Eden Chen: Resource Global On Mission To Lead Business Leaders In ‘Massive Cities’

Interview with Eden Chen

Resource Global is in perfect position to lead a movement of business leaders who successfully live out their faith in Jesus at the workplace in major metropolises, said board member Eden Chen recently.

“There are some great programs out there that are training young Christians to see the importance of work and how that applies to their faith,” Chen said. “But I think Resource Global is unique in that it has this international mission of reaching people in these massive cities outside of the U.S., like Nairobi, Jakarta, and Shanghai.”

Chen, who was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list earlier this year, is the co-founder of Fishermen Labs based in Los Angeles. His company specializes in app and website development, virtual reality and augmented reality for brands and startups. The company’s clients include Sony, United Nations, HTC, Qualcomm, Quintiles, NFL and NBC. Chen also founded Knife and Fox, a design studio for brands and startups.

When asked about the reason he joined Resource Global, Chen said, “I originally first joined Resource Global because of my friendship with Tommy Lee (founder) which is probably consistent with a lot of people. I really love Tommy’s heart and the way that he values friendship and people so much, and loves the Lord.

“Secondly, I felt that, at least in my industry and different industries that I’ve been in that there’s always been a lack of Christians that have been interacting in the secular working world,” he explained. “I just don’t interact with that many Christians in this space.”

Chen said he believes that Christians, in general, have “exited the conversation” when it comes to engaging about their faith.

“In my parent’s generation there were lots and lots of Christian business leaders and I think either business caused them to be more lukewarm or maybe the next generation lost their faith,” he said. “There’s something to be said about money and the poisonous effect of it. There is also something to be said about Christians sort of trying to get away from popular society and trying to move to the suburbs and get away from where lots of commerce exists. I think that’s led to a sort of loss of interaction with the business world.

“I love organizations like Resource Global because they are trying to get people back into that ecosystem.”

Chen, 30, wanted to be a youth pastor when he was in college, but through an internship became interested in business and finance. “I did some business financing and found that there were (seemingly) no Christians. There were two Christians out of 150 people in my internship class, “ he said. “That’s when I realized that this is like a complete unreached people group that no one will ever get into and these people are going to make a huge impact and nobody is going to tell them about Jesus.

He said that as sort of a backlash to a generation of Christians that may have talked more overtly about their faith, but perhaps less in the way of biblical action, his generation is “one that is afraid to speak up about their faith, so a lot of times, people don’t even know they are Christian because they are too afraid to even bring it up.”

“What I try to do is to set-up like sort of ‘landmines’,” said Chen, referring to placing mental triggers that spark conversation in people that he meets through his work.

“Fishermen Labs, for example. A lot of people ask, ‘Why do you guys call yourselves Fishermen Labs?’ That’s an automatic opportunity to talk about our faith,” he explained. “I can answer that my business partner and I met at church. We feel like fishermen … the early church was the most influential group ever to exist and they were just a bunch of fishermen who didn’t have a lot of skills. If you just look historically, these 12 people were the most impactful people.”

Such a conversation is very powerful and influential, he said.

He added, “If you don’t have the landmines, I think no one is ever going to bring up the fact that you’re a Christian. It’s not like in the normal course of business, when I’m working on an app, [that] someone is going to ask, ‘Are you a Christian?’ I mean these little blocks that give me the opportunity to talk about faith.

“Ultimately, most Christians and most people on this earth spend most of their waking hours working, whether it’s a job that you like or don’t like, whether you are working 40 hours a week or 80 hours a week, it’s still a large majority of our waking hours. So, we have to have a theology of work because that’s where we are interacting with people.

“So, having a strong basis of justifying why we do what we do and what we are doing is hugely important. If we teach the right things and have the right mentorship that could cause massive change to happen.”

Resource Global has the chance to connect global cities, bring good training and good mentorship to these global cities and spark movements that get business leaders and aspiring business leaders to help and mentor other, he said.

“We’re increasingly living in a globalized, non-Western, post-Christian time,” Chen said. “So you do have these massive revivals that are going on in Africa and China, and yet, it’s very clear that there are theological deficiencies. Christians are trying to get more theological training into Africa and China. What’s not thought about as much are these accountability deficiencies outside the U.S. and the lack of theological training around work, and how work relates to someone’s faith.

