1981

I’m a Christian Xennial

Though I was born in the 80’s, I really experienced the 90’s. My childhood mostly consisted of memories from elementary school, church, nintendo, tv dinners and lots of TV during summers. I watched tons of cartoons: Dungeons and Dragons, Monkees, WWF superstars, Robotech, Dennis the Menace, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Popeye, Woody Woodpecker, square 1 TV, Doube Dare, Charles in Charge, Full House, Family Matters, What’s Happening, Hogan’s Family, Too Close for Comfot, etc.

I grew up in a pretty typical Korean household with pressure for academic excellence, church attendance every Sunday, obedience to my parents, and never going out on a school night. I was a 3.99 GPA high school student, got very average SAT scores, and went to the greatest university in SoCal, USC. I studied something that my mom wasn’t happy about. My major was Music Recording. I wanted to be sound engineer in the music studio.

I was a manager at Guitar Center for a little bit and got a job at a studio, mixing and mastering tracks for the studio owner and it was also during this time that God made a change in my plans. My call to pastoral ministry. It was the clearest answer to many months of prayer as I gave an ultimatum to God and He answered it perfectly.

I graduated from Talbot School of Theology with an M.Div (no I’m not a master of divine knowledge) and I thought I should increase my school debt and I got another degree, a Th.M in New Testament. I’ve been a pastor for 15 years now, served in college campus ministry for about 12 years, did some teaching as an adjunct professor at Biola and Talbot and got married to my favorite person in the world, Hannah. She lowered her standards very low for me. We have 3 kids: Matthew (6), Haven (3), Hollyanna (6 months). In 2015, I experienced the best and worst moment that I wished happened to me much sooner. I failed.

Now I am failing forward and trying to liberate others to overcome their fear and insecurity.