I have experience in developing this ministry at two levels: the national level and the local church level. Looking back, I have learned that a new ministry should not be started in a hurry. It requires preparation, experimentation, learning from mistakes, and gradually building a team of people who understand and believe in the vision.
1. Preparing at the National Level
At the national level, LPM Korea formally began in July 1999. However, our preparation had already begun two or three years earlier.
One of our first tasks was to translate the English materials into Korean. We translated two textbooks, four manuals, and three re-equipping materials developed by Dr. Melvin Steinbron. We knew that simply translating the materials would not be enough. We ourselves needed to understand the ministry and learn how to teach it effectively in the Korean context.
During those two or three years of preparation, I taught at Sungkyul University, using Dr. Steinbron’s two books. This gave me an opportunity to study the principles more deeply and to introduce the concept to students before formally beginning the ministry.
At the same time, I was serving as an associate pastor in a church of about 100 members in Seoul. Our senior pastor encouraged me to train our own church members first because I had translated the materials into Korean.
That became my first practical experience of equipping people for this new ministry.
Of course, we made mistakes. I made mistakes as a trainer, and our pastor also faced challenges because neither of us had previous experience with this kind of ministry. But those mistakes were valuable. We learned by doing, and what we learned during those early days became important lessons for our future ministry.
2. Moving Beyond One Local Church
Around 1996–1997, while I was still serving as an associate pastor, I began receiving invitations from many churches to conduct equipping seminars.
However, I felt uncomfortable traveling to other churches while I was still serving as an associate pastor. My responsibilities to my local church limited my freedom to visit other churches and conduct seminars.
Eventually, I decided to leave the local church and establish an independent organization called the LPM Korea Institute.
This was an important turning point. As an independent ministry organization, I was free to visit churches, meet pastors, conduct seminars, and participate in denominational gatherings. The ministry could now develop beyond one local congregation.
This experience taught me an important principle:
Sometimes a ministry must develop an appropriate structure in order to fulfill its larger calling.
3. Learning by Seeing
In April 2000, I traveled to St. Louis with a group of people from Hallelujah Church. About ten people, including an assistant pastor, attended the LPM International Conference for several days.
This visit was especially important because Hallelujah Church had already decided to hold a conference in Korea the following year, in June 2001. Before organizing the conference, they wanted their people to see firsthand what LPM was, how it worked, and how such a conference could be conducted.
The senior pastor at that time, Rev. Sangbok David Kim, had been teaching and preaching about lay ministry for many years. However, he felt that many church members still did not fully understand what lay ministry meant.
So he wanted them to go and see.
They attended the conference, experienced the ministry firsthand, and returned to Korea with a clearer understanding and a stronger vision.
This became another important lesson for me:
Sometimes people understand a vision better by experiencing it than by simply hearing about it.
4. The 2001 Korea LPM Conference
After returning from the United States, we began preparing for the Korean conference.
In June 2001, LPM Korea and Hallelujah Church worked together to hold a two-day conference.
There were three main speakers:
- Rev. Sangbok David Kim, senior pastor of Hallelujah Church
- Rev. Hanhum Oak, senior pastor of Sarang Church
- Tom Parrish, Executive Director of LPMI USA
We invited Rev. Hanhum Oak because he had written Call to Awaken the Laity (CAL) and had a strong commitment to lay ministry.
In addition to the three main speakers, there were ten workshop leaders, including myself.
Although LPM Korea and Hallelujah Church organized the conference together, the major emphasis was on the biblical and theological foundations of LPM and PACE ministry.
The conference became an important milestone in the development of lay ministry in Korea.
5. Following Up After the Conference
The real ministry began after the conference.
Many pastors who attended the conference became interested in introducing LPM and PACE in their own churches. Most of the pastors’ telephone numbers and contact information came into my hands because Hallelujah Church asked LPM Korea to take responsibility for following up with the churches that had attended the conference.
I began calling the pastors one by one.
I did not simply want to promote the ministry. I wanted to hear their feedback:
What did you learn?
What did you think about the conference?
What questions do you have?
What difficulties do you see in introducing this ministry in your church?
Most pastors responded positively. However, some immediately raised a significant concern: the name “Lay Pastor.”
For many Korean pastors, the word “pastor” was closely associated with ordination. They believed that an ordained person was the pastor, while laypeople were church members who supported the pastor.
Therefore, the idea of a “lay pastor” was difficult for some people to accept.
6. Why “Lay Pastor”?
Rev. David Kim also encountered this question from other pastors.
His response was very intentional.
He explained that he used the term “Lay Pastor” precisely because he wanted to communicate that laypeople can participate in pastoral ministry.
The purpose was not to make laypeople ordained pastors or to replace ordained pastors. Rather, the concept was that ordinary, trained believers could provide pastoral care to other members of the congregation under the leadership and oversight of the pastor.
In other words:
Lay + Pastor
The two words were intentionally placed together.
Rev. David Kim consistently explained this at conferences and defended the use of the term because he wanted the church to recognize that pastoral care is not the responsibility of the ordained pastor alone.
This became one of the important theological foundations of the ministry.
7. What We Learned from Other Churches
Some participants at the conference came from Yoido Full Gospel Church, one of the world’s largest churches.
When I contacted some of them afterward, they told me that their members were already doing ministry that was similar in some ways to LPM/PACE.
However, they said that the conference had helped them understand what they were doing more clearly from a biblical and theological perspective.
That was encouraging to hear.
It showed us that sometimes a church may already be practicing something valuable, but a clear biblical framework, theological understanding, and practical system can help people recognize what they are doing and develop it more effectively.
8. What I Have Learned About Starting a New Ministry
Looking back at those early years, I have learned that starting a new ministry is not simply a matter of announcing a good idea.
It is a process:
Vision → Preparation → Translation → Personal Experience → Local Experiment → Learning from Mistakes → Training → Conference → Follow-up → Expansion
We first had to understand the ministry ourselves. Then we practiced it in a local church. We made mistakes and learned from them. We trained others. We created an organization that could serve churches more freely. We exposed leaders to the ministry through conferences and firsthand experience. Then we followed up with churches individually.
The most important lesson is this:
Do not try to begin everywhere at once. Start somewhere, learn from it, correct what needs to be corrected, and then help others begin.
A ministry grows not only through vision, but through experience, relationships, training, follow-up, and faithfulness over time.