“The movement in the U.S., talking about work and faith has only been in the last five years. At least, growing up, I didn’t feel like that was really talked about or that much. We’re just talking about it now.”

Interview by Alex Murashko

Interview with Andrew Jun - Part 2

Tommy: I still remember when I was in Jakarta last and you actually did a whole sermon series for multiple weeks on depression, mental illness, homosexuality. What are some of those taboo topics that you spoke about that are taboo to life in Jakarta?

Andrew: Yeah we called the sermon, “You Can’t Talk About That.  In the US it’s the same as those are a little bit of taboo issues to talk about, but especially in Indonesian culture those things are not going to be addressed over the pulpit nor are they really talked about even among family members and things like that. So you have a bunch of people, a generation, that’s really kind of at a loss on how to deal with those things. And so most of their influence in learning about topics like same sex attraction and depression and politics are really just from each other or from media or something like that. So I think we have the privilege, as an international church, I’m not necessarily bound to some of those cultural constraints and to talk about those kinds of issues that may be a little bit more taboo or people might be a little bit uncomfortable hearing from a pastor. They’ll be a lot more open to hearing it from me, and so we found that sermon series and that teaching really fruitful and helpful for people and even following up with it in their life groups. So we do bible studies according to what we teach on Sundays, and so we dealt with it on a life-on-life level in small groups and hopefully it was really helpful for people to talk about it because those issues exist, things like mental health issues and same-sex attraction—those are things that are pretty relevant in Indonesian culture and society and yet are not really talked about or addressed.

Tommy: Andrew, Indonesia has the fourth biggest population in all of the world and is one of the wealthiest countries in all of the world with fifteen thousand islands.  There is a difference between ethnic Indonesians and Chinese Indonesians. For the average American, what is the difference?

Andrew: The difference is, I think Chinese Indonesians will look at themselves even though they may be third, fourth generation, they still look at themselves as ethnically Chinese and distinctly Chinese, and so I think it would be actually the same thing as second or third generation Korean American or Chinese American who still has a distinct Asian culture and background, and yet also has an American background. So in Indonesia, there will be Chinese Indonesians who are distinct Chinese ethnic background and it may not be 100 percent, but that’s their dominant background, and yet they grew up in Indonesisa.  That’s where their parents were born or they were born, so it’s kind of similar to that.

Tommy: Got it. I have found that the people who are Chinese Indonesians have a huge respect for Americans. Would you find that to be true? Why is there such a huge respect towards those in the West, especially Americans?

Andrew: I think there’s various reasons. I think probably one is probably a little bit of a colonial influence. Indonesia has been colonized and fought over for many, many centuries. And so I think it’s naturally ingrained in them to perhaps look at, for example, Americans or Europeans in a much higher regard. I think also because at least another factor is the young people that are educated and ambitious. I think they really look up to things like the work ethic or social ethics of Americans or Westerners and those are things that they grew up partially with, whether they studied overseas or something like that, for university or high school that they want to emulate. So I mean those are probably two of the factors that I can think of as the reasons why.

Tommy: As a pastor, you’re also learning the importance that some of these individuals may not have a good biblical foundation in terms of digging in the Scripture, and sometimes you’ve actually been trying to do that more as a church, as a pastor?

Andrew: Yeah, that’s right, so we’re really trying. I think it’s two things. It’s giving them a biblical foundation.  They need that understanding of what is the theology of money, or what is the theology of work, what is the theology of marriage and family, so that’s a really big foundation for them. And then the second part to that it is discipling people through that, through what does that look like in their lives on a daily basis? What does that look like for them personally, and how do they need to live in obedience to the scripture in their own context? And I think a lot of time that’s actually the harder part. A lot of guys in our church, they have access to all the books and all the stuff on the internet by Tim Keller and all these great pastors and theologians but walking through those types of issues are challenging. And I think that’s really the role of the local church in Indonesia—to be discipling young people to do.

Tommy: Andrew I have two last questions for you. The topic is nonprofits.  We’re very familiar with that here in the US but in Jakarta people may not have a very high confidence or opinion of nonprofits in Indonesia. Can you talk through a little bit of that and explain this.  

Andrew.  I think a factor that you can’t ignore about working with nonprofits in Indonesia is the factor of corruption. I mean it’s so pervasive in the society in Indonesia, so a lot of nonprofits are going to work in that kind of environment and in that kind of system. So a lot of them are going to be affected by it or kind of get swept under by it.

