Celebrating Ten Years of Ministry with Peter Sung

Superintendent Greg Yee and NextGen Director Erik Cave spend time reflecting with Peter Sung as he finishes ten years serving on the PacNWC as our Conference Coach. Peter’s deep care and wisdom will continue to be a blessing as he begins his new role as Lead Pastor at Newport Covenant Church.

Transcript:

Greg:
Hello, Pacific Northwest Conference family. It’s so good to be with you.

This month, the highlight for the CATCH will be our farewell to our beloved Peter Sung, our conference coach and the one who was our director of church planting.

Peter and I go way back. I was part of an organization that helped train leaders and provide opportunities for leaders in Asian American circles, and I believe that was the first time Peter and I met.

Then, as we both made our way into the Covenant, I was actually Peter’s coach when he was church planting in Queens, New York. He went on to be associate superintendent, then director of church planting for the denomination, and then a local church pastor here in the conference at Evergreen.

He became my pastor when I landed back here in 2013, and then ultimately came onto staff just shy of 10 years ago when we needed help with church-plant coaching and, ultimately, church planting as a whole.

The situation back then was that we were having a hard time with church plants being sustainable. So I asked Peter to come on and do an analysis and help us come up with a better way of doing church planting, which ultimately became pretty much the way we’re doing church planting right now.

Peter, you have left an indelible mark here in the conference. As we spend some time with you, Eric and I are looking forward to asking you some questions just as we reflect back on almost 10 years.

Maybe a highlight or two for you, Peter? Share with us.

Peter:
Yeah, there are definitely things that we did together and things we experienced that will remain special and nurturing for me, even in my memory bank, for the rest of my life.

I also want to acknowledge God’s work—not just through me or through us, but also in me—because that’s such a big part of my story. There’s a personal context that is an everlasting gift to me as well.

Which category should I start with—the external or the internal?

Greg:
Oh, just—how about the external?

Peter:
Okay.

Coming on, I think toward the end of 2016, I got a small contract with the Covenant—with Greg—to do some coaching. I was just starting out as a coach.

Then, in 2017, I started looking into the last decade of church planting in the Pacific Northwest Conference. We saw some ways and opportunities for us to make adjustments and grow.

We ended up putting a pause on church planting for a couple of years to sort of reorient ourselves to what we needed to do. Then we timidly started the work again, and we saw some amazing things happen.

Church planters began to sprout up, and we were able to walk with them. A whole lot of them became successful church plants in the sense that they became self-defining and self-sustaining. Our hope is that they will be self-replicating in the near future.

So, that’s kind of amazing to see from start to finish.

Another, more recent highlight is all of the church-planting activity that God seems to be doing in our conference. That’s more anticipatory, but it’s really exciting and a wonderful note to leave on.

I really enjoyed my time coaching pastors, doing church assessments, and walking with boards and staff teams. Those are special, high-trust, sensitive situations sometimes. It just felt like such an honor and a high trust to be able to come alongside those opportunities.

Those are highlights.

But I think the thing that was really feeding me at the soul level was my time with the staff team.

Now I can say this without Greg thinking I have some ulterior motive: I think he’s a great leader. He is what I would call a humble leader. He’s a relational leader, and he’s a generous leader—very gracious—and he’s a high-trust leader.

Those ingredients created a team that was highly functional, highly relational, and highly trusting of each other and of God.

We just got to enjoy health, and that was something that I really needed for myself and also needed to learn from—how that works. I got to see it over a decade.

So, I really can attest that it wasn’t just something short-lived. It’s just a way of being that is possible to sustain and flourish with—that kind of leadership and team culture.

That’s a real gift that I’m walking away with as well.

On a personal level, I came into conference ministry still kind of limping in my personal faith, in a sense that I had some questions.

I was born into the church, and I really believed in the church, but it was a lot of sort of zeal without knowledge, so to speak. I had a lot of healing to do. I had a lot of deconstructing, to use Mount Vernon vernacular, and then reconstructing.

The conference, being at that sort of altitude of ministry, really allowed me to have the personal space I needed to ask some questions, delve into myself, and join the Spirit in what He was doing in me.

