The SOLA Conference is back. After being canceled in 2020 because of the growing Covid-19 crisis, the conference has returned as a digital event, which will be released on the SOLA Network website beginning May 24.
This week, we will be previewing some of the content for the 2021 Conference. Today, we will begin with an interview with SOLA Conference Joshua Lim, who oversaw the canceled 2020 Conference and this year’s digital conference.
Aaron Lee, social media manager for the SOLA Network, interviewed Joshua Lim about both conferences, as well as what it takes to run a conference.
Below is a transcript of the conversation. It has been edited for clarity and length. You can listen to the audio here.
Aaron Lee: Hi, everyone, this is Aaron. I am the social media manager for SOLA Network. Today we have a very special guest, Josh, would you please introduce yourself to us?
Joshua Lim: Thanks for inviting me, and thanks for all that you do for SOLA. You do so much that people probably have no idea.
My name is Josh. I currently serve as the lead pastor for OMC Family Chapel, which is the English ministry or English congregation for a local Korean church out in Los Angeles. I’ve been in my role for about five years now. Prior to that, I was serving as a youth pastor at the same church. I’m married to my wife, Jen. We will be celebrating our fourth wedding anniversary next month.
I currently serve as the conference director for SOLA Network, and I’ve been in this role for about two years now, and five years altogether as part of the conference planning team.
Aaron Lee: And that’s what I wanted to talk to you about today. In 2020, the SOLA Conference was canceled. How did you feel about that when it happened? What was going through your mind as the world was shutting down?
Joshua Lim: It’s hard to think that that was actually only a year ago; it seems so long ago. But as I reflect back to that time, the predominant thought and emotion was uncertainty, as we were discussing whether or not to cancel the conference. We were wondering, “Is this the right decision?”
At that point in time, it was pretty early on in the pandemic. We’d been hearing news reports about COVID spreading overseas, but it hadn’t really hit the U.S. in full force at that time. But ultimately, all credit to the wisdom of our SOLA Council. They saw the writing on the wall and thought, “It’s probably going to get bad after hearing all the reports from overseas.” So they decided to preemptively cancel the conference.
That decision was made. March 7; I remember the day. As you know, a week later on March 14, everything was shut down. Our churches were live streaming, the NBA was canceled for a little bit, and Disneyland was closed.
Looking back, we definitely did make the right decision. But at the time, it felt uncertain. COVID was so new; we were just figuring out what it was. Also, by that point in time, we had spent about 10 months planning the conference. So looking at my team and all the hard work and time and effort that they put into planning, it was a little bit heartbreaking to see it go down the drain, in a sense. But it was the right decision to prioritize safety, and I’m really thankful for the wisdom and the leadership of the council in guiding us in that direction. So no regrets whatsoever in canceling that conference.
Aaron Lee: So the 2021 Conference is online now. At the time, we’re recording this conversation between you and me. We haven’t really announced it yet. Why don’t you give us a rundown about how you came to that decision to make it online, and how it all came together?
Joshua Lim: Pretty much right after we canceled our 2020 Conference. If you know, Pastor Steve Chang [SOLA Council Chairman] is always thinking ahead and planning for the future. So the question was, “What do we do next?”
One of the initial ideas that we had was that we would postpone the conference. At that time, we didn’t know how long the pandemic would last. Some people were thinking by the end of summer, or in the fall of 2020 at the latest, that things will be more or less back to normal.
But at that point in the year, SOLA actually had another conference that was slated for the fall that was geared towards Asian American ministry leaders. That was going to be in partnership with The Gospel Coalition, as well as with the Korean American Leadership Initiative. But as you know, Covid was still very much in force.
By the time October rolled around, the council had another meeting. Los Angeles was now kind of the epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic in the U.S., and things were not looking good. Cases were on the rise once again.
The council, again, made the decision. It looked like we’re gonna have to cancel the 2021 conference once again. But we had already booked speakers to come in; Scott Saul is already set to fly in all the way from Nashville. So we thought, “Since we have speakers who were already coming in, why not leverage the resources that we already do have to record the content?” It would be shared anyways, and so make it available online for free digitally. So that was the decision that was made.
One idea we were thinking about was having livestreams. But as we’re talking about it, at that point we were six months into the pandemic, we were thinking that no one wants to sit in front of a screen 3-4 hours at a time watching a livestream conference. So the council thought it’d be a better option just to film the sessions and make them available for people to watch at their own pace later on. That was the idea behind making the conference digital.
