New Visitor’s Team

by Hwa Park

My name is Hwa Park and I am the ministry coordinator for the NVT Ministry (New Visitors Team). I’ve been part of this ministry for a very long time and although our practices and processes has evolved over the past 11 years the purpose of this ministry has pretty much remained the same. The primary purpose of this ministry is to welcome and orient first time visitors to LBC as well as to serve both members and nonmembers during Sunday worship. The NVT team perform the following functions:

• We provide parking patrol and management services during Sunday worship and other LBC functions. There are designated parking spots for pastors, families with nursery aged children and new visitors.
• Designated Sunday greeters that collect first time visitors information for personal follow up and invitation to LBC functions .
• We provide security services during worship both inside and outside the Church.
• New visitors orientation which occurs immediately after service. We go over our Church Informational Pamphlet which includes topics such as “Finding a good Church”, MVP of LBC, Pastors profile, various ministries at LBC, importance of membership and baptism and as well as the Gospel presentation.
• Meet and Greet function for people that have been attending LBC. During this time the focus is on Church membership and baptism. This is a time of one on one interactions with our team members over a yummy pizza lunch. Pastors are encouraged to attend.
• Personal follow-up and follow up letter for every new visitor that signs in on Sundays.

We always have a need for more people, so if you are a member and would like to join the team, please contact me at hwapark@yahoo.com. Communication within the team is the biggest challenge in our group as our team evolves over the years. Please pray that our team will serve with a heart that seeks to please God through our interactions with first time visitors.

Care Ministry

by Chris Lim

Increase Your Passion in 2010…by joining Care Ministry!

Lighthouse Bible Church has a three-fold mission, vision and passion commonly referred to as our M.V.P. statement. Our passion statement is to “love God and love people” taken from Matthew 22:37-40. By having a deep and growing love relationship with God, it allows us look outside of ourselves and desire to care for the people God has placed in our lives.

Do you want to increase your “passion” for serving others? Then consider joining Care Ministry. Care Ministry seeks to serve and care for the church body in very practical and tangible ways ranging from a note of encouragement, a timely care package or more recently, a discerning set of eyes to check your automobile for any car trouble you’ve noticed lately.

While mostly behind the scenes, Care Ministry is one of the most pervasive ministries at Lighthouse as we seek to care for the different needs of our fellowship groups (college, singles and families) and also celebrate special “life events” such as the birth of a new child or those getting married.

Our seven current Care sub-ministries are:

1. Meal Ministry – Provides and delivers meals to individuals/families due to sickness, special needs or most commonly the arrival of a newborn.
2. Special Events Ministry – Serves the church body by adding a special “touch” to church events like our Christmas Concert, Baptisms, Annual Church Banquet and other church-wide events.
3. Encouragement Box Ministry – Seeks to encourage people in the church by writing a note of encouragement to them (available each Sunday)
4. Care Package Ministry – Makes and delivers care packages for College students during finals exams or for those sent on military deployments.
5. Baby Shower Ministry – Plans a time of encouragement/fellowship for expecting moms
6. Bridal Shower Ministry – Organizes a party for a bride-to-be in anticipation for her wedding
7. February Care Month Ministry – Devotes a month to direct the church’s attention to how they can actively participate in our care ministries.

The next three sub-ministries have just started or will be starting very soon:

1. Car Care Ministry (already started) – Seeks to maintain, correct and prevent any vehicular problem (big or small) or to get an honest assessment of your vehicle and its needs before going to the mechanic. For a check-up, contact Thomas Fong, Quang Duong or Randy Sarmiento.
2. LBC Babysitting Ministry (starting February 2010) – Provides complimentary babysitting/childcare for those in LBC’s Gracelife/Family ministry so that they can enjoy the evening out.
3. Elder Care Ministry (starting January 2010) – Seeks to encourage and support our Elders and Pastors and their families.

As some of you are familiar, each February at Lighthouse is known as “Care Month,” where we will brainstorm a few special ways for the church body to serve and encourage each other. In previous years, we have put together encouragement scrapbooks for our elders and formed an “Adopt-A-Family” concept that allowed singles and college small groups to get to know the families better. Last year, we had a special “Mother/Sister” lunch event that allowed the moms/wives to hangout with the singles ladies at the UTC Food Court. If you’d like to help out for Care Month 2010, our team is forming very shortly.

