{"id":1267,"date":"2010-03-01T01:00:34","date_gmt":"2010-03-01T09:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/?p=1267"},"modified":"2013-03-25T10:28:35","modified_gmt":"2013-03-25T17:28:35","slug":"church-plant-interviews-pastor-jr-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/2010\/03\/01\/church-plant-interviews-pastor-jr-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Church Plant Interviews – Pastor JR (part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Richard Shin<\/em><\/p>\n

Since the announcement of the San Jose church plant in January 2009, there has been a deluge of questions raised towards the pastoral staff. The \u201cWhy\u201d questions (\u201cWhy San Jose?\u201d, \u201cWhy now?\u201d, \u201cWhy you, Pastor John?\u201d) have been beaten to death, and the questions asked here attempt to answer none of that. But as part of bringing 1 Timothy 5:17 and Hebrews 13:17 to life, here we make an attempt to understand and hopefully serve our pastors a little better.<\/p>\n

I had the privilege of interviewing the three pastors regarding the church plant, and the ensuing transitions that are happening this year. But more than the factual details, I wanted to know how they felt and what they thought; I wanted to make this a little more personal. What you see is essentially verbatim how the interviews went, and the arrangement in order is simply chronological. You will see some overlap in questions, but the answers I got were very different, yet all aimed towards the glory of God and enjoyment of Him. It is my sincere hope that this would stir you to really understand and love our pastors.<\/p>\n

The first one was with Pastor JR. As we met over some Flame Broiler meat bowls, we were able to talk about a variety of topics. As he shares his experience and his thoughts, the youth group (his \u201cbaby\u201d, he calls it) and the future, you will get to see and understand different shades of JR you might not have known before. You\u2019ll see his passion, his hopes, his fears, his love, and much more, all working intimately together for the glory of God. And still, I imagine this interview barely scratches the surface of who JR Cuevas is. Yet, I hope you are encouraged and stirred reading the interview as much as I was conducting it.<\/p>\n

What will your role be at LBCSJ? What activities specifically (what books, seminary classes, Bible studies, etc.) are helping you towards fulfilling that role?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well right now I\u2019m on the administrative team (the A-Team) which is kind of like the leadership team. And everybody has their own role. I\u2019m in the leadership team so I provide the overall structure under Pastor John. In seminary, I took a seminary class on church planting anticipating around this time, there would be a church plant. I mean everything I learned, I will put to use any way. I\u2019m going to read some books on missions. The basic thing is getting my feet wet. There\u2019s only so much you can do with reading books and stuff.<\/p>\n

Pastor John was thinking about having me help out with the youth and children again. So one thing he had me do was two months ago he had me take over LKC because he wanted me to gain some experience. When any church starts, they\u2019ll typically need a children\u2019s ministry. That\u2019s when the young families will come. The youth can sit with their parents. In terms of the youth, there\u2019s Pastor John\u2019s family. So, we\u2019ll have at least two youth and one child. We\u2019ll see what happens with Kathy and me. And then there\u2019s Peter and Joyce. And you know\u2026 who knows?<\/p>\n

More generally speaking, what have you been doing, or will be doing, to help you prepare yourself emotionally, physically, and spiritually for the church plant?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Spiritually, it\u2019s a lot of prayer. I\u2019ve been praying a long time for this. It\u2019s not something I can say I\u2019m spiritually ready for. I don\u2019t have the mentality that says \u201cI\u2019m going to be great!\u201d It\u2019s not like I\u2019m pessimistic, but I think I\u2019m a little more sober. If anything, I\u2019m pessimistic about my own abilities because every time I try to do something for the Lord, there has always been some resistance and a lot of trials involved. So I\u2019m anticipating that. Spiritually, I\u2019m just trying to stay close to God and make sure I\u2019m walking intimately with Him. So quiet times and prayer, those things are key. I\u2019m trying to encourage myself that it\u2019s not what I\u2019m capable of doing, but what He\u2019s capable of doing through me.<\/p>\n

