Alpha Workplace Conference has empowered and equipped thousands of workplace delegates from Malaysia and Asia Pacific countries ever since launching it back in 2011. On 21 and 28 August 2021, we held the Alpha Workplace Conference 2021 (AWC 2021) for the very first time fully online. The theme of the conference this year is Beyond Sundays where our hope is for every Christian who is working is to proclaim Christ in all of worklife. We are honoured that we had this opportunity to organise this conference again with over 739 people from 206 churches that participated.
During the first day, the HTBB Worship team led us in worship and the conference kick-started with Pr. Dr. Philip Lyn and YB Hannah Yeoh in the first session entitled, ‘Beyond Sundays’.
The second session was hosted by Rev. Abel Cheah where Pr. Joel Vergis, Freda Liu, and Suet Ling tackled the question on ‘Where is the space for Christianity in a secular/multi-racial workplace?’.This session was filled with authentic and honest perspectives that were shared between the panelists. Freda Liu shared that whenever she performs well at her workplace, it is a reflection of the principles that were guided by her Christian faith.
“If I do a good job, it is a reflection of the principles that are guided by my faith.”
Freda Liu
The conference continued with a breakout session featuring two streams, the Culture stream and the Church Leaders’ and Pastors’ stream. For the Culture stream, Paul Kong hosted Roshan Thiran, Lou Yeoh, and Fui-Yu Choong where they discussed ‘Building a healthy team culture virtually’. On the other hand, the Church Leaders’ and Pastors’ stream was hosted by Pr. Dr. Philip Lyn and he was joined by a panel of speakers namely, Pr. Helga Smith, Koh Tat Seng, and Jason Ngiam where they tackled the topic of ‘God inside the workplace’.
The last session for the first day of the AWC 2021 was led by Melissa Theng and Priscilla Khor where they talked about ‘Building an evangelism team at work’. It was a session filled with insights and practical tips on how to evangelise in the workplace using Alpha.
“One of the most important ways of bringing God to work is to share the Good News and Alpha is such a wonderful tool for this purpose.”
Melissa Theng
The second day of the conference started with worship that was led by Every Nation Church. For the first session, we are grateful to have partnered with Global Leadership Network where Carey Nieuwhof spoke to us about ‘Burnout and recovery’. He talked us through the signs and effects of burnout and provided advice on how we could overcome it.
“Time off will not heal you when the problem is how you spend your time on.”
Carey Nieuwhof
Following that was a breakout session featuring the same streams as the first day. In the Culture stream, Dato’ Kathleen Chew was joined by Amy Blair, Samuel Isaiah, and Xiao Cheng where they discussed ‘Social changemakers’. As for the Church Leaders’ and Pastors’ stream, Pr. Dr. Philip Lyn, Pr. Dr. Lew Lee Choo, Rev. Kevin Loo, and Pr. Timothy Loh talked about ‘God outside the Church’.
The last session of the conference sees Rev. Miles Toulmin wrapping up the conference with ‘Reviving Evangelism’. Rev. Miles shared various encouraging words, particularly when he said, “Take spiritual and literal authority over that which is your remit and responsibility at work”.
The workplace is truly the largest unreached mission field in the world. We are called to be kingdom culture changers by bringing the rule of Christ into our workplaces. Over the two conference days, we are grateful to the 24 speakers from both the workplace and church that shared meaningful insights and stories. We hope to see you again next time!
Pictures from the conference