I think another big issue with nonprofits is leadership. There is a big leadership void, so really having people who are let alone “godly,” but just someone who has integrity and someone who is able to follow through and able to execute on a plan they have, I think that’s a lot harder than often times it’s realized in a situation like Indonesia. So even though people may have great ideas, the execution of those ideas and goals as a nonprofit are just really hard to realize. And so, yeah, it’s really, really hard to find those kinds of people who are really good leaders in the nonprofit sector.

Tommy: Andrew, even as you’ve been with Resource Global and been helping us out on the Indonesian board what is your hope that these cohort members would do to help their city or their country in the future?

I’m really hoping that people that are involved in this cohort first really love Jesus Christ and that love and devotion to Christ comes out in the way that they do everything in their lives, in the way that they’re involved in their local church and discipling people, the way that they’re involved in their families and we see restoration, Christ-like restoration in their own marriages and with their parents and just with their own parenting. I want to see them as people who really are salt in the marketplace, and they’re really light in the marketplace and use that platform to bring Christ into the systems that are in place as well as relationships with people that they work with and the influence that they have. So that’s what I’m really praying for, for the influence in this generation in the next 20, 30 years, that God would really raise some of them up in different spheres in society, whether its business or whether it’s education or government or even in churches. You know, that they would be these people who really love Christ and are really making Him known and exemplifying that in their lives and the generations to come. That is my hope and vision for Jakarta.  

Tommy: Hey Andrew, thank you, I appreciate it!

Interview with Andrew Jun - Part 1

Two Part Interview with Andrew Jun, Lead Pastor of Harvest Mission Community Church (HMCC) Indonesia

Andrew Jun is a graduate of the University of Illinois and also University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.  He now lives in Jakarta with his wife and three kids and is the pastor of two church plants in Jakarta and Karawaci.  Andrew is on the Indonesian board of Resource Global in Jakarta.

Part I

Tommy: Andrew, it’s been more than five years now since you moved to Jakarta.  Can you talk to me about what life in Jakarta or Indonesia is compared to life in US? Similarities, differences, things that.

Andrew: A long time missionary was describing life in Jakarta to me when we first moved there and he said the difference between Jakarta and the US is the same difference as Jakarta and everywhere else in Indonesia. So it’s quite unique compared to other places in Indonesia because you have so many of your modern conveniences. Actually some things are even more modern than in the US…the malls and things like that are all very highly developed and really really nice.

But really Jakarta is full of contrasts.  You have some places that are just amazing and modern. And then you have some places that are very developing and can be very frustrating because you just can’t expect to have things run as efficiently as in the US. So we have to deal with regular things like traffic and different things concerning the weather and other things. As well as because it’s kind of island culture, everything just runs a lot slower. There’s something called *jim-kar-et* which is translated as rubber time, which is everything is flexible, nothing is really, like, on a tight schedule, so we have to be really flexible about what we can accomplish in a day, or who we’re going to be meeting at what time.  We just always have to be flexible.

Tommy:  Andrew, one of the things I’ve also experienced in Jakarta is the fact that being flexible means sometimes people will cancel out on you or reschedule on you.  Is that just a way of life and how culture is?

Andrew: In Jakarta everyone is on the go and there is probably many different variables going on, factors going on in a person’s daily life, that they can have multiple meetings or have a previous meeting and it will go way over and they just have to cancel the meeting after or something like that. So it’s like operating in New York City, with the infrastructure, you know?

Tommy: Yeah, and you mentioned traffic. When people think, wow, California is bad traffic; Atlanta, Chicago is bad traffic, that traffic in the US is nothing compared to Jakarta, right?

Andrew: Yeah that’s right. I mean usually it will take me about 45 minutes to get into the city center. Without any traffic that’s what it should take. But it will take anywhere between an hour and half, two hours, maybe even three hours if traffic is bad. I kind of look at it like this. In the US you can run multiple errands on a single trip, like you’ll stop by at one place and then you’ll go to Target and you’ll go somewhere else and the library. But really here in Jakarta you don’t run errands like that. If you can make it to one place and run one errand in a day, you’ve had a pretty good day, you accomplished something, but never more than one errand in a day unless you’re planning on spending all day running errands. You’re lucky and productive if you have two meetings squeezed in.

