Kingdom Calling
“The FUTURE of our movement is in this room…”
December 27-31, 2010 was the first ever Kingdom Calling Conference in Toronto. Formerly, the National Student Leadership Conference, Kingdom Calling focused on students in their third and fourth year of University, who are asking questions of how to live their lives for the Kingdom once they graduate. The conference featured key speakers from Servant Partners, Inter-Varsity, China Partners, Ratanak and a few other mission organizations. Throughout the week speakers would give talks, lead studies and share their testimonies about how they received and responded to God’s call on their life.
The conference had a minimal number of staff in attendance, as there was a desire to allow space for students to connect with one another and to hold each other accountable and minister to one another as they were in similar positions and facing similar decisions. In the past, this has been strategic, as these students will often stay in touch with one another and spur each other on to say yes to the various invitations they have received. I can assuredly say that one of the reasons that I am and remain on staff with Inter-Varsity is because of the friendships I’ve made and the conversations I’ve had with people I’ve met at this conference.
Since, the conference was taking place in Toronto; the Greater Toronto Area staff team was invited to host the students and staff in attendance of the conference by offering activities and tours of the city on one day of the conference. I lead a group of students on a tour of Kensington Market. The students were excited to visit and experience the market, and had a great time in the cafes and boutiques. I was really excited about leading this tour, as I love showing people my favourite parts of Toronto, and Kensington Market is in my top ten! I also had a delightful time with the students who signed up for my tour. I only knew one personally, as we’d met a few years ago at a city/script. But I knew a few others by association as they were students of staff with whom I was good friends. As I engaged the students in my group in conversation, I was excited about the various invitations they were considering; some were considering doing an internship with Inter-Varsity, while others were considering taking part in a global or urban partnership this summer. As they wrestled with their invitations they were excited to ask me questions as I’d taken part in both the internship and a global partnership in the past. It was also such a blessing to watch as they ministered and debriefed with each other about what they were thinking. I almost didn’t come to lead a tour, as I was exhausted after the holidays and needed to complete some assignments for a course I was enrolled in at Regent College. But, I willingly chose to sacrifice the time to invest in these students; as it was exciting for me to have conversations and debrief with students who weren’t my own but were students of my friends who were staff; I considered it an honour to have them share with me what they were thinking and to be able to offer follow up advice to my staff friends. I also saw this as an opportunity to invest in the future staff interns, as they could very well become partners in ministry in the near future.
Ironically, during my time and conversations with students, each one asked me the question that was actually the topic of one of the papers I had to write, “Why did you say yes to coming on staff?” So by spending time away from my paper, I was actually able to return to it with a much better sense of how I wanted to answer that question. I love when God surprises me and meets my needs in places I don’t consider!
As a thank you for hosting students, I was invited to attend one day of the conference. I chose to go the following day, and what a day it was! It was the last full day of the conference, and it was packed with testimonies, bible studies and lots of exciting conversations. I continued conversations started with students I met the previous day, and had some other conversations with students that were attending campuses in the GTA. During an early morning break, I stood on the perimeter of the room and observed the students, staff interns and staff interacting. I observed to my friend Jenn, who is staff at Laurier, and actually one of my many “conference friends”, that we were standing in the presence of the future of Inter-Varsity’s movement on campuses, camps and around the world! It was such an honour and a blessing to be in the room and have conversations with these students at such a crucial juncture in their lives!
Another highlight from my visit at the Conference was spending time with Ashley (who I’ve mentioned in a earlier post). It was encouraging and exciting to catch up and hear about the things she’s been reading and engaging around her ethnic identity since our last conversation. I was able to bring along a book that had spoken deeply to me to show her, and offer her hope through sharing stories of my journey. I also had the opportunity to join her table group for the bible studies that afternoon, and it was such a blessing to watch her lead. I am excited for what the future holds for Ashley as she continues with Inter-Varsity!
By the end of the day, I was so excited by the things I had been able to witness and experience, I was surprised to discover I’d been there for over 12 hours, and spent most of that actively speaking or listening! In the days and weeks that followed, I heard many great stories of how the students who attended the Conference were responding to the invitations they’d received and continue to be excited for what the future holds for them!
National Staff Conference
The IV triennial National Staff Conference happened November 29 –December 3, 2010, just outside of Toronto. This was my first National Staff Conference, and it was conference filled with enriching and inspiring conversations, seminars and talks. Each day so full that a day felt like it was 5 days; by the end of the conference it felt like we’d been there for a month instead of just 5 days!
We were to do our best to enter the conference rested. This was not my reality. The week before the conference was my last week at my part-time job. It was full of with early mornings and long nights. Once the work week was over, I actually spent the weekend preparing for my staff role at the conference, which was being part of the Stage Design Team. The days before the conference was full of phone calls and last-minute errand running. But despite some of the stress entering the Conference, I had a great time with my Stage Design Team, as we brought the various components of our design to life. For me, it was a time to reclaim and redeem my Interior Design background; and I thoroughly enjoyed using those skills to symbolically impart the theme of the conference.
The theme of the conference was the Word of God being spread amongst all the nations. We saw this in the morning bible studies in the book of Acts and the inspiring plenary sessions led by Rev. Dr. Brenda Salter-McNeil. In the afternoons, we had opportunities to attend seminars about a variety of topics. I attended a seminar about Proxes, (if you’re wondering what one is, keep reading my blog and I’ll be talking about them at length in another post) and one about building partnerships with ethnic churches. Each left me with a lot to think about and with a lot of ideas.
As much as I enjoyed the conference content, there were many hard moments for me throughout the conference. At various points, I felt conflicted in my calling and identity. These moments were often spurred on from “altar calls” made during the plenary sessions, but sometimes would spring up in conversations I would have with staff that I only nominally knew. For a good chunk of the week, I felt “blocked” in more ways than one. One particularly challenging moment occurred during an alter call where we were asked to pray in our mother tongue. For some reason, I was extremely triggered by this exhortation, partly because I didn’t know my mother tongue. After there was a call to pray in any other language, and at that point I felt like the part of my brain that retained all the languages I did know was blocked.
However, the following day offered redemption. The plenary session was about being bridge builders. Near the end of the session, there were two altar calls that night: one for those who felt they were bridge builders and one for those who felt they were had been overlooked and were not living to their full potential as a leader. All who responded to the call were prayed for by the president of IV Canada. This was the first altar call I’ve ever responded to, and afterward I felt really exposed. I wanted to get out of that room ASAP, but was stopped by Ashley. Ashley is an extraordinary woman. She is doing an internship with Inter-Varsity in Montreal, she is of German and Pakistani descent, and though I don’t know her well, we’ve had a lot of great conversations about culture and identity. Ashley was struck by the message that evening, and immediately sought me out to talk. What followed was a great conversation about identity and culture. Reflecting on the conversation later, I realized that though my official focus of Campus Ministry is not South Asian Ministry, I was doing it anyway with the conversations I’ve been having with various staff within the organization. I realized that my calling is to follow where God leads me, regardless of my official job assignment.
On the whole, I left the Conference, largely unsettled. However, as I’ve since discovered, God often uses the places of discontent in our lives to fuel vision for future ministry.
The Arch 