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Student Mission in 3-D (with Matt Lillicrap)
2 Playsin 1 day
In the first few weeks every year, Christian Unions across the country put in a concerted effort to reach their campuses - with around 85 'events weeks' happening recently. For many young people, their time at university is a formative and energetic experience, and it is a great opportunity for students to reach their friends for Christ. UCCF is helping them do this through 3"D" ministry: Delighting in Jesus more deeply, Displaying Him more fully and Declaring Him more boldy. UCCF leader Matt Lillicrap explains more to Gavin and Simon on this week's PEP Talk.
Matt Lillicrap studied Medicine in Newcastle and qualified in 2006. Until 2013 he worked as a junior doctor, alongside a stint as a staff worker for Christian Medical Fellowship. From 2013-2017 he studied theology for pastoral ministry at Oak Hill College in London, then served local churches in Cambridge for seven years. He is now CEO of Universities & Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF), guiding Christian Unions across England, Scotland and Wales. Matt is married to Anika who is a pastoral counsellor.
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Transcript
Introduction to Solus and UCCF Collaboration
00:00:00
Speaker
Our vision is to give every student in Great Britain an opportunity to hear and respond to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
00:00:18
Speaker
Well hello everybody and welcome to Pep Talk. Thank you for joining us for this episode. I'm Gavin Matthews from Solus and I'm joined as ever by my colleague Dr Simon Wenham. Simon, how are you? Very well, thank you. How are you?
00:00:29
Speaker
I'm good, thank you. Now, I used your official academic title because studying all that time, you must have been a student a long time, maybe even longer than I was. How many years did you clock up studying? Oh, that's a very good question. I guess it was about a decade, but I did some study part-time. And if it's any consolation, I've forgotten most of what I studied in that period.
00:00:49
Speaker
Now, many of us look back on our student days with great fondness, not just because we had way too much fun, but also because it was some of the most fruitful and enjoyable times of evangelism too. you know Some of the best times we had in mission were as
Meet Matt Lennicraft and UCCF's Mission
00:01:01
Speaker
students. I'm delighted this week to welcome onto Pep Talk, Matt Lennicraft, who leads an organization called UCCF. We'll hear about them in a moment. Matt, welcome. How are you?
00:01:10
Speaker
ah Good, thank you. It's really good to be here. And you're dialing in to us from where in the world this morning? So i'm I'm based in Cambridge, um although UCCF is based in Oxford. So I guess you could say we've got both of those particular university bases covered.
00:01:24
Speaker
You lead an organisation called UCCF, which is quite well known. But for the and uninitiated, tell us, UCCF, who are you and what do you do? Yeah, UCCF stands for the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship.
00:01:36
Speaker
um We've been in existence for nearly 100 years, um and we, at its most basic, support Christian students um who are part of ah Christian unions in universities um to live and speak for Jesus, um to live out their faith spiritually. as faithfully as they can and to speak out their faith as boldly as they can. um And we particularly support the leaders of those Christian unions in in forming the Christian union community um and sharing the gospel on campus.
00:02:07
Speaker
Great, thank you and you. You've been leading the ministry for about a year and a half. and How has it gone and is are are there any things you can share about the sort of ah ah what it's been like at the helm of of this organisation that's been going on for a very long time?
Matt's Journey from Medicine to UCCF Leadership
00:02:21
Speaker
It's been in some ways a bit of a whirlwind for me personally. so My background initially was in medicine. I studied medicine. So I've been a student about nine years of my life in total. So i don't know if I've got much on you, Simon, but I did five years of medicine, worked as a doctor for about eight years, um was doing some student work along the way with medical students allied to the Christian Medical Fellowship and then student work in local church.
00:02:46
Speaker
And then i was I studied theology, did that for four years and was a pastor. um That's how I ended up in Cambridge, was a pastor at Eden Baptist Church and then pastored a church called Hope Community Church, Cambridge. And so I was ah i' sort of feel a bit like had three. This is the beginning of a third life. I've done medicine in hospitals. I've done local church pastoring. And now I'm doing this, whatever this is, it organizational leadership of ah of a ministry, UCCF.
