My friends in Taylor:

I would like to take a moment to introduce myself and my family to you.

My wife Jeeyoung and I were born in South Korea, and attended schools and colleges in Korea before coming to the United States in 1989.

We first located to Evanston, Illinois, where I attended Garrett Seminary, graduating in 1993.  I then pursued a doctoral degree at Northwestern University.  During the doctoral program, I attempted to understand God and people better from brain science.

I served two churches in Nebraska from 2000 to 2010, and was able to grow each church by more than 200 new people within five year spans. I was recognized as the top performing pastor in Nebraska Annual Conference in 2002 and 2006.

In June of 2010, Jeeyoung, our youngest child Simon and I left Nebraska and moved to Little River, Texas to be closer to my daughter Kristen at Southern Methodist University and son Peter at Rice University.

I was able to add more than 150 new people to Little River UMC during my stay of six years. I moved to the Houston area, once again, when our daughter Kristen started her career at Houston Methodist Hospital as a surgery nurse, got married, and was about to start her own family with our grandson.  At the same time, our son Peter started his medical education at McGovern Medical School in the Texas Medical Center.

While in Houston, I served Aldersgate UMC, and was able to add more than 90 new people to Aldersgate UMC. In 2019, I was recognized as the top performing pastor in Texas Annual Conference.

Aldersgate was actively involved in the healing of the community after the Santa Fe school shooting.  After dealing with the aftermath of the school shooting and growing the church significantly, I experienced some burn out.  Jeeyoung and I moved to Meridian where I recharged myself.

My wife Jeeyoung has a master’s degree from the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, Illinois. She also pursued a doctoral degree in her major study of piano performance at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago.  

She was the department pianist of Music and Performing Arts at University of Nebraska at Kearney from 2006 to 2010. She was also department pianist of Music and Performing Arts at Temple College, Texas.

Our daughter presently works as a Nurse Practitioner at Houston Methodist Hospital, and her husband, Joel, is a nursing department manager of Kindred Hospital at the Texas Medical Center in Houston. Kristen and Joel have two children Eli and London.

Our son, Peter, teaches medical students as a faculty at Baylor College of Medicine. He also sees patients as a family medicine physician at Kirby clinic of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.  His wife, Stephanie, works at Texas Children’s Hospital as an anesthesiologist.

Our youngest child, Simon, graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, with a major in finance. He will be working as a consultant at Earnest & Young in Chicago.

Before I initiate any kind of ministry or program at Taylor First, I would like to look every person of our church in the eye! I am planning to visit every person of our church, with the goal of understanding them and their connections, their needs from the church, and any specific prayer requests.