Meet Billy Park - KALI Regional Leader of Korean Southeast Presbytery
By Billy Park and Moses Y. Lee
This is the second in a series of interviews with KALI’s regional leaders. At KALI, we want to promote the growth of healthy, gospel-centered pastors to help them flourish in their respective ministry settings. As part of that mission, we want to highlight several seasoned, Korean American teaching elders from our denomination who have been running the race faithfully in their pursuit of loving Jesus as ministers of the gospel. See Will Chang’s interview here. See Walter Lee’s interview here.
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Where are you from?
I was born in South Korea and my family and I immigrated to the United States when I was seven years old.
How and when did you know you were called into ministry?
I grew up in a Christian family, but I was pretty much a functional non-believer during my high school and college years even as I went to church and claimed to believe in God. During college, however, I experienced one of those re-dedication moments when God really broke me and drew me to himself and the faith of my childhood. It was during that season that I committed my life to Christ. When I was much younger, I walked down the aisle during an altar call and professed faith, but it was during my senior year in college when I really dedicated my life to the Lord.
It was during this time that God also placed a burden on my heart––I started to ask myself, "What does God want me to do?" I first got my life and academics in order, then God gave me a burden for college students and youth. I wanted to be a part of something that would help people know the Lord, especially the younger generation who grew up in the church and left the faith.
Tell us about a difficult season of ministry and how the Lord pulled you through.
I’ve had many difficult seasons in ministry and, in some sense, ministry has always been difficult. One particular season that comes to mind was in the 1990s when I accepted a call to a difficult church not knowing their history and feeling blindsided by many issues. Though I still met many wonderful people during this time, the situation was very difficult and I wanted to quit almost as soon as I started. But during this difficult season, the Lord taught me not to give up and leave a ministry before he gives me another specific calling. So the Lord sustained me and taught me patience before he called me somewhere else two years later.
A lot of times, those of us in ministry are tempted to pursue callings in other churches based on what we desire in a fleshly sense. But as pastors, we really need to wait for the Lord’s calling on our lives and not leave a particular ministry context too early.
Who are some preachers, authors, or artists that have had an impact on you or your ministry?
John Piper had a huge influence on my life in my earlier years. His book, Desiring God, helped me to understand loving the Lord with both the heart and mind and introduced me to the works of Jonathan Edwards. R.C. Sproul’s writings and Ligonier Ministry also had a profound impact on me as a teacher.
If I had to name an artist, I would say Keith Green, an old school Christian musician from the 1970s to 1980s. He passed away in 1982. His passion and prophetic voice in music really stirred my soul in deep and powerful ways.
What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as a pastor?
It starts with regular devotional time with the Lord. And I confess, even as a pastor, I can be more disciplined in spiritual disciplines such as praying and Bible reading. It's not always the way I want it to be, but I make sure I try to read through the Bible once a year in some form, either chronologically or different reading plans, and to make prayer a regular part of my life.
One of the signs that I’m not doing spiritually well is when I don’t want to meet with people. Whenever I feel this way, I try to be intentional about meeting with people and other pastors to share and pray together with.
The last one is journaling. I find the times that I'm growing most spiritually are the times that I spend reflecting with pen and paper. I'm not a great writer but just being able to write down and process my thoughts have helped me a lot in ministry.
What’s one thing you didn't learn in seminary that you wish you had learned?
I went to Princeton Theological Seminary and there's a lot of great things about that seminary. But I didn’t learn a lot of the foundational principles of theology and Scripture so I almost feel like I'm always going back to foundational truths and practices––how to interpret the Bible, how to preach, etc.
What are some leadership challenges you’ve faced in your ministry?
I’ve faced a lot of leadership challenges over the years, but the one that particularly sticks out in my mind is having to work with a session, even though I believe in having a session and having peer leaders. In my early years of ministry, I was always ministering to people younger than me and people who sort of looked up to me. Having to lead a group of people who are supposed to be equal leaders (with some who might be older than you) can become a real challenge, especially if we don’t know how to navigate through relational conflicts.
What’s one thing you wish you did more of as a young pastor?
I wish I sought out fellowship with older people a little more when I was a young pastor. I sought out some older people but there weren’t a whole lot of folks that I could really learn from. But I could’ve tried a little harder and not have been so easily dissuaded. I think I could’ve been a little more persistent about reaching out to older people that I respected.
If you could tell a Korean American seminarian or young pastor one word of advice, what would it be?
To the seminarians, I would encourage you to prioritize your studies. The best way you can “serve” in your earlier years is to build the theological foundation upon which you will build the rest of your ministry. You’re not always going to have the time to study the way or amount you want to, but just do the best according to your ability. Don’t use ministry work as an excuse not to know Scripture and the biblical languages because you may not have an opportunity to do that later on.
But just like in medicine, by your third or fourth year, you can spend the latter part of your education in practice. In many ways, I think ministers need to follow this framework––books (or laying down your foundation) first then practice.
Billy Park is the lead pastor of Grace Community Presbyterian Church in Suwanee, Georgia. He also works part-time at the PCA Administrative Committee (AC) as the Korean Relations Representative. He’s the husband to Gloria and father of four kids. He also loves to coach and play volleyball and basketball recreationally.
Moses Y. Lee will be planting Rosebrook Presbyterian Church in North Bethesda, Maryland this fall. He’s a contributing author to the forthcoming, Hear Us, Emmanuel: Another Call for Racial Reconciliation, Representation, and Unity in the Church (White Blackbird, 2020) and is co-editing a book on Asian American Presbyterianism. You can follow him on Twitter.