On Thursday, March 3, 140 people gathered for Cairn’s annual Church Leaders Conference. The Church Leaders Conference takes place over the course of one day, inviting Church leaders across denominations to enjoy an edifying and educational event. This year’s conference was centered around the theme of being the Church in the digital age.
Jay Y. Kim, a lead pastor at WestGate Church in the Silicon Valley of CA, led the conference as the keynote speaker. In addition to pastoring a church, he works at Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, CA as a teacher-in-residence. He’s also authored a book, Analog Church, and has had his writing published by Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, Relevant, Mission Alliance, and more.
The conference’s main session started in the morning from 9:15 to 10:30 am. Breakout sessions, including “Digital Discipleship in the Home” with Mrs. Renee Beamer, “The Bible’s Use of the Bible and Preaching” with Dr. Gary Schnittjer, and “Addressing Issues of Forgiveness in Ministry” with Dr. Bryan Maier occurred after a brief break. After lunch, a second main session took place, which was followed by a Q&A session ending at 2:15 pm.
During his seminar sessions, Jay Y. Kim challenged church leaders to think critically about how to best lead congregations in the digital age, giving advice on how to wisely steward the gift of technology and raising awareness of its potential pitfalls. Jay Y. Kim shared,
“As convenience, accessibility, and automation increases, what happens right alongside it? There is a decrease in strength, skill, participation, and practice…To follow Jesus faithfully and deeply we have to recognize and embrace the reality that there is no technological substitute that can do that work for you. Discipleship to Jesus demands effort and participation. The more we leverage technology . . . we simply have to reckon with reality and ask ourselves the question: how is our leveraging of this technology potentially decreasing strength, skill, participation, and practice in the lives of our people?”
If you’re interested in hearing more about Jay Y. Kim’s message, watch session 1 and session 2 on Cairn University’s YouTube channel.
