Be part of the movement to unite churches in NY/NJ as the body of Christ through worship and prayer!
When: Saturday, May 12th at 7:00PM
Where: In2 Church, 316 East 91st Street (Between 1st and 2nd Avenue), New York, NY 10128

Check out Pastor KC’s sermon from 4/29.

Text: Deuteronomy 9:22-29

Thank you

Grace's Recital

Hi All,
Tonight was our very own Grace Kang’s violin recital. She performed at Paul Recital Hall at Juilliard at 8:00 PM. Crosswalk members came out in full support to watch Grace put on a fantastic performance.

She performed:

Franz Schubert, Duo for Violin and Piano in A Major, Op, post. 162

Sergei Rachmaninoff, Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14

Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky, Valse Scherzo in C Major, Op. 34

Ludwig van Beethoven, Violin Sonata No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47 “Kreutzer”

Clip of her playing Amazing Grace as her encore.

Aloha!!!

Today, March 31, 2012, I am leaving the Big Island of Hawaii with 15 others to begin our journey to French Polynesia. Please keep us in your prayers.

I wanted to write this letter to share how God has been working in my life. Before DTS (Discipleship Training School), my relationship with God was at best lukewarm. Over the years, I became very good at playing church but at the same time did not have an intimate relationship with Him. My perception of God was that He was there only when I was “good”.

The enemy (Satan) told me I was a sinner and was not good enough to receive God’s grace and love. And I believed Him. Not anymore!!! The Lord ministered to me and gave me Romans 8…

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.

For the first time in my life, I have freedom. I no longer live under a continuous dark cloud of guilt and shame. Now, I wake up every morning thanking God for loving me and my prayer is to have an encounter with Him so that I become the encounter.

Tell God you love Him. Listen for His voice. What does He say in response?

There is so much more to share but don’t want to sound preachy. (That’s Pastor Marc’s and Pastor KC’s job.) I will share more in the coming days while I process and apply all that God has shown me the last three months.

I have a verse for you, IN2 Church… Hebrews 12

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Mahalo!

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Thank you,

IN2 Crosswalk

There comes a point and time for some people in his or her walk with God where things don’t quite make sense.  You wholeheartedly try to serve the Lord as faithfully, joyfully, and diligently as possible, but circumstances in life have a way of derailing your walk and, as a result, your outlook on life and on God changes dramatically from what it was before.

For many years I was active at church through different ministries; whether it was leading youth group Bible studies, homeless outreach, or serving as editor for the church newsletter, I always wanted to serve with a humble servant’s heart.  Since moving back to NYC after living in San Francisco for more than five years, I was active in leading a small group for international grad students and coordinating other adult Bible studies.  Though I was tremendously blessed during these times of service, there were other things happening in my personal life that left me dismayed.  Over the span of five years four family members passed away; the most recent was that of my aunt that I witnessed firsthand who had died quite suddenly and very tragically. When you personally witness death, it has a weird and profound way of altering your perceptions about yourself and everything around you.  For some very odd reason, I received little to no sympathy from other brothers and sisters in Christ.  There were also frustrating moments where I’d diligently pray to God for months on end but it seemed as if I was getting the cold shoulder from Him.  I saw other friends and acquaintances being blessed abundantly around me but it seemed as if the exact opposite was happening for me.  I tried to understand and process the things that were going on in my life but nothing seemed to make any coherent sense.  Sermons at church seemed to get repetitive every week as they failed to provide the answers I was seeking, and I quickly grew sick and tired of them.  I gradually started to withdraw from everyone and, most of all, from God.

For two years I actively stayed away from church and almost any form of fellowship.  Though my personal passion for theology was kept alive during this time by reading copious amounts of books, internally, I was withering away.  I grew so cold and numb towards God that I even began identifying myself by the oxymoronic term “Christian atheist”.  God seemed more and more like a distant, ephemeral, abstract entity rather than the personal, immanent, and loving God I had known in my past.

