teachers. So that was, like, David Rim, Kevin Osako, Aaron Choi came later, so maybe about another 8 of them. So our total number was about 25. Yeah. David Rim, Kevin Osako, they're in high school at the time.

Kevin Osako. No, no, no. Sorry. They would be, like, first year college. No, they were still in high school. We came out, like, around February or March, so they were at the tail end of their high school. So you're in 1999. Same year. Yeah. Okay. At what point did we do the name change?

So it was about a year into that, after we left, that we were at Tustin Baptist. And so they allowed us to use the room as long as we took care of their kids. So we're kind of in a similar situation because there was no way, we couldn't afford to go anywhere.

We didn't have money to pay rent. So we were in a similar situation, but at another church. And it was about a year into it, we decided to change the name. Okay. So after we detached from the initial Korean side, we, by necessity, go to another Korean side. And then is it at that place that we changed the name?

Yes. Okay. So it's at Tustin Baptist. Well, when we were at Tustin Baptist. When we were at Tustin Baptist. So we carried the name Harvest Community Church to Tustin Baptist. Yeah. So what led to the name change from Harvest? You kind of touched upon it, but what was the actual breaking point where we're like, "Well, let's change our name." Well, I always wanted to change it at some point, but the catalyst was we were constantly getting confused with First Harvest.

And I actually remember when I first came to Berean, they would play in a softball tournament. And then I would hear stories about, "Yeah, well, you know, First Harvest and Harvest getting confused." And I remember one older dude tapping me saying, "Did you know your church used to be called Harvest?" And I remember saying, "That's not true." But it was true.

And it wasn't Greg Laurie's Harvest. It was our Harvest. And at that time, our church, we were struggling. We had maybe 30 people and then half of them were students, more than half of them. We had maybe like two working people. And then that church was like, they came out with 170.

They had full-blown staff. And there weren't, at Korean American, the Asian American churches, there was only like one or two. You know what I mean? So that was the church that everybody knew in Orange County. Our church was like, you know, nobody knew who we were. And I didn't feel the need to change it because it wasn't like we were trying to advertise.

But I didn't like the name anyway. So it was kind of like, that was kind of like a catalyst, "Let's choose a name that we agree on." You know, Pastor Peter, I know you don't like talking about this, but you know, just curious, you don't have to go too deep into it, but how are you getting supported financially during these years?

I mean, basically, we paid rent, whatever we could. I mean, they didn't charge much, but we did pay some. And then whatever left over was my salary, basically. And then Pastor Mark came in maybe about three years after that, three or four years after that. So he knows, because he was in charge of taking the record.

So some weeks, it was like $40 was the offering, because each college student would get $1 if they were faithful. So $40. And then some weeks it would be $400. So I think our total budget per month was maybe about $2,500 to $3,000 a month. We're talking gross, obviously.

Gross, yeah. Gross, right. There's no health insurance, there's nothing. It's just whatever was left over became my salary at that time. And so obviously, I had to have different jobs. So I worked selling stuff in swap meet, telemarketing, washing cars. I mean, that happened before, but any job just to support.

And then the thing that I had the longest was I was a ESL teacher at La Marada School District for about five years, and that's what supported us. So by necessity, just by pure necessity, you had to have side jobs in order to keep the church running. It kind of begs the question, well, not begs, it raises the question, excuse me.

Why did you stick around? Like I said, when I came to church, I didn't come with the vision of planting a church. I came because I was concerned about the kids. And then once I got here, I got reattached, and if I left, I didn't think they would survive.

So by that time, I had two kids and then a third kid on the way, and then so obviously it made it even tougher. But it was kind of like, at that time, it was like having, they were all like my kids. So even though, like I'm only nine years older than Joe, but I've known him since he was in junior high school.

And then the other people, they were in high school, they were literally kids when I met them. So even though I'm only like 12, 13 years older, they were like my kids, because I was already married and had kids when they were in junior high school. And so as an adult now, now I'm 53 and these guys are turning 40, like in a social setting, you know, 13 years isn't that huge of a gap, but because I've known them since they were kids, like at that time, they felt more like my kids.

Like I wasn't just their pastor, you know, like Joe, you know, when he was learning how to drive, Esther was the one who got in the car, and he used to chauffeur me when I lost my license for godly reasons. So he's the one who used to pick me up from my home, and if their car broke down, I was the one who went out and helped them fix their car.

You know, like church, like college application, family issues, you know, so it wasn't just like a pastor, they literally lived at my house. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I know also that you had a home in Corona at one point, and then you had to sell that home in Corona, you know, can you tell us a little bit about that?

I know you don't like sharing that. And you probably didn't want me to ask the question, but I've asked the question so. Well, that was kind of at a breaking point in ministry where I just couldn't do both, you know, at that time. And then I, long story short, you know, there was a business that I was, I had to take care of in Vegas, I was going back and forth.

And then I came very close to walking away or at least trying to get somebody. And I remember, I had that conversation with Joe, Elder Joe, being like, I don't think I can keep doing this. And maybe if we bring a younger guy who didn't have the financial need, then maybe I can just do a support work.

So I remember, like, I was on the verge, and I remember him telling me, and obviously, you know, he didn't fully grasp what was going on, like, he knew mentally, but obviously he was young. And he said, if you left, the church isn't going to survive, which is probably true, you know.

But inwardly I'm thinking, man, like I can't feed my kids, how am I going to keep doing this? Right? So I was kind of at a breaking point. And then so he's the first guy that I talked to, and then I talked to my mom, and then I thought she would say, "Hey, you've done enough, you need to leave." And she said, you know, "If God called you to do this, you can't do anything else." You know?

Because she wasn't really that happy about me going to ministry in the first place. So when she said, "You can't, you can't leave," that was kind of a surprise to me that my mom said that to me. And then I talked to my wife, Esther, and then I knew Esther wanted me to quit, because it was so hard for her.

And then she said, "As much as I want you to quit, I know you. If you could be happy and live a normal life as a businessman doing something, then, yeah, that's what I would want. But I know you. Like God called you, and I know sooner or later you're going to feel like you're not doing what you're supposed to do." So she's the one who kind of kicked me back in.

But at that time if Joe said, "That's great," you know, if my mom said, "Good," and then Esther's like, "Finally," I think that would have been it. I didn't have the strength at that time to keep going. And it was because they kind of like - Joe just kind of told me the reality, which I already knew, you know.

But at that time, I mean, even though he was young, he was kind of like the right-hand man at that time. Right. Yeah. Yeah, so if I got my history down correctly, you actually had to sell the home to make ends meet. That was like the only way that we could survive at that time, because it was so much credit card bill.

I needed to pay it off. And then that's when the market was going crazy. Somebody would buy a house for $200,000 and sell it for $400,000 in two years. And then so found out that we had about $70,000 in equity in the house. I bought it for $170,000, and then we were able to sell it for $200,000.

No, no, sorry, $130,000 and sell it for $200,000. So there was $70,000 or something like that equity in the house. And so I paid off all the credit card bills, and I had maybe about $30,000, $20,000 left. And then so my plan was to completely use that. And at the end of that, when I have nothing, then I have no choice.

I have to get a full-time job and take care of my family. But as long as I had equity in the house, walking away at that time meant you walked away with something. I can't come before God and say, "I have nothing." So because there was equity in the house, my thought was more, I gave everything I have, and then I had three kids I got to take care of, and church can't support me, what other choice do I have?

So I cannot walk away with a clear conscience. So in my mind, I was thinking that that was probably more likely. Now you would end up walking away. I would end up like, because I have no money. And I'm not walking away because I'm quitting. I'm walking away because I got to take care of my family.

As the events are kind of playing out, I mean, you are physically, financially not being able to, you're not supported by the church. You have a family of three at the time or two? Three at that time. Yeah, a family of three at the time. There's no money coming in.

The last reserve of money is in your home. And so you kind of sell that, thinking, well, if this runs out, then you've done everything you could. Everyone's called to take care of their family. You're worse than an unbeliever if you don't. So humanly speaking, you're thinking, this is it, right?

I mean, it's likely going to run out, but it didn't run out. It didn't run out. Well, what happened was, and Joe was actually there when my lights got turned off. I came back from Vegas, and Faith was an infant. And then Esther walked out of the room saying, "Oh, how come the lights didn't turn off?" And she's just kind of like, "Ha, ha, ha, they came and turned it off, because I didn't pay the bills." So Joe just happened to be in the house when that happened.