As a final reminder, there are no special talents required to join Care Ministry – just a desire and heart to serve. For questions or more information about participating in Care Ministry or Care Month, please contact Chris Lim at cmlim@mail.com

Single Life Ministry

by Pastor John Kim

Single Life represents the ministry at LBC that focuses on providing opportunities for those who are single adults to gather for fellowship and mutual edification. It is a challenging period of life for many who are uncertain as to where the future will lead but there is one thing that really can take place and that is the cultivating of spiritual growth. Regardless of educational, vocational, or relational status, there is one thing that is quite certain – growing in the grace and truth of God must be foundational if anything else in life is going to be purposeful and meaningful. As we often are reminded that all of life is to be lived to God’s glory (1 Corinthians 10:31), there is never a stage of life where we are justified in thinking that somehow we are given some kind of entitlement to live for ourselves. If the love of Christ truly controls us (2 Corinthians 5:14-15), then it should visible affect the way we live, starting from our heart motivations resulting in a life that exudes the reality of the Lordship of Christ.

It is no surprise that for many single adults, life is filled with a lot of change and upheaval. The pursuit of further education, seeking to land a decent job, and the hope of maybe finding a spouse can cause a lot of stress and anxiety, even depression. Many churches struggle to even have ministries that focus on single adults due to the transient nature of this stage of life.

So we are quite thankful that for the past few years we have been able to see the Single Life Ministry at LBC grow. It has not been without its struggles as there has been difficulty in keeping things consistent, but this past fall has been greatly encouraging as we have been able to find more focus in what we do.

Friday Night Light takes place weekly on Friday evenings as we spend time in growing in God’s Word and having opportunities to fellowship together. There is a staff that has committed themselves to serving each Friday by fulfilling various roles such as the praise team, new visitors, setup, refreshments, and others. Our theme has been “Getting to Know the Holy Spirit” as we have been studying what is often a neglected theme in many churches: the person and role of the Holy Spirit. It has been very encouraging to hear how many are learning and growing in their understanding of how the Bible describes the Holy Spirit and we look forward to continuing the study in the new year.

Friday nights have also provided many opportunities for the singles to just hang out together as we have a time after Bible study for various activities. We have a refreshments station where the staff organizes various treats each Friday for people to enjoy. There are staff that are available for counseling or to ask questions regarding the message. We also have ping pong and foosball for those who would like a little recreation. Many just spend time talking in the sanctuary as well, and it has been very encouraging to see more interaction as we have had many newer people join us on Friday nights.

We recently started accountability small groups where those who have the desire to have more personal accountability and interaction sign up to be committed for the term, which goes until June 2010. It is a great opportunity for people to not only get connected but to also have a smaller group of fellow believers that come alongside to provide encouragement and support in pursuing spiritual growth. I believe this is a very significant ministry that provides greater depth and ministry that goes beyond the surface. This of course takes cooperation and willingness for each individual to be willing to be open and vulnerable and it often takes some time for this to develop. But once it does, it does bring a lot of encouragement to the group and many are able to develop a stronger sense of belonging to the church family.

Each year we also have our annual spring retreat where we gather over at Pine Valley Bible Conference Center for a weekend together. Last year was a wonderful time as Pastor James Shin of Cornerstone Bible Church came to minister along with his family. The centrality of the gospel was clearly communicated as James addressed the motivations of the heart and many of our singles were impacted in a profound way. This spring we are looking forward to again having our retreat on March 19-21, 2010 at Pine Valley and this time we will be having Pastor Nam Park of Immanuel Bible Church come to preach. I would encourage all the singles to set aside this weekend as it will be a wonderful opportunity to grow as well as have fellowship with one another.

Please continue to pray for Single Life, that the ministry would be faithful to present the truth of God and that the love of Christ would be manifested genuinely and sincerely to all who come.

Music Ministry

by Eugene Park

The music ministry at Lighthouse is a wide ranging ministry. My role is to oversee the whole ministry and make sure that everything in the ministry, from top down, represents solid Biblical worship. The one element that most people equate with the music ministry is the Sunday praise team. But there are other bands that serve the church as well. There’s the college praise team led by Tim Yu and the singles praise team led by Peter Park. These teams work hard in being excellent in their ministry. What most people don’t know is that we also have Abram Kim who is in charge of the children’s praise ministry. While there isn’t a full band, it’s still an important ministry because it’s an opportunity to teach the children God’s Word through music.

