Sam Lee
In a company where Diversity and Inclusion has been advancing quickly, there was a need to set up a Christian group, which with the Lord’s grace was achieved 18 months ago…
My name is Sam Lee, a British-born Korean who came to faith at 18 years of age and who has been through many challenges of faith in the last 30 something years of being a Christian. I have been at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) for 9 years. Prior to that I was at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). It was at that time, around 15 years ago, when I first met Thierry at a summer retreat for City-workers organized by St Helen’s Church in London.
I begin with a confession. My evangelistic efforts throughout my career have been lukewarm at best and in more recent trials in the last few years I have been convicted of this. The Lord placed on my heart the need to be more proactive in my workplace ministry (See Matthew 28:19 Acts 17:26-27). And having written a gospel-heavy Christmas article after lockdown, which prompted a number of previously unknown Christians to make themselves known to me, it was clear that a Christian group was required at SMBC. Setting up this group took the best part of two years. I hope to share how this was done in brief together with some of the practical aspects, in the hope that this may be useful to you, my brothers and sisters.
I bring no particularly unique skillsets, gifts or charisma, but merely had a desire to allow the Lord to work, to use me and provide His wisdom and guidance as it’s His Plan ultimately (see Psalm 127:1b). Absolutely key was (and still is) the need to rely on personal prayer and on the prayers of willing and supportive brothers and sisters – the more the merrier! This I found in spades at St Helen’s Church in the middle of the City of London (financial district), and at my local church outside of London. I cannot over-emphasize the need for prayer enough.
Challenges
SMBC is a conservative and risk-averse Japanese institution. After having met with the then senior members of the D&I and HR teams to express my desire to set up a Christian Group together with the requisite PowerPoint presentation, I was quickly made aware of the global policy that prohibits any affiliation with religious or political bodies. This I had to challenge on a common-sense basis by asking whether an employee’s faith is any less important from a D&I standpoint than race, gender etc.
There was still reluctance to support such a group and give it a budget. And so I told them that this group would be volunteer-led, and that I would accept its status of Social Committee rather than a full-blown part of the D&I umbrella, and that it would be self-funded and no resources would be requested of the D&I team. And most importantly I said that I did not seek the firm to actively ‘support’ the group, but rather to ‘tolerate’ it.
The counter-challenge I met was that the firm could not be seen to be allowing one particular faith group over another. At this point I provided them with a disclaimer that I had previously agreed with the Legal department. This clearly stated that SMBC does not favour any one faith over another and that all are welcome to set up their own faith group. I mentioned that this disclaimer would be used on all communications of the ‘Christianity Fellowship’. Anticipating their understandable reluctance to allow multiple company-wide emails from the Christianity Fellowship, I said that if they provided me with an intranet page, and allowed me to set up a Teams channel, then emails to all staff would be restricted to advertising core events only.
After a number of months of delay and stonewalling, together with changes in key D&I staff, I requested a ‘no prohibition’ approval and mentioned that I would be willing to make a formal approach to the D&I Committee and CEO in the event of further delay…
Inception of the SMBC Christianity Fellowship
The initial announcement to SMBC UK and Europe resulted in around 70 members joining the group and Teams channel within a week. Previously, I only knew of 4 Christians. We now have 90+ inter-denominational Christian members and meet fortnightly on a hybrid basis to go through a bible passage and to pray and encourage one another. Attendance varies from between 5 to 20 members every fortnight. We have run three Christianity Explored courses (a six-week course to explain Christianity for non-Christians) in-house, and have put on a number of outreach events. We regularly advertise the ‘milestone’ events such as the St Helen’s Church Christmas Carol and Easter Services as well as any other evangelistic events which that church puts on, as it is close to the SMBC office. We have also run some ‘how to express the gospel in 60 seconds or less’ sessions.
Where are we now and what’s next?
We will continue to run Christianity Explored in-house and we are currently shaping our written ‘mission’. I believe that our role is neither to create a proxy church nor a neutral ‘holy huddle’. Our mission must be to stand up for Christ and make Him known in the workplace and to that end we are seeking to lock this in by focusing on this, documenting it, planning our events in advance and where necessary equipping and encouraging the group further.
We have created a Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Christian Fellowship (SMBC CF) email signature for the members which includes links to our intranet page and Teams channel – many are using this which is encouraging and a passive way of drawing attention to our status as followers of Christ and prompt further conversations.
On a wider scale, we have already begun further discussion with the D&I team to have the SMBC CF formally recognized as a D&I group, rather than just being a Social Committee.
I would value your prayers and encourage you also to consider setting up a similar group. It is doable, in line with the Lord’s will, and is the Lord’s work. Needless to say, I would be more than happy pray with or for you if this is something you are also considering and would be pleased to connect separately if anyone wishes to discuss in more depth. Please just ask Thierry to connect us together. My love and prayers go out to you all.