And I think that's when he kind of realized, oh, shit, this is bad. What were you thinking when that happened, Joe? Well, again, I already knew, because I was, interestingly enough, at that time, I was going with Pastor Peter to Vegas once in a while when I could for his business.

And then I was seeing the issues of how this was affecting him, having to drive four hours every week. And I saw it on Esther, he would be gone. So I mean, I was already in the standpoint of, this can't continue like this. A side note, at one time, the church gathered with those who were working.

And we discussed kind of like a monthly stipend, we would pitch in more just to be able to give to Pastor Peter for him to survive. So I mean, everyone knew, most of us were too young, but some of us at that time were working finally. But knowing and talking to him on a weekly basis, I knew it was getting harder and harder.

Yeah. So the equity you had in your home as reserve for your savings actually does run out. How are you sustained? So after we sold the house, we moved to Irvine, and then we got a house where we were able to take care of my parents. Well, you're renting.

When you say not house, you're renting a house. Yeah, we're renting. And then all the thing happened out of that house, like all the Bible studies, meetings, because that's all we had. We were meeting at UC Irvine, but UC Irvine started ticketing people, so we couldn't meet there anymore.

So that's why the Bible study moved to my house. And then it just started growing, and that's about the time when you came, right? And then Pastor Mark was, I think, already there, right, a couple of years before that. And then the church went from, we had 30, like in January, and then we had actually people leave.

We had about 10 people leave, who were kind of like, you know, wanted to go somewhere bigger, you know, and then when, but when 10 people would leave, like one person would leave, one other person would come, you know. And I remember very distinctly, one of the first people who came to church at that time was Steve, Steve Lee, him and his gang buddies, the star tattoo gang buddies, they came in, and then another couple would leave, and then another would come.

So by June, we had 30, but half, like I would say about half the church, or one third of the church was new. And anybody who was disgruntled at that time basically took off. Like our church isn't going anywhere, and then when they took off, and then new blood came in.

So we had, we had guys who were committed, and then, and then the new people came in. So the church completely changed within that year. So by the time we had our summer retreat, we had about 25 come, but there were 25, like committed people, who either are excited to be there, or the guys who were discipled and raised up, and you know, they were all leaders at TCM, and you know, Pastor Aaron was there, and you know, Ray Cosley came and preached, and then, so by August, the money ran out.

But our church started to grow, you know. By August of 1999, or no, August of what year? It was, that was about five, six years into the church religion at that time. Okay. So it was like 2002, something like that. 2002. When did the lights go out in your home?

That previous year. Okay. So if it was 2002, it was 2001, maybe. So how are you surviving from 2001, 2002? I don't know, credit card. Yeah. Yeah. So you ended up blasting through the reserves, and you ended up racking up a little bit more debt. Yeah, so what happened was, at the end of August, you know, now I can't quit, because the need in the church is growing, and we're starting to get momentum, new people are coming.

And then, so that's when the elders, like I told them, I'm going to have to go back to work, and then that's when the elders got together. So at that time, it was Vince, Joe, and Phillip. Basically, they pitched in about like $100 each, and it wasn't a lot of money, but it was enough to, you know, survive.

So at that time, we didn't have health insurance, we had, you know. So basically, my salary went from gross $2,000 to $2,300 gross, and then with nothing else. But that was just enough to like, to survive at that time. And so they did that for about a year, and then after that year, then the church got a little bit better, so they replaced that with the church.

And then so, just by incrementally, it didn't go from that to like, "Oh, I'm taken care of." It was incrementally, it got better each year. - Yeah, and you know, what's interesting is, during this time, we leave Tustin Baptist, and the first place we go to is, correct me if I'm wrong, Lakeside Middle School.

- Lakeside Middle School. - Lakeside Middle School. We're at Lakeside Middle School for how many years, would you say, Pastor Peter, around? - Three? About three, yeah, about three years. - Three years. And during this time while we're at Lakeside Middle School, while all this is going on, Pastor Mark, you come in.

You come into Bruin Community Church. You came into UCI as a freshman, 2001, I believe, 2001. And the first church that you went to was Bruin Community Church. Is that... - So no, I did the typical thing where you come up to the freshman year, and then you just start checking all the churches.

I tried, there was a few Christians in my dorm at UCI, so I tagged along, visited a few churches. And at that time, I even, from old friends that I knew in San Diego, visited churches out in Riverside. But I do remember the first time out to Bruin, an old friend of mine from San Diego, he said he had a sister who could take me to church.

Found out that the sister didn't even go to Bruin, but just recommended it, picked me up, dropped me off kind of thing. And from the very first sermon, I was blown away, partially because I didn't know what he was talking about. But he was passionate, but I do recall he was talking about, if you actually believe in the ramifications of hell, and if you take a moment to actually meditate, then it would absolutely change everything about you, you know?

I remember just thinking, he's absolutely right, I just don't know what he's saying. And then, it just so happened that actually one of my dorm mates or friends from the dorm was Abby, who was Aaron's sister. She said, well they have a Bible study, she knew about the Bible study that was happening at UCI, and it just so happened to be a skip and a hop away from the dorm.

And so I'd go there, and at that time, Bruin was going through Revelation, and there was a little worksheet too that said, what is an apostle, what is prophecy here? And then I'm just sitting there thinking, well I don't know. So a ton of this stuff was going over my head, but at the same time, it was very convicting.

Because as a young, at the time I was essentially a younger believer, having been converted at the end of high school. So I was passionate in love with Christ, but a lot of the things I just didn't know. Yeah, so that Bible study obviously was led by Pastor Peter, the Revelation one.

I mean, he was the only pastor for years. I mean, we have four pastors now, but Midweek Bible Study, Sunday Sermon, that was all Pastor Peter. And I come after, you're actually the one that brings me to Bruin, but I remember going to Pastor Peter's house in my wetsuit, because I just thought, I'm gonna surf and then go to church, so I'll just come in my wetsuit.

But this idea of where, you hear Pastor Peter's preaching, you don't understand all of it. You're not appreciating all of it, but you know that it's good. You know that it's good, and because of that, this is somewhere you want to be. This is something that you want to be a part of.

And would you say that was how we all felt? We still feel that way, but that's something that was in the culture of the church. Would you say that? Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the, not necessarily a motto, but a repeated phrase, Pastor Peter would describe and the elders would describe is that God's people hear His voice and they know Him.

That's something that was reiterated. And I think that was seen, because we would hear and then we would realize your personal discovery within the scriptures, that is the authority and power of God hitting you. So for me as a young Christian at the school, I actually felt like I was riddled with sin all around.

Temptation to, I don't know, everything from lust to pride to everything you can experience, I just felt it. And then so there's this weird thought in my head, like I love Jesus, but why am I such a horrendous sinner? But I think realizing that the capture was as I was hearing the word, I felt like God's power, His power to change, His voice and authority to tell me what's right from wrong, that's all there.

So we absolutely felt that kind of sentiment. That's why I think, even the Bible started to talk about it at his house, it was funny to me. We would be just sitting on his piano bench and then people would be lined up against the stairs, just like eagerly wanting to study, you know, we'd have questions, we'd come prepared.

And so there was a ton of excitement just from that kind of pure attraction to the scriptures. I came after you, like I said, you're the one that brought me to Berean, but I remember those days and Pastor Peter would post 10 questions on the website. And back then it was like a bulletin board website, you know, I mean, it was very rudimentary.

- Hey, hey, hey, that was me. - Oh, sorry. That was great. - So good. - That was the best website ever. But those questions were difficult and difficult in the sense that, I mean, it was typical for us to spend a couple of hours before the Bible study to come and, you know, like when we gathered on Friday, that was the entire church obviously gathering because it's not like there's not many of us to begin with.

But we came prepared just 'cause that was what we all wanted. No one needed to really tell us to come prepared. That's my memory. But that's just something that we all did, you know, and the Bible study and the fellowship, just like today was so sweet, you know, it was extremely sweet because there's a small group of us, we don't have a building yet, we're meeting at the pastor's home and this is what we wanna do, right?

- But Pastor Peter, what's your first memory of Pastor Mark? Do you remember him at all? - Yeah, of course I remember him. The girl who brought him was only at our church for maybe like a month and so that was probably the greatest contribution to our church that's only been for a month.

