No. 491 "The Life Study Course: A Common Denominator of Faith in Our Church" 2026 7 19

No. 491 "The Life Study Course: A Common Denominator of Faith in Our Church" 2026 7 19 If there is one thing that unites the faith of our church members, what would it be? Without hesitation, I would point to two things: the Meeting to Receive Jesus and the Life Study course. Through the Meeting to Receive Jesus, people encounter Jesus personally. Through the Life Study course, they build the very framework of that faith. Looking back, I didn't always understand this. Born as the son of a Baptist pastor, I majored in theology and even served as an associate pastor for a while before coming to the U.S. When I registered at Houston Seoul Church in 2001 and looked over the table of contents for the Life Study course, I remember thinking, "Do I really need to take this basic course again?" But my thinking changed as I watched fellow church members who had taken the Life Study course together be transformed in their daily lives. As I continued in ministry, I became more and more convinced that the Life Study course is far from a simple, entry-level Bible study. Woven into its pages is the very spirit of the cell church — service, obedience, and a passion for souls — along with the senior pastor's own testimony and ministry philosophy. Together these give the course a unique power to align our members' faith in the same direction. That is why our church holds to the principle that everyone must complete the Life Study course before taking any other course, attending Parenting Seminar, joining a ministry team, or becoming a church member. When I was growing up in Korea, nearly every Baptist church, wherever you went, used the same New Believers' Training Series to help people take their first steps of faith. I still vividly remember taking this course myself as an elementary school student, after Wednesday evening worship. Because almost every church in the denomination trained new believers with the same material, this was never merely one person's experience — it was a shared starting point of faith for Baptists across the board. Looking at it this way, it's remarkable. The name has changed, and the shape of the church has shifted from the traditional model to the cell church model, but the role this course plays — laying the very first foundation of faith for new believers — has remained the same, then and now. What was once called the New Believers' Training Series has now been renewed as "Step One" of the Cell Church Life Study series, and at our church, we simply call it the "Life Study" course. If you haven't yet taken the Life Study course, I encourage you to join us this time. And if you've already taken it before, I'd encourage you to take it again. When our faith is still young, we tend to absorb only about 30 percent of what we learn. But taking the course again once our faith has matured brings real benefit — it helps us organize and deepen everything we've come to believe. Many who have taken the course have shared reflections like these: "It was like a compass for daily life." "It gave me the ability to read and understand Scripture on my own." "It was the starting point that set my faith on solid rock." My hope is that the faith that begins at the Meeting to Receive Jesus will take deep root through the Life Study course, and that these two courses will continue to serve as the common denominator that binds our members' faith together, now and in the years to come.