The music ministry also extends to the choir/vocal ensemble/singing group (depending on how big the group is). While the choir might be more “performance” based, it is still our desire to sing music that is biblically accurate that points the listener to Christ. This group sings for special events like the Christmas Concert and Resurrection Sunday and maybe one or two more times during the year.

Perhaps once every two months I like to have a time of praise through the singing of hymns. This is where the orchestra comes in. The orchestra provides the musical accompaniment for the congregation as we sing songs that generations have sung in the church.

Sometimes finding people to fulfill roles in this ministry is hard. People need to have the right heart in serving in this ministry, but they also need to have musical skill as well. You wouldn’t just throw anyone up on stage to preach, so why would you throw anyone up there to play/sing? So that’s challenging because sometimes people want to join the ministry playing an instrument and/or singing, but I have to gently tell them that perhaps they should try to find another area to serve.

Despite the hard work that is involved in this ministry, I consider it a joy to serve in this way.

Bulletin Ministry

by Hansol An

Those bulletins come from somewhere…

Every week a dedicated team lays out, edits, prints, folds and assembles the Sunday Service Bulletins. For a long time the team was no more than four people, but as the church grew so did the need for a more extensive team. Now the team consists of Daniel Yee, Daniel Kim, Moon Choi, Courtney Chow, Yoonjee Kim, Angella An and Hansol An.

The pastoral staff sends out the information used to update the bulletin. Hansol and Angella format and lay it out in InDesign then send it to the rest of the team as a PDF file. On Sunday mornings the team arrives at 8am to produce the 250 copies needed for that morning’s service.

Typically there isn’t a lot of recognition but like any ministry in the church, that’s not what it’s about. The team is committed to help communicate what’s going on in the life of the church… quietly and consistently. Our hope is that this ministry assists the church body in furthering the kingdom work.

Youth Ministry

by Pastor JR Cuevas

The youth ministry of Lighthouse Bible Church – also known as “Lumos” – exists to exalt God in the lives of youth adults in the San Diego community. This is specifically carried out through the church’s imparting of both the gospel as well as the lives of older godly men and women into the lives of the young adults in the church. Thus, all that takes place in Lumos flows either in the direction of equipping and building up the youth who have trusted in Christ as their Lord and Savior or in the direction of evangelizing to the youth who do not exhibit saving faith in Christ. With this in mind, the ultimate vision of Lumos is to magnify the person and work of Jesus Christ in the lives of the youth, so as to help prepare them to be future ministers of the gospel for the generations to come.

Lumos currently has a little over ten youth ranging from 6th grade to 12th grade who have consistently been a part of the group, and nine adult staff from the single-adults affinity group who help run the ministry and invest in the lives of the youth. Every Friday night, Lumos meets at 7:00 pm at church till 9:30 pm, during which the weekly Bible study takes place. The messages typically last anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour, and in which I have been preaching through the gospel of Luke since the beginning of 2008 when I started serving in this ministry. After the message, small groups – divided up by gender and age group – take place. On Sunday morning during Sunday school hour, Lumos runs a Sunday school class, in which I have been going through the various topics of Systematic Theology as well as monthly split-sessions of men’s and women’s discipleship. On Wednesdays, some of Lumos staff help run a Bible study at Torrey Pines High School during their lunch break, in which the Lumos’ most prominent form of outreach to the youth in the existing community outside of LBC. On Wednesday nights, some of the Lumos staff help run a study hall at the church for the youth, in which the youth are encouraged to diligently study for their classes to the glory of God.

As a ministry, the staff and I have certain convictions that are considered essential in ministering to the youth. First, we hold to the conviction of keeping everything gospel-centered and Scripture-based. This implies that Lumos does not minister to the kids in such a way as to fuel pride or enhance the worldly definition of self-esteem. Rather, all the messages that are taught are geared towards helping the youth have a greater realization of their sin before a holy God as well as helping them have a greater realization of what it means to place one’s faith in in the person and work of Christ alone. Second, we hold to the conviction that the youth are to be treated as adults, and not as children. Though we seek to be understanding and compassionate towards them, the youth are challenged each week to pursue the same standards of holiness in personal character as all Christians are held accountable to. Thus, the messages are not only long, but passionate and intense, in which I do not hold back in challenging the youth to make very practical changes in their lives. Thus, Lumos does not “baby” the youth who attend. Rather, they are challenged to live as good soldiers of Jesus Christ (which was our ministry theme for 2009).

