Compartmentalization was addressed at Young Professional Forum in Moldova October 4, 2014.
Moldova (MNN) — Compartmentalization. We all do it. Some compartmentalize professional and non-professional parts of their lives. Others compartmentalize their social lives. Yet, others do it spiritually. That was the focus of a one-day conference in Moldova over the weekend.
Mission Eurasia, formerly Russian Ministries, and the Association of Spiritual Renewal (ASM) gathered more than 400 career-minded Christian young adults from Moldova, Belarus, and Ukraine for a young adult forum on compartmentalization and the Gospel.
Youth Forum “Mission in the professional” in Moldova.
We caught up with ASM’s Vice President Boris Vokof. What kinds of individuals were invited? “Specifically [we focused on] young professionals who are involved already in different professional areas. [They] gathered for motivation and equipping in how they can serve and reach their communities for Christ.”
ASM’s Paul Tokarchuk describes the message conveyed to these young people. “Through their professions, they can be successful and at the same time, they can share the Good News with other people.”
Local church leaders told us this was the first event of its kind in Moldova.
One of the speakers, Insur Shamgunov, says the topic is relevant for all cultures. “People tend to have little boxes where they put different aspects of their life, like Sunday is just for church and my religious life. Work is just for my working life. That’s the secular part of me. These two parts don’t really correspond together.
This can be a dangerous worldview. Shamgunov says, “The same person can have several different sets of values. I [can be] one person at work, another person in the church, yet a third person at home with my wife and my family.”
“I don’t think that’s what God called us to do,” says Shamgunov. “He’s told us to have holistic lives where we have to be the same person everywhere. Their working life is not inferior to their ministry, it is their ministry. They can be serving wherever they are.”
Ministry leaders hope this forum helps change the mindset of Christian professionals. Shamgunov says, “It’s very simple, but very important shift in their worldview that needs to happen. Conferences like this can be very instrumental in making this shift happen.”
Tokarchuk is hoping several hundred young people will become agents of change and take it to their churches. He praying God will transform their attitudes on work and in their professional influence to become more effective and fruitful workers for God.
Mission Eurasia emphasizes training young Christian professionals. Support their work through this link.
