PASTOR’S COLUMN
This is my first column for the Monona UMC newsletter. It has been four weeks since my family and I moved from North Alabama to Wisconsin. For the first two weeks, I felt overwhelmed by all the unpacking, cleaning, and organizing in my new home in Brooklyn.
Wisconsin is a different world. New landscapes, new surroundings, new people with different accents, different styles of food, and different cultures made me feel surreal. The back roads are filled with corn and beans, cows and horses. Welcome to America's Dairy State? Am I really in Wisconsin?
We decided to try some new things around our area. We went to the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning and tried the Wednesday music festival around the Capitol building in Madison. In the past two weeks, my family attended two retreats in Chicago (Mid-Western Korean Clergy Caucus Family Retreat) and at Pine Lake Retreat Center (new pastors' orientation to the Wisconsin Conference).
In Chicago, I met other Korean pastors and their families serving in Wisconsin and the Midwestern area. My daughter Esther was thrilled and super excited to hang out with other Korean youth because she had never had this kind of time before. It was so meaningful for her to embrace her ethnic identity and better understand who she is through this fellowship. At Pine Lake, the orientation for new pastors in Wisconsin was helpful for me to understand, learn, and prepare for my new ministry in the Wisconsin Conference. We also had a campus tour of the University of Wisconsin Madison and took a boat ride on Monona Lake because of someone's hospitality to my family. Monona Lake is beautiful, and the capitol building is phenomenal inside and out. The city of Madison is vibrant and diverse. The city of Monona looks clean and well-organized.
As of July 24, I have had two Sunday worship services, one ALB meeting, two staff meetings, and several meetings with different people to get to know them better with pure love and curiosity. I began to hear the real stories of the people and learn about this church better. However, I realize that I need to slow it down and be patient enough to allow people to walk at their own pace in the process to adjust to their new pastor. I need to learn how to walk alongside them and try one thing at a time without being overwhelmed or overwhelming others.
Someone’s email awakened me to realize why God has sent me into this church, that is, to renew and revitalize God's people at His church. As a matter fact, God never sent me out to the church where I found relaxation and comfort. Instead, God always sent me to a church where people's hearts were broken, anxious, and troubled. Surprisingly, whenever I left the church after several years of serving, people told me that they didn't believe their church would be able to revive, but God did it through me.
I felt humbled and honored to hear that. I pray and hope that God will do the same thing or much greater things to Monona UMC while I am serving here. I will continue to dream of God-sized dreams for this church, and desire to love all of you with God-sized love. I don’t want my life to be mediocre. Instead, I want my life to be on fire for God’s glory and bear more fruits within me and in my ministry. My prayer is that I will always surrender to God, trust in God’s promises no matter what happens, and find my security in God who lavishes in love and grace. Would you please pray for me, love me, invite me, and allow me to be a part of your life? Would you please walk and work together to make this great church greater? I can’t wait to see what God has in store for me and for God’s church. Thanks be to God!
Pastor Yohan