And then it aligned really well with the things I was learning on the staff team, as I just mentioned. So that just felt really divinely appointed—a sovereign God-orchestrated gift straight to my soul.

I really appreciate that.

Part of this feels a little bit like God’s calling me out of the nest and asking me—or inviting me—to lead, to take flight on my own two wings.

It’s exciting, but I have high confidence in what God’s done and what I’ve witnessed. I’m looking forward to experiencing it in a different context.

Erik:
All right. Thanks for sharing that, Peter. I really appreciate your transparency, and it’s one of the things I’ve appreciated about you over the past 10 years working with you—your genuineness that you bring to every table.

I really appreciate that. Thank you so much.

As you look at our conference and you look at the future, what are the challenges, and what do you see coming down the road? What’s a word that you would give us as a conference?

Peter:
When I hear the word “challenge,” I immediately think about what’s on the other side of the scale, which is the competency and the love of the staff team.

I mentioned Greg, but Eric, yourself, Don, Chris, the contractors we have—these are amazing people.

I can tell you from behind the scenes that there’s real love, concern, care, and conscientiousness that they bring to the work. That’s part of the high-trust culture.

So, I really feel confident even as I think about the challenges.

But, as you know, the politics have been challenging. COVID was challenging. Race issues have been challenging. Immigration issues are challenging.

The conference is the secure base for a lot of churches and leaders in our conference. Coming alongside them and being a sort of organizing place for their thoughts, feelings, and leadership—that is challenging.

But I have high confidence that we’ll continue to improve and do our part as God calls us to.

I also want to acknowledge that the landscape of the church has been changing along with the culture.

As I think about being a local church pastor again, I really find myself looking to see what God will do—joining God in what He is doing.

Sometimes we look back and think it was some strategy, technique, program, or even a personality. But life is tested by fire, and a lot of false things burn up. What we’re left with is what God was wanting to do.

So, I pray for revival. I pray for renewal.

I want to be ready. I want to be receptive. I want to be humble enough to get out of the way and join God in what He’s doing.

And I really mean that, because I’ve done ministry. This is 30 years of ministry for me. I’m not naïve about my own weaknesses and inconsistencies.

So, more than ever, from my heart, I put my trust in God.

That’s what I pray for—that God would do a new thing and bring revival and renewal to our country, and definitely to our conference churches.

I pray for that.

And along with that, God will raise up people to help facilitate and honor God in what He is intending to do.

Those are some challenges, but those are also some of the ways that I think about them.

Greg:
Peter, we’re going to miss you.

You have brought an amazing collection of gifts and training, with your executive coaching expertise, your doctorate in leadership psychology, and, of course, your theological training.

We’re just going to miss you as a brother, as we work together regularly. But we’re also excited for your future, brother.

We’re excited for Newport. We’re excited for you and Susie and the girls.

Peter, how could we be praying for you as we go forward?

Peter:
I visited Newport yesterday. Even though I start tomorrow, I couldn’t help it.

I snuck over to church, sat in the back, and listened to the former chair, Mary Carson, preach a wonderful sermon.

The main passage was from Deuteronomy, and she said, “Choose life.”

I was sitting there thinking about that. Why does that even need to be said? Why would we not choose life?

It’s because choosing life sometimes takes faith. It takes courage. It’s scary. It’s hard. It’s counter to immediate gratification or control.

I mean, there are a million reasons why we end up not choosing life and kicking against the goads.

So, that would be my prayer request, Greg: that you would help me every step of the way, consistently, choice by choice, choose life.

And let the outcomes be determined by us faithfully choosing life as God invites us to.

Greg:
That’s great, Peter.

On behalf of the staff, on behalf of the Conference Executive Board, and on behalf of our 68 churches, Peter, we just thank you so much for your faithful and fruitful service.

You will be missed, but we are thrilled that you are still in the conference.

Peter:
Yes. Thank you so much, brother.

Greg:
Thanks, guys.

Peter:
Love you both. Praying for you.

Greg:
Thanks. God bless.

Peter:
Bye.