00:03:14
Speaker
um And so it feel it feels like there's been quite a big learning curve, quite a steep learning curve for me, of learning how to lead an organisation. We have about 100 staff, maybe about 50, 60 volunteers working with us, let alone the students themselves, um with about 1,800 student leaders, probably somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 students engaging regularly with Christian unions.
00:03:37
Speaker
um So it feels like quite a ah big thing. That's across all of England, Scotland and Wales. um And so I've been learning a lot about how to lead an organization that's spread apart, spread spread out geographically. um But the biggest thing has been the real joy of of leading an organization that wants to make Jesus known and wants to live for him deeply. um We talk a lot about staff wanting to do our ministry in 3D, we call it, delighting in Jesus more deeply, that we might display him more fully and declare him more boldly. um And the whole point of doing that as staff is that the students might be on mission in 3D, doing exactly the same thing, delighting in displaying and declaring Jesus in their university contexts. And that really is just a source of great joy with all the challenges that come um with ah with leading the organization, caring for staff as well as possible, making sure that We're learning lessons of some difficult periods that UCCF has been through in recent times and and and really um proceeding with learning those and putting those lessons into practice. um The biggest encouragement is seeing that the gospel remains powerful. Students continue to share the the Jesus they know and students continue to encounter the Jesus they know.
Impact of Christian Union Events on Campus
00:04:53
Speaker
um Those who know him grow in their faith more deeply during their time at university, which was my experience. And those who don't know him, many of them, they encounter him for the first time, which was actually my mum's experience at university, which is one of the reasons I i love this this ministry so deeply.
00:05:08
Speaker
Yeah. Wonderful. And we're recording this in the first quarter of the year, which is obviously a really significant time for CUs around the country when they do their events week. And presumably you get feedback on that. mean, I'm so old that in my day, it was traveling secretaries filing field reports. you know that That dates me somewhat. But I'm sure you get a sense even today, although the terminology has changed, from the ground, what's what's been going on? I know that the CUs have been really active in the last month. We've been involved in Solus in three or four of them. What sense are you getting of what's been going on around the country and how it's been this year?
00:05:37
Speaker
Yes, we we so but between the first week of February, maybe just about the last week of of January, a couple of CEUs in Scotland, I think, managed to sneak a couple of their events weeks in before February, all the way through to sort of kind of mid-March, first, second week of March, um we see about 80% 85 Christian unions running events week up and down England, Wales and Scotland. Some of those are small Christian unions really making significant efforts to run three or four events in a week. Many of them, the majority of them are large um events could of with talks happening every lunchtime in a central venue um on campus and then talks happening every evening as well, um seeking to kind of engage with apologetics and to proclaim the gospel. um And so we it's an amazing time of year, every year. I i loved it when I wasn't working for UCCF and I got the opportunity to go and speak at some of these events and hearing a few stories from friends who are doing the same.
00:06:36
Speaker
And now I get the front row seat where I get to hear, we don't call them field reports quite anymore. It's more sort of gather from CU staff workers. um So we we get we get those in and i' I've actually got one on screen in front of me. Just um just came in this week, a student at Worcester went along to an event last term, um was really intrigued by what she saw, but what she heard, but actually also what she saw um really enjoyed the kind of community sense of the Christian union, which I think is really significant. It's a really significant part of what a Christian union and is. It's that sort of displaying the Lord Jesus, guess the sort of thing that Paul calls the aroma of Christ. that to some people is the aroma of life, right, that the the Lord's people um exhibit. And ah and then um this person came along um again after Christmas and a CU member started chatting with her and she was saying, I'm i'm more and more interested. um And just during ah an event earlier on in the term, um she made the decision that she wanted to to follow Christ for the first time. And And I think there's just one indicative story of of the sorts of things we're hearing. there
00:07:42
Speaker
A lot of the time it's students who have engaged for the first time perhaps with the Christian Union over the last few months, have got to know some of the Christian Union students and then have come along to events during their events weeks and have heard the gospel proclaimed clearly, not necessarily for the first time, but for um a decisive time um and have turned and trusted in Christ.