Having set these standards, the youth who have consistently attended Lumos have shown much growth over the past year – from the middle-school students to the high school seniors. They have shown much growth in personal character and in applying the principles of Scripture in their own lives. Some who were not believers when they first attended have since then professed faith in Christ and have displayed their faith in their daily living. One of the recent manifestations of their growth has been an increase in ministry involvement in church. The staff has always challenged the youth not to “cluster” into small youth groups on Sunday mornings and distance themselves from the adults, but rather to take the initiative in serving in some of the adult ministries. Over the past year, we have seen some of the youth faithfully serve in the refreshments ministry, the cleaning ministry, set-up and clean-up ministry, welcoming ministry, and even in ministries geared towards international college students. It has been tremendously encouraging for me to witness them grow in their love for Christ, love for people, and love for their church. In all honesty, I consider myself to be one of the most blessed youth ministers – not because of how could I job I do, but because of how encouraging these “chulengos” (my term of endearment towards them to remind them that though they’re young, they’re capable) have been so faithful to the ministry. A number of the youth have faithfully participated in the ministry on their own initiatve (their parents do not attend LBC), and have shown the ability to be faithful to their church even at such a young age.

That said, the ministry is constantly in need of prayer support from the rest of the church body. Pray that our youth would grow in their fear of the Lord, that they may love Him more and grow in their intimacy with Him. Pray that they would mature in their faith, and that the Spirit would continually guide them to Christ-likeness as they age. Pray for the staff, that we would continue to faithfully invest in the lives of the youth. Finally, pray that in all that we do, Christ would receive the glory, honor, and praise.

Video Ministry

by Steven Preslar

Over the past 10 years the video ministry has had the opportunity to video tape more events than I can count. There are literally boxes of video tapes that need to be converted to digital format and then cataloged and archived. Our goal is to be able to provide access to that video footage to our members in a timely fashion.

For the most part all the work for the video ministry is done behind the scenes. At the major events throughout the year you will see team members quietly manning the video cameras. The part you don’t see is the work done behind the scene by another one of the team members where the raw footage taken is then spliced together to produce a final product.

There are currently four members who serve in the ministry. We have two members dedicated to the capturing of footage (David Jung and Josh Shortman), one member, Byron Dang who is entirely dedicated to post production/editing, and another, Steven Preslar that is responsible for converting, archiving, and cataloguing.

Our hope is that we would all be faithful in using the time and talents that the LORD has given to us, to serve the body at Lighthouse Bible Church by preserving the memories and making them readily available to you, our members.

If you are interested in joining the video ministry, please speak with Steven Preslar.

Convalescent Home Ministry

by Teddy Yu

WHAT is a convalescent home?

A question that I anticipate from many is, “What is the convalescent home ministry?” Well, in order to answer that question, let me first start with describing what a convalescent home is. A convalescent home is a residence for patients to recover from long-term illnesses or medical procedures. It is this additional level of medical care and attention that distinguishes a convalescent home from other regular nursing or assisted-living facilities. And while some of the residents of convalescent homes anticipate a return to their own homes after recovery, there are also some that remain there for the rest of their lives. So while the residents at a convalescent home may have diverse medical conditions, they all require some sort of constant medical attention.

WHERE is it?

The specific convalescent home that we visit is called ‘Mission Hills Health Care Center’ and is located in the northern downtown area of San Diego in a region called Hillcrest. Nearby the convalescent home, you can find the UCSD Medical Center – Hillcrest and Scripps Mercy Hospital – Hillcrest.

HOW did the ministry begin?

The origin of the convalescent home ministry can be traced back to the Hillcrest ministry. The Hillcrest ministry consisted of a group from LBC regularly going out into the streets of Hillcrest to conduct street evangelism to the homeless. One of the homeless people that we were meeting up with regularly through the Hillcrest ministry ended up requiring medical attention at the Scripps Mercy Hospital. And when they were discharged to the ‘Mission Hills Health Care Center’, we followed them to the convalescent home and continued to visit and to minister to them. In doing so, we started building relationships with the other residents at the convalescent home and saw God provide even more opportunities for ministry. We have been regularly visiting the convalescent home ever since.

