Denise Lee Yohn, co-founder, Bay Area Center for Faith, Work & Tech
Note: Our Member Spotlight series continues with Denise Lee Yohn. A transcript of the interview appears below.
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Greg
Hello everybody. I’m Greg Forster with Karam Fellowship, and this is our latest Member Spotlight. Today we’re joined by Denise Lee Yohn, who is the cofounder of the Bay Area Center for Faith, Work & Tech. I also serve with her on the steering committee of the Faith at Work Summit. Denise, thank you so much for being with us.
Denise
Thank you so much for inviting me, Greg.
Greg
Denise, tell us about something you’re trying that’s going well.
Denise
For me to answer that question, let me give you a little bit of context about the Bay Area Center for Faith, Work & Tech. First of all, that’s the San Francisco Bay Area, to clarify. It’s a center for faith, work and tech inspired by many of the other faith and work centers that are out there, probably most famous, the Center for Faith & Work in New York started by Tim Keller and Katherine Alsdorf. We create discipleship programs that help businesspeople cultivate a vital integration of their faith into all aspects of their lives, especially their work. I cofounded this organization with a pastor named Paul Taylor, and we’ve been working together now for probably two-and-a-half, three years, but we only officially launched the organization about 15 months ago. I would say that, in general, that’s the thing that overall is going really well.
We had a very successful launch. Last year, we started with a coming-out party, a Bay Area Faith & Work Summit, and we had an overwhelming response. Four hundred people came last year and another 400 this year. People are just so eager to connect with each other, to learn and be inspired by other people’s stories of how God is working in and through them and their work. It’s a great privilege to be able to serve and minister to them. So overall, FaithWorkTech, as we call ourselves, is going really well and this summit that we convened just a couple of months ago was a highlight.
Greg
About 10 years ago, a lot of places were trying to launch these city-based faith and work centers, and they really struggled, but now they seem to be having a moment. I wonder if the locality is key to that. What’s particular about the Bay Area Center that you think is going really well?
Denise
To your point, the regional or local focus is particularly important because work and business are so pervasive in our culture. So many people come to the Bay Area specifically to work for some of the big tech companies or because they want to be part of the culture here. A Christian organization that is leaning into this intersection here in the Bay is particularly attractive or compelling.
The secret sauce is really the partnership between Paul and me. Paul had, up until very recently, been the pastor of a vibrant church for 15 or 20 years. He grew up in that church. So, his connection to other local churches, other pastors, the relationships that he had already built really helped us because we’ve observed that centers for faith and work exist on their own. If we are going to participate in any kind of movement that God is working here in the Bay Area, it has to be through the local church. We didn’t think that we could do this on our own. We really wanted to be very well connected to, almost embedded in, the churches here. The partnership between Paul and me enabled us to do that.
Greg
A thousand amens to what you just said about putting it in the local church. A couple of years ago when I met you and Paul for the first time, it really struck me how the local church was central to your vision. I’m very grateful, not only that you had that vision, but that it’s going well.
Let me ask you my next question. How are big picture issues a part of what you’re doing?
Denise
One of the biggest picture issues is AI – artificial intelligence. That is on everyone’s mind. We are recording this at a moment when the US government has just announced an initiative to hire a thousand workers to help modernize government technology, and I’m sure get into AI. So, this is a big topic for everybody. It raises a lot of existential questions, like what does it mean to be human? And if we can be gods, should we be gods? What is good technology? Christians have a unique perspective and a unique opportunity to speak into the conversation and to offer responses to those questions.
AI has really shaped a lot of the work that we’re doing at FaithWorkTech. At the summit that I mentioned, we had both main-stage programming and breakout sessions specifically dedicated to AI to help people see it through a Christian lens, looking at what the Bible says about technology and about human capability and creation and innovation. Paul is going to be hosting a cohort specifically focused on AI this spring, and that will probably develop into some more programming. And Paul and I are involved in a lot of the national, international conversations that are happening about AI. It’s everywhere. There’s something going on at Notre Dame that Paul is involved with. I’m getting involved in this organization, Colvatus, which originated in Austria, and it’s having a meeting in Florida. There’s so much attention on this, and if we can participate and hopefully shape some of the conversation, it would be a great blessing and something that we really want to steward carefully.
Greg
It’s so encouraging to see Christians thinking theologically about these cutting-edge technologies that are raising questions that we haven’t processed in the past. At our faculty retreat back in the summer, we spent a significant amount of time talking about AI. Nathan Hitchcock led us in a session where we talked about how we’ve been saying for years that the old model of education as information transfer – where what you get out of an education is more information – needs to die, it doesn’t work. We’ve said that for years, but we haven’t had traction in making it effective and getting to a different model. Well, now AI is here, and it’s time for us to put up or shut up on getting out of the information transfer business, because if we don’t, AI is going to wipe us out. We can think of this as an opportunity to embrace a deeper understanding of what we do.
My last question is, tell us about an experience of collaboration, either one that you’ve had in the past or one that you’re looking forward to, that you’re encouraged about.
Denise
You mentioned it earlier, and it is this Faith at Work Summit where both you and I are involved on the steering committee. This is a global gathering that’ll be happening in Cincinnati in June. I am so excited about the collaborative nature, not just of the event, but of the actual planning of the event in the sense that our effort is being led by Chuck Proudfit, who runs several things in Cincinnati. I know him primarily from his ministry called At Work on Purpose. He has gathered a group of probably eight to ten on the steering committee.
The fact that you and I are both on this planning committee is a great representation of the different perspectives that are being drawn into the programming. It helps that we are all focused on the theme, which is “frontiers,” so it is very future oriented and explores how we move the faith and work movement forward and build it up for the next generation. The subthemes that we’ll be covering in the programming – creativity and collaboration and continuity – are the exact right themes for us to focus on.
The biggest aspect of collaboration is really embodied in the four audiences or four groups that we are trying to engage with this conference. A lot of faith and work ministry conferences have many people like me, faith and work ministry leaders, but while this is one group that we’re hoping to engage at this summit, we also want to engage the education sector – folks from seminaries and Christian academia are very important. Pastors in churches and the local church should be a part of it. Practitioners should be involved, the actual people whom all of us are trying to serve, people in professional jobs who are looking for the support and the connection that most of our ministries serve. Bringing these four groups together is so needed right now for the faith and work conversation. I’m so excited that not only our steering committee, but the actual programming really embodies the sense of collaboration among all four groups.
Greg
I’m looking forward to it too. I hadn’t thought about this for some time, but since you mentioned artificial intelligence, people who went to the 2018 Faith at Work Summit knew that the AI apocalypse was coming. Philip Lorish gave an outstanding presentation, which in retrospect has been quite vindicated. People who were with us in Chicago in 2018 knew that this was all on the way. Collaboration across different sectors of service has always been my favorite part of the summit, encountering people who are in all kinds of different roles. I met people involved in Christian networks in the medical world and people running city-based centers and church leaders. It’s an opportunity, particularly for those of us in the traditional academic world. It’s hard for us to get out of that world and spend time connecting with what’s going on outside, but we really need to do it.
Denise
We all can benefit from better understanding each other’s worlds, what needs, what challenges, what triumphs, what opportunities are out there, because then God can use us to support and resource and encourage each other in the work that we’re doing.
Greg
You might even say the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. Denise, thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate it.
Denise
Thanks for the conversation. It’s been great.
Denise Lee Yohn, co-founder, Bay Area Center for Faith, Work & Tech