And then Pastor Mark was like loved by everybody because it was a running joke at church like we would have one visitor per year and he was that one visitor. And then so, and everybody was like a couple years older than him so they treated him like a younger brother.

So basically everybody targeted him, you know? So I didn't know where he was spiritually at that time. I knew he was a Christian but like where he was, but I just knew that, you know, all the older brothers were reaching out to him, all the older sisters were reaching out to him and then, so it didn't take much for him to get integrated into the church.

That's why I remember like when we had the welcome team, he was in charge of recording. So he has the records of like, you know, when our team would go to China, it would be recorded 15, seven leading praise and seven singing, you know, and so he remembers all of that.

Yeah. Yeah. He was our record keeper. Yeah. Elder Phil, you've been awfully quiet. When you come into the picture in all of this, I mean, you're the pastor's brother, at what point do you come into the picture? I started coming probably a year after the church started. So I got married in 1997, so the church started, I guess, April.

My brother is part of the church in August. I think a year later, I got married in July and a year later we joined because I was also with him when he left Irvine Baptist, attended church together and then we for a period went to, I think, Sergius Presbyterian Church or something, yeah, see?

And then got married, I don't know, took a year away and then, yeah, there was a point where I'm going to, you know, go to church, you know, with my family, just me and Mary. So we went through a process of discussion and prayer and we decided to go to my brother's church and it was a very young church, yeah, okay, it was a very young church, but for me it was easy, you know, because it's my brother, you know, even when he was pastoring as a youth pastor at Irvine Baptist, I would come on college, you know, when I was in college come and help.

So I knew everybody, I know it was a little bit harder for Marian, but it took a little bit more time for her, but like anything else, yeah, so, I mean, timing-wise, you know, that's when I came and I never questioned coming to the church and being part of it, even though the church was small, but it was home for me, I always felt like it was home.

Well, you know, you're watching all these events unfold, I mean, you're here just a year after Pastor Peter gets here, what are your thoughts as you're, you know, you're seeing your brother go through all this and, because you lived in Corona, you still do, and so you guys both live in the same city, you know, Pastor Peter mentioned he had to sell his home, you know, what were your thoughts seeing all this and, you know, having to support your brother?

Yeah, so my brother coming to Corona, like always, he wants to follow what I'm doing, just kidding about that, but, no, part of it I really didn't know, you know, part of the, he didn't share a lot of, so I learned, you know, some of this stuff by just after the fact, but at the same time, I just, I got married, I just had a kid, in 2001, Jonathan, I just got a new job, so I was pretty engrossed in my own career at the time, but I knew what, you know, the difficulty of the traveling, and then I, you know, we visited as a family to what was happening over there, so there was a level of excitement, and because, oh, there's this new thing going on, but I also saw the weight of the problem, not the problem, but obviously the difficulty, because we're at a small church, so one aspect is, I definitely saw God's hand in when my brother, Pastor Peter, sold his house, and made the decision to move to Irvine, and that was, coincidental or not, I mean, that was the moment, I think, when the church grew, and from my perspective, I thought it was appropriate, because before that time, even though we only had like 30, 35 people coming to church, our Bible study attendance, pretty consistent, were 30, so we basically had most of our church attend church, also attend Bible study, and then all the people, even though they were young, they were very hungry, so I think it was when Pastor Peter came to Irvine, I think it was just that moment that God used at the perfect timing, I guess, that just launched the growth, but before then, I think all the precursor of church growth was set, just the consistent Bible study, consistent teaching, it's just that, I guess, I see God's hand in all this, so I guess God had to orchestrate all this.

He was kind of laying the foundation for the explosive growth. Right, I think the foundation was there, and I think just everything just came together when my brother moved down to Irvine, and made the commitment that he did, and that's when, I mean, literally, it was, he moves down, and you could just see the, start seeing the growth.

Yeah, you know, Pastor Peter, you kind of mentioned, you alluded to the 2003 retreat with Pastor Ray Causley that was in Palm Desert, not Palm Springs, and we showed that photo, we showed that photo to new members, but at the time, I want to say with kids, there's about 30 of us.

Yeah, with kids. With kids. That's with the Pastor's family. Right. Pastor Ray's, and he had three kids at that time, four kids, he had, oh, he had three kids, and I think I had three. Yeah, three. Yeah, and what's interesting is, I know for, I think someone has articulated, that was kind of like a turning point, would you say, Pastor Peter, like that, after that retreat, or?

I want to say it was the retreat, because that was already happening in February, so by the time we got to the retreat, it was already complete, like, change of, you know, the old, people were grumbling left, and then new people came in, and so we had a group that was really hungry, and then so, that was our very, we've never had any retreat before that.

That was the first retreat, and then so, I think what that retreat did was kind of like solidify, you know, what we were doing, it kind of, because it was the first time when, you know, like, we actually got together, outside of our house, we never been anywhere, did anything, hardly any activity, we had Friday Bible study, and then Sunday worship, and that was it.

Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, it's kind of like wild. When I think about, I am older than you were when I first met you, you know, and to me, you've kind of like, you know, you've always been my pastor, so there's a sense in which you've always been 50, but obviously, that's not true, obviously, you know, but I remember that retreat, because I've been, at that time, I think I've been at the church somewhere less than a year, somewhere less than a year.

I remember coming to Berean, you know, Pastor Mark brought me to Berean, and I remember thinking I'll never come to Berean, I was going to Calvary Chapel at the time, and then I just knew I had to leave Calvary Chapel, because the church was too big, I wasn't getting any fellowship, and I was getting all my fellowship at Campus Ministry, which is extremely unhealthy, and so Pastor Mark brings me to Berean Community Church, and I remember hearing you preach Sunday and Friday, but Friday was actually the first time, Friday was also the first time, because I remember thinking, "Oh, he's teaching the Bible." I remember that was like kind of, and there was like this burning sensation in my heart, and I remember everyone else felt the same, and everyone that was there had the same burning desire, but I had to, I had to talk to you to make sure that you were actually who you say you are, I don't know why, I don't know who I think I am, but that's what college students think, right?

So I had to, I remember asking you questions, it was my version of testing you, and that obviously didn't last long, and this became my church, but it was, I came in 2002, 2003, five, six years after the launch, but when I come in, again, we're still 30 people with everybody, including little kids, everybody, so from 1997 to 2002, 2003, well 2003 for sure, we're about like 20, 30 people, but to us, it was enough, it was absolutely enough, and I remember you just ingraining in us, "Study the Bible, do what it says, and don't turn from it to the left or the right." That was kind of like, if we had a mantra, that would have been it, I mean, our name is "Bring Community Church," right?

So after that retreat, after that retreat, we have someone else in this room that comes into the picture at some point, oh, that's actually Pastor Peter Chung. So Pastor Chung, when did you come into this picture? Well, so that retreat conflicted with, I was a high school pastor at the time of a group of about 100, and at that point, I had been meeting with Pastor Peter for about five months.

I was actually pretty close to trying to figure out how to leave my retreat that I was supposed to run to go to this retreat, so I was super jealous, but that was my third year in ministry, and I had no idea what I was doing, and that the counsel that I sought from the pastors at the church that I was working at, they would all tell me things that really weren't that helpful, and so I was on my way out, and a friend introduced me to Pastor Peter, and I actually just logged on to the website, listened to three sermons, two of them were out of Numbers chapter 11, and I was just listening to the content, and I was like, I've never heard someone preach out of like the censuses before, and just, I was almost taking notes verbatim, and I was thinking, you know, I really want a man like this to give me some kind of guidance, because I'm on my way out, I want to learn how to leave a church well, and try to figure out like the next steps in my life.

So we started meeting, I asked him out for lunch, it was March 31st, 2003, and we met at Tyco in Irvine, and then at that meeting, I was like, you know, this is who I am, this is what I need, and I asked him, can you just mentor, disciple me, because I really am desperate, and so we actually started meeting every Wednesday.

