WEF outgoing International Director Rev. Dr Jun Vencer retires in May after nine years in the post. In this interview with Berita NECF, he shares how NECF Malaysia has grown, how God has kept him humble, and his future plans.
Through your nine years of leadership, how have you seen NECF Malaysia grown?
NECF Malaysia is an emerging model of a national fellowship and its rise must be appreciated all the more because of the Islamic context in which it is growing. I can attribute its growth to the statesmanship of your leaders and their willingness to work with the authorities and other sectors. The other factor is the tremendous support from the churches and businessmen. For that, I can only attribute it to the special hand of the Spirit. God has a special purpose for Malaysia at this time. Malaysia seems to provide a model to other third world nations. As long as Malaysia remains generous and compassionate toward the needy and poor and NECF Malaysia continues to reach out to their fellow alliances in need, God will continue to bless you and raise you.
I have seen NECF Malaysia grown from a small fellowship into an office with so many staff working, and now, hosting a global conference. That’s tremendous and I can see why you are growing. You not only have the support from the council and other leaders, but you have the devotion of the staff and volunteers. These are the materials that allow God’s work to grow. Commitment beyond legal requirements,
devotion to duty.
I’m convinced that among the hot spots of the Spirit in the world, God seems to be pointing His finger at Malaysia as one of the places that He will do a mighty work. I feel a sense of awe because whenever God works in a special way, the church and the national fellowship have a tremendous responsibility. You must remain alert and be in constant prayer. You will experience challenges you have never imagined possible and you must not allow a crack in your unity and cooperation. I pray God will put His mantle of protection around you. For as long as you remain humble, for as long as your motives are pure to glorify Him alone, God will continue to protect you and use you for His work.
Personally, how have you changed since you first assumed the role?
I have a deeper appreciation of the church, the people of God around the world and of our creative God who is constantly using people in different ways. I have seen young men rising and women being used by God in ways the conservative churches had doubted. As for my perception towards myself, I don’t think I have changed. I’ve
always believed that there are people who are better than me. Only by the grace of God, I am where I am.
Through my years in WEF, I was driven by one thought “Lord, I want to finish well. Will You just preserve me.” I’ve also felt the prayers of God’s people. I went places and people who don’t know me would come up to me and say, “Jun Vencer, I don’t know you but your name came into our prayer lives.” I see old and young people praying for me and I realise now that in many ways I was delivered from so many sensitive situations through their prayers. So it’s not only by the grace of God but the power of prayers for me from around the world.
I don’t think I have really changed. I still enjoy eating with my fingers. I can stay in a five-star hotel but I still enjoy staying in a home of a friend and a village. I still enjoy fishing.
But surely, at some points during your rising years, you must have felt a sense of… pride?
Yes and pride is very dangerous. It’s our humanity. It’s the reality that we are not perfect, we live in a fallen world but God is consistently saying, “Grow, grow, grow.” There have been times when I walked with someone important and I felt, “Wow.” The moment I felt that, I suddenly realised, “Wow, you better go on your knees.” My
constant prayer was, and still is: “God, if I become arrogant, if I become proud, will Your Spirit please minister to my Spirit and remind me, ‘Hey, remember why I raise you up. You were nobody, now don’t be so hot.’” God, in His grace and mercy, used friends and people to tell me, “Jun, be careful.” Sometimes I reacted, “Who are you to tell me that?” By His grace, I’ve heard Him said, “You receive admonition from your brothers.” We all need to cultivate a sensitive spirit to the Lord and His word and appreciate what people are saying. Learn to listen.
What are your immediate plans for the future?
I plan to focus my life and energy on training leaders around the world. As you grow older, the sounds of hundreds and thousands of people begin to fade away. I’ve been asking, “Why did Jesus spend time with only twelve?” What does it mean to train 12 people? Perhaps I want to go that way and say 10 years from now, yeah, I remember him and that one and that one too.
I would also like to focus on planting churches around the world. But I want to go further than just planting churches. We can plant as many churches as we want, churches that are a mile long and a mile wide but only one inch deep. So, it’s not just a question of how many churches we have planted but what kind of church we are planting. I believe in transformation. The idea of discipling and transforming nations fascinates me. I have always believed discipling a nation is not just discipling an individual. You do not remove an individual from the context of his family, community, structure and culture. It’s got to be the whole of the community. |