A little bit later, things start to improve with Covid numbers. So in the springtime of this year, the council thought it was a good idea to invite local leaders to sit in on the sessions as they’re being filmed and to have an opportunity to connect and gather. So this And so yeah, this year’s conference was kind of an interesting hybrid where it’s a digital conference with the content being sent out for everyone to watch, but also local leaders were invited a couple of weekends ago just to gather together. That was amazing: seeing pastors and church leaders discuss, share fellowship, and sing together. They were really thankful that even though we couldn’t have a full-on conference this year, we were provided the substitutes.
Aaron Lee: I thought it was really good that you were able to pull it off in what I think was a really short time. What was the time frame that you had to actually send out to the leaders?
Joshua Lim: It was about three weeks. Cases were a low enough point, and vaccines were rolling out, so the council made the decision three weeks prior. But thankfully, people showed up. They were there, and it was amazing having that time together.
Aaron Lee: What were some of the challenges that you had putting that together? I’m not just talking about getting people there? I’m talking about arranging everything, working out the schedule, and even coordinating the recording. What were some of the challenges you had, but also what were some of the joys that you had putting this together?
Joshua Lim: This sounds obvious, but one of the challenges is that life is still going on. One thing to know about the team is that we’re all volunteers. All of us are just local church pastors giving our time, and so ministry is still happening. We’re figuring out stuff for our own local churches, getting ready for reopening, and indoor services, outdoor services, things like that. So in the midst of that busyness, we’re trying to coordinate this conference.
In addition to that, the theme for this year’s conference was “Witness”—to equip the local church to be a compelling witness in a very divisive and divided society and culture. Everything that’s gone on this past year has been really amplified with the pandemic—with social unrest, with cultural issues and confusions, with things that we’ve been seeing in the media. Trying to hit the right tenor and tone and addressing these complex issues in a way that’s pastoral and sensitive and comprehensive is definitely a challenge.
In no way can we adequately address everything that’s going on with the conference, but we really want to do our due diligence and make sure that, first of all, Christ was being honored in the things that were being shared and preached. But also that the church would actually be practically equipped to have engaged in these important conversations that are happening as they relate to their neighbors and their friends or coworkers. Trying to get that right was challenging.
In addition to that, coordinating things through Slack and Zoom—a lot of missed messages, a lot of phone tagging going on. It’s so much easier just to be able to gather in a room in person, but I’m thankful that the team just made it work as they gave up their time to plan this conference.
In terms of talking about the blessings and joys of putting this together, it’s working with the team and coming together with like-minded local pastors to put this together. Envisioning something beyond just our local churches, but still for the local church has been a huge joy. Even gathering in person with those church leaders was a huge blessing, even just the singing.
For my church, we’ve just started doing outdoor services about a month and a half ago. But I was reminded again of the power and the joy of congregational worship and singing together — that was a huge blessing. Finally, learning and listening from some of the most thoughtful and pastoral leaders in all of Southern California was a huge blessing. We got to pick their brains and see what they’ve been learning to be equipped for my own ministry and in personal life was a huge blessing.
Aaron Lee: How do you see conferences and these types of events moving forward post-pandemic? Is there still room and even a reason for us to get together in person?
Joshua Lim: Yeah, that’s a good question. It also applies to local church gatherings as well. Thank God for common grace gifts like the internet, YouTube, and livestreaming. But in this past year of quarantining isolation, I’ve learned and a lot of us have learned that those things, as great as they are, are no substitutes for embodied life together. Whether it is with the local church or conferences, moving forward, they’re going to continue to be an integral part of community, of sharing, and of safe growing together.
So I’m excited for conferences to resume once the pandemic is over. There’s been a growing hunger for gathering together. I’m sure a lot of bad habits have also been picked up in this pandemic; a lot of spiritual muscles haven’t been exercised. But I think there’s definitely a place for conferences in the future, especially for something like SOLA, which is not exclusively for Asian Americans but is intentionally geared towards Asian Americans.
I’m sure you’ve been to great conferences—national conferences with nationally known speakers—and they’re amazing with such good content. But sometimes I leave these conferences thinking that I learned so much but it’s hard to contextually apply it in my own local church situation, partly because I’m in an Asian American context. What SOLA provides is a contextualized lens for gospel truth to be applied in a way that’s more digestible and more relatable.
With that angle, something like the SOLA Conference will hopefully continue to provide a great resource for church leaders for church members, even for people who may not be Christian, but they’re interested. I’m excited to see what God will continue to do with something like SOLA.
Aaron Lee: What advice would you give to young leaders who are interested in doing this type of conference ministry? I think it takes a certain gifting in order to run any event like this. What advice would you give?