So every Wednesday morning, I would actually come, there was a coffee bean on Alton and Jeffrey, so I would be there from like 7.30 to about lunch, and then Pastor Peter and I would meet at Tyco, grab lunch, and then I would go back to the coffee bean, study for about 5 more hours, preparing the Bible study, and I would go the Wednesday night, and the Wednesday night was really small at the time, I was actually the youngest person there for a few months, the next youngest was Elder Joe, and it was like 11 people, so Friday nights were the college where the bulk of the people were meeting, but Wednesdays were like, I guess the adults, older people at the church, and like I said, I was just really hungry, taking everything in, but I was kind of at a dilemma, because I didn't, I wanted to leave my church, but similarly to Pastor Peter's experience, I couldn't just leave the students, so I actually ended up being there 2 more years, and I didn't come to Berean officially until about 2005, but for about 2 years, I was actively trying to be at everything I possibly could, I got into a little bit of trouble at my church, we had a big garage sale for the missions fund, but then I gave all the mission fund to our China team for Berean, New Year's Eve service, as the high school pastor, I was supposed to be at our church, but then I ended up coming to Berean because I wanted to play some, the youth with the Bereans, and so yeah, I didn't handle it particularly wisely, but my heart was at Berean starting March of 2003, and I would consider Berean my church, even though I was on staff at a different church for a couple years, but that's how it all started.

That's interesting, because you mentioned that there was a Bible study on Wednesday, so Pastor Peter, I'm actually learning this for the first time, you know, and I've been here since 2003, you were doing 2 Bible studies, one on Wednesday and one on Friday? So the Bible study he's talking about just started, because that's when the church was starting to grow, and we couldn't fit them all on Friday, so we took anybody out of college, which was at that time, I think like 7 maybe, 7 or 8 started meeting at my house on Wednesday, so.

I actually do remember that. It came in like, I think, like a month after we started Wednesday, something like that. Yeah, the study was 1 John, and then my first Wednesday there was like 1 John 2:15, "Do not love the world or anything in the world," so I was just really excited just to be there and learn.

Yeah, you know, what's interesting is, I do remember that now, now that we're articulating it, what's also interesting is, as I'm thinking back on when I first came, that makes sense because I don't remember seeing you, Elder Joe, on Friday. Yeah. So, I'm like, I'm thinking like, "Oh, where were you?

Oh, you were on Wednesday." Or Philip, or Marian. Yeah, now that I'm thinking about that, it makes sense, and I actually do remember this Wednesday Bible study, like, talking about in passing, I'm just in college, so I don't care. I'm just, I'm just surfing. I'm surfing, and I'm listening to this guy teach me about the Bible, and all I remember is that it was pretty cool.

You know, I have this distinctive memory about you, Pastor Peter Chung. I know you remember it, too, because you remember everything, but you would refer to Berean as Canaan. Do you remember that? I do. Can you tell us a little bit about why, I mean, I think people can kind of get the idea, but tell us about it.

One thing was, I was really hungry, so that was actually when I was spending about six to eight hours a day at Coffee Bean, just in the Bible, memorizing it, studying it, preparing sermons, and I think, just, I mean, this is not on the church that I was at, but, you know, they were trying to push for things like, you know, let's just do this 40 days of purpose.

That was when the purpose-driven life was big. Let's do this 40 days of purpose as a whole church, and I said, no, like, I'm teaching through First Peter. I don't want to do 40 days of, like, a study of a book, and little things like that, where it was a little bit more studies about the Bible, rather than studies through the Bible, and you know, on the Wednesday night Bible studies, I would come, and the, you know, eight or nine other people that were there, they were so eager and hungry to not talk about culture, not talk about, like, churchianity, but to just get into the text, and so I started seeing change in my ministry.

My group actually went from 100 to, like, 30 kids on Friday nights, because I stopped doing the programs and stuff, and I was like, okay, I'm doing something wrong, I'm about to get in trouble, but the ones that are there, like the 30 or so that are there, they're actually enjoying, like, actually just studying the Bible, and so, for me, the philosophies of ministry kind of were starting to conflict.

I wanted to do the, you know, read the Bible, study the Bible, and do what it says, but then the church as a whole, which is very typical of churches at the time, were just, you know, like, take care of the people, make sure they don't leave the church, and so with that, there was a lot of tension in my heart, but I couldn't just leave the 30 that were there, so I felt like I was kind of leading the group of, I mean, on Sunday, there were like 100 to 120 kids there for attendance, but the ones that I was actually discipling, I couldn't just abandon them, and so, yeah, so I was stuck there in many senses, the word, where I couldn't leave, and so I had to put in my time for an extra two years, but I wanted to be at Berean so badly, but that's, so I considered that like a wilderness trials for me.

- And you know, you weren't coming to Berean as a pastor. - No. - You were just coming to Berean. - Right. - Period. It wasn't like Pastor Peter offered you some kind of position, you were just coming to, just to come. - Right. - Yeah. You know, what's interesting, from your perspective, Pastor Peter, you know, there's this guy that you meet, he's hungry to grow, he's starving to meet with you, but he doesn't go to our church.

What was kind of going through your head at the time? - Can I say? So, he was actually, I actually met with him because of the girl that he was dating at that time, and she asked me, my boyfriend is burnt out, he's a youth pastor, you know, can you at least talk to him?

So she was pretty new to the church too, so I didn't really know her well, and I have a heart for young pastors, you know, just because you're going through the same thing and being burnt out, and so it was just to really have lunch with him. It wasn't to like, we're going to keep meeting up, and then, you know, but it was right at that time when I prayed about selling the house, and then I, now for the first time I'm not working, so I'm praying, like I got all this time going back and forth to Vegas for like, you know, 10 months, then I got all that freed up, and then, so I was praying like what, what should I do with my, where do I invest my time, so I was praying that every day, like now I have this time, you free me up, what am I going to do?

And then that's when like he, you know, I met him, then right after I met him, literally I had one lunch with him, and the next email I get is, can you mentor me? Like he doesn't know me, I don't know him, you know, but because I prayed that prayer, if I wasn't in that situation I probably would have said no, because I don't know him, you know, and then, but because I prayed that, and then he shows up, it's like, oh, maybe this is God, you know, like answering my prayer, and so I couldn't say no, because I felt like God put him in that position, and then, you know, like I said, oh, I got all these church people that I need to pay attention to, but he just happened to, and then he happened to be a pastor, so I thought maybe if I can meet with him, and it was, he wasn't thinking like, oh, he's going to eventually come to our church, that he can influence his kids that he's ministering to.

That's what led to that. But I remember the very first impression when I met him was like, that guy's huge, and he's thick. Yeah. That was my first impression, yeah. Second impression is like, he's hungry, yeah, he's really hungry, like why? You know, like typically, if I meet somebody I don't know, there's always this kind of like, oh, who are you?

You know, what do you know? Should I respect you, honor you, like, you know, there's usually that period, but I could tell that he was, he's already hit kind of bottom, meaning like, he goes, I don't know where to go, what do I do, can you help me? So he came in, like from the get-go he was like that.

So that's why I thought, okay, if I can kind of get him on the right track, because at that time he was talking about going into law, he was going to drop out and maybe go back into law. I mean I could tell he was, you know, he had the brain, even from our first meeting.

But it really didn't take much. It was just kind of like, do your quiet time, read the Bible, and then I remember the first impression after meeting with him maybe about two, three months, because I would quote scripture to him and at the end of the conversation he would quote it back to me.

So in the first few months I was thinking, oh, this guy, you know, he memorized a lot of scripture. And I realized he was just hearing what I said and spinning it back to me. You know, after a while I was like, this guy, this guy's memory is like incredible.

And so, you know, I mentioned this up in the pulpit before, but, you know, once he gets into something, he gets really into it. And so I didn't realize he was starting to memorize scripture already at that time. As soon as he got excited, he poured that energy into just memorizing scripture.

And I think a lot of it was just pointing him to the right direction and then he just kind of ran with it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, for those that don't know, that's Pastor Peter Chung's thing. He just memorizes a ton of scripture, you know, and well, that, and he'll tell you what you were doing on January 10th, 2007 at 4.55 PM.

That's another thing he does. And what you were wearing. And what you were wearing. So PPC, when you, Pastor Peter Chung, when you come to Berean without any other obligations, what year was that? That was July 2005. What time? Well, it's the first Sunday, I remember like writing my first tithe check the night before.

One of the students actually, well, a bunch of the students came with me, but I remember like he was laughing at me because I was like giggling as I was writing my tithe check the night before. And I knew that I wasn't coming to be a, I'm not going to be a pastor at the church.