00:08:05
Speaker
And it's it's beautiful. We see it replicated up and down the country. um and And it does feel, i know that we're going to chat about this, it does feel a little bit as though that we're just seeing a bit of a a tendency towards a greater openness among the students that we're encountering in those weeks, um which is which is really exciting.
00:08:23
Speaker
Thank you. it's It's interesting you mentioned the aroma of Christ. we're We're featuring Peter S. Williams, the philosopher, in our next pep talk. And actually, he has a big thing about apologetics having a much wider sense of what it is, including imagination and the aroma of Christ, as in how we act as Christians. So it's interesting that you mentioned that. So do look out for that episode. We'll be saying a little bit more on that. and I suppose one thing that is interesting is is obviously the questions that that students are asking. and Do you have a sense that um of what sorts of ah questions people are seeking with in in universities? and is this sort of Is it their kind of specialism? so If you have science students that are asking science questions or are they more universal questions that a lot of people are asking on campuses?
Evolving Student Curiosity in Christianity
00:09:12
Speaker
I think what's been fascinating for for me to watch over the last 10 years or so, um and so the last 20 years, I was a student in 2001 to 2006, so the last 20 years, 25 years, has been the way in which those questions have shifted.
00:09:28
Speaker
um The questions that are related to specific kind of specialties, the science scientists with questions around science and religion, haven't gone away, but they have changed in quality a little bit. where 25 years ago we were having that question asked as a, how this can't possibly be true. Can it? There's absolutely no way Christianity can be true because science has clearly disproved it.
00:09:49
Speaker
We're now getting questions, which are much more coming from this is this, this seems like it could be really good. um And therefore, is it true are often the sorts of questions that we're, we're, ah we're seeing asked.
00:10:03
Speaker
and And as, as society and culture shifted, and particularly in the last five years, is I think post-COVID, there's this greater sense that I think two or three things have happened. One is that um the sort of scientific naturalism that has promised purpose and meaning from within within this this world and and nothing outside of it has just been found wanting. It hasn't delivered that purpose and meaning that that that people crave. and I think young people, Generation Z, it's been talked about a lot, but those that student generation are feeling that and they're at the front end of it.
00:10:38
Speaker
At the same time, the sort of secularism that has tried promised utopia just hasn't delivered it. and um and People are starting to look and go, well, but maybe we need to search for something more.
00:10:49
Speaker
And it seems that there's that real search for, it is probably sort of universalized universalized idea of questions, things like purpose and meaning, belonging and acceptance, um ah and and and a connection with something beyond, ah a sort of ah a desire for um a higher power. that's what That's what Dan Strange calls it, isn't it? One of his his five magnetic points, the central one. and It seems that a lot of the questions that float around are all circling around those sorts of themes. How can I find these things? um And so we're finding ourselves ah answering questions and asking questions like, why do humans long to belong?
00:11:32
Speaker
And it's that interesting asking of why. Why is it that I'm wired this way? What is it about reality that means that I have these longings and desires that push me in particular directions to find connections, to to fight seek acceptance, to overcome shame and all the rest of it? Why am i why am i wired this way?
00:11:55
Speaker
um And I'm often led, that's ah quite one of quite famous C.S. Lewis quotes when he talks about the desires in our hearts and talks of of ah of our our need for our hunger to describe revealing that we are designed for a world in which physical food exists. And then that famous quote that he says, if we find in our hearts a desire which is not met in this world, the only logical conclusion is that we were made for another.
00:12:19
Speaker
um And I think that often feels like the theme, many of the themes that we're finding students engaging with. There's certainly and a new openness. I think, you know, all our speakers go out, we'll say that. Is calling it a quiet revival over-egging it, do you think? Or would it be better to call it a new openness? What's your sense? Because obviously there's a bun fight about the stats in the wider country. How's it looking on on the campuses? what What's your sense of that?
