(The following is from an email from Daniel to the church distro after the 2nd Preview Service)

Being a fairly a newcomer to the Metro Community Church I feel kind of uncomfortable about sharing this but I really feel compelled to share something that the I experienced this past week during the service.

While I was worshiping this past Sunday, the Lord brought to the forefront 3 passages of scripture that really spoke mightily to me, as I sat there and listened to the Gospel being taught and heard and experienced, that I would like to expound on. The passages are Luke 4:18-19, Romans 1:16, and Acts 2.

It has been a long time coming that I actually heard the gospel, the true gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, in its purest form being taught and heard in church. Jesus said in Luke 4:18-19, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."As I heard Peter speak about the "G" Word I felt the Spirit really speaking to me, saying, "What you are hearing is what it was that I came to do for you Daniel. You are hearing the good news that I came to share with you, be for you.  I love you Daniel and let my grace be sufficient for you. I love you and I need you to let Me love you, Daniel."

Paul stated in Romans 1:16, "I am not ashamed of the gospel because it was the power of God for the salvation of all who believes..."  As I sat there listening to that which is "the power of God for the salvation" God continued to speak and minister to me that I need to stop thinking that I need to become right with God but that I am right with God because he says that I am. That I need to accept his embrace and embrace the "junk" in my life such as all that I have been told by churches, by others, of what I am and come before him knowing that I am his beloved.

I thank God for you Peter Ahn, that he has called you to preach the good news in the purest sense of the word, and for giving you a heart to reach out and touch the marginalized, the disenfranchised, and the misfits. I thank God for Metro Community Church, in that it is a church that is not ashamed of the gospel which is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe and carry out the ministry that Christ proclaimed he was anointed to do in Luke 4.

As Simon Peter, one of the disciples that was filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, he was given the gift of tongues, and therefore was empowered to address the crowd in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.  So often, the passage has been misinterpreted and taken out of context to mean that the filling of the Holy Spirit = the gift of unknown tongues.  You want to know what I think? In the 21st Century, when the true gospel of Jesus Christ is preached and exemplified, when the power of God for salvation is heard, when people are coming to a knowledge of what Christ truly came to do and be for us, we are speaking in tongues. Why?  Because we are helping fulfill that which Christ came to do. As I sat there this past Sunday, I heard a man being used of God to speak in tongues; in a tongue that people could understand, relate to and be transformed by.  To often in church, we have been concerned and focused on the gift wrap and not the gift. If we continue to be focused on the gift of Christ, we too can experience the blessings of the early church as it says in Acts 2:47b, "...and the Lord added to their numbers daily those who were being saved."

I pray that I have not taken up to much of your time in your hectic schedules, but I was so overcome by the Spirit on Sunday and being incredibly blessed, I was so compelled to share with you how I experienced and learned how awesome and powerfully transforming the "gospel" really is. Peter stated on Sunday that he is, "grace personified." So far to this point I feel as if Metro Community Church is on the path to becoming "the gospel personified." Thank you all for welcoming me into your family and I pray that as we begin this incredible quest to be salt and light that God will continue to minister to us so that He can use us mightily in that endeavor.
 
Again, thank you so much for your time in allowing me to share this.

Daniel D. Kim