So I actually sat in BCC, which is the membership class at the time. And you know, Pastor Peter said, just be a member, just be a brother at the church. And at that point, when I first started coming to the church, it was 30, but that first Sunday it was about 110.

It was at Northwood Park. And I think it was interesting because my first four Sundays at the church, we had four different speakers, which is very abnormal. And so it was, you know, Pastor Peter spoke, and then Pastor Aaron spoke, and then Elder Joe spoke, and then Elder Phillip spoke all, you know, and so I was like, oh, this is kind of cool.

I get to, because everyone else went to China. And so, and then I ended up moving in with a bunch of Berean dudes shortly after with, you know, you Elder James, Pastor Mark, Pastor Aaron Choi, another Berean brother, who's now at BMC. But it was like the family that I was like longing to be a part of.

And so it was a lot of fun. And so then starting 2006, I actually got to be an intern at the church, because all of a sudden, like two families with like three or four kids joined the church, and then they needed people to help. And so I just, I was the right person at the right time in that sense and got interned.

Well, let me clarify that. So he's the education pastor now, but the way like for the first seven years of the church, we didn't have Sunday school, because it was mainly our kids and Phillip's, you know, at that time, and then my older brother, so it was just our family.

So we felt kind of bad asking anybody to like just watch our kids while we go into worship. So Esther basically couldn't enter worship. So she would always, you know, stroll the kids outside the sanctuary, just kind of leaning in. And then at that particular Sunday, two families that close to my age came with kids, our kids' age.

And then Pastor Peter Chang at that time was not staff, he was just a member of the church. And he asked me, "Do you mind if I start something with the kids?" I said, "Oh, not at all." You know? And so he just volunteered. He wasn't a staff at the time, he just volunteered to take care of the kids.

So that was the beginning of our Sunday school. And it just happened because those two families came on the same Sunday. And then so all of a sudden we had like three kids to like seven kids. And that's how it started. But that's how our first service, we had one service at that time, we started the morning one because of that, because we wanted to have a service for the teachers.

So there was like six of them. - And the lunch crew. - And the lunch crew. So they would come into first service, we'd have like 10 to 15, and then we would have our main service set. And that was the beginning of our first service. But you know, just ironically, he's the guy who started it, and now he's our education pastor.

- Yeah, there was nothing formal. There was a need, and someone took initiative, kind of plugged in that need. Not a lot of people to talk to, right, because I mean, it's just us. So it's like, oh, there's a need, someone can plug it, kind of worked like that.

You know, we talked about Pastor Aaron, there's gonna be a lot of people listening who don't know who he is. Pastor Aaron is a pastor over at BMC in NorCal, Berean Mission Church in NorCal. But before becoming the pastor in Berean Mission Church in Northern California, he was here.

He was here at Berean Community Church. For the long time, you were a pastor by yourself. What year does Pastor Aaron come in? - Well, Pastor Aaron was here, he was, again, one of those high school students at Irvine Baptist, so I actually knew his parents before I knew him.

I heard of him through his Sunday school teachers, because he was such a troublemaker, you know, and I heard, there's this kid in Sunday school, this is like when he's like third or fourth grade, and he said he jumped on the table during Bible study, but the teacher loved him, you know, because they adored him, but he was a handful, and he would tell stories about his parents.

And I remember my first memory of that age group, because I wasn't their pastor, I was just the EM pastor, and Sunday mornings I would be driving to church and I would see him and Luke and, you know, his friends walking to the pizza parlor during service, you know, and then they would be walking back.

So later on I found out that they were using their offering to buy pizza, and then playing video games. And I remember every time I would drive up, I would say, "Where are the parents? Why are these kids walking in the big street by themselves?" And then, so I kind of heard of him, and then I left, you know, that one year that I left, when I came back, and I was talking to the high school pastor, and he said that there's a student leader that's actually leading Bible study, and he was the only one.

And then he said it was Aaron Choi. I said, "Aaron Choi? That name's familiar." He said, "But the last time I heard of him was the kid who was jumping on tables." And then when he told me that Aaron was actually a student leader, even in high school, I said, "That kid is a student leader?" Yeah, so he had leadership from, you know, from when he was young.

And he had a big influence on his friends, even through college. Yeah. Yeah, so. He went to UCSD. He was the ADM. He ended up coming back as the advisor as well. Right. You know, a lot of people here, we roomed together. Pastor Peter Chung mentioned it, but Pastor Mark, myself, Pastor Peter Chung, and Aaron lived together for a little bit.

What year does he come on board as a pastor? I don't know the specific year, but it was. He started interning in '03, yeah, at the end of '03. So he was in college, and then he graduated, and then he was kind of wrestling with what he, and so when he went to seminary, he went in as a philosophy, because he wanted to do apologetics because that was his thing.

And then he changed that, obviously, I think the first year. And so, you know, I think everybody who knew him were kind of like encouraging him to go into ministry, because he had gifting, he had clear influence among his friends. And then so, when he came on, obviously, I needed help.

So when he came on as an intern, I think it was like six months into it, we asked him to oversee the college ministry. So I guess that was '03, yeah. Yeah, so for about six years, you're doing multiple Bible studies, Sunday service, all the admin stuff on your own, and then, you know, finally, you get some help, you know, get some help in.

I mean, to be fair, we had elders, you know, Philip was there, Vince was there, maybe a year or two before that. And Joe was there. And Joe was there. But again, you know, this early on in church, and they have full-time jobs. So they were helping with finance, and bits and pieces.

Right, right. And the whole church is being helpful. I'm just talking about pastoral help. Yeah, yeah. Just pastoral help, it's just you, and then Pastor Aaron comes in. Right. So that was him and I, I don't know, five years, six years? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and then that goes on for about five, six years.

And then at some point, Pastor Mark, you re-entered this conversation. You went from member to, I think you're a pastor at this church, right? No, I'm just kidding. You come in as a pastor. What year was that around? My memory is not good, but I'm guessing around 2010. Is that right?

I'm looking at you. Well, I went to China in '09, and then I think the church took on, from what I believe, like three interns at the time, and Pastor Mark was one of the interns that came in right around then. And I don't think it was necessarily as a staff, but it had been concurrent to like our departure.

Yeah. It was 2010. I think. Yeah. It was 2010, and my memory's bad. At that point, has Pastor Aaron already gone to NorCal? No. Okay. Okay. That was about three years after that. Yeah. Okay. It's about 2013. Okay. That's right. 2013, Pastor Aaron goes to NorCal. The reason I'm bringing this in is because during this time, the church just continues to grow.

It just continues to grow and grow and grow. Pastor Aaron goes to plant in Northern California. Berean Mission Church is born. And then Pastor Peter Chang is in China, and all of a sudden, we're back to two pastors. We're back to two pastors, and we functioned two pastors at that point in time.

Do you remember how big the church was? Anyone remember? About 300. Right. My memory is 200, 300. We're around there. And the kind of real bird's eye view is during all these years, we went from Lakeside Middle School, and then we went to Harvard Park, which is on Walnut.

And after Harvard, I think we went to Turtle Rock Community Church. And after Turtle Rock Community Church, we went to Northwood. Well, before Northwood, we were at Green, what, Deerfield. Oh, Deerfield. Oh, right. Deerfield for a short period. For a short period. Basically, community parks in Irvine. Yeah. Right.

And then our brother, David Rim, spent the night to make it sure that we wouldn't reserve. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And then we swam up to Deerfield. And Northwood. And then we went to Northwood. You know, and David Rim is sleeping on the ground to reserve. He initiated it, and then eventually, people took turns.

Yeah, people took turns. Well, just to clarify, because we were renting a community center, they register, you have to re-register every year. And it's first come, first serve. So we have to be in line. So that's why, David, somebody had to sleep the night so we could be on the front line.

And then, so, at peak, we were there probably three nights. So we would start, like, it's Friday morning, and then we would be there, like, Tuesday, Tuesday or Wednesday, and we have to be there 24 hours, because if we weren't number one in line, we wouldn't get the spot.

Yeah, and Patrick, you're like a, like, you know, a 40, 42-year-old pastor, you're sleeping outside in Irvine. I mean, you were there, too. You would sleep outside. Yeah, I mean, at that time, we had a rotation, so whoever came in during that rotation, you would be there. So it had to be around the clock.

