“Planting the Church in Chicago” <Part 2>

Pastor Stephen Yang’s ‘Christian Column’]        

However, on the one hand, I was thankful for my wife, but on the other hand, I was in a situation 

where I was going crazy and jumping up and down.

We had been in a tense confrontation for a certain period of time.

Then one day, I received a call from Deacon Choo, whom I had been close to while practicing faith together 

a long time ago.

The deacon said that he had been dreaming about me several times recently. 

However, she told me about the dream because the contents were unusual.

The contents were as follows. I saw a very pretty and clean church, and I was standing there smiling.

The church grounds are spacious and neat, and the inside of the church is dazzlingly bright, bright, 

and clean, which is nice.

She quickly came to see me and as soon as she saw me, she encouraged me to start a church.

The idea of starting a church suddenly came out of the mouth of a deacon I met after several years. 

I was so dumbfounded that I couldn't speak.

No matter how much I explained to the deacon about my difficult situation at the time, 

she told me not to worry and that we should pioneer together because the Lord would take care of everything. 

She also said she would work hard to help me.

It was so absurd, sudden, and absurd to me, but I understood it this way because what was happening through people around me was a strange situation and not a normal one. 

First of all, this was not a situation that could be understood humanly, and I thought that perhaps the Holy Spirit 

was trying to move me through the people around me, so I decided to follow their advice and start a church.

First, I suggested to the church members that since we do not have a church building, 

we should hold the service at my house.

Then, a few days later, news came that Deacon Choo's younger sister, who lives in Los Angeles, 

was suddenly moving to Chicago.

In fact, she arrived in Chicago a few days later. I was very happy to see her younger sister, Deacon Choo, 

as he was also someone I had practiced faith with a long time ago.

However, when Deacon Choo arrived, she heard from her older sister about my plan to start a church. 

She was very happy and told me to start a church right away.

For a moment, I felt like everyone was crazy.

And they began to collect donations and give them to me despite their poor circumstances.

What moved me more than anything was the precious offering made by Elder Jeong, who is barely surviving 

in difficult circumstances while taking care of his sick daughter and three grandchildren. I just couldn't get that money.

Because I knew Elder Jeong's financial situation very well, I strongly refused and tried to stop him, 

but he did not back down and donated hundreds of dollars. 

The donation was worth thousands of dollars to the elder, but he wasted no time in donating it to open a church.

I was in tears. I received the offering with tears. And I decided. Decided to start a church. And I prayed to the Lord.

I told him that there must be a reason why the Lord pushed me to start a church like this.

At the same time, I asked the Lord what the name should be, saying that when the Lord told me to start a church, 

he would have already chosen a name for the church.

In fact, when I asked that question, there was a little bit of complaint against the Lord in my heart.

But God the Holy Spirit quickly brought a word to my heart. It was the word “confession.” I asked again.

"Lord! “Did you say Confession Church?” Then the same emotion came again.

Confessing Church was right.

So I asked my wife what do you think of the name since the Lord calls it the Confessing Church.

My wife thought about it for a while and said she seemed okay.

I didn't like that name. I wondered why it was “Confession,” which means repentance when there were so many other names that were pretty and would be liked by church members. 

This is because the reality is that sermons on repentance are disappearing from sermons. 

After all, church members these days hate it when they are told to confess their sins or repent.

So, I again told the Lord that if I called it Confession Church, not many church members would come, 

so I asked if he could give it a different name. But the Lord was silent.

So this time, if I want to start a church and register it with the state government since this is the United States, 

I have to register it with an English name. Since the English word for confession is confession, 

should I call it Confession Church? I asked.

Then the Holy Spirit put a word on my heart and it was “Go Back.”

I asked again and the Holy Spirit kept saying Go Back Church. I didn't like the name too much.

Go back? Does this make sense? It was a bit funny and  like a joke, and I felt like the church members visiting the church would go home when they arrived in front of the church and saw the name of the church written on the church sign, 

“Go Back.”

*Continued on the next page

" Goback Church is an inland missionary church working in the western part of Michigan. 

Goback Church, which is fighting on the spiritual front lines to save souls in crisis, 

desperately needs your prayers and continued support. Hallelujah!"

<Copyright © Daily Today, unauthorized reproduction and redistribution prohibited>

When sharing elsewhere, please use the unique link address below as the source.

  http://dailytoday.co.kr/news/view.php?idx=97871

Article registration 2024-05-19 11:06:30

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share on Google Plus

Share Line

Share Naver Blog

Share Naver Band