James Choi serves as the Lead Pastor at New Covenant Baptist Church in Rockville, Maryland. After moving to America at age 7 from Seoul, South Korea, James went on to pursue a call to ministry and serve as a pastoral intern and elder at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D in Christian Ministry at Midwestern Seminary. James is married to his wife, Jeri, and together they have three young children.
MBTS: What led you to Midwestern Seminary as a student and how has the doctoral program at MBTS challenged and equipped you for life and ministry?
James Choi: What ultimately drew me to Midwestern Seminary was the practical and conducive format of the Ph.D program for pastoral ministry. Midwestern’s focus on the local church was an added benefit, as I was getting ready to plant New Covenant Baptist Church in Rockville, Maryland.
Furthermore, Midwestern proved to be a wonderful opportunity to study Charles Spurgeon. My good friend and Spurgeon scholar, Geoff Chang, had just finished his studies on Spurgeon’s ecclesiology and had begun work as the Curator of the Spurgeon Library. During one of my lunches with my former pastor, Mark Dever, we reached out to Dr. Chang about the possibility of delving further into Spurgeon’s views on regenerate church membership. At the time, he ensured that there was certainly more Spurgeon scholarship to be mined in this area of study. I was thrilled, and now here I am one class away from beginning my dissertation phase.
MBTS: How has studying Spurgeon shaped your philosophy of ministry?
James: For me, what makes Spurgeon so fascinating and inspiring is that he brings the pastoral philosophies of all my different spiritual heritages together in one man and demonstrates that such ministry is possible. Here is what I mean:
Korean-American church and their emphasis on prayer. I grew up in the Korean-American church where prayer was an integral part of my spiritual formation. Korean Christians are well-known for early morning prayer meetings. Having left the Korean-American immigrant church several years ago, I wrestled with how I would cultivate a culture that emphasizes the necessity and urgency of private and corporate prayer in the life of the local church. In Spurgeon, I found an answer and an example to model my ministry after.
It is written, “When visitors would come to Spurgeon’s church, he would take them to the basement prayer room where people were always on their knees interceding. Then Spurgeon would declare, ‘Here is the powerhouse of this church.’ “Spurgeon considered the prayer meeting “the most important meeting of the week.” I greatly desire to model my pastoral ministry after Spurgeon’s commitment and practice of prayer.
Southern Baptists and their emphasis on Word-centered preaching. Coming from a setting where the Bible was not faithfully preached every week, my first exposure to faithful expository preaching was at a Baptist church during my undergraduate years. From there and upon attending Southwestern Seminary, I quickly came to realize that Southern Baptists set the standard for faithful expository preaching. |
Although many debate whether Spurgeon was a true expositor or not, there is no doubt Spurgeon was a Christ-centered preacher. Spurgeon exhorted, “Preach you Christ, and Christ, and Christ, and Christ, and nothing else but Christ!” Spurgeon brings together all my aspirations as a preacher: a prayer-fueled, Christ-centered expositor with Spirit-filled unction!
Reformed Baptists and their emphasis on biblical ecclesiology. Cultural Christianity, legalism, and program-driven approaches to ministry were common in the immigrant churches I was a part of growing up. After being introduced to the biblical principles of ecclesiology through Capitol Hill Baptist Church and 9Marks, I came to realize that failing to biblically understand “what the church is” was an epidemic beyond the immigrant church.
Recently, Dr. Geoff Chang’s landmark research brought light to a largely unaddressed aspect of Spurgeon’s ministry; that Spurgeon was an “ecclesiologian.” As a soul-winner, Spurgeon not only cared about the conversion of souls, but the holistic care of souls through the ministry of the local church. Meaningful church membership and church discipline were not the inventions of the neo-Calvinist movement. They are biblical, historical, and practical.
MBTS: In your research of Spurgeon, how have you seen his life and ministry model the mission of being for the Church?
James: Spurgeon’s primary mission was for the Church—universal and local. Spurgeon believed the Church was grander than just the Metropolitan Tabernacle; hence, his numerous efforts for the Pastor’s College, ministry to the poor, church planting, and other ministries beyond his own church. Nevertheless, Spurgeon once said of his own local church, “Yet, if I went anywhere for choice company, I should certainly resort to the members of my church. These are the company I keep. These are the choicest friends I know.” In this sense, Spurgeon has taught me how to love the church, universal and local.