So a lot of people were taking turns at that time. And just another input, the reason why we had to move from Lakeside to go to Community Park, because I think they raised our hourly rate by maybe 20 bucks an hour, and at that time, we couldn't even afford $20 more an hour for the church, so we had to go to somewhere cheaper, and that's why we ended up going to the Community Park.

Yeah. Our rent was $400, $400 a month, and then it got raised to maybe like $600 or something like that. And that would have broke our back. Yeah, and we couldn't afford it, and that's why we ended up moving. Yeah, so while people are coming in and leaving and pastoral staff is going through changes at times, you know, everyone's kind of coming from within, you know.

As this is going on, we're moving from park to park. There's no airway, there's no North Mitchell, South Mitchell, none of that is there at the time. So we, you know, go from the last park I mentioned was, what was the last park? Turtle Rock. Turtle Rock. So we went from Turtle Rock, and then we go to Ut.

Northwood. Northwood. Northwood, I'm sorry. We go to Northwood. We're there for maybe a year? A year. A year. And then after Northwood, we go to Ut, and we go to Ut Middle School in Tustin. We're there for a couple years. Three years. We're there three years. Three years? Okay.

Yeah, we're there for about three years, and at that time, the, you know, three, four years, the church is growing. The church is growing. So Ut was the last place we rented from since. Am I right? Ut was the last place we rented from since. When we left Ut, how many people were at our church, would you guys say?

We had about 220, yeah, 220. About 220. 230, something like that. We're filling the auditorium at the time. Yeah. I remember thinking, how did our church get so big? I'm still surfing, so I mean, I don't really know what's going on. I'm just, you know, studying the Bible, you know, just, I'm not taking responsibility for anything, but the church is just growing.

It's just growing. Again, we went from 30 to now 220 in a matter of just several years. What were your thoughts on this past few years, the church is kind of growing? Were you nervous? No, I remember when we first broke 100. I was like, that was when we first came to Ut Middle School.

We went from 90 to 1, we added 20 people like one Sunday, and they said, oh, you know, people are coming because we moved, and then, you know, but we never went below 110. So literally one Sunday, we added 20% to the church, and for some odd reason, we never dipped below that, and then we started going up from there.

So I remember at 100 thinking like, oh man, this is crazy, like how do you run a church of 100 people, you know, because they couldn't fit at my house anymore. So everything that we were doing had to change because we didn't have a location, so we ended up renting an office building because we needed somewhere to do Bible study because we couldn't meet at my house anymore.

And then so at Ut, we just slowly incrementally grew to over 200, like 220, 230, and then we, you know, dealing with space and then slowly people started getting married and having kids, and so I remember our greatest challenge was when we hit 200 because the church just didn't feel the same anymore.

The fellowship wasn't, people aren't hanging out at my house, you know, they're getting married, you can't, you know, before, our church was known as a loitering church. Once we got together, no one would ever leave. So on Sunday, we would have worship, we would go out to eat, and we'd be there till 6, 7 o'clock at night.

- And then have dinner together. - And then have dinner together, and then play basketball, and then the sisters would come and watch, and then hang out. Literally every time we got together, we'd say, "Hey, we gotta wake up tomorrow, we gotta go." We'd go to other people's church, and they would ask us to lock up when they were leaving because we wouldn't leave.

So that's kind of how the culture of the church was, up to about 200. And then when 200 hit, like everything started changing because people got older, they started getting married, having kids, and then at 200 we couldn't hang out like that anymore. So prior to when Joe got married, like they didn't even invite the church, it was just given.

Like somebody, a church is getting married, everybody was invited. That happened until Pastor Peter Chung's wedding. So like it was assumed anybody at church was going to come to the wedding. So he didn't invite, he didn't have to invite, so all these college students showed up, you know, and so that's kind of how it was assumed, and then it got to a certain point where we couldn't do that anymore.

Yeah, but that's how the church was. I would say that the greatest challenge in the church was around 200 to 300. And that happened when we were at Airway. So to just kind of backtrack a little bit, we leave Ut, during this time, you alluded to it, but we get the office, the church office.

We don't own it, we're renting it, and that was the coolest thing back then. "Oh, let's go to the church office, we have a place to go to." It was just some random office suite, we did our Bible studies there, and we just never thought that we would ever own a building, because we were kind of like the Israelites wandering the desert.

There was a kind of sense of pride to that, and then I think part of it is, at least in my mind, I mean Pastor Peter teaches the Bible, how are we going to, just humanly speaking, how are we going to grow if Pastor Peter continues to tell us what God says?

I mean, that's not very attractive, but that just kept coming. And for some strange reason, the church kept growing. It just kept growing, and then at some point, we were able to actually buy a building. And that's what you referred to as Airway. Airway was the first building that we had, and we actually, no more renting, we bought a building.

Airway is a mile from, no, I'm sorry, a quarter, about a mile from where we are right now. It's just up the street. But I remember thinking our first Sunday at Berean Community Church at Airway, I had this very distinct memory where I'm looking at you, Pastor Peter. I see the sign, I see the sign, and I look at you, and I say to you, "This is Berean." You just kind of like do that smirk, you know, you just kind of smirk, and I'm like, "Yeah." And then, you know, we just do the same thing that we've always done.

You know, you tell us what the Bible says, you preach it, and then we apply it in our lives, and we learn the Bible, we absorb the Bible in our own quiet times, we're exhorted to do that, and we just, that's been the same thing we've been doing since day one, and we just continue to grow.

And I remember thinking when we're at that, at Airway, this is so great, and then we end up having to rent, because we grew, we end up having to rent the next door facility a little bit after that. And I remember thinking, well, we're never going to leave this place, but we ended up outgrowing that too.

And then we ended up here where we are, on South Mitchell. South Mitchell is our first building, we bought that. I remember thinking, this is bizarre. How is this happening? How are we getting an even bigger building? More and more people are coming, but you're not changing your message.

You're still preaching about sin, you're still telling us what the Bible says, and more and more people are coming. That trajectory hasn't really changed, well, it hasn't changed at all. And now, I asked the leaders to come in to do this podcast, because now we bought this other building.

We just came into this other building. Our anniversary is coming up in a couple days, right? And so it's strange to see, but there's still one person who hasn't said anything yet. And that person is Pastor Nate. You came here about three years ago. You're actually the only pastor who wasn't bred.

You're not a bred Berean. Homegrown. You're not homegrown. You actually came from the outside, and we were suspicious about you. Well, just me, no, I'm just kidding. You had a relationship with your friends, your current wife, Kezia, oh, sorry, your wife. I don't know why I said that. I don't know why I said that.

I'm sorry. I'll just leave that on there. We're not going to edit that out. That's a blooper. Your wife, Kezia, yourself, my wife, Diane, you guys are all friends at UCSD. We actually had dinner before you even came to Berean Community Church. So when I heard you were coming to Berean Community Church, I was happy.

I was really happy. But you've been here about three years. Three years is still a significant amount of time. Can you tell us about that? You come in. How did you come in? What changes? How has your experience been? Yeah. I mean, the church that I was at previously was the church that I grew up in.

I was a kid there. I was a youth student there. I went to college, and I went back to that church. So with all of that, that's one of the things where nothing's going to replace that church for me. I love that church. That still feels like my family.

There was a family church. It was an immigrant church. And so there were a lot of older generations there that saw me grow up. And so, yeah, that won't be replaced. So when Kezia and I, we were, well, I was approached by Pastor Mark one day. I thought we were just getting lunch, because I thought we were just friends.

He wanted to kind of ask and poke around and see what I was thinking concerning just future and things like that. And so me and my forever wife, Kezia, I went back home to her and talked with her about like, "Hey, is this something we can think about and consider?" And one of the interesting things is, I mean, God had already been taking us through a lot of things, causing us to pray a lot about where we are and what we want to do and how to be faithful to Him.

And we wanted to give it some time, but we instantly, it was weird, it was like an instant grieving period. Like almost like, even though it wasn't like even officially like extended to us, it felt like, "Whoa." Because I've been offered different job positions before, but this one felt very different.

And so, anyway, long story short, I know this is getting a little long here, so. No, it's good. It's good, though. It's okay. Okay. Just to make it short, we decided to come, and right away, like, I started asking a lot of questions. I was trying to, I was poking around with a lot of people, trying to learn about the church.

I was on Facebook a lot, stalking people. I found the, you know, the video of you commanding people about how to eat sushi and how to order. And then we got here, and I was wondering, "How has this church been functioning?" You know? Because, like, "Wow, there are only two pastors here." And we had five just on the EM, on my old church.

