About Pastor Jun (3)

 

This will conclude my three-week blog series introducing our family to Raleigh Court United Methodist Church. My family and I are looking forward to sharing more of our lives as we get to know everyone at RCUMC.

 

Heart for the Next Generation

 

            As mentioned in last week’s entry, I have a heart for the next generation. The greatest thing that happened and is happening in my life is living for God. Every day I am excited to see how God is with me, and how God uses me.

My heart and passion in ministry are to share this great news with the people around me. Witnessing that more of the next generation doesn’t see what our previous generation experienced and still

experience; my heart naturally goes out to the next generation.

 

Ministry Experience

 

            Therefore, most of my ministry was related to the Next Generation. I served the Korean United Methodist Church of Greater Washington in McLean, VA for 7 years overseeing the Education Department (Nursery to Youth Ministry). While I was serving there, I went through the ordination process with the Virginia Annual Conference and became an Elder in Full Connection in June 2011.

            I am the only Elder (the United Methodist Church has two tracks in their ordination process; Elders and Deacons) ordained while being a Youth Pastor. Most of the Youth pastors are encouraged to go through the Deacons track, but I knew that I wanted to be ordained as an  Elder, because of this following statement.

 

“My role in ministry might change, but my call will never” – Anonymous.

 

My call in ministry is to ‘continue the great things,’ and I believe God will switch my roles, but continue to use me to share the Good news.

 

  

            After my ordination, I wanted to take a study break, but I received a call from my home church in Korea. Holy Flames Methodist Church, Kyoungkido Korea, called me to serve for 3 years. Everything worked out between the two denominations, and I was appointed to Korea as a pastor on-loan.  Many people were concerned when I made this decision to return to Korea. Some even said, ‘Prophets aren’t welcomed in their home town.’

 

            Being appointed to the church I grew up in, however, gave me an opportunity to serve and love the people who influenced my spiritual growth. It was truly a joy to serve the church in the Next Generation department, as well as in Strategic planning. It was a blessing to see all the younger generation stepping up to the pillars of the church, following in the footsteps of the previous generation.

 

Final Words 

            We call the two churches that I have served my home churches. Holy Flames Methodist Church is where I grew up and met Christ. KUMC of GW is the church where I was shaped to be a pastor. My family and I are excited to see how God will grow us, as we call Raleigh Court UMC our third home church. May God continue to grow us together, as we hold on to our Lord.

 

 

Rev. Seungsoo Jun

(540) 556-1188, Cell

junssoo@gmail.com

Facebook and Twitter @junssoo

 

About Pastor Jun (2)

About Pastor Jun (2)

 

Thank you for all the welcome notes and feedback about this 3-week blog series introducing our family to Raleigh Court United Methodist Church.

 

These were some questions I received, and I will continue to answer them.

 

Meaning of our Names

 

Korean names usually use a Chinese character to add meaning to our names. (This doesn¡¯t mean that we can speak or read Chinese though.)

 

Seungsoo (承秀): Seung means ‘continuing’, and Soo means ‘Great.’ Therefore, my name means ‘continue the great things.’ The best thing that happened in my life was receiving God as my savior. Sharing the Gospel with the next generation, and helping it continue has become my ministry identity. Recently, I found out that Seung also means connecting, and I realized that God is using me to connect great things with great people.

Woori:  My wife doesn’t use any Chinese characters in her name.  Her name means ‘we’ or ‘fence.’ Like her name, she becomes a gel in relationships as we form communities. Also, she provides a fence of love both to our children and our church community.

 

Woojin (佑眞): Woo means ‘help,’ and jin mean ‘authentic.’ We made a decision of his name a week before he was born, and guess when his birthday is. He was born on 9/11, 2006. Our prayer is that he will be able to offer authentic help (hope) to this world, which experienced such tragedy on that same date five years prior.

 

Woohyun (佑鉉): Woohyun shares one character with his brother. This is very common in Korean siblings. My sister has a ‘soo’ in her name as well. Hyun means ‘officer,’ so Peter¡¯s Korean name means ‘helping officer.’

 

Jun (田):  Jun is our family name. Please remember ‘Jun is pronounced like Sun, with a J.’ The original family name means ‘field’ or ‘cultivating.’ However, our great-aunt, who was the director of the first Korean prayer mountain, interpreted the family name differently. She said our family is to plant a cross (十)  to the country (囯). Maybe it was her prayer that led my father and 12 of his cousins to become pastors.  I also have around 10 cousins and second cousins who are ordained or entered ministry.

