About Me
I was born in Oakland, California on November 3rd, 1976. I am the eldest son of Peter and Diane Robinson, who are the pastors of Liberty Church International in Union City, California. I have two younger brothers (Joshua and Charles), and a younger sister (Melodie). I grew up in Oakland and attended Patten Academy of Christian Education from the time I started Kindergarten until the day I graduated High School in the Spring of 1994.
I came from a very musical family. One of my earliest memories is of my father singing in an opera at what was at that time Cal State Hayward. My father's older brother was the organist for our church and an accomplished pianist as well. My mother and her siblings are all tremendous gospel singers, and her oldest brother and sister are both accomplished organists and pianists as well. Music was all around me as I grew up, and every family gathering was an occasion for singing and playing together as a family. Early on I learned that I had a gift for playing piano and singing. I also began playing the trumpet in the 4th grade, and by the 6th grade I was awarded top honors in a high school level music competition. During my high school years I had great success in the realm of music, and I had a natural desire to make music the focus of my life. But my desire to give my life to music was in conflict with a desire that was deeper, more profound, and more promising: the call to preach the gospel.
When I was 11 years old I traveled with my grandmother to Honolulu, Hawaii where she led a week-long revival at Peaceful Holiness Church. It was during that revival that I received my calling to preach the gospel, and I knew that from that night forward my life would be focused upon nothing other than that solemn call. That night I informed my grandmother that God has called me to preach during the service. She was so excited she put me up to preach the next night! That first message was really just a regurgitation of one of her typical messages. I preached on the life of Job and how God allowed everything to be taken from him and then rewarded him for his faithfulness with rich and abundant blessing!
After graduating high school I attended Patten University across the street. It was a wonderful time to be a student at Patten! The Spirit of God moved in every chapel service, in every class, and many of us students would gather in the prayer chapel before and after classes to seek more of God. Those years were formative for me and I wouldn't trade them for the world! After Patten I went on to pursue an M.A. in theology and biblical studies from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. It was there that I fell in love with and married my beautiful wife, Sunhee, who was working on her M.A. in intercultural studies.
After Fuller we returned to the Bay Area where we worked with the Oakland School of Urban Missions and Faith Fellowship Church in San Leandro, where I served as Pastor of Worship and Sunhee served as Director of Missions. In the fall of 2003 we received the Lord's call to plant a church in Emeryville, and on January 4th, 2004 Living Hope Christian Center was born.
Ever since the birth of Living Hope my wife and I have been traveling around the world preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. We have seen God open doors, work miracles, part waters, and calm storms. The beauty of it is that we feel we're just getting started! The best has yet to come!
All of God's blessings are wonderful, but some are more wonderful than others! After 8 years of barrenness, God opened our womb and gave us the most precious gift he could have given us: our daughter, Alethia Sarang Robinson, was born on July 10th, 2009. We are now full of thanks, full of joy, but also full of zeal and full of vision! We live to see his kingdom come and his will done on earth as it is in heaven!
The story continues... In September of 2011 the Lord increased our sphere of influence as I was appointed as pastor of Ark Ministries in Berkeley, a church that was born out of 40 days of fasting and prayer for revival in Berkeley. What a great honor and privilege it has been to serve this body and see it grow and develop!
On the academic side of things, I'm also a Ph.D. candidate at Regent University in Virginia Beach. The subject is renewal theology and I began the program in May of 2003. Its been a long road, but I am pressing to complete my dissertation by March, 2012. My theological objective is to renegotiate the relationship between faith and experience. I find that most believers bring their experience to bear upon their theology in the wrong places and fail to allow their experience to shape their theology in the right places. I want a theology that flows out of and into powerful encounters with the glory of God.
I came from a very musical family. One of my earliest memories is of my father singing in an opera at what was at that time Cal State Hayward. My father's older brother was the organist for our church and an accomplished pianist as well. My mother and her siblings are all tremendous gospel singers, and her oldest brother and sister are both accomplished organists and pianists as well. Music was all around me as I grew up, and every family gathering was an occasion for singing and playing together as a family. Early on I learned that I had a gift for playing piano and singing. I also began playing the trumpet in the 4th grade, and by the 6th grade I was awarded top honors in a high school level music competition. During my high school years I had great success in the realm of music, and I had a natural desire to make music the focus of my life. But my desire to give my life to music was in conflict with a desire that was deeper, more profound, and more promising: the call to preach the gospel.
When I was 11 years old I traveled with my grandmother to Honolulu, Hawaii where she led a week-long revival at Peaceful Holiness Church. It was during that revival that I received my calling to preach the gospel, and I knew that from that night forward my life would be focused upon nothing other than that solemn call. That night I informed my grandmother that God has called me to preach during the service. She was so excited she put me up to preach the next night! That first message was really just a regurgitation of one of her typical messages. I preached on the life of Job and how God allowed everything to be taken from him and then rewarded him for his faithfulness with rich and abundant blessing!
After graduating high school I attended Patten University across the street. It was a wonderful time to be a student at Patten! The Spirit of God moved in every chapel service, in every class, and many of us students would gather in the prayer chapel before and after classes to seek more of God. Those years were formative for me and I wouldn't trade them for the world! After Patten I went on to pursue an M.A. in theology and biblical studies from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. It was there that I fell in love with and married my beautiful wife, Sunhee, who was working on her M.A. in intercultural studies.
After Fuller we returned to the Bay Area where we worked with the Oakland School of Urban Missions and Faith Fellowship Church in San Leandro, where I served as Pastor of Worship and Sunhee served as Director of Missions. In the fall of 2003 we received the Lord's call to plant a church in Emeryville, and on January 4th, 2004 Living Hope Christian Center was born.
Ever since the birth of Living Hope my wife and I have been traveling around the world preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. We have seen God open doors, work miracles, part waters, and calm storms. The beauty of it is that we feel we're just getting started! The best has yet to come!
All of God's blessings are wonderful, but some are more wonderful than others! After 8 years of barrenness, God opened our womb and gave us the most precious gift he could have given us: our daughter, Alethia Sarang Robinson, was born on July 10th, 2009. We are now full of thanks, full of joy, but also full of zeal and full of vision! We live to see his kingdom come and his will done on earth as it is in heaven!
The story continues... In September of 2011 the Lord increased our sphere of influence as I was appointed as pastor of Ark Ministries in Berkeley, a church that was born out of 40 days of fasting and prayer for revival in Berkeley. What a great honor and privilege it has been to serve this body and see it grow and develop!
On the academic side of things, I'm also a Ph.D. candidate at Regent University in Virginia Beach. The subject is renewal theology and I began the program in May of 2003. Its been a long road, but I am pressing to complete my dissertation by March, 2012. My theological objective is to renegotiate the relationship between faith and experience. I find that most believers bring their experience to bear upon their theology in the wrong places and fail to allow their experience to shape their theology in the right places. I want a theology that flows out of and into powerful encounters with the glory of God.