00:12:42
Speaker
i I think it's such an important question. i wrote a piece a short piece for Premier Christianity magazine last month um in which I essentially just argued we need to stop arguing about whether or not it's ahc quiet the the statistics what the statistics show and get on with what's in front of us, proclaiming the gospel in ah in an opportunity.
00:13:01
Speaker
um and I really think that's key. so i sort of want to I don't want to duck the question, but I kind of want to say in one sense it's it's not as relevant as we're making it.
00:13:11
Speaker
The arguments about the statistics are really neither here or there. The question is there's a person in front of us who is searching and often searching spiritually. They're searching for something and we have the someone who is the end of that search of something. He's called Jesus, so let's share him.
00:13:28
Speaker
So I sort of want to slightly duck the question I think there is a danger in using the word revival, which has made some Christians think, oh, well, that means that God's doing it all, isn't it? and And he's just going to bring people into the churches. And we're hearing wonderful stories of people walking into church for the first time off the back of their own searches.
00:13:45
Speaker
But I think the danger is that we we sort of just drop the ball and going, the people are out there. They need to hear the gospel. So let's get out in UCCF's terms. Let's get out into the campuses and then quit the students who are already there who know Jesus to share him.
00:14:00
Speaker
um and and so i think I would concede there is an an enormous shift in the spiritual temperature. That's what I would say. um ah pet Call it a spiritual awakening or a growing spiritual awareness.
00:14:13
Speaker
um I think that is evidently true. um and But that is a spiritual hunger which is leading people in any and every direction. towards you know Marcus Aurelius is having his own quiet revival at the moment as young men turn to Stoicism. um But then um the Islamic societies are reporting increasing engagement on on campus as well. And Wichita is growing faster than ever, sort of capital P paganism on on social media.
00:14:40
Speaker
um Our staff workers are being asked to speak on topics like manifesting, meditation, crystals and tarot just as frequently as they're being asked to talk on is the Bible reliable or can I believe in in ah in a God when science has explained lots of things or whatever else it might be.
00:14:57
Speaker
That's the temperature we're in. So I really wish they'd called it, rather than the Quiet Revival, they'd called it something like the massive opportunity, um just to to kind of wake up that in in in culture that something has shifted, which is making us ask these questions more fervently, and particularly making young people ask these questions more fervently.
Resources for Faith Sharing and Student Role in Society
00:15:20
Speaker
Hi, it's Gavin from Solas here. I hope you don't mind if I just interrupt this program for a couple of seconds to tell you that on the Solas website, there's loads more information about sharing your faith, very much in tune with the sort of thing that you'll hear on the Pep Talk podcast. There's articles, there's videos, there's other podcasts, there's any number of resources on there to help you address difficult questions, share your faith at work or with neighbors or friends. There's a wealth to explore. Come over and have a look at solas-cpc.org and see what you can find.
00:15:50
Speaker
And now, back to the programme. You obviously represent a ministry connecting with students. Would you say students are a particularly important group of people or demographic in our society today?
00:16:04
Speaker
I mean, I think i in one sense, i obviously I'm going to say yes, I think they they are um because as i I head up an organisation that works with students. I think I want to say it's easy to over-egg that a little bit. um There's nothing magic about about being a student and there is nothing magic about the ages of 18 to 21 or whatever it is. It averages 18 to 25 for undergraduate students.
00:16:29
Speaker
um But the reason I think they're important, ah around about 2.5 million, about 50% of the UK population of 18 to 25 year olds end up at university. The average age of starting university has actually gone up a little bit over the last few years. So it's not just 18 year olds, it's that's why I say it's 18 to 25 than to and But that is a key moment. um My wife is ah a child and adolescent psychotherapeutic counsellor and often reminds me that the science suggests that adolescence doesn't finish until at least age 25, perhaps even as late as age 33.