WHO do we minister to?

Some of the residents that we are currently meeting up with have been with us since the very beginning. And we have together experienced many joys and trials through the years. In one of the residents we currently meet up with, ‘George’, we’ve seen his demeanor change from frequent outbursts of anger and foul words to an outspoken desire to read and to hear the Word of God. He has even asked that we read the Bible with him in the presence of others so that they too may hear. And ‘George’ is not the only resident hungry for the Word of God. ‘Cecile’ is another resident that has been meeting up with members of our ministry to have Bible studies in the Gospel of John. But we have also witnessed some of the residents take a little more time to respond to God’s Word. ‘Rachel’ was actually one of the residents that we had been meeting up from the beginning. But after some time, she expressed that she did not want to hear about the Bible anymore and that she wanted to live her own way. However, she recently has shared with us a desire to repent and live her life pleasingly before God. These are just a small sample of the residents that we have had an opportunity to meet with regularly and either share the Gospel with again or encourage them in their walks.

WHY do we do this ministry?

It is into this environment that God has provided us an incredible opportunity to be ministers of the Gospel to the residents of the convalescent home. By any worldly opinion, there would be no reasonable explanation for well-to-do people like us to spend time with people at a convalescent home. Some may choose to endure those times for the sake of volunteer hours or as part of a job. But as Christians we have a great opportunity to willingly go and joyfully serve as witnesses of Christ to the residents and staff of the convalescent home. There are three major motivations behind our ministry:

#1: We have a Divine Joy

Our ministry at the convalescent home is motivated by so much more than simple dutiful obedience to ‘Great Commission’ to proclaim the Gospel. While we do desire to share the Gospel, we do so for the purpose that others may come to know the joy of knowing and worshipping the one, true God. We know that there can be no repentance from sin and a relationship with God unless the Gospel is preached. And so we preach and share and minister of the joyful relationship that we personally experience in Christ.

#2: We have a Divine Example

1 John 4:19 says ‘We love, because He [God] first loved us’ and it is this model of love that we practice in the convalescent home ministry. Even though the residents may have little or nothing to offer in return for our time spent with them, we are not motivated by what we can gain or receive from them. Instead our ministry to the residents is motivated by an understanding that God first loved us with an even greater selfless love. Indeed, true authentic Christ-like love can most clearly be demonstrated when it can not be reciprocated and it is not deserved. The practical implications of this understanding mean that even when we are tired and feel disheartened from seeing little fruit, we can still go and minister because of our love for these people. And by exercising this sacrificial love, we can provide a visible testimony of the love that Christ exercised in coming to die for sinful and rebellious man.

#3: We have a Divine Hope

By no means is a ministry like this without difficulty because it involves sinful people interacting with other sinful people. One aspect of this difficulty stems from the necessity to continually present the Gospel to sinners and call them to repentance. Another aspect stems from being confronted from within by our personal short-comings in our motivation for ministry and the depth of our love for others. But we can be encouraged that despite the battle with sin outside and within, that we have a divine hope for our ministry. We are reminded that it is the power of God that saves through the faithful proclamation of His Gospel and by the power of the Holy Spirit to convict sinners. This reassures us to remain faithful in clearly proclaiming the Gospel in every context and to simply trust upon Him for the results.

Without a doubt this type of ministry is challenging, but it is also extremely rewarding. Above all, it is a high privilege to share the Gospel with others and to see God at work in people’s hearts. I cannot begin to describe the joy that comes from knowing that you have faithfully testified of Christ to a dying and sinful world. And this joy is all the more enhanced when you can see Christ working through you to continue to personally minister to and encourage others as they progress in their Christian walk. And through these relationships, there is the additional blessing of being continually challenged to grow in personal sanctification, knowledge of the Word, and preparedness to wield the Word to better minister to others.

