Ryu2.mind

Last weekend, I attended the Chinese Entrepreneur Association Conference, essentially a "by invitation" conference bringing together about 150 young Chinese-American Christian professionals with a desire to make an impact in their respective spheres. A lot of things I still need to process, and review, but that's how I usually learn anyhow... but in short, it was a time of encouragement and affirmation for me, that I'm far from alone in my decision to somehow meld my professional interests together with my interest in China and my desire for lay ministry out there. For the visual types, you can, of course, see the pictures here.

Michael Chang was one of the keynote speakers, and it was definitely a blessing for him to be in that role. He'd actually had visited GrX a few times before, but I didn't have a time to interact with him. But at the conference, I found out first hand he's very humble and down to earth, despite his obvious worldly success. It was this aspect of himself, rather than his own athetic accomplishments, which struck me the most about him. Not only that, he is a man of conviction and passion as well. Hearing him speak and talking with him, however briefly, made me convinced that Michael's greatest contribution to His kingdom are yet to come off of the tennis courts.

Lee and Miltinnie Yih were also key in making the conference what it was for me. I had heard both of them speak at the World Christian Conference in 2003, and it was indeed through WCC that I heard of this conference for the first time. Lee had immediately struck a note with me, as he and Miltinnie had lived for 17 years in Hong Kong working in the financial and education industries as a lay person, and being able to naturally build relationships and be a witness for Christ by opening up their lives wholeheartedly without abandon to others -- exactly what I want to do come a few years in Beijing. Even though it wasn't the first time I heard their life story and testimony, hearing them tell it again in their "home turf" and to a smaller, more focused group made listening to it for the second time around even more funnier and moving as well.

What was the most meaningful for me the most about the conference overall? For me, it was the networking, by far. It was especially good to meet many East Coast brothers and sisters... a few of them whom I had known via blogs through mutual friends, and was meeting for the first time in real life. For me, having grown up all my life in the Bay Area, including going to college and then working, it was largely a new experience for me, where nearly everyone was new to me, but yet, tied by common interests of integrating work, ministry, and missions together. Even in other Christian conferences like Urbana or WCC I've previously attended, I think my own vision of tentmaking overseas put me out in a "fringe" apart from the majority of the other attendees, but here, that "fringe" became the majority, so that aspect certainly made the interactions all that more valuable and memorable.

Indeed, I realize that the one common thread between all the really "connected" people I know -- eg: BC2DC, davelu, clieu, vgong, etc. have been that they've lived on both the East and West coasts for extended periods of time. And of course, doing business in general, but especially East Asia, and in particular, China is itself all about networking and cultivating the all-important guanxi (connections), so it was a good chance to make contacts, and that was by far the biggest value I got from it.

Incidentally, they should have named it the friends of clieu conference -- it seriously seemed at least two-thirds of the attendees knew her. A typical conversation went like this:
"I go to a church called Great Exchange, it's in Sunnyvale..."

"Oh yeah, I've heard of it... I have a friend who goes there. Do you know clieu?"

So, thanks, clieu for serving as an unwilling and unknowing icebreaker in many a conversation I had. =)

Speaking of GrX, I bumped into Kevin, Vanessa, Abbey, David, and Ivy from GrX as well. It was funny because none of us really had any idea the others were attending it as well, so it wasn't totally devoid of familiar faces for me.

It was overwhelming for me at times, simply because I like to meet people in smaller group settings, and usually I'm easily distracted in large groups because of all the hustle and bustle, but fortunately, we had a few times of "mentor huddles" where small groups of 4-6 people would meet with a "mentor" in a small group setting, and share and discuss openly, about topics ranging from doing business with a Christian outlook in the secular world to -- yes -- relationships.

Which brings me to the next point -- the conference explicitly mentioned that it was focused towards 25-35 year old and singles, so it sort of had a reputation amongst the Christian community as being sort of a big "set up", or "meat market", if that's what you want to call it. lcshih, someone I met at the conference addresses the issue very well in his entry, and for the most part, I agree with his thoughts. I didn't think of it as a big group date or anything like that. Is there potential for people to get together? Sure, but there's potential for people to get together by meeting in a church, at work, at school, in a bar, in an airplane, too...

Yes, the conference was probably more explicit about the singles focus than most others, which was most likely why as a venue it seemed a bit more explicitly "sketchy" than the aforementioned other places, but again, the topic of Christian singleness IS an issue that should be addressed and not swept under the rug as a taboo, and I'm glad that someone like Michael and the conference organizers see it fit to discuss frankly and honestly.

For me, I didn't even notice the singles focus part until after I registered, and so I honestly could justify to myself I was going for pure motivations. It did seem some people didn't want to admit that they were going, for fear that their friends would paint them as going to a "Christian meat market."

Did I meet some girls that I would like to get to know better? Sure, and I also met more guys I'd like to do the same thing as well. Indeed, the conference made me more secure and confident that I need to get my own life in shape first before thinking of relationships. so all in all, that whole "set up" aspect was a total non-issue for me.

All in all, it's a conference that should be repeated, perhaps replicated on the West Coast as well. I think a main obstacle for people who really have a heart for tentmaking/lay ministry is the belief that they seem to be doing something few others are doing, where in fact, it's by all accounts, something that will be a vital strategy of fulfilling the Great Commission in the 21st century. It was very pleasing for me that most people at the conference didn't need to be "sold" on the idea of lay ministry, for they already were. Rather, they just need to meet with peers and mentors to "make sure" their paths were straight, and be encouraged in their own journeys, and the CEA conference was splendid towards this goal.

"Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching." -- Hebrews 10:25