The organisers of UNVEIL 2020: Relevant Truth, Radical Faith have announced that they will not be continuing with this year’s edition of the annual Christian conference.
“Following MOE’s advisory to cancel all inter-school activities for youths, gathering youths in large groups is just not wise,” said David Mak, Conference Head for UNVEIL 2020.
“UNVEIL 2020 will not carry on as it is definitely a large-group gathering against the Ministry of Education and Ministry Of Health‘s advisory on inter-school activities.”
An event by Cru Singapore, UNVEIL 2020 wanted to offer a platform where youths could rethink how church is done.
The conference was due to be held on March 13-14 at Bartley Christian Church, featuring speakers like Rev Dr James Choung, Max Jeganathan and Joseph Chean.
Last year’s edition of UNVEIL was centred on the theme of “Breaking Free”, a sexuality-focused summit that saw world-renown speakers like Josh McDowell touch on the topics of pornography and sexual addiction.
Asked about Plan B for UNVEIL 2020, Mak responded that organisers plan to livestream an hour-long panel with “key local plenary speakers” on March 13. This couch conversation would touch on plenary topics and offer interaction to its online viewers.
“We still want to reach youths and give them a chance to talk to senior church leaders,” explained Mak.
He also shared that the organisers are exploring “converting the three workshop sessions into short 10-15 minute videos made available online” so that they can “still reach and resource churched youths in their discipleship journey”.
“The other seminars best experienced through face-to-face interaction will be rescheduled to a later date when COVID-19 has prayerfully died down,” Mak clarified.
The conference organisers will reach out to attendees directly to issue refunds. Attendees may also reach out directly to Cru to enquire about refunds.
Speaking on Collab2Reach, an event that was also supposed to be held on March 11-12 at Bartley Christian Church, Mak revealed that Cru will reconfigure the conference to equip youth and campus ministry practitioners at different mornings over 2020.
It will be mixed up with relevant plenary or equipping sessions, sticking as much as possible to previously publicised workshops, pending each speaker’s availability.
He added: “Our first Collab2Reach ‘conversation’ will also be kickstarted online, with a roundtable discussion on latest wins and heartaches in youth ministry by ministry practitioners. Collab2Reach will be broken up over the year from May as a series of conversations, but will have a round-table discussion broadcast live on social media on 11 March with some youth pastors and a senior pastor,” Mak noted.
I think back to what Mak said: “The heartbeat of UNVEIL 2020 is to allow youths to rethink how church is done.”
For a conference about breaking the mould, it’s worth noting how the organisers themselves are now having to reconfigure and rethink their strategies in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak – from a large-group gathering to a digital resource initiative.
I don’t think that’s by chance. We know that God is a God who works for the good of those who love Him – even when in times of difficulty! So He is moving right now, transforming paradigms and mindsets even through a bad thing like a virus outbreak.