00:17:03
Speaker
um And that there is there are all sorts of things that are sort of up in the air um ah in so many ways um already for just being in that age group, whether that, you know, emotionally, psychologically, biochemically, But we then add a sociological um ah kind of up in the airness as well to moving people out of home often in aged 18 or they're commuting from home into a new environment, which is far more, i quote quote, adult than school has been. um it's ah It's a melting pot of ideas. Universities, they're going through an ah an institutional crisis at the moment. I would argue that they don't really know what they're meant to be, they're At their best, they've always been an incubator of ideas um and a place where they can be discussed and and wrestled with.
00:17:55
Speaker
And so these 18 to 25-year-olds are entering an environment in which so much is up for grabs. um And who they are going to be, who they are, is the big is the big question, possibly the biggest question of our day is what is a human and who am i um And that question is being kind of almost...
00:18:17
Speaker
forced on them even if they don't want it. Often they do want it, but it's almost being kind of confronted. They're being confronted with its simply just by where they are and when they are in our um social, this way our society is structured.
00:18:30
Speaker
And so i you kind of want to say, yes, without over-egging it, there's still 50% of 18 to 25 year olds in the UK who are not in the university who need to hear the gospel. But half of them are, um and it is also a key moment for Christians themselves, as was my experience, to stand on their own two feet, make an ownership of their faith, and often learn the ropes of what it actually means to share Christ and to live for him in a way that they haven't quite done up until that point.
00:18:59
Speaker
of Two and a half, two and million students, I think we said in the UK. Something like that, yeah. um Many of those coming from abroad, are there lots of international students around and and are there opportunities to share the gospel with them? and Where are they coming from?
00:19:10
Speaker
Yeah, thanks,
Opportunities with International Students
00:19:11
Speaker
Kevin. I mean, yes, one in four students that UCCF works with tend to be international students. It's a little less than that in the, you know, the overall population is somewhere between one in five and one in four students.
00:19:23
Speaker
um significant numbers of international students. In the past, many of them would have been coming from East Asia, from from China, from Hong Kong. And that still is the true true from Malaysia.
00:19:34
Speaker
But over the last few years, we've seen huge influxes of international students to the UK from um the Indian subcontinent, from India, from Pakistan, from Bangladesh. um And so the international student um ah landscape has shifted quite significantly. The opportunities remain enormous.
00:19:53
Speaker
um to be sharing ah Christ with students from from countries where Christianity may be a minority, may even be an outlawed religion. um And I have a few friends who've who've gone back to China, having encountered Christ at university, who are now leading churches in in China.
00:20:11
Speaker
um And we we we love to work with international students. We also love to partner, particularly with Friends International, um who are who are close partners, who work with international students. And essentially, they they do this this aim to do the same work we do with international students specifically. and And they teach us an awful lot about how we can go about that most effectively.
00:20:32
Speaker
That's interesting. i It's one thing I've noticed in the last 10 years, actually many more students, well, from China in particular, and as you say, the subcontinent, and as you say, the the opportunities that that produces are are incredible, especially some are coming for very short periods as well. So not even whole degrees, but just sort of exchange programs and things like that.
00:20:53
Speaker
So thank you for that. um I wondered what encourages you particularly in your work. do you Do you have stories? You've mentioned a couple already. Do you have stories of people coming to faith? I know you're you're representing so many different people. That's probably a broad question, but are there any particular ones that stand out for you?
00:21:08
Speaker
I think there's a a couple in the last year which have been been wonderful simply because they're typical typical in some ways. they They sort of stand out as examples of what we see around and about the place. that The most recent would have been, I was speaking at the events week at Warwick University just a couple of weeks ago, three weeks ago. um And it it was ah in lots of ways a fairly typical university events week. It felt like the week started slightly slowly. The CU, I think, were working out what what's what's this event we'd like about, particularly the first year, so you'd not done it before. They were feeling their way. I think they were probably testing me out a little bit as a speaker, like, can I trust this guy to bring my friends um along to? And I think that's that's standard and normal and good.