Joshua Lim: As a disclaimer: By no means am I an event planner. I like administration; that’s maybe one of my spiritual gifts. But to answer your question, and it might seem a little bit counterintuitive, but to plan something like the SOLA Conference well, you actually first need a deep love for the local church.
That might seem kind of counterintuitive, but unless you deeply love the local church, you’re going to miss out on what the purpose of this conference is in the first place. SOLA exists not to replace or substitute the local church but to come alongside the local church and to support the mission of the church to make disciples of all nations. If you don’t have that in mind, then you’re gonna miss the reason why we’re even doing this in the first place. So having a healthy love for the local church that is cultivated with faithfulness in the trenches is one of the most important things for conference planning for something like this.
I emphasize this because I think sometimes people can look at a conference like SOLA because of its broader platform and wider reach and say, “Man, that’s exciting ministry. What I’m doing at my local church, it’s peanuts; it’s not that important.” They can be misguided into thinking that that kind of ministry is what’s really important that the kingdom of God. But that’s absolutely backward. We see it completely the other way around.
We see what’s happening in the local church as exciting. That’s what’s going to last. To faithfully play our role in the kingdom, we need to have a healthy love and appreciation for the local church.
The second thing that comes to mind is humility. It’s fun and exciting when the conference is put on, hundreds of people are gathered, we have speakers and events, and all these things that are going on. It’s exciting to see that. But the reality of conference planning is that it’s a lot of grunt work. It’s a lot of behind-the-scenes, calling speakers asking if they’re available, getting rejected, and going back to the drawing board. It’s planning for catering, making sure volunteers are in the right place, it’s ordering shirts—it’s so many little things.
If you don’t have the bigger picture in mind, if you don’t have kind of a sense of humility and the willingness to roll up your sleeves and do what it takes, you can get lost in the weeds. So humility is an important thing.
Lastly, having a team-oriented mindset. I’m part of a conference team, and I can’t highlight that enough. As the conference director, sometimes I get an unfair amount of credit. But it’s really a team effort. There are 10 of us on this team, joyfully serving together. That’s honestly one of the biggest reasons why I continue to serve in this role—because I enjoy working with the SOLA pastors. If you can’t work well in a team, then conference planning is probably not for you.
Those three major things kind of come to mind. Being organized, being responsible, being administratively savvy helps. But if you love the local church, if you’re humble, if you’re willing to work with a team, then we’d love to have you on board. So you know, email me if you want to serve with the conference planning team!
Aaron Lee: What are your hopes and dreams for the solar conference? “2021 Witness.” What are your hopes and dreams?
Joshua Lim: Yeah, the biggest thing that our team has been praying for as we’ve been planning and preparing for this conference has been for gospel-centered conversation and engagement to happen in such a divided and confusing time. Aaron, I know that you faithfully serve in your local church context and you also have a very encouraging social media presence. I’ve been blessed by that.
But looking out at the world and even the conversations going on in our local churches, it’s been a confusing time. There are so many complicated issues to address that are not necessarily new things but are maybe coming up to the surface in lots of new ways.
One of the things that breaks my heart as a local church pastor is I don’t know how well we’ve equipped our congregants to really engage in these important conversations—whether it is talking about racism, race issues, social justice issues; whether it’s talking about how men and women are to relate to one another in the church; or whether it’s talking about how the local church can really be an effective witness in such a crazy world and crazy time like this.
Our hope and prayer is that as this content is shared, churches and Christians would really be equipped to be able to represent Christ well, to not lose sight of the gospel, and then to apply the gospel in meaningful ways as they go about as salt and light in their workplaces, in their communities and neighborhoods, amongst the nations, and as they think about the next generation. That’s been our big hope and aim.
We know that this one conference isn’t the magic answer. We hope that it’s one small step and effort towards better equipping our local churches to continue on in the mission that God has entrusted us with. That’s been the biggest thing.
Beyond that, hopefully, it’s an encouragement for local churches, pastors, and members—as they see no other local Christians gathering together—as a reminder, “We’re not alone in this.” It can feel very isolating at this time. It can feel overwhelming because we think that we’re alone. But to see other people from different local churches gathered together to share, to teach—hopefully, there’s encouragement at that level as well. Those are the two main things that we’ve been really praying for and hoping for with this conference.
Aaron Lee: Josh, thanks for sharing your insight, thanks for putting this all together, and thanks even for showing me a little bit behind the scenes about what it takes and how you did it all. I’m excited to have it be out there. I hope to continue to connect with you further down the line and thank you so much.
Joshua Lim: My pleasure, and thank you, Aaron, and thank you SOLA Digital. We only handle one part of it. You guys are doing all the work of getting it out there. So thank you guys for your faithful work and super thankful to be in partnership with you.