Our Story

Living Faith Community Church (LFCC) held its first worship service on February 13, 2000 at Flushing High School. Stephen Ro, the church planter and founding pastor of LFCC, had a vision for this church plant while he served as the English ministry pastor of a large Korean church in New York City. The vision grew out of a burden to take the church out of a building and into the city through a movement of church planting - a movement that would reflect the ethnically diverse nature of our city as well as the welcoming nature of God.

Over twenty years later, LFCC continues to move forward with that same vision. We have three congregations serving different neighborhoods and language groups in Queens. To further the church’s effectiveness and fruitfulness, we have also partnered with other like-minded churches to plant additional gospel-shaped churches throughout our borough.

We are a church that seeks balance in identity, life and work, so that we can be faithful in all areas of life as God has taught us. We welcome people from all walks of life and hope that you will join us as we continue to seek God and love Him more deeply.

Vision Statement

The vision of Living Faith Community Church is to saturate New York City with the Gospel to bless and transform the life of the city and the world.

3 M Vision

Movement Dynamics — Church Planting
Missional Community — Mercy & Justice
Ministry Balance — Faith & Work

Goals

We exist for the following reasons:
1. To reflect the Glory of God.
2. To reveal the Truth of Christ.
3. To be renewed by the Power of the Holy Spirit.

Core Values

01.
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Gospel-Driven.
The Gospel tells us that our root sin is not just failing in our obedience to God but relying on our obedience to save us. Therefore the gospel is not just the way to go to heaven, but is the way to address every problem and is a way to grow at every step.

02.
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Prayer-Rooted.
A healthy church is both a result of and a means to the dynamics of spiritual renewal, therefore we must be rooted in extraordinary prayer as well as corporate and individual repentance before God.

03.
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World-and-Life View.
The Lordship of Christ over every area of life prevents us from dividing life into secular/public vs. private/sacred realms or into physical/worldly vs. spiritual/church realms.

04.
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Ethnically Diverse.
We will mirror our geographic neighborhood. We will seek to reflect more racial unity than our neighborhood in order to witness to the truth of the Gospel.

05.
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City-Positive.
We do not just seek our own prosperity, or even the peace of our neighborhood, but the peace and prosperity of the whole city. We will not only have pity or sympathy on our city, but also will respect and learn from it as we show compassion.

06.
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Community-Based.
We believe that the Gospel alone changes people's lives and creates a new community which loves and serves each other. And this change occurs as Christians learn to apply the Gospel and share their lives with one another in mutual encouragement in small cell groups.

07.
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Church-Planting Minded.
We do not consider church planting to be either a traumatic or unusual process. Rather, we are always planning and working towards the next daughter church, just as we are always doing other ministries of the church.

Rev. Stephen J. Ro

LEAD pastor — (stephenro@lfcc.net)

Growing up in the urban setting of Baltimore, MD, Pastor Stephen Ro has a special love for the ministry in the city that brought him to New York in 1991. He gave his life to Jesus at the age of 13 and committed himself to God to be a pastor one day. After confirming a call to ministry, he entered Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia where he received an M. Div in 1991.

He planted Living Faith Community Church in Queens, NY through the Redeemer Church Planting Center in 2000. As a church planter, he has a desire to see the church planting movement go forward to transform the entire city of New York.

Pastor Stephen Ro is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and a Board Member of SORAE Missions International, and co-founder of PCM (Preaching Coaching Ministries). He is a catalyst and trainer for Redeemer City to City Asia Pacific. He participates in the PCA church planters assessment as an assessor and is a certified Coachnet coach for pastors and church planters. He and his wife Candice have three adult sons.

Peter Ong

Ministry Director — (peter@lfcc.net)

Peter Ong went into ministry at the Chinese Christian Herald Crusades' Herald Youth Center. It was there he felt compelled to serve the Chinese immigrant community as a youth worker and later became the Youth Center's Director. He has served in New York City for nearly 20 years, with his passion for mercy and justice focused on engaging the church to serve local immigrant youth. He has advised youth ministries and conferences locally and nationally. Peter also served as volunteer staff at Intervarsity Christian Fellowship at New York University. He then came on staff as Director of Gospel Community at Living Faith Community Church where he established a mercy and justice ministry. He was Director of Laity Ministries for Pastoral and Laity Ministries where he equipped and trained lay leaders within the Asian American church context. Previously he served as the youth worker and Director of Gospel Community at Living Faith Community Church where he had the privilege of discipling the youth as well as lead the mercy and justice efforts. In 2011, he was a Redeemer City to City Church Planting Fellow, during which time he and his wife, Jamie, planted King’s Cross Church, a congregation of Living Faith Community Church, serving downtown Flushing’s immigrant families. He also served as City to City’s Catalyst Leader to network and coach new church planters. He joins Living Faith Community Church with a desire to continue bringing renewal to the church as he oversees Community Groups and providing a variety of ministry oversight.

Peter graduated with a B.A. in English and a Minor in Philosophy and East Asian Studies from New York University. He received his M.A. in Urban Missions from Westminster Theological Seminary through City Seminary of New York. He is a certified Church Multiplication Ministries Coach and works with Redeemer City to City's training and teach Church Planters in their Incubator Program.