And I saw a church where a large, a large portion, a majority of the church serving, being enthusiastic about Bible study, and those kinds of things were really cool to see. From, as an outsider at that time, like, and I hope that, like, all the Bereans listening to this, don't forget what an incredible blessing that is, you know, to be at a church that's like that.

I think it's easy to forget. Man, that's encouraging. That's really, really encouraging. And Kazee and I instantly felt fortified, like, in our souls and our hearts when we got here. We felt the warmth. It didn't take very long to say, like, "This is our church." So that was pretty quick, you know?

So yeah, I mean, the three years here, so, so blessed, so privileged. I think one of the things is to see the, like, when we talk about what like-mindedness is, there's the theology and the hermeneutic. There might be some gasps that go around, like, I come from a Presbyterian church, you know?

But I'm in no way Presbyterian. And so, like, even that, just like the theology and the hermeneutic, it alleviated a lot of the pressure and the tension I felt at my previous church. I'm not afraid to say that, you know? Even if, like, somehow my previous church people listen to this, they know.

But more so than that, the heart, a desire, like, when we say things like, you know, to have a high view of God and a high view of His Word, lots of people say that. But to feel it and to see it practiced, to see what it's like to have a leadership that is unified in that, that has the same heart, that desires the same things, that's been the best thing.

I've learned so much from the pastors and the elders here. And so, like, in the three years, it's probably been, like, aside from, like, the early years as a Christian, like, the biggest growth on a personal level. And so, yeah, that's just kind of where we are. And I think Kazia and I are in the same place with that.

- Yeah, you know, it's been, like, great having you, Pastor, just to see what you did with the college ministry, you know, just to see the college ministry thriving. And you know, now you're going on campus, you know, it's, you know, we know how late you, you know, hang out with them and then you wake up before the sun rises to come to these leaders meetings on Saturday.

But you said something interesting, I just want to clarify for everyone that's listening. When you came, there were two pastors, right? But we just talked about Pastor Peter Chung being here from, being here full-fledged at least in 2005. Pastor Peter Chung, you go to China for a little bit and you end up working with Compassion International, which is a mission organization, which a lot of people sponsor children through that.

You were with Compassion International for how many years? - It's actually a child sponsorship organization that's run like a missions agency, but for about six. - About six years. - A little over three years in China, six years in Korea, so it's about a decade. - And when you finally come back to, to Berean Community Church, you're not coming back because we've offered you like a pastoral position.

You're coming back for different reasons, but you just want to come back to your home church. Is that, is that right? - No, no, we, at that time he wanted to come back and so we, yeah, no, no, no, no. So we did offer him at that time. Yeah.

I mean, ultimately what it was is we had no plan to come back. We were going to be in Korea for the long haul, but just my father just asked us, like, can you come back? And it wasn't a hard decision for us to make. And so just to honor my father who was living by himself, we just decided we're going to go back.

And for me, as soon as I made that decision, I was like, there's nowhere else I would want to go in terms of church. And so I gave Pastor Peter a phone call, just said, you know, I'm coming back. I don't really know to what capacity. And if you guys don't have the ability to like, to support me, that's fine.

I can find another job and actually just come back and work. Or if need be, I can, there are other churches that have sent out feelers, which that's not going to be a problem. But the only place I wanted to come back to was Bahrain. And so, and you know, every, every time we'd come back from Asia, this was home.

And so, yeah, and so you, you know, we have Pastor Peter, Pastor Mark, Pastor Nate comes on board. But as soon as Pastor Nate gets integrated, I mean, there's enough work to go around. I mean, we're, we were hemorrhaging at two pastors, we're hemorrhaging less at three pastors. You come in, what year is that?

This is March 2018. Officially, I started April, the April, like just a week later. Yeah, and so it, it's interesting because, you know, we're all back here today. And you know, we, we kind of, you kind of went your separate ways, but you ultimately came back. You know, it's, it's, it's like God had this plan for you, you know, and then you came back here and then now you're here pastoring.

And you know, as everyone knows, you had a cancer scare. You had a, you had a huge cancer scare. I remember thinking just, I can say this now, but I remember thinking, is he going to pass away? I'm so mad at him because he's going to pass away. I remember having this thought that I was mad at you, you know, even though it's obviously not, it's outside of your control, you know, but praise God, you know, that has gone well.

That is, that has gone extremely well. So you come back March 2018, the church has continued to grow. You know, we've, we've had shuffling around of, of, of, of different affinity groups when we had to. But one thing that I can say, I'm speaking for everyone here is nothing has changed.

Nothing has changed. It's study the Bible, do what it says. That's I'm quoting Pastor Peter, study the Bible, do what it says that that was, that was it. So if, if there is something that we have to consider, we have to think about, let's go to the scripture. Something else is coming in.

YRR, Young, Restless, Unreformed, Gospel Center Movement. Let's go to the scripture. CRT, let's go to the scripture. We know we're pounding the, the necessity, the sufficiency, the authority of, of, of scripture. And you know, what's interesting is you don't know what God is going to do with that. You know, you can be faithful and a church could grow or the church could shrink because you were faithful.

That, that's, that's not up to us. Right. And I'm thankful because that continues to be our mission that just continues to be our mission. I know for all of us, if it wasn't, none of us would be able to handle it if that wasn't our mission. You know, you know, we're, we're coming about an hour and 30 minutes here.

I can, I can continue to talk as everyone knows. But I'm, I'm thankful that we were, I'm going to ask for, for any closing comments here in a second. But I'm really thankful that we were able to do this. I gathered the leaders here. I thought it was opportune because we're, we were getting this new building and on the outside, you know, things look great.

Things look glamorous on the outside. And we're striving during a pandemic, but we need to never stray from what we're doing. If we dwindle because we're teaching the Bible, then, then we dwindle, you know, and I'm, I'm thankful that that mission has, that we've never strayed from that mission.

If any, you know, we've only just continued to pound that even more. And I think that, you know, it's important to, to remember, you know, I, I've, I've known these stories for a while now, but I wanted to share that. I want to share all these stories with the church.

And believe me, there are a lot of other stories that we were not sharing. This isn't meant to be an exhaustive recollection of the history, but an anecdotal narrative one, because I wanted the church to kind of see where we came from. Not to highlight, not to highlight the men, although there's a healthy tension that you, you should respect those who are ahead of you because God is glorified in that, not that you should worship them, but you should respect them.

And we're called to do that because God is glorified in that. And I wanted that to be achieved, but number two, I want to highlight the work that God has been doing, that the work that his spirit continues to do. And if that means in the future that we grow smaller, then it means we grow smaller.

But at the same time, when, when God has placed a church and he has given the conviction to teach the word no matter what, I want that to be passed down to the entire church, entire generation. If you think we have some kind of formula, that's not it. That is not, it's just study the Bible, do what it says.

I want to kind of go around and just ask anyone if they have any kind of, any closing thoughts, any closing comments before I kind of wrap this episode up. Yeah, I have one. You know, as one of the, if not the longest member here, I feel like I'm the most, the beneficiary of that because I've seen pretty much everything in the context of what God has been doing.

So, you know, my appreciation for God and this church is deep with all the experiences. So in essence, that as most of us continue to strive and serve and attend this church, that convey, that may be conveyed that God is the one who is building this up. Yeah, you know, I think about that time when I did come on to the pastoral staff, like I felt in that first moment, like a massive weight.

I didn't realize how much like weight it would cause, but feeling that the weight was so heavy. And if you remember when I came on to the staff again, there was also Alex and Henry. And then around the same time of the plant, Henry went up with the plant, Alex went out to China for missions and things like that.

And I remember distinctly the elders saying to the church, "Hey church, we're not just hiring people to do the work because the building up of the church is a responsibility God has given for us as a community." And so for me, like I feel that, again, you said everybody has stories.

I feel like really our church has invested into the building up of the body and they have stories. They tell stories about the building project, late small groups, they tell stories about youth group ministry, college ministry, you know, and so in my mind, as I think about again, like just now tracing through the history, you know, so many different hands and also people's heart and investment into the body, I'm just super grateful, you know, so.

