by Sam | Apr 13, 2021 | Inspiration, Teaching
by Josh Kim Do you know that you’re called to be a leader? You may not have an official leadership position or title. You may not be the front lead person of an organization. But you are called to lead because leadership is ultimately using your influence to impact the world around you. And whether you realize it or not, you have influence and use it every day within your family, amongst friends, at work, at school, and more. The level of influence looks different for each person but we all have influence in different capacities and in different contexts. We are all called to be leaders. However, as followers of Jesus, we are not only called to be leaders but spiritual leaders. People use influence for all different purposes and agendas. But as followers of Jesus, God gave you a mandate to lead to bring influence and advancement to His kingdom wherever you are and whatever you do. That is the main difference between leadership versus spiritual leadership. And I want to encourage you to embrace the mandate of being a spiritual leader because spiritual leadership is needed in our cultural moment. But before we get specifically into spiritual leadership, let me share further general thoughts on leadership so that we are all on the same page. LEADERSHIP IS INFLUENCE First, leadership is transforming. It’s the ability to lead others and achieve goals to ultimately transform the world around us. Banning Liebscher says, “Leadership is the instrument God uses to draw the greatness out of you and bring change to the world around you.” It’s not an instrument...
by Sam | Oct 20, 2020 | Testimony
When the new year began, we never had any intentions of live-streaming or going online, but we pivoted following the Lord’s leadership as the whole world changed. The result was our first ever online conference! Our heart was to make it free and available to as many people as we could to help provoke them to go deeper in their prayer lives during this time. Thanks to the hard work and sacrifice of so many people, Pursuit Conference REDUX was able to host and minister to hundreds all over the world. We had people from our backyard of NYC to throughout the East Coast all the way to multiple continents. People tuned in from Belgium, Brazil, Guatemala, Indonesia, China, and Australia to just name a few! Praise God! Check out some of the testimonies from this year’s conference below. I think it’s been a crazy season for all of us. In times of great confusion and suffering, all people long for hope. Hope is what gets you out of bed in the morning. Hope is what causes you to stand back up when you’ve fallen. Hope gives life meaning and joy. And hope is always found where people pray. Hope is found when people fall on their knees in surrender, look up to heaven and cry out, “God I can’t! But you can!” Revivals of hope always follow revivals of prayer. In the last session of the conference, I felt hope rise within my own heart as I heard Sam preach about past revivals. I was reminded that it’s never worth it to give up the fight. I...
by Sam | Aug 24, 2020 | Reflection
Pursuit NYC is a regional parachurch ministry contending for revival and nothing less. We believe that genuine revival is a sovereign move of God that is threefold. It is the awakening of the Church, the harvest of the lost, and transformation of culture and society. All of this originates and flows from the heart of God because we believe God desires revival more than we do. Revival is not for sometime down the road in the future, but for today. It is not for somewhere out there, but right here in our region. We then are passionate to partner with Him to see His will take place. Our desire then is to equip and empower believers to live a life of pursuit after God’s presence through various means such as gatherings, online content, and creativity. For too long, the greatest expression of creativity and excellence have been limited to the things of this world. We believe that the Church should be leading the way in innovation and creative expressions that inspire the world around us. We know that when revival comes, it must and will be expressed creatively from one generation to the next. As such, we have always desired to express our ministry and who we are as children of God in creative ways such as apparel. Pursuit Apparel is joyfully birthed out of this conviction. Ever since the ministry began, we have devoted resources, hard work, and fresh ideas to showcase who we are as a ministry as well as share messages of revival. With the recent global pandemic, we have entered into unprecedented times. Our nation...
by Sam | Jul 7, 2020 | Reflection
Incomparable. Unprecedented. Overwhelming. And defining. What has taken place these last six months have shaped this year and beyond. As we are writing this midyear report, the world is in transition. It is both returning to and redefining “normal” at the same time — our region is getting ready to reopen whereas other places are closing once more. Streets and businesses are being filled again, but not without masks. And the fight for justice continues on. So much has changed. So much still needs to change. We want to be part of that change. Change that ultimately brings forth the greatest revival the world has ever seen. We have never been down this road before, and frankly, no one has. 2020 has been unlike anything I have personally seen in my life. But one thing remains the same, and it’s that we are still in pursuit after God and His purpose. In moments like this, we are trading doing things “perfectly” for doing them faithfully. And with that, it’s been challenging, but we have been wanting to serve others the best we can with what’s in our hands. In the first quarter of 2020, we were able to continue with our monthly gatherings as planned, but that quickly went out the window. We had grand ideas and goals for what was to come. But obviously, plans and events were canceled, but that didn’t mean dreams and promises had to be. It was then as the world shifted, we made a pivot to go online. For the second quarter of this year, we made that pivot. We hosted plenty of...
by Sam | Jun 30, 2020 | Reflection, Teaching
by Josh Kim What if I told you that slower is better than faster. You might look at me perplexed. “Slower would get me fired from my job…” Waiting is better than hurrying. You might roll your eyes. “If only people can drive faster…” Single-tasking is better than multitasking. You might be annoyed. “I never have enough time…” In our day and age, slow is disapproved while fast is glorified. As a result, being overbusy has become the hallmark of success. Hurrying is the new speed of life. And multitasking is an expected life skill where we must get more things done in the same amount of time. Alicia Britt-Chole describes the modern world as following: “Ours is a hurried age in which speed is defied and waiting is demonized. Ours is a cluttered age in which noise is the norm and images constantly clamor for our attention. And in our hurried and cluttered age, faster has become synonymous with better, and experience has become a substitute.”1 As a result, we are busier, more hurried, and more distracted than ever. Our fast lifestyle is the norm. CONSEQUENCES OF FAST But while fast produces productive results according to the modern world, how does it affect us as individuals? What does it to our souls? How does it affect our emotional health? Psychologists and mental health professionals, Rosemary Sword and Philip Zimbardo, describe a new modern disease on the rise known as hurry sickness. Here are a few definitions: “A behavioral pattern characterized by continual rushing and anxiousness.”2 “A malaise in which a person feels chronically short of time, and so...