Several months ago I proactively decided to attend my first Good Friday service in years at a local church nearby my neighborhood.  While there, I was absolutely stunned at how numb I had become towards God.  But then there was a moment where we started singing “Amazing Grace” and for a moment I truly felt God’s presence again for the first time in what felt like an eternity.

That small spark of hope gave me the impetus to find out about In2 Church.  After regularly attending each week I started to feel my coldness towards God slowly melt away.  But I knew from previous experience that I needed more and that I had to ingrain myself within a community, and once the opportunity arose to sign up for small group I quickly joined.

By nature, I’m a very quiet and reserved person and it takes time for me to open up to people.  But the group I was in immediately welcomed me which made it really easy to open up.  It felt good to connect with other people for the first time in a very long while.  And I began feeling like a whole person once again.

In theology, being a “person” means being in communion and acting in a web of relationships with others.  Just as God is the Trinity, whose very being is an eternal community and fellowship of three divine persons of everlasting love, so are we, being created in the image of God, meant to worship and know God within a community and never all alone.  To neglect this unassailable truth is to neglect God all together.

When I gather around my fellow small group members each week, I’m not just attending a mundane weekly social gathering; rather, in a way, I am really encountering God almost face to face through His Spirit.  Whenever I share with Ann, Rosemary, Carmen, MJ, Jin, Carolina, Bomee, and Chun, since they are all created in the image of God, I “meet” and encounter God through each of them in the Spirit.

I am still relatively new to the group and have a lot to learn, grow, experience, and share with the group as I have issues, pride, and sins that need to be dealt with, but with each progressive step I get healed from the pains and doubts that left me broken and fragmented in the recent past.  As we get to know one another better each week, and openly share our joys, fears, struggles, and experiences with one another, a wonderful fabric is being intricately woven together and extended with each meeting and prayers for one another.  And through this small group is where we experience God being truly “Emmanuel” – God with us.  And because of this, I am truly and wonderfully blessed.

The parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) is among the most well known in the bible amongst layman and believers alike. However, it is far from being well understood as one quickly discovers from reading The Prodigal God, which was recently subject to thorough examination and discussion amongst various In2 Church small groups. Written by Tim Keller, a prolific author who also brings the extra credibility of serving as a well known pastor in Manhattan, The Prodigal God successfully speaks to a New Yorker’s sensibility with its straightforward message and intellectually-driven arguments as it thoroughly re-examines a story that everybody already thinks they get.

Keller quickly points out the parable is predominantly utilized as a tool to preach how the “younger brother” among us can always find salvation in Christianity, but that message is actually incomplete. By helping guide the reader to better understand the historical context and the social norms of Jesus’ day, Keller makes a robust argument that the other half of the story – behaving like the “elder brother” as a way to fall out of God’s good graces – is  likely  the main message He intended to convey.

In the section titled “Why People Like Jesus but Not the Church” in the very first chapter the reader is led through a succinct history lesson that illustrates the stark contrast between the goal of Jesus’ ministry of seeking to heal “younger brothers” and how contemporary churches have since evolved to mostly repel that original target demographic. Indeed, as someone who just recently committed to embrace Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, myself, I can strongly relate how the fear and distrust of the “elder brother” element in church had always been a major obstacle to overcome. For myself, the realization that there was a clear recognition of this problematic issue, by a very public and well-respected Christian pastor no less, certainly helped provide the additional resolve that I needed to feel confident that I was making the right decision to become a born again Christian.

Ultimately, Keller’s goal is not to criticize, but to help guide Christians find salvation. Although we all long to “come home” this is often easier said than done, especially as:

“… we continue to be driven by fear, anger, and a lack of self-control. You cannot change such things through mere will-power, through learning Biblical principles and trying to carry them out. We can only change permanently as we take the gospel more deeply in to our understanding and into our hearts.” [page 115]

As the fate of the elder brother is omitted in the verse Keller is clearly onto something. We all may have our “younger brother” moments that we need saving from, but our ignorance of “elder brother” behavior may pose a bigger threat to our prospects to find salvation. In the end it seems we must be more vigilant to keep  ourselves, and our brothers and sisters from suffering the inglorious fate of a Pharisee.