00:21:55
Speaker
um And i I think I convinced them. i was I was pleased to see numbers grow through the week. And um I think they they felt, okay, no, I can bring friends to to to listen to this guy. and But what was interesting was they, in the past, Warwick University CU had always had a marquee in the middle of their university campus, right, really obvious. And they were able to fly out their whole campus, like hand out flyers, and people would just walk in.
00:22:19
Speaker
This year, for the first time, they didn't have that. They had a room um in a building, which was less obvious. And as a result, I think they realized as the week went on that they needed to rely on actually inviting their friends to come, like relying on the the relationships they already had. um And about a third of the way through the week, one of the CU committee, kind of she she admitted that she sort of invited her friend along kind of out of duty. She sort of felt I should invite someone. I'm one of the CU leaders. I better invite someone. Invited a couple of course mates along and one who she'd invited who did not expect to come.
00:22:55
Speaker
Here's the big theme. She just did not expect him to come. um came along to the event and she didn't expect him to engage. He engaged really, really lively in in discussions during the event and she didn't expect him to respond.
00:23:08
Speaker
He prayed with me to accept Christ that evening. and He'd been along to a few things in the past, but this was really the first time he'd properly really heard it. she She was sort of thinking, I don't know if he really understood what he's done here.
00:23:19
Speaker
um And then on the Saturday night, he messaged her and said, um so are you going to invite me to church? Can I come? ah And it's like, oh yeah, no, I should do that, shouldn't i and And he's been along to church with her each week since. um So it's what's the theme that's interesting there and seems to be a theme we're seeing more is the surprise of Christian friends at how easy it is to invite their friends to come and hear.
00:23:42
Speaker
So the openness that we've already talked about that students are exhibiting is perhaps taking some of the Christian students by surprise, And the Christian students are perhaps a little bit cautious, perhaps worried that they're going to face opposition and then finding that actually that their invitation, it's not just received, it's it's welcome.
00:24:03
Speaker
um Another example would be a student, where um we've told her story before, so we've called her Karis, but that's not that's not her real name, um up in the northeast of England, who has a friend in the Christian union was felt prompted to pray for three friends for the year, to pray for opportunities to share Jesus. Yeah.
00:24:23
Speaker
So she went praying for her friends and no opportunities came for the first term. and She was feeling frustrated. um but Her CU staff worker, her UCCF staff member working with her, encouraged her to keep praying, keep praying, persevere, the Lord answers, persevere in prayer. So she kept praying. and um She found her first half of term all the way up to the events week, still very little,
00:24:44
Speaker
Around the opera events week, there was a bit of an opportunity. to She invited the friends, but not very much opportunity. They were quite closed to any conversation. But then after one of the events that one of her friends, this Karis, came to, um suddenly the conversation opened up and her her friend started talking to her all about her faith, her experience of the Lord, um about the Lord Jesus. um And Karis became more and more interested And so eventually her CU friend plucked up the courage to read ah Luke's gospel with her. um we We use um Luke's gospel in a ah package we call Uncover. um It's ah essentially the text of Luke's gospel with six kind seeker studies to do with a friend over a coffee.
00:25:29
Speaker
um And Karis said, I thought you'd never ask. um And the CU friend um reflecting on it afterwards said, I was surprised by how straightforward it was to make that invitation.
00:25:41
Speaker
And then how straightforward it was to open Luke's gospel with with my friends. I thought it was going to be really hard work. And it actually ended up being a lot easier than I expected. um And I think that that's it's it's an interesting tension in evangelism.
00:25:57
Speaker
um And I hope this is something that will relate to to those who are listening. So I think we can, it's right, it is hard. There is a crossing, when Rico Tais calls it crossing the pain line, doesn't he? There's ah there's a thing where it takes us it takes us to say, sometimes saying the name of Jesus aloud to someone who doesn't trust him as Lord feels a really hard thing to do.
00:26:18
Speaker
But the Lord is the one who prepares hearts. And and that we will find, we will find, I think he promises this, that some of those we talk to don't go, i don't want to hear a word and respond negatively, but go, please tell me more.