It is for these reasons that we can joyfully engage in this ministry. There is a great need for people to partake in this ministry. We are looking for people passionate to share the Gospel both in speech and conduct. We also require participants to be members in good standing at LBC. And since there will be many opportunities to share the Gospel and provide biblical counsel in a variety of contexts, training will be provided for those that commit to the ministry. We schedule weekly visits primarily on Saturday afternoons or weekday nights subject to other activities in the church schedule. Each visit typically lasts around an hour and a half. The content of each visit can vary from individual visitations to group craft activities to teaching and worship times. The responsibility expected from prospective members will be to participate and have a willingness to learn and develop relationships. The required commitment will be for at least school quarter (about 4 months).

All interested members are welcome to contact me. But regardless whether you participate in the convalescent home ministry or not, I do pray that you all will strive to grow in the joy of knowing of God and testifying of His grace.

College Life

by Pastor Patrick Cho

When late August rolled around, I couldn’t believe that we were already in full swing for College Life. In previous years we didn’t have to worry about the start of the school year until late September because UCSD’s academic calendar begins then. But with a heightened involvement at SDSU and their semester calendar, we needed to have things up and running much sooner. Even with the quicker start to the year, it has still proven to be a successful start. Pondering the first few months of the school year, I can pinpoint at least four reasons why College Life has gotten off to such a great start.

Fundamental Commitment

We began the school year with a message on the pillars of College Life. What principles do we want to build our ministry on? What commitments do we want to make now that we want to see ourselves faithful to a decade from now? We agreed that we want College Life to be committed to glorifying God, teaching God’s Word, representing Christ on campus, enjoying genuine fellowship, and providing helpful discipleship. We also wanted to help our students understand the importance of being committed to the local church and being a part of the church family. As the opening months of the school year have gone by, we have seen this commitment fleshed out.

Our collegians know that College Life is not just about entertaining them or making them feel good about themselves. In fact, this past summer we went through a series on the doctrines of grace and one of the topics they were most blessed by was the depravity of man. Only Spirit-filled, God-fearing Christians could get excited about learning more about their own depravity! Seeing these students’ desire to grow in the things of God evinces that they are committed to the same things College Life is committed to, and that they have decided to be part of this ministry so that we can all grow together in that direction.

Faithful Staff

College Life has always been blessed with an incredible staff. Their commitment to the students has really benefitted the group and, I believe, has influenced many students to stay at Lighthouse. The College Life senior staff consists of four married couples, one engaged couple, and eight single adults. They are Patrick and Christine Cho, Jin and Grace Lee, Hansol and Angella An, Johnny and Mimi Kim, Tim Yu, Stephanie Shin, Derek Chew, Simon Huang, Randy Tsuchiyama, Teddy Yu, Courtney Chow, Cindy Chu, Karen Yi, and Naomi Yu. Not too churches offer their collegians an opportunity to receive dedicated discipleship and counseling from older, more experienced believers. What is more encouraging is that these staff members applied for these positions. We didn’t have to coax them into serving. They wanted to serve in this capacity because of their love for the Lord and for the collegians.

Besides the senior staff, we have a team of student staff members who help with the planning and administration of the group. Some of them even help lead small groups for the first and second year students. The student staff has been an incredible encouragement as we have gradually given them more and more responsibilities each year. This year, our student staff consists of Daniel Chong, Byron Dang, Ryan Short, Joo Yoon, Amy Cheng, Yuen Kwong, Vicky Williams, and Kristen Yee.

Together, these staff members have committed themselves to the ministries at SDSU and UCSD. The men on staff have been doing most of the teaching midweek and the entire staff has worked hard to make sure the students are growing and being held accountable to their profession of faith. Besides the staff members, many of the upperclassmen have gone out of their way to meet up with the younger collegians and to make themselves available for them.

Freshman Involvement

For whatever reason, in years past, our freshman retention rate was never really good. Perhaps the first years were not used to the longer messages that Lighthouse has come to be known for. Perhaps other ministries were doing more to make the freshmen feel welcome. Whatever the reason, not too many freshmen stuck out their first year of college in College Life. This year, that trend seems to have changed. Of course, there are always freshmen who through their church hopping experiences decide to commit elsewhere. And that’s ok. But we are really thankful for the ones who have decided to stay. We hope we can challenge them in their walks with God and in their thinking to be more conformed to the teaching of God’s Word. They have also added a lot of color to the group with their unique personalities and vibrant spirits. It was especially great to see a number of them at this year’s All-Church Retreat.

