Evangelization at Work
The title of this article has a double meaning. The word “work” can be read as a verb and noun, thereby indicating the effects of evangelization or how to evangelize in the office, respectively. Today I wish to share my experience with both interpretations.
From Sunday, 12/16/07 till Wednesday, 12/19/07, I attended a training on options trading conducted by Dr. Clemen Chiang, the CEO and founder of the Freely Business School, based in Singapore. Before I signed up for this seminar, I had attended a preview of options trading conducted by one of his colleagues and I came away with my suspicion that Dr. Chiang was a Christian.
As the session started on Sunday, my belief about Clemen’s faith became stronger as he started mentioning God unabashedly. Eventually on that first day itself he confessed to all the participants that he is a Christian and that one of the beneficiaries of his wealth (he’s a multi-millionaire) is his Church. Throughout the seminar he peppered examples of how he used his money. I list some down below.
- At his wedding a few years ago, he held the reception at a rural town at the south of Malaysia and invited to his reception 900 people, most of whom were from broken homes and single-parent homes.
- He advised the atheists in the crowd to consider that without a God there could be no creation
- He spoke about a company CEO who ran his business like Jesus, with 12 vice-presidents
- He mentioned the Holy Trinity when trying to drive into our heads certain principles that we needed to remember are always associated.
- He showed us some email testimonies of past students who had become successful who thanked God first and then him and pointed out that we should always thank God first then only a human being (he did this twice).
I was actually shocked that this man was blatantly mentioning God during a finance seminar. I was also proud that here was a fellow Christian evengelizing without asking people to become Christians. At the end of the seminar he asked participants who had any testimonials to come forward.
This is the cruncher. A Muslim woman in veil (with face exposed) came up and mentioned that she wasn’t actually a spiritual person but she found it incredible that this finance seminar was very spiritual! And this seminar has helped her decide to be more spiritual. This immediately reminded me of something Mother Theresa mentioned many years ago to the effect that she was showing Christ to the people that she helped in Calcutta and wished that they would become better Hindus and Muslims. Her intention was not to convert them to Christianity but to show Jesus’ love for them.
Dr. Chiang has convinced me that if we mention our faith and believes to other people (even at work) it doesn’t need to offend others. It may actually encourage someone else to practice their faith more. I discussed this with my wife and we concluded that the Holy Spirit can move even non-Christians as the example of the Muslim lady showed. Obviously throughout the seminar the Holy Spirit was moving some souls to change.