Rev. Philip Chung

Executive PASTOR — (philipchung@lfcc.net)

Philip Chung received his BA from UCLA and his MDiv from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Prior to joining LFCC, Philip was involved in youth ministries and overseas missions for over a decade, including eight years as a youth pastor in Chicago and Northern Virginia, and founding a missionary-led language academy in Cambodia.

Philip is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and also on staff with the Lausanne Movement as the Director of Global Partnerships. His work, both in the Lausanne Movement and as a local church pastor, has allowed him to travel extensively and witness what God is doing in different parts of the world, giving him a unique perspective on the glocal (global & local) church.

Philip is married to Kristine, and they hope to eventually use their combined vocations to reach the unreached in an urban context.

Ellie Choi

Administrative Assistant — admin@lfcc.net

Born in Korea, Ellie spent most of her childhood in Bolivia and immigrated to the US at the age of 16. She went to high school in California and graduated from CSUN with B.Sc. in Finance. She moved to New York after marriage and worked at an accounting firm until the birth of her first child. Within the next 4 years, she had two more children and decide to stay home in order to care for them. After sending her eldest child off to college, she found an opportunity to work at a local middle school. And after sending her second child off to college, she found another work opportunity, to work for LFCC.

LFCC has been her church since 2006. Her kids grew up there along with her faith and her love for God. She has found a community there that welcomed her, loved her, cared for her, and prayed with her. She hopes her husband and others can also find a similar or better experience when coming to Living Faith Community Church.

Rosalyn Won

Children's education ministry director — rosalynwon@lfcc.net

Rosalyn Won was born and raised in New York. She received her BA from Lehman College and her MA from Teachers College Columbia University for Teaching of English. In between her BA and MA, she had an opportunity to attend Westminster Theological Seminary for a year towards a MAR in Counseling. Her time there ended short when God gave her an opportunity to go back to NY to teach in the South Bronx. She taught in the NYC public school system for 6 years and at a private Christian school for 2 years. She stopped teaching when she and her husband, Frank, had their first child. She became a stay at home mom and they had two more children. When her youngest was almost a year old, she began her position as Children’s Education Ministry Director at Living Faith Community Church. Where she used to serve with her youngest strapped to her back. She has now been serving for 8+ years.

Frank and Rosalyn have been married for 15+ years. Serving CEM is very much a family affair. She is thankful that her children and husband so readily share her with the church and they often serve with her. Her mission and heart is to help prepare the next generation to love and serve the Lord, His people, and the community. She is thankful for the supportive session, leaders, staff, team, and teachers who serve with her. She is a homeschooler and in her spare time, you can find her writing or gardening.

Andrew Au

Director of Worship Arts — andrewau@lfcc.net

Andrew was born and raised in Hong Kong, then found himself finishing high school in Southern CA and Central NJ. He received a B.S. in Marketing at Rutgers University-New Brunswick but soon realized that he wasn't cut out for business. He then completed the Graphic & Digital Design program at Parsons School of Design in the evenings, while working full-time. Fast forward another decade or so, and after a four year tenure as partner at a boutique agency, he was blessed to start his own visual design business in 2011.

Music has always been a big part of Andrew's life, especially when it comes to connecting his heart with his faith, and with God. As a multi-instrumentalist (more like jack of a few trades), he played in several indie bands, recorded a few EPs and was active in the NYC music scene for about 10 years. His expression of musical worship in the church has been a constant since his teenage years. His desire is to inspire others to do the same and he is humbled to be serving LFCC in the area of worship arts.

Andrew has been married to his better half, Ivy, for over 20 years. They have two teenage children, Jordan and Julian. In his spare time, he still enjoys songwriting as a hobby and plays tennis weekly at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing.

Peter Kang

MEDIA COORDINATOR

Youth & College Director — peterkang@lfcc.net

Born and raised in the suburbs of the D.C. Metropolitan area, Peter has never been heavily influenced by an urban environment of any kind. After a mission trip to Japan, he felt called to become a church planter and learn how to effectively minister in an urban context so that as many people may know the love of God. Peter received his B.Sc. in Industrial Design from Virginia Tech and is pursuing an M.A. in Biblical Studies from Reformed Theological Seminary, NYC and is also in the Redeemer City Ministry Program so that he may be qualified for ordination in the PCA.

Peter enjoys all creative pursuits and loves all forms of visual aesthetics. His primary creative outlets are graphic design, photography, and music and these are almost equally matched by his enjoyment of coffee.

Elders

Diaconate Team

THE Diaconate Team

Ben Wang (not pictured), Daniel Ahn, Ellie Chung-Glus (sabbatical), Eugenie Y. Kim, Eunice Kwon, Jamie Ong, Jihwan Kim, Jinhee Son (sabbatical), Ji Soo Kim, John Namkoong, Martha Lew, Min Kwon (sabbatical), Steve Cho (not pictured), Will Kim (not pictured)

Finished term: Adrienne Leslie, Sarah Liu, Sharon Kim, Sumin Kim, Jenna Choi, Dennis Lew