National Student Leaders Conference

Was asked to write an article for this event about evangelism that I attended so would like to share with you all too and also so that all of you will have an idea of what's going on with the Christians students in University:) which i thank God that I can be a part of in the front line and so here it is, I hope you all are still reading this blog and keeping it alive ^^:

On the 26th September 2009 this year, FES held the annual national student leaders conference themed Students Reaching Students: Quo Vadis?. It was held in Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) Headquarter. About 90 student leaders from Singapore tertiary institutions, Polytechnics and Universities, gathered together in the morning at the Clementi campus. The event started after an opening prayer. It began with a worship of songs led by President of SIM ISCF in 3 languages, English, Mandarin and Bahasa Indonesia. It was a meaningful start to the event indeed.

Then the event proceeded with a speech given by Dr Dave Geisler, President of Meekness & Truth™ Ministries who educated the crowd about the challenges faced by a Christian in evangelism over history, from the past until the present. Dr Geisler also analysed the challenges faced by the generation in this era to share the Truth and introduced two main strategies in evangelism relevant to the present situation: to ask questions that probe people to rethink their beliefs and to tell stories about how Christ has changed our life.

Mr Simon Seow, Director of Creative Communication, Campus Crusade for Christ Singapore, during his sharing, shared a video with the crowd and elaborated on the creative communications in campus among the youths of today. And the last speaker,
Dr Stephen Lim, Mission Committee Chairman, FES Singapore gave a personal recount of his experience of a colleague that demonstrated another challenge in evangelism, tightly bounded to the unwillingness of losing one’s culture, family bonds and values and encouraged leaders to delve upon these issues.

Following the lunch after the speeches, student leaders were divided into 6 groups within their respective university to discuss and evaluate the current position of their school in terms of strategies and actions taken in evangelism within the campus. Each school then presented to the floor their strategies and a further discussion was carried out with the rest of the student leaders. Student leaders were challenged to evaluate and improve their strategies. Different approaches to evangelism, from SIM’s lifestyle evangelism through fun filled events that impact the school to NUS’ seminars to change the mindset of Christians and prepare undergraduates for the future challenges in the working, were discussed. Issues and ideas were brought up in the interaction that evaluated the effectiveness of each approach.

Two main case studies were presented during the conference. The first one was on EBS as done in FES Chinese Work and the second, the Friendship Evangelism Programme in the FES Indonesian Ministry which left us with an idea on the programs’ implementation and methods and also, something to carry to God in our prayers.

The conference was a great success. I'm thankful to God for the opportunity to be a part of the event. It was an eye opener. I learnt more about evangelism, about postmodernism thoughts and beliefs that makes evangelism so much more of a challenge in today's world. But God is sovereign and gracious because he brings us brothers and sister closer together and strong as a body of Christ even in evangelism during this time. It is in our hands to make “students reaching students” more than just a feel-good slogan but a reality.

Through this conference, I am also aware of the conviction of other student leaders in their campus and it encourages and heartens me to do more for God. Through the discussions, I have also learnt that there are many ways to spread the gospel, lifestyle evangelism, events and through our talents and capabilities (like teaching soccer). It shows me that God is working in all ways, in many creative ways to spread a common good news, the Gospel. I would love to attend more of these conferences. It was spectacular and it felt like I've grown more as a young Christian. Again, I thank God for this opportunity.