President's Inaugural Address
First, I give glory to God for allowing an underprivileged servant to serve as the president of the 47th session of the WPC. I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to all of our members who spared no effort in praying and encouraging me to serve during this session. What I am even more thankful for is that this General Assembly is improving day by day as each year passes. We believe that this is possible because of the dedication and cooperation of our members.
But on the other hand, when we look back on this era, we cannot deny that there are challenges and trials. The signs of crisis coming from all over are just miserable. Those crises include the crisis of war, the food crisis due to climate change, the increasingly worsening environmental pollution crisis, the energy crisis, and the gap between the rich and the poor.
But more than anything else, the true crisis facing the Lord's ministers is a spiritual crisis. We are threatened by crises such as spiritual indifference toward the church that is getting worse, depletion of spiritual energy among ministers, and loss of spiritual vision and passion in the church.
Nevertheless, “We who are called to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ cannot stop in the face of these crises. We must stand together once again with strength, with the power of the name of Jesus Christ and the help of the Holy Spirit. I sincerely hope that we can become partners in overcoming this crisis through the precious spiritual legacy left behind by our ancestors of faith. To this end, I would like to make three actionable promises to work towards this session.
First, we will strive to establish a firm identity for our denomination.
Based on the Reformed religious heritage handed down by our ancestors, all members will strive to move forward together under the motto, ‘Only for the glory of God.’
Second, we will lead the general assembly to work.
In order to become a working general assembly, it must become a mission-centered general assembly. This year, we would like to focus especially on inland missions. We will do our best to ensure that at least one denominational church takes root in a large city with a population of over 1 million.
Third, I will do my best to serve you so that we can move toward a harmonious and cooperative general assembly.
We hope for the generous cooperation of our members. In general, as any organization grows in size and becomes more active, voices become more diverse, and if it becomes more serious, there is a possibility of conflict. Behind these things, it is easy for a deep foundation of egocentrism to lie, so all members work together to get the job done. We will do our best to handle it. We hope to receive a lot of guidance from our members.
Lastly, for a better future development, we will strive to actively discover and involve workers who will work for the next generation so that we can work together.
I would like to express my sincere welcome and greetings to all of you who have come to this beautiful, vibrant and romantic city, San Francisco, for the 47th General Assembly.