Fanatic Excitement

As single adults and married people in the working community know very well, there is a great excitement and enthusiasm during college. This is not anything new, but still it is great to see our collegians channel their energy and enthusiasm for the Lord. This year, we have asked the collegians to stay for a third hour on Sundays for College Life large group. This makes for a guaranteed six hour Sunday. That’s not easy for anyone! Even though we have adjusted the schedule to meet every other week, we understand that we are still asking a lot. Still, the collegians didn’t complain (at least to me!), and we are hoping that in the end everyone will conclude that the effort was well worth it. There is great encouragement to not only see the collegians’ willingness to come out each week, but to also see the evidence of their love for the Lord and their fervent worship.

These are just some of the reasons why I feel College Life has gotten off to a great start. Certainly we haven’t done everything perfectly. With all the changes this year, especially with being more involved at San Diego State University, there was a lot of adjustment that needed to be made. The collegians, though, have shown great patience with me (as always!) and have striven to make the most of the opportunities we’ve had to fellowship. I’m excited to see how much more the Lord will do through the group for the remainder of the school year.

Grace Life

by Grace Wu

Out of all the ministries that exist at Lighthouse, one constitutes the foundation of it all: Grace Life. This is not to say the children or outreach ministries are not important. Rather, it is through Grace Life’s equipping of the older generation that these ministries can function effectively.

For elder and Isaiah Flock leader Peter Lim, this emphasis on equipping and teaching the older people of Lighthouse is why Grace Life is important to him.

“Leading a flock of grown men and women is an important opportunity for two way interaction that can’t be taken for granted since these opportunities are relatively rare. I have discovered through my own attitudes and through others’ that people tend to be less teachable as they age. This is unfortunately true even for Biblical truths. But this is exactly why ministry to the oldest people in our church is so important. We have an opportunity to not only affect our generation with spiritual values but also our children’s generation too.”

A usual Isaiah flock meeting opens with singing, followed by the lesson portion of the meeting. Afterwards, the group is divided in men and women for a time of accountability, further discussion, and prayer. At the end, flock attendees can play with the children who are eager to see their parents after a few hours. At times, there are also potlucks and other informal get-togethers between flock groups.

“It’s also encouraging that families are willing to spend some extra time outside of Sunday mornings to get together and hang out and study together. Unfortunately some Married people choose not to participate for whatever reason but it’s really not as hard as some might think,” Peter said.

For flock attendees Arthur and France Wang, they too find Grace Life an important opportunity to learn as a family. In their flock, they are currently studying John McArthur’s “Before Abraham,” which discusses the creation up until the tower of Babel.

“It teaches us how the Old and New Testament biblical principles are tied together. It reminds us the Bible must be studied as a whole and is equally applicable,” France said. However, biblical knowledge isn’t the only lesson Arthur and France walk away with after a flock meeting. This ministry has also given them a peek into Christian parenting and how to raise godly children through the example of older and more mature believers they encounter.

“It is a great encouragement that families are so open with their struggles and triumphs. People genuinely care for one another in Godly love and it has been a blessing for us to be a part of this,” France said.

Grace Life flocks will also be undergoing changes as announced during the Members’ meeting on January 25. Instead of the biweekly meetings, it will be only meeting once a month. Furthermore, its format will change as it will be a time for men’s and women’s discipleship. The reason for this is to fulfill 2 Timothy 2:2 and the Titus 2 principle. Despite the reduced meetings throughout the month, it will still accomplish the Grace Life principle to spiritually feed the older people of the church. Under the new format, mothers can be spiritually encouraged while fathers will be able to spend more time with their children under this new flocks format. These changes, which take a trial run from March to May, will be a trial period to see Grace Life strengthened as the backbone of the church.

These changes in the Grace Life ministry is all for the purpose of building up the church body through the spiritual nourishment of the older people at Lighthouse. Thankfully we can see its fruits as different affinity groups serve the attendees of Grace Life. For Peter Lim and the Wangs, the childcare provided during flocks is another source of encouragement. This sacrificial service, though not part of the Bible study, still helps build up the older members of the church. It allows parents to have an interrupted time of Bible study, to learn in peace, so that they can fulfill 2 Timothy 2:2 and the Titus 2 principle.