172 results for author: Pastor Eric Shin


Gradually reopening the church building

It has been six weeks already since we have resorted to YouTube livestream for our Sunday worship service. This has been a new experience for all of us especially for me who is not technologically inclined at all. However, we have managed to worship God virtually together as one body of Christ. At first, it was awkward for me to be in the sanctuary with a small group of Magnification Team members praising God and preaching to them. I felt like I was in a recording studio. But as weeks went on, all of us who came out to church to provide worship service for New Life family got used to this new way of doing things. Several members commented how the ...

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Sunday Corporate Worship Service in Response to COVID-19

The entire world seems to be consumed with COVID-19 the past several weeks. Houston, where we live, is not any exception. Just a few days ago, one major university announced that they are shutting down the school for the remainder of the semester and all the students except few whose homelands are more susceptible to COVID-19 are asked to go home. The students will receive their instruction from their professors through online teaching. New Life has been committed to “Give, suffer and die” for Christ and his kingdom. And I think I can honestly say that we have done our best to live that life before God. Even in the midst of tropical storms and ...

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My Sabbatical Plan

In about a month from now, I will be taking my first sabbatical ever. Since I have never done this before, I don’t know what to expect or what will come out of it. But because it is in our pastoral staff policy and the Holy Spirit seems to be leading me to this, I am obeying His guidance. At first, I thought about completely staying away and resting from church ministry. So, I planned not to come to church for any reason even when I am in town. Instead, I thought about attending different churches to experience different styles of worship and learn from them. After giving some thought, however, I realized that I shouldn’t restrict myself ...

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My Sabbatical and Vote of Confidence

On November 30, 1994, my family (Lynette, Enoch, Caleb in Lynette’s womb and I) left Watertown, MA to come to Houston and serve as a youth pastor at Seoul Baptist Church. We loaded our belongings into a Budget rental truck while it was snowing, towed a white Honda Accord LX, and drove 1,850 miles in four days and three nights. We made stops to sleep in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Alabama. We arrived in Houston on Saturday, December 3. The church helped us to find an apartment on Jones and West Rd. Several deacons and their wives from the church helped us unload our belongings so we could move in quickly. One deacon took us out for dinner at ...

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Let’s Keep Our Promises

I would like to remind you of the policy we have in regards to Christians trying or wanting to come to New Life. If they are from Houston, we are very strict with them. Unless they have a very legitimate reason such as their church dissolving or their pastor contacting and asking me to take them for a very convincing reason, we don’t welcome or receive them. We do this because we don’t want Christians to hop around from church to church never learning the importance of humbling themselves and working out the interpersonal conflicts they may have with other church members. We also want to teach Christians to stay put in one church to build up the ...

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Anonymous comments on communication cards

We insert communication cards in our Sunday bulletin every week for the purpose of communication! J When New Life members and attendees drop their cards in the offering baskets, they are brought to me so that I can follow up on them. Mainly three things are communicated through the card. First one is urgent prayer needs. In addition to using yearly prayer request forms, I use prayer needs that are written in the communication cards to pray for the members each week. Second one is classes or ministries. New Life members can indicate what classes or ministries they are interested in taking or serving in through the card. And third one is message to ...

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The Mural in the Hall of Faith

New Life began on Sunday, August 10, 1997. Last year, we celebrated our 20th year anniversary. We built and moved into our current building on Sunday, August 12, 2007, which was our tenth year anniversary. God has been good and faithful to us all these years. He has done some amazing things in and through us. I hope and pray that God will do even more great God-sized things in the years to come through New Life. When we decided to build and have a place of our own, someone needed to come up with architectural concepts and design. Unfortunately and strangely, Leadership Team was restricted from working very closely with the architect we hired to ...

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