After our national conference at Hallelujah Church, the leaders of the church became deeply interested in what they had seen and heard. But they did not stop with attending a conference.
They decided to do something.
They opened a PACE Training Center inside the church.
That decision changed everything.
Pastor David Kim personally took responsibility for helping the church understand the ministry. First, he taught the pastoral staff. Then he taught the elders. Then he taught the deacons and deaconesses.
Group by group, the leadership of the church was exposed to the vision.
This was not simply another seminar.
It was a paradigm shift.
The leaders began to understand that pastoral care could not remain the responsibility of the pastor alone. They began to see that ordinary believers could be equipped, entrusted, and released to care for others.
The church was beginning to discover what Dr. Melvin Steinbron had taught us:
“The pastor cannot do it alone.”
And when the leaders understood that, something powerful happened.
The vision moved from the conference room into the life of the church.
Soon afterward, the PACE Training Center was officially established.
And then the multiplication began.
For the next ten years, that Training Center trained and produced more than 1,000 lay pastors.
Think about that.
More than 1,000 ordinary Christians were equipped to become ministers of care.
More than 1,000 people were taught that ministry was not reserved for pastors alone.
More than 1,000 people were sent back into their churches, families, and communities with a new understanding of their calling.
When I think about those numbers today, I do not simply see statistics.
I see people.
I see faces.
I see families being cared for.
I see lonely people being visited.
I see wounded people being encouraged.
I see ordinary Christians discovering that God could use them.
And I think back to that telephone call.
At the time, it seemed like such a small event.
A publisher wanted to publish a translated book.
I had no money.
They offered to publish it themselves.
That was all.
But God was already seeing what I could not see.
I could see a book.
God could see a movement.
I could see 2,000 copies.
God could see more than 1,000 lay pastors being trained.
I could see a manuscript.
God could see thousands of people eventually being touched through its message.
That experience taught me something I have never forgotten:
Never underestimate a small beginning when God is behind it.
Sometimes God begins a great work with something that looks completely ordinary—a telephone call, a manuscript, a conference, or one person willing to say yes.
The book opened the door.
The conference opened our eyes.
The Training Center opened the way for multiplication.
And thousands of lives would eventually be touched because a few people were willing to believe that the ministry of caring could be placed into the hands of ordinary believers.
Looking back today, I realize something even more important.
I was not building this ministry alone.
God was building it.
I was simply walking through the doors He opened.
That telephone call was one door.
The first book was another.
The national conference was another.
The PACE Training Center was another.
And through those doors, the Lay Pastors Ministry began to enter the Korean church—not merely as a program, but as a new way of understanding ministry.
The story reminds me of a simple truth:
When God gives you a small beginning, do not despise it.
You may see a telephone call.
God may see a movement.
You may see a book.
God may see a generation.
You may see one person.
God may see thousands.
Our responsibility is not to see everything God sees.
Our responsibility is simply to say yes to the next door He opens.
And sometimes, when we look back years later, we discover that what seemed like a small beginning was actually the beginning of something much bigger than we ever imagined.