Tommy: One of the things I also realized and you’ve taught me is family obligations and work life is actually very important and interrupts ministry and some of the things you can do.

Andrew: Yeah, that’s correct. I mean because people in Jakarta, their working life is so packed Monday through Friday and oftentimes bleeds into the weekends. The weekend time, Saturdays and Sundays, are really important to family time and it’s very guarded time to spend with family, even though sometimes it isn’t like meaningful interaction or meaningful conversation.  It’s just kind of the Asian mindset of just being present, and being together is an accomplishment. So people are really held to those obligations and younger people really want to honor their family or have a lot of pressure to honor their family obligations.

Tommy: As a pastor, how have you found what’s been effective for you to disciple these people and to really care for them? Has it just been spending time or building relationships with them? What’s important in doing ministry in Jakarta?

I think it’s being really patient, kind of picking and choosing your battles and discipling people through issues rather than discipling people to make one decision or two decisions or something like that. It’s really helping them follow Christ and knowing that sometimes people will fail or disappoint you and other times you know they’ll be learning and they’ll be making good decisions and healthy decision. So I think it’s just a lot of patience and trying to instill principles into people in which case it will not always be a linear and a smooth process for people. It’s going to be a very up and down thing.

Metrics in Missions

written by Bobby Doll, Director of Impact

The impact value chain provides a framework to measure impact and follows the basic logic model; inputs and activities lead to outputs, outcomes, and impact.  Essentially a map of how an organization’s assets and daily functions lead to impact, the impact value chain provides key measurables of the successes and failures of a program.  Somewhat crudely, inputs and activities boil down to money and time, time both in the general sense and time spent performing a specific action.  Outputs, outcomes, and impact are all results measured in different ways, at different times, and of different scope. Outputs are short-term and generally of relatively small scope such as number of participants in a program; outcomes are longer term and of relatively larger scope such as effects of a program on the participants; impact can take up to a decade to measure but has the largest scope such as effects on the society and/or environment.  Formal impact evaluation is extremely costly and time-consuming due to its tremendous capacity, but looking at outputs and outcomes, a much simpler and less rigorous task, provides useful measurements and analytics. This type of performance measurement is what we are focusing on in the short term, which will hopefully lead to impact evaluation later on.

The impact value chain is not a perfect method, however, especially in the arena of spiritual fitness.  The logic model’s central premise is based on causality; that is, each link leads to the next one.  Measuring spiritual health does not necessarily have a direct link to the use and management of resources for several reasons.  First, the impact value chain tends to deal with the efficient use of assets that lead to measurable change not with changes in an individual’s beliefs; second, culture, society, community, personal circumstances, etc. all play a role in one’s faith, which makes it difficult to apply a theory of change to each situation; third, the Spirit plays a tremendous role in one’s heart change and sanctification, a near impossible identifiable and measurable link in the impact value chain.

On the quantitative side, Resource Global primarily uses self-reporting of a few different key metrics to measure the effectiveness of the Cohorts. The first is called Net Promoter Score, which measures the willingness of Cohort members to recommend the Cohort experience to others. NPS is used throughout the world of customer satisfaction and is well regarded as a proxy of customer loyalty. Each month, Resource Global calculates the NPS of the overall Cohort experience as well as the NPS of that month’s specific Cohort session and compares them to previous months’ numbers in order to determine the positives and/or negatives of that month. Of course, satisfaction is not the only point the matters or contributes to Cohort effectiveness. We also measure two points of Cohort members’ engagement and involvement with the material presented and discussed.

Reference:

Bronkema, D. (2015). Towards and Understanding and Practice of Spiritual Metrics. Page 15.

Meet Anggit: Defying the Odds to Impact Indonesia

Anggit grew up in Sidoarjo, East Java. After her father passed away when she was just four years old, her mother worked as a teacher to support her young family, earning amsalary that was barely enough for them to survive daily. Anggit began working at a very young age, selling various items and giving private lessons to her younger neighbors.Now, Anggit works on a team of academic administrators. They help teachers grow through professional development and develop Christian education curriculum for 30 schools (and more in the future) throughout the islands of Indonesia.

Anggit is a Jakarta Cohort member, and is being equipped and mentored to see God's hand in her story as she seeks to use the skills He's given her to impact Indonesia. We asked her some questions about her role and how she sees God using her through it.

