Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

Articles

Ministry is More than Pastoring

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What you’re doing seems fine…but I still wish you would just go back to a church and preach. Isn’t that what pastors do? Isn’t that why God called you into the ministry? Isn’t that the better thing?

Those were the words of my grandmother to me when I told her how I was transitioning to work for LifeWay to launch their new emphasis in church planting and multisite (albeit, she did speak those words in Korean).

God’s call on our lives is a mysterious thing, isn’t it? There were times in my life, where I was convinced that God had called me to a specific place and role (sometimes also to date a particular girl), only to discover that the circumstances didn’t pan out the way that I wanted them to (that means I was rejected).

“Was God’s initial call wrong? Did I hear him incorrectly? Is there sin in my life?” These were the types of questions that I would wrestle through when things didn’t go the way that I wanted them to, or expected them to.

My wife and I have gone through many transitions. Since getting married, we’ve lived in six cities and three different countries. I’ve served in a number of roles in four different churches ranging from a church attendance of 100 – 50,000 people. And most recently, we’ve moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to work for LifeWay – in a role that my grandmother apparently doesn’t approve of since I’m not preaching 🙂

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Tuesday’s Thought – Lincoln and Character

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Abraham Lincoln has no need for an introduction. So here’s a quote that probably has more relevance today than it did when he first said it.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.

When given a seat of authority or power, do you find yourself leading and functioning differently?

Abrahahm Lincoln quote

My Hope for Beulah, the Local Church and Edmonton

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edmonton

Whenever I pray, “God may your kingdom come and your will be done,” I’m not just going through the motions and praying some sort of ritualistic prayer. Nor am I praying it and hoping that God would do that through someone else in some other place. Since this is a part of the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray, I have confidence that he is doing “something” when we have the audacity to pray that prayer with sincerity and faith. And I’m convinced that God chooses to do that “something” through you and I – through the church.

Let’s face it. The local church can be dysfunctional because we are the local church and we can all be dysfunctional. Regardless, I have full faith in God’s redemptive power and his desire to usher in his kingdom through the local church.

God wants to usher in his kingdom through the local church.

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When I came to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to serve at Beulah Alliance Church in 2010, I wasn’t just coming for some job. I came because I was convinced that Beulah was all about God’s kingdom and his mission. After all, since its birth in 1921, over 60 churches have been planted out of Beulah.

And now that God is leading us into a new season of ministry, I’ve been spending a lot of time reflecting on this question,

“What gives me hope that Beulah will continue on this trajectory and be a transformational kingdom agent in Edmonton and beyond?”

Here are some of my thoughts:

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How to Create a Missional Culture at Your Church (BLESS Pocket Guide)

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How can you create a missional culture at your church?

The big challenge and task for churches that are serious about creating a missional culture and participating in the mission of God, is how to normalize mission and missional engagement in the lives of her congregants.

Do you inspire your church to action with a sermon? Do you equip your church with skills and knowledge with a seminar? Or do you employ an apprenticeship model? How is it that you can best call your church to significant city-impacting, gospel-driven and spirit-empowered missional engagement?

The answer?

You need to normalize it.

You need to make missional engagement as normal as motherhood and apple pie. Don’t make missional engagement sound like something that only missionaries are called to do. Make it natural and an assumption for every disciple. In other words, if you’re a disciple of Jesus, then missional engagement is just a part of it.

If your church is serious about the mission of God and multiplying, you need to normalize mission.

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I want to commend Community Christian Church for producing a fantastic acronym to normalize mission – it’s BLESS. You can find Dave Ferguson’s article and video on it here from Verge. You can also watch Jon Ferguson explaining it here.

Part of my role at Beulah Alliance Church was to lead the church and all the campuses in their missional engagement. And in order to raise the missional culture at Beulah, I needed to give the congregation a tool to normalize mission. Out of all the tools out there, we decided on BLESS because of its simplicity and its ability to make mission seem easy.

Read this article for 5 ways to create a #missional culture in your church

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So here are a few things that we did to create a missional culture:

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Tuesday’s Thought – Bill Hybels and Vision

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Bill Hybels is futurist and a visionary. I have incredible respect for this man and his leadership, influence, and kingdom vision. Here’s one of his stellar quotes from his talk at the 2014 Global Leadership Summit.

You can live and lead small, live and lead safe, live and lead selfishly, or you can pursue a grander vision

What vision are you pursuing?

Tuesday’s Thought – Brad Lomenick and Your Next Role

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Catalyst has been a blessing to my development as a leader and I’m deeply grateful for the leadership that Brad Lomenick has brought to it. When I heard that Brad had written a book, The Catalyst Leader: 8 Essentials for Becoming a Change Maker, I quickly added it to my “must read” list. Regretfully, it’s taken over a year for me to get to it, but once I opened it up, I gobbled it up in matter of days. I even live tweeted each chapter – you can check it out by going to my twitter account – @danielsangi.

Here is one of my favourite quotes from his book, The Catalyst Leader: 8 Essentials for Becoming a Change Maker:

Act, lead, dream, create, and deliver based on the job or position you want next, not the job or position you have now. Step into that role before you ever have it. Demand perfection from yourself before anyone ever demands it of you.

Tuesday’s Thought – Mother Teresa and The Power of Teams

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Mother Teresa doesn’t need an explanation – she is one of the greatest influencers of this past century.

Since I love leadership and the power of teams, this quote popped out to me:

You can do what I cannot do. I can do what you cannot do. Together we can do great things.

Let’s do great things by living in the areas of our strength and by working with one another!

How to Make a Large Church Feel Small using Midsize Groups

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In the second session of my Midsize Groups Course on Ministry Grid, I encourage churches to create a sense of belonging through midsize groups – this is what will make a larger church feel smaller. I also explore how different social environments draw on the strengths of both small groups and midsize gatherings.

Click here to take this session.

If you would like to read an earlier post I wrote reviewing Ministry Grid as well as introducing my Midsize Groups Course, click here.