In early July of 2011, OEM welcomed its newest full-time pastor, Joel Yoon. He is married to his beautiful wife Sharon and is the proud father of a two-year-old girl named Kara. Pastor Joel will be overseeing discipleship at OEM, taking care of small groups and one-to-one mentoring. Below is a brief introductory interview with our new pastor.

 

 

 

Q: Where are you from?A: I was born in Seoul, Korea and moved to Chicago, Illinois when I was four years old.  An interesting fact about me is that my family moved every year until I was ten. In fact, my parents told me that we moved at least fifteen to twenty times by the time I was ten.

 

Q: How did you receive the calling to become a full-time pastor?A:I went to the University of Illinois for college and studied economics and minored in computer science. My senior year, God changed the direction of my life and called me into full-time vocational ministry. I was at a revival meeting at my college church, Covenant Fellowship Church, and the preacher had preached a very simple, but powerful message about the goodness of God. As I was praying after the sermon, I felt the Lord was convicting me about going into ministry. Not wanting to go into ministry, I committed that the least I would do is pray about it. Within seven months, He had completely changed my heart from not wanting to go into ministry to wanting to do nothing else but ministry. Praise the Lord!  

 

Q: What are your strengths?A: I love preaching, teaching, discipling and counseling. In the beginning of my journey, I thought God was leading me into missions. I went to seminary thinking the same thing.  However, after I started youth pastoring, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that God had called me to become a pastor. As I was pastoring, everything about it screamed, “This is what I am supposed to do with my life!”   Q: What brought you to Korea? A: My wife Sharon and Pastor Eddie knew each other since their youth group days. Pastor Eddie and I have known each other for five years. As we grew closer, I learned to respect him much as a pastor, preacher and leader. About a year after Pastor Eddie started pastoring at OEM, we also started praying about us coming out to OEM. With much prayer and with a big step of faith, Sharon, my daughter Kara and I packed our bags and jumped on a plane. It is evident that God’s hand was completely over us coming out to OEM. 

 

 

 Pastor Joel with his wife Sharon and daughter Kara.