Following the first Asian American Ministry Conference (AAMC) hosted by Biola University's Talbot School of Theology in 2014, the school is hosting its second such conference this year on the theme, "Lessons on Leadership," from November 6-7.
The conference, specifically hosted by the Asian American Ministry cohort of the Doctor of Ministry program at Talbot, will be focusing on how Asian Americans can be leaders in three main areas: in the home, in the church, and in the workplace.
"Asian Americans today are leading their own church plants, leading ministries within immigrant churches and multi-ethnic mega-churches, and even being invited to lead relative large multi-ethnic churches," said Dr. Benjamin Shin, the director of Asian American Doctor of Ministry cohort at Talbot. They are also increasingly found in government positions, and gaining more attention on the media through certain Asian American actors and TV series focused on the Asian American story.
However, despite the fact that more Asian Americans may be emerging as leaders, there are not enough opportunities for these leaders to be trained, Dr. Shin said.
"We just want this conference to be a service for those people who need training, or want to give training, but can't," Dr. Shin said. "Many people have a hard time juggling so many things just for the local church that the last thing that comes to mind for a lot of them is training. We want to provide this place for training so all they have to do is to bring their people."
"We want to explore how Asian culture mixes in and balances with what the Bible teaches about leadership," said John Shin, an adjunct professor of Biblical Studies at Biola University. "From a pastoral perspective, I hope through the conference, young leaders could wake up to the areas that they need development in."
The conference will begin with a session on Friday night on choosing the right elders and deacons led by Dr. Alexander Strauch, who has written numerous books on elders and deacons, including Biblical Eldership: An Urgent Call to Restore Biblical Church Leadership and The New Testament Deacon: Minister of Mercy. Many of his books have been translated in Korean and Chinese, and Strauch himself has also visited Korea and China multiple times to speak.
"There is no one in the Asian American realm yet who has written as much as [Strauch], has had as much experience as him, or is able to speak on the topic like him," Dr. Shin explained. "In our conversations, he brought up exactly the types of issues that I would've wanted to address at an Asian American conference. He's very contextual and we'll have much to learn from him."
Saturday's portion of the conference includes three different tracks of plenary sessions and breakout sessions, each track exploring what it means to be godly leaders in the home, in the church, and in the workplace. Some of the speakers on Saturday include Rev. Cory Ishida, the senior pastor of Evergreen Baptist Church, who will be speaking on godly fatherhood; Dr. Joanne Jung, an associate professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at Biola University, who will be speaking on godly motherhood; Brian Chan, the CEO of Liferay, who will be speaking on leadership in the marketplace; and Drs. Jeff and Stephanie Kim, both of whom who have had experience in positions of leadership in the education system, who will be speaking on being "lights for Christ" in education; among others.
For more information, visit aace.link/conference.