00:26:33
Speaker
We want to hear you again on this. That's what um what the people in Athens said to Paul in Acts 17, isn't it? We want to hear you again. and And I think somehow giving confidence to Christians that they can expect that,
00:26:46
Speaker
ah is is something that that's that's one of the main things we want to do in UCCF for Christian students. And I'd want to communicate more broadly to anyone listening that we're in a point a time where openness is growing and God has already promised that even in non-open times, some will respond and say, yes, please, I want to hear more.
00:27:06
Speaker
So keep going.
Supporting Christian Unions - How Can You Help?
00:27:08
Speaker
So how can people listening to this get involved and back their local CU? If they're in a city where there's a university or a further education college, How can local churches and local Christians get involved and support student mission in their city and in the UK more widely? And where can they find about out about UCCF?
00:27:24
Speaker
Well, finding out about UCCF, the best way to do it is to to look online. um If you Google UCCF, um it will come up as a website, but uccf.org.uk is where you can find out loads about all that we do.
00:27:36
Speaker
In terms of um supporting Christian unions, i guess if you're in a university city, there is a Christian union in your city, and there is almost certainly UCCF staff worker in your city too. And I sort of want to ask, do you know their name?
00:27:48
Speaker
Can you pray for them? um They may be in your church and you might not even fully like fully realize you're a co-church member with a UCCF staff worker working with multiple Christian unions in your city, potentially, if you have more than one university. um So do you know their name? Can you pray for them? But also, do you know the name of the CEU leaders? There will be CEU leaders in your um in your city.
00:28:09
Speaker
Can you pray for them? um and ah But if you're not in a university city, um I saw on online ah a church that I know quite well. I was part of a church in North London for a few years. It's not nowhere near a university that had a focused um week of prayer for two university CUs in particular during their events week, just over the last couple of weeks, because members of their church are now university students.
00:28:32
Speaker
And so they've realized they've got these university students who are members of their church who are now on, have the opportunity to be on mission in their universities. And so they're praying hard. So, so please pray for us. um I think that would be, ah be the first thing. um And then, are there ways in which you could support us and partner with us? We we want people to feel that they're able to be part of this ministry um that sometimes feels like it's slightly hidden away in universities, but it's doing amazing things and the Lord is at work in amazing ways.
00:29:02
Speaker
on average, every um events week that I've heard from over the last few weeks has seen four, five, six people profess faith for the first time. That's what we saw in in Warwick. and That's what's um what's happened in in Cambridge a couple of weeks ago, in Oxford. Sometimes it's more than that number.
00:29:20
Speaker
um But that's replicated 50, 60, 70, 80 times. um and And people may not know that that's what's happening. um But we we do need the resources that we can use to resource those students and to enable them to do that mission in 3D, delighting in displaying and declaring Jesus as boldly as possible. um So if you could part if people could part listening with us could partner with us, they can find details on how to do that on the website. If they look up uccf.org.uk, then that would be a wonderful thing. We would praise God for for every person who did that.
00:29:53
Speaker
well Thank you so much. I think that's a lovely ah piece to finish on. i think what struck me is is in this conversation one one is the the sort of how unusual the the the period of being a student is. As you say, things being up in the air and actually this great openless which ah openness, which is a real opportunity to share the gospel. and and Students in one sense are a really important group because they'll go around and some will have influential roles. But as you say, you've made a a more universal point, which I really like as well, that just the delighting, displaying and declaring Jesus, that's something that applies to every every demographic and group we can think of and that real challenge. And the other thing that really struck me is your your point about just simply inviting people. And you know as you say, mission can be hard, evangelism can feel hard, but it's God at work.
00:30:40
Speaker
And he may well surprise us, as you said, and and actually does. And we're seeing this on campuses around the UK, people saying, tell me more and and showing that really God is moving. So that's a wonderful encouragement to us.
00:30:53
Speaker
So I really hope this conversation will inspire us to all think and pray about how we might connect more with students better. Thank you again, Matt, for sharing that with us. And thank you all for listening. at Do tune in again in a couple of weeks for another inspiring guest on Pet Talk podcast from SOMAS.