When did you first know you wanted to be in education?

I come from a long line of teachers and administrators but it wasn’t until 2014 that I fully understood my passion for teaching. After all the formal education and experiences I’ve had, I’m convicted to continue to grow and invest in the mission of education. I see and have experienced how education liberates people from darkness. It brings me joy to be involved in the process.

In what ways have you seen firsthand the impact of your work?

Everytime I visit the schools, I hear stories of students leaving their old bad habits and choosing to do the right thing because of the education they’ve received; students then teach good practices to their parents and impact the family culture.

I see leaders and teachers trying to implement what they have been learning from my team to improve their school. I witness how the schools are trying to proclaim Christ even when facing challenges because of this. When I see the map of Indonesia with the school locations on it, I praise God for the work He has done.

One particular example of encouragement was when I recently visited Labuan Bajo (Flores, Indonesia). The leaders had shared they were feeling insecure, confused, and uncertain of what they were doing: “We didn’t know whether we made the right decision. Is the school running well? Talking to you comforted us and confirmed our decision and what we are doing here. Thank you for praying for us.”

I almost shed tears upon hearing what they said. It confirmed that I am doing what God has called me to, laboring for eternity.

Where do you see opportunities in Indonesia for God to use emerging leaders? What makes you most hopeful, even amidst challenges?

In general, I see that Indonesia needs strong leaders everywhere in many areas such as commerce, health, arts, religious institutions, government, education, and domestic affairs.  We need leaders with vision who see the big picture, who fear and depend on God, who are able to translate vision into implementations, and who share Gospel values.  

In particular, our school system feels that we lack leaders who will then transform the education system in Indonesia. We employ about 1.100 teachers and staff and have 15.000 students all over Indonesia. We always try to make sure that our employees are growing in Christian faith because they are on the frontlines of those who teach, invest, and interact with the students. If all students have the opportunities to listen to the Good News, to see godly life examples from the school community, and to witness how sinners try to live in integrity, by God’s grace they might encounter a lifetime personal relationship with Jesus.

Following Christ is still a narrow path. Our nation is facing a very difficult situation at the moment and it’s so hard to be hopeful since Christians here are pressed in many ways. However, every time I hear progress or good practices from schools, I am confident that God is working and is in control. I am hopeful that He will restore our world. I am looking forward to see Him work in and through all of us.

What have you enjoyed most about being part of the Jakarta Cohort so far?

Listening to different speakers has enriched and confirmed my understanding of work. It’s challenged me to reflect and implement what I’ve learned to my sphere of influence.

Network News: Lessons Learned at ICON Conference 2016

At Resource Global, we’re growing a network of young professionals all around the world to cultivate their potential and impact their cities with the Gospel. With over 60% of our lives spent in the workplace, our work matters, and we’re committed to inspiring and equipping young professionals to see their work as a critical opportunity to serve God and impact others. In October 2016, we’re launching a City Cohort, an eight-month in-depth discipleship program, in Jakarta, Indonesia. To kick off the Cohort, we hosted a one-day Faith & Work Conference on June 11th in Jakarta. Over 100 young professionals were inspired and equipped to honor God through the workplace at the ICON Conference that day. One individual, Jonathan Barki, shared his key takeaways and applications below.

My Key Takeaways & Applications:

Contribution to God’s Kingdom:

I hope to contribute to God’s Kingdom, and believe that my multiplier impact is from what I do best. I am passionate about my work, and hope to leverage on my business resources and network to make a positive social impact. I am currently exploring opportunities in social impact investing with the support of our firm.

Work and Rest:

While I push myself to commit and perform to the highest level at work, I am learning to balance my personal life with rest, and time with God. It has been wonderful, as I have begun a new and evolving routine of prayer and absorbing the Word of God.

My Identity:

I am learning to separate myself from simply my achievement at work by:

• Thanking God and reminding myself that everything was given and lent to me, not earned!

• Accepting that any day God may once again take everything away from me

• To build my home around Him, and not what’s around me

• Reminding myself that I can only find my peace through Christ

Accountability Partners:

I am very blessed to have a wonderful group of brothers, who share the same faith, the same passion, and drive in life. We relate and support each other through our struggles, and also share with one another God’s glory and blessings. I'm praying the members of our group will continue to grow and develop as believers and workers for God.