About Us

The Beginnings

It all began when I had resigned from my previous ministry. I had no place to go; I simply resigned due to many factors, mainly of which was divergent vision. I could not stay there in good conscience.

Among the offers that came available, the 'best' one, humanly speaking, was a San Francisco church. I had the opportunity to impact the lives of students from both Stanford and UC-Berkeley. It was there for me to say, "Yes," but the Lord had other plans.

Driving through Atlanta on May 30, 1998, I had commented to my wife, Carol, "I wonder what God has in store for us here." Crossroads Church was the first church I came to because of the pastoral staff, not the ministry itself. It wasn't until 4 months here that the Lord impressed upon my heart a vision for the city.

Flashback to the Big Apple

I had discovered the following tidbits about Atlanta. In 1998, there were over 200 Korean churches yet only 4 English Ministries. While Koreans number about 40,000, the Chinese community numbers over 45,000. Chinese churches totaled to only 17. Other data:

  • Dekalb/Gwinnett/Fulton Asian population jumped from 36,000 in 1990 to 63,000+ in 1997.
  • Gwinnett County: Int'l students in 1998 was over 7500 vs. only 3,845 in 1995.
  • Georgia Tech '98 incoming freshman class was also the largest ever, with 12% Asians (largest rate ever).
  • Emory University '98 incoming freshman class was also largest ever, with 14% Asians (largest rate ever).
  • Most youth groups in Atlanta area do not have a trained youth pastor; those that do, are part time. Many are losing teachers because they are not being spiritually fed, so churches are desperate for elementary and youth teachers.

Putting all these things together, a vision began to unfold in my mind. It wasn't a dream I had at night nor going into a trance, like that of Apostle John In Revelation. It was more a mental picture that got ever so clearer. It was in New York City 15 years ago!

In the mid-1980's, there were over 200 Korean churches in the 5 boroughs of New York City. There was no EM that I knew of then. Also, most of the youth groups, including my church, spoke primarily in English. In the intervening ten years, according to a survey from Dr. Stephen Linton of Columbia University, the Korean church lost 19 out of 20 of their young people to the world. Of the several thousand 2nd generation Korean-Americans that were surveyed and attended church in their teen years, only 5% of them returned to church, ANY church, after their college years. When I learned of this truth about nine years ago, the Lord burdened my heart to reach the 2nd generation KA's. In NJ, the calling widened to all Asian-Americans. And in MD, the call of Revelation 7:9 widened my vision of the church to a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural ministry.