Christ Central of Southern California (CCSC) is an independent church that was birthed in October of 2011 from its status as an English ministry (EM) of Cerritos Presbyterian Church. Many Korean American pastors are familiar with the church as being one of the most successful churches to have transitioned from being an EM of an immigrant church to becoming an independent church.
The story of CCSC may be a subject of envy for Korean American pastors who are struggling in the Korean immigrant church, but rather than seeking independence right away, Reverend Harold Kim, the senior pastor of CCSC, encouraged pastors to first seek a relationship with the senior pastors of their respective churches.
“I understand some KM pastors might come off as being unapproachable or unavailable,” Kim said. “But for all of the complaints we’ve dished out about KM pastors, we have to own up to our own issues as well. What are the issues we’re responsible for? Earnest initiative; heartfelt, sincere invitation; and relational building and friendship with KM pastors.”
“As busy or as tired as the KM pastor might seem, give him your earnest initiative,” he continued. “Serve him in any way. You’ve gotta find a way to have some face to face meeting time with him. Express your gratitude and your humility to learn from his wisdom and experience. Ask questions, and put on a teachable posture.”
Revered Harold Kim is the senior pastor of Christ Central of Southern California, located in Cerritos, CA.
Kim himself is no foreigner to the struggles of being an EM pastor in a Korean immigrant church. After being ordained in the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA), Kim served at Christ Central Presbyterian Church--an immigrant church in Centreville, VA--as the EM pastor. After serving there for five and a half years, Kim came to Cerritos Presbtyerian Church (CPC) as the EM pastor in 2007.
Kim is mostly known for leading CCSC’s successful transition into independence, but while serving as an EM pastor, he shared that he faced his share of successes as well as failures and struggles in various areas, including in “management, conflict resolution, leadership, emotional and relational maturity, and financial accounting.”
Through these experiences, Kim learned a number of lessons in terms of the KM-EM relationship, and becoming an independent church.
Kim found that earnest initiative from the EM went a long way, both in the relationship between the senior pastor and the EM pastor, and in the relationship between the two ministries as a whole. When Kim was serving as the EM pastor of CPC, he shared that he usually took the initiative to seek out Rev. Bryan Kim, who was the senior pastor of CPC at the time.
“Most of the time, I was the one who knocked on his door first,” Kim said. “And I was transparent and open about everything I was feeling or thinking, and about every major decision -- I ran every decision by him.”
The EM as a whole also took initiative to serve the KM by hosting banquets and fellowship gatherings to serve the KM session and elders.
“We initiated, cleaned, prepped, financed, and served for every part of [each banquet or fellowship],” said Kim. “And it was a big deal to the KM. When we made that kind of gesture, they overflowed with praise and gratitude toward us. We heard them say, ‘This is the first time we had an EM who did this for us.’” Even now, as an independent church that still shares the campus and facilities with CPC, CCSC tithes to CPC each year as a gesture of appreciation, Kim said.
Another responsibility of an EM pastor, Kim realized, is to show the KM that the EM is maturing and growing.
“The growth could be seen in numbers, or in finances, or in the faith of the leadership. When the senior pastor sees the EM, does he or she see that you and the leadership are passionate in fulfilling the mission of the church?” said Kim.
“No matter what culture or language, nothing communicates better than, ‘I love you and appreciate you,’ and showing growth, motivation, and passion in what we do,” he added.
There are also several lessons Kim learned through his and CCSC’s journey to becoming an independent church, one being that independence should not be the primary goal for any church or English ministry. Even for CCSC, independence did not become the goal until several years after Kim came to CPC as the EM pastor.
“The primary goal is: Can we be a holistic, healthy church?” Kim said. “And [a pastor’s] number one challenge in achieving that goal is going to be [himself]. A church will never outrun the leader too far.”
Hence, ultimately, one of the most significant aspects of the health of a church or ministry is the health of its leader, spiritually, mentally, physically, and emotionally, Kim said. Personal growth of the pastor is also important.
“Am I growing? Am I repenting and growing in grace? Am I becoming more like Christ in my conflict resolution, my attitudes and thoughts? Am I becoming more holy, more godly, more winsome? Am I finding more joy, contentment, peace, and wisdom?” Kim said as examples. He added that a pastor’s discovery of unique preaching and ministry qualities is also important in growth.
“Find your own preaching voice, have your own philosophy of ministry; don’t try to be like anyone else,” he said, encouraging fellow pastors. “People aren’t needing anyone else but you, and God wouldn’t have called you if it wasn’t you that He wanted. Get to know more of your strengths and weaknesses -- are you a prophet, priest, or king? -- and find a team that complements your strengths and weaknesses.”
Kim also encouraged pastors to seek counsel from older and wiser, godly people from within or outside of the local church.
“If you’re the smartest and wisest person in the room, then you are in for a world of trouble,” Kim cautioned. “I do not know where CCSC would be without the counsel of our session, professional counselors and lay counselors, accountability groups for pastors, and people who work with me and yet are also my friends within the church.”
An attitude of arrogance should especially be left out of any conversation regarding independence, Kim added. In CCSC’s journey to becoming independent, there were three things that he and the leadership absolutely prohibited anyone in CPC’s EM from saying regarding the reason the EM wanted to become an independent church:
1) “It’s because we don’t like you [the KM].”
2) “We just want to be autonomous, and we don’t want any accountability. Just leave us alone.”
3) “You [the KM] are limiting or preventing our growth.”
“We corrected and persuaded anyone who had questions in any of these three categories,” Kim said. “In the gospel, if we’re not right with our home culture, what make us think we’ll be effective in being missional with anyone else?”
Similarly, forcefully requesting independence out of a subversive or rebellious attitude is also not recommended, Kim said, and added that that is “essentially a church split.”
The most compelling, biblical reason that CCSC found to become independent, Kim said, was that without independence, the EM of CPC couldn’t fully mature by making its own mistakes and taking full responsibility for the actions of its leaders and members.
“And without biblical maturity, we found we won’t be effective missionally -- to serve the older generation better, as well as to serve the multi-ethnic community around us.”
“Be faithful where you are,” Kim encouraged pastors. “God is sanctifying you and training you for something there, or somewhere else.”
This is one in a series of interviews with southern California pastors who either serve in English ministry (EM) or have a heart for the intergenerational relationship within the Korean church. As the generation of the Korean church leadership is shifting from the first to the second generation, what are the obstacles that are hindering the English ministry from flourishing? How can EM and KM pastors work together to build up the second-generation church? These are among the many questions that pastors may grapple with, and that Christianity Daily is hoping to wrestle together with through these interviews.