It was another usual Sunday, when Joey announced that there was going to be a retreat. Just the word retreat made me think of green things like trees and grass you don’t get to see much in the city. But as much as the prospect of getting away was sweet, I was reluctant to go because a weekend away from school would mean getting no work done. Besides time, money was another problem, being a poor grad student that I am. But, someone up there obviously knew how much I needed to go on this retreat. With my sister taking care of the fee, I decided that this was meant to be, and that maybe it was time for me to take a step back, rest in God, and come back refreshed and renewed.

And that was exactly what happened. It felt as if this retreat had been planned for me. The theme of the retreat was “One in Christ,” and it was small-group oriented. Being a person who feels more comfortable in a small group setting, it was an opportunity for me to explore and bond with other members of the Crosswalk community. There were seven people in our group, and half of us didn’t know each other. Yet, through small-group discussions and preparing for the skit—trying to find a good way to communicate the theme of the retreat, to think of Pastor KC’s quirks in order to imitate him—soon we were all talking and laughing. We were then placed into different groups for games and activities, another opportunity to get to know one another. We bonded through pepero and onion rings, throwing water balloons at each other, and cheering for everyone regardless of the groups. That evening, we all worshipped, praised, thanked, and prayed, crying out for each other, for In2, and for Jesus. We were a community; we were one in Christ.

Overall, this retreat was both very relaxing and exhausting. Coming back from the retreat, I felt refreshed. I was ready to delve into my 400 page book for class. Well, ok, I wasn’t really ready for that. It was almost intimidating to return to my regular schedule. But thankfully, I was definitely a lot less stressed. Both pastors and the leaders did so much to make this awesome retreat happen, but most of all it was God.  Even though the retreat is over, my experiencing Him, His love and blessings isn’t. So with everything I’ve gained from this retreat, I’m gonna bravely continue on, because now I know not only God but also my fellow brothers and sisters got my back.

Unfortunately, there is a downside to ministry in an urban setting. People’s liberal spirit can hinder the work of the Holy Spirit. More and more, people will oppose the idea and belief of Christianity, as people in the city are more likely influenced by relativism and humanism. They are more prone to reject the existence of absolutism, and their subjective choices may become their standards.

These are some of the realities that I see in the city. How does this relate to our church?

God’s church should exist to serve the purpose of being a means of God’s grace in this success-driven, self-reliant society. Where there is lack of patience, lack of love, lack of care, and lack of absolutism, the Church should stand to challenge what is taking place in the heart of these people.

I am a mere person that does not have either the best experience or knowledge to carry out the mission of this church in the city. But as Zerubbabel felt that he was inadequate to carry out God’s will, God assures him with his Word, “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6). God assures His servant to rely upon His strength and none other. What seems impossible can be made possible through imperfect people. The perfect deity of God will be manifested by the gathering of imperfect people, and that is the power and beauty of the Church. It is, indeed, the power of God.

My family and I are truly thankful to be a part of Crosswalk and this church as a whole. Though I may not be the ideal pastor that In2 has been in search of, I am going to make a conscience effort to be a good shepherd to lead. I have firm belief that God has placed my family and me in this time at In2 for a good and righteous purpose.

I also firmly believe that each member that makes up the body of Christ has a role and responsibility to fulfill in Crosswalk to do what God commands His church to do in this day and generation. We are praying that many of you, if not all, would be genuinely excited and motivated to serve the Lord by participating and contributing to the best of your abilities to please and honor Him. Ultimately, His name should be the only name that be lifted high. Once again, we are thankful for being part of this body of Christ where we can have the opportunity to bear fruits for His kingdom.

God bless!
Pastor KC