My closing thoughts was, I guess, being the shortest here, three years, coming from a church that I had been at for so long and now hearing from the perspective of people who have been at this church for so long, it's a reminder, I think, to all our church members who are listening that it's easy when you're at a church to be critical just because that's how we are, you know.

But being here for the last few years, there's just so much to be thankful for and many times, I think the spirit of division comes when we have a critical heart rather than a unified heart that desires to strive together for, you know, the gospel for His kingdom. And so I'm thankful to be here and I hope everyone listening is too because we're very, very blessed.

Yeah, my closing thought is, you know, we're just the leaders here and pastors reminiscing back to how the church got started and what had happened, but there's also many who have just, you know, been with us for a very long time, who have really contributed to the growth of the church, the health of the church.

Even though your name is not mentioned, you know, what we're talking about here all encompasses every member and I could name multiple people who have really made Berean what it is because there's a certain culture. And when I go out and I talk to people, they come and they say, "Your church is so nice," you know, and there's a culture of, I see, of small groups.

Even though that we might not even have a set like discipleship, but discipleship is happening at our church, you know, because you could see it. And I think that's been the culture of our church. Even though we might not have ingrained a certain, you know, "Hey, this is what we're going to do ABC," but I think at Berean there is a culture of reaching out, doing discipleship, one-on-one meeting, you know, things like that.

And I think that's what I appreciate and there are many people who are doing that, nameless, been doing that and serving the church that contributed. It's not just the pastors, not just the elders. So that's what makes Berean, I just want to emphasize that. - For me, Elder James, you just, you mentioned, you use the words cancer scare, but for me, I think from the very beginning, the moment I found out this, you know, about the diagnosis, I actually was filled with a lot of gratitude, thinking like, "Oh, this is good for our church." And that was one of the first thoughts I had, "Well, this is so good for our church, this is timely." And this is pre-pandemic, but it's like, "Oh, our church kind of needs this, it needs one of us to be sick." And so, and that was, you know, with the possibility, okay, I might not make it more than a year or two, but that hasn't changed.

And I think one of the things that I've seen our church, one of the things that I benefited from is, man, we were the recipient of so much love and support over the course of the 14, 15 months. And I think those 14, 15 months, we got a minimum of two meals a week, at least one letter mailed in the week, just, and you have a whole slew of text messages, phone calls, and stuff like that, and people praying.

And so I think that's kind of like a lot of the strength of the church. I mean, that's, I'm a beneficiary, as much as I am one of the shepherds of the church, I'm a beneficiary of just the church body. And so I don't think I would ever call it a cancer scare.

It was a divinely ordained avenue for growth. And I'm so thankful for that, and for the church, and how everything played out that way. And so, and I think my tune would be the same, had I taken a turn for the worse. But yeah, I think by God's grace and kindness, and the help of the church, the whole 14 months was very smooth, and almost easy.

Amen. Well, I just want to thank you, James, for doing this. And again, you know, obviously, most of the stories that we've told are stories that we've told, you know, many times, and I know, you know, like all the stuff that we've shared, but I think just kind of sitting here and going over and reminiscing, kind of reminds us of God's hand and His faithfulness through all of it.

And like you said, every time we grow a certain point, people ask me like, "Oh so what are you doing?" And it's like, "I have no idea." Because we've never been here, I've never run a church of 700 people, I've never run a church of 400 or 200. Like you tell me how to lead a small group, you know, of 20 people, like I've done that for years.

But like 700, if we get to a thousand, I've never been there. Like what is the church going to look like at that time? And so, you know, like my philosophy has always been like when I first came I felt so overwhelmed. You have to get a psychology degree, you have to get a business degree, you have to be the top theologian, you have to be the best teacher, you have to be the most caring and gentle.

And so you have to be all things to all men, and you really have to be good at that. So I felt overwhelmed. Like I don't know if I can do this, right? And then it was kind of like hitting that frustration, I don't know if ministry was meant to be this way.

I don't know if that pressure is coming from God or it's just the way that we do ministry now. You know? And you look at God chose like fishermen who do nothing and started with them. It's like why has ministry become so complicated? You know like we have to get, like the businesses have a ten year plan, five year plan, and we're going to do this and that.

Not that there's anything wrong with that if you're gifted in doing that. So that's why our ministry to me is very simple, right? Like I can read the Bible and I can do my best to teach it and I can apply it, right? It's very simple. And then whatever happens then, if you happen to be gifted in certain areas you'll be gifted in that.

So that's kind of how I function day to day, you know? And that's how I don't get overwhelmed. I can't do that. If you say you're not good at that, I say good, I know that better than you do. You know? So I'm just going to do what He told me to do, which is preach the Word in season and out of season.

And whatever happens, happens. Then I'm so thankful for the, you know, new staff that was added. Thank you for you and the elders and you know, to me, like what I enjoy the most about the church is the leadership. You know, whatever's happening out there, as long as we're united, as long as we're on the same page, it doesn't seem that, you know, that difficult because we're handling it together.

You know? Earlier part of the church obviously that wasn't the case, but now, you know, and that's why I think like adding, whoever gets added to this, to me it's not just somebody to come in and take some of the responsibility. That's not how I see it. You know, I see whoever is being added is like, we're getting married to this person.

You know, you have to be, you have to enjoy being with that person. You have to be able to trust that person. You know, you have to have confidence that we're on the same page, you know, not 100% but enough where like that's the guy I'm going to run to and that's the guy, and I'm the guy he's going to run to if he needs help and I feel like we have that here.

You know, I know Pastor Nate, the only person that came from the outside, you know, so very thankful for him, you know, that he came in and obviously, you know, added to our church, but him coming has opened the door to make me think, is there another Nate out there?

You know what I mean, maybe, because we never even entertained that, but obviously God has other people that God can use, whether it's a lay person or whether it's a staff coming to church, that God is raising up other people and that kind of caused me to kind of like, okay, maybe going forward, you know, that is a possibility.

But again, more than anything else, I'm very thankful, you know, like I actually enjoy coming to church because I'm around guys that I, you know, not only feel comfortable with but feel like we're sharing our lives together. Yeah. So I enjoy Saturday morning. Yeah. I'm up anyway. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, we, one thing that we all agree on is that there is, there's absolute like love here. You know, there's absolute love here. And you said it before Pastor Peter, when we disagree about something, it's a disagreement amongst brothers. It's a disagreement amongst brothers, right? And you know, we, we come out of it united, we come out of it united.

And that's, I, this is the only church I've really been at my adult life. So I don't know if other churches have that. I'm assuming they have that. But all I know is that I love it, you know? So Pastor, can you, can you pray for us? And then we'll, we'll end the episode.

Heavenly Father, we just want to thank you so much for just over the years being so faithful to us. Lord, we are your servants. And as you told us, even, even thousands of years ago to your people, to not turn from your word to the left or to the right, that we may meditate on it day and night, that we may be successful and prosperous in all that we do.

I pray Father God that that truth would continue to carry on, not just for our generation, but even to our children and our children after that. And I pray Father God for continued unity in our hearts. I thank you for all the different people that have been here from the beginning, for the new people that you're bringing, Lord God, adding to the community that we have.

And we don't know what you have in store for us in the future, but we pray that our love for you and your love for us, Lord, would be at the foundation. And so we pray for continued grace. We pray for continued unity and just asking, Lord God, that your purpose of why you planted the church, Lord, that you would find fruit in us, that in this dark world, Lord God, as people are striving in darkness to look for life, help us, Lord God, to point them to you, and that as you have given us resources and even this building and even the leadership, help us, Lord, to bring more people to you, that during the time that we have on this earth, that we would truly be spent, Lord God, bringing people to you, to love you, to honor you, to save them from their sins.

And so we ask that you would cause a great renewal and revival, Lord God, and that we would use the foundation that you've laid in this church for the sake of your glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, Brain, see you soon. If you've listened to the entire episode, you definitely deserve a cookie, at least a sticker.

All kidding aside, as I said in the beginning of the episode, I hope this helps bring in gratitude to our God. I could tell you, despite the fact that the episode was nearly two hours, for us recording, the time just flew by for us as we were reminiscing about all that God had done to bring us to where we were.

And that is the same God that continues to work, that through simple obedience, God will build his church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Because the chief shepherd of Brain Community Church are not the leaders, but is Jesus Christ. Thanks for making it to the end.

I'll continue to try to make the journey worth it. To him be honor, glory, and eternal dominion. James Hahn out. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)