 

When did you first receive Christ?

 

I have been a Christian all my life. My great-great-grandmother received Christ through the early Methodist missionaries. Her son, my great-grandfather, become one of the early Korean Methodist Pastors. However, my grandparents strayed away from God. God still had a plan for our family and used our great-aunt to turn the family back to Christ.

 

This family background made me a Christian before I was born. Like many children born of a Christian family, I rebelled and thought it wasn¡¯t fair that I hadn¡¯t had a chance to choose my own faith.

 

In 8^th grade, I met Christ, and my life was turned upside down. Of course, I experienced some ups and downs in my faith journey, but ever since that encounter with God, I am more than thankful that God placed me in this family of faith.

 

What do you do for fun?

 

My wife and I normally watch movies or Korean dramas together. We also enjoy walking and talking together.

Also, I love sports. I may not be good at every sport, but I do think I am decent enough to have a good time. I enjoy playing basketball, skiing, biking, bowling, and I do play some golf.

 

Next week, I will continue with my ministry experience, and any other questions I receive through email or text messages. Thank you.

 

Rev. Seungsoo Jun

(540) 556-1188, Cell

junssoo@gmail.com

Facebook and Twitter @junssoo

 

About Pastor Jun (1)

I would like to introduce myself to the faith community at Raleigh Court United Methodist Church.  This will also be posted online as part of a three-week blog series.

 

I am open to receiving feedback and questions to make this an engaging experience with the congregation. Please feel free to comment or send an email to junssoo@gmail.com

 

Who am I? 

My name is Seungsoo Jun, and I was born in Korea. When I was one, my father was studying abroad in Clermont Theological Seminary, CA, and this is where I spent my childhood. When I started third grade, my father decided to return to Korea, so my whole family had to uproot ourselves from America. I attended a Korean school, which was tough because people weren’t enthusiastic about learning English, as much as they are today. From then, I attended a Korean school up to college, where I majored in Business Administration.

During college, God rekindled my call to ministry, which was initially implanted in my heart after my encounter with God in 8th grade. My father and I thought it was the right time for me to return to the States, as I was accepted to the Master’s of Divinity program at Wesley Theological Seminary, in Fall 2004. This is where I started to serve Korean United Methodist Church of Greater Washington, as an Education pastor for 7 years and was also ordained as an   Elder to the Virginia Annual Conference.

After my ordination, I sensed a call to serve Holy Flames Methodist Church in Korea. The Virginia Annual Conference sent me to the Korean Methodist church, as an on-loan pastor for 3 years. After my 3 years of ministry in Korea, I wanted to take time to further my studies; God led me to Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky, where I am currently finishing up my studies in Th.M Intercultural Studies.

Family members

Both of us grew up as ‘Pastor’s kids’ and Woori’s biggest fear marrying me was not that she would be a pastor’s wife, but she was making her children become pastor’s kids. Through our 11 years of marriage, we have experienced God molding us through our marriage, and as a result, Woori in her graduate school studies learned Christian family counseling.

 

First Son: Woojin will be entering third grade in fall 2015. He loves math and science and plays basketball and baseball. Although he was born in Washington DC, attending Kindergarten and First grade in Korea helped him to read and write in Korean. Now he is relearning English, since we returned to the States last summer.

He is a self-learner. He has taught himself, with some help from youtube, to solve a rubiks cube and he can operate any kind of electronic device surprisingly well.

 

Second Son: Woohyun will be entering elementary school in fall 2015. During pregnancy, we experienced some complications and Woori had to go back to Korea. Nobody expected him to survive, but by the grace of God and God’s touching hand, he came into the world and is now extremely healthy. I hope I will be able to share his story sometime in the future. He wants to grow up to be a fisher of men and a Jedi. In order to fulfill his dreams, he enjoys fishing and t-ball. He looks forward to playing baseball, considering it a part of his Jedi training.

 

How should you address us?

We do prefer our Korean names, however, we know that certain words in our names are really hard to pronounce. Feel free to call us by the nicknames we use.

You may call me RJ, for “Reverend Jun.”  My wife will go by Kay, Woojin goes by Jin, and Woohyun goes by Peter. Peter wanted to use an English name, because of his passion to become a ‘fisher of men.’

 

Rev. Seungsoo Jun

(540) 556-1188, Cell

junssoo@gmail.com

Facebook and Twitter @junssoo