And emotionally, I\u2019m not trying to detach myself from San Diego, but really trying to keep my eyes on San Jose because it\u2019s easy to become attached to the ministries here; it makes it harder to leave. I\u2019m just trying to be mindful of San Jose.<\/p>\n

Physically, I\u2019m trying to get into shape. I used to work as a trainer a couple years ago so I\u2019m kind of familiar with that. I\u2019m setting a New Year resolution to do a triathlon in February and possibly a marathon in May. Because I figured, especially in the beginning, there\u2019s going to be a lot of lifting. And I have a pretty weak upper body so I need to build up my strength. So I\u2019m doing a lot of pushups and a lot of pull-ups and getting a lot of endurance so I don\u2019t fall apart when I\u2019m up there. Making sure the body\u2019s in top condition. That\u2019s what I got from Jim Elliot too. When he was a student, he took care of his body so he could minister. But the spiritual aspects, that\u2019s the most important thing.<\/p>\n

Are you scared?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Satan likes to attack strong leaders and strong families. Not that I\u2019m afraid of him, but anticipating the struggles and the resistances. It\u2019s going to be hard and demanding; I\u2019ll probably lose a lot of sleep. It\u2019s going to be hard on the family. It\u2019s hard when there\u2019s so much time being taken away, and you can\u2019t have date nights every night. If anything it\u2019ll be the opposite. So I\u2019m anticipating a lot of struggles for Kathy and the strain that\u2019s going to be put on her and the strain on me. There\u2019s going to a lot of criticism from other people and the trials that are going to come because it\u2019s not always a clean thing and when you try to do things right in pastoral ministry. People who are on board will be with you and those who are half hearted, they\u2019ll criticize you. Even from well-meaning Christians. I\u2019ve never planted a church but I know as long as I follow Christ, persecutions will come. When I went into ministry, I thought the same thing, that trials would come\u2026 and they did! So I\u2019m anticipating that. Conflict in the team, that\u2019s going to happen. That\u2019s always stressful. I\u2019m not hopeless; I\u2019m just preparing myself for those things.<\/p>\n

What has been a significant concern\/challenge so far? Significant blessing (if different)?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There hasn\u2019t been a lot practical development right now. So getting the team mobilized. Getting everyone passionate and getting the teams to develop good relationships. Scheduling has been difficult. When you\u2019re in the A-Team, you have to take into consideration that others might not, and a lot of these things are beyond me. The scope and wisdom. So I\u2019m learning a lot on the spot. So that\u2019s been hard for me because practically it\u2019s hard for me; I\u2019ve never been an elder or anything that this position is called to do. Emotionally and spiritually it\u2019s hard as I\u2019m trying to trust God understanding the ramifications of a lot of these things like what they are and how to deal with them. So that\u2019s been hard.<\/p>\n

Significant blessing is just being with the team, just getting to know them. I have Kevin Chan in my accountability group so just getting to know him has been good. The A-Team guys, developing relationships with them. In the practical sense, nothing has happened, but just getting to know everyone has been a tremendous blessing. I\u2019ve always been excited about church planting in spite of the many struggles that come with it. It\u2019s something I always wanted to do. Even in my seminary application, I wrote I wanted to help Lighthouse carry out its vision. And the fact that I get to be part of it regardless of my role is really exciting and a huge blessing. And the fact that Kathy and I can be a part of it together, and the fact that we can work together. She\u2019s been really supportive too. So that\u2019s been good.<\/p>\n

to be continued…<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Richard Shin Since the announcement of the San Jose church plant in January 2009, there has been a deluge of questions raised towards the pastoral staff. The \u201cWhy\u201d questions (\u201cWhy San Jose?\u201d, \u201cWhy now?\u201d, \u201cWhy you, Pastor John?\u201d) have been beaten to death, and the questions asked here attempt to answer none of that. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":307,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lighthouse-news","category-member-spotlight"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1267"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7749,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267\/revisions\/7749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}