‘For the first time, I have begun to understand Christianity.’
So said a student at a London university following an evening of Sixties’ style festival fun and a talk on ‘The God who Loves us’. She had joined hundreds of other students for one of the joint London Christian Unions’ (CU) city-wide events during their mission week in January. It was a week of creative and persuasive evangelism with lunchbars, Text-a-Toasties, question boards, free cafés, photo booths, questionnaires, Grill-a-Christian, Meals with a Message, art exhibitions, musical performances, testimonies and dramas.
100 events
This high-profile, focused week of evangelism has been replicated in universities across Britain over the past three months. Around 100 events weeks (or missions) have taken place involving even more Christian Unions. With daily lunchtime apologetic talks, evening Bible expositions and a constellation of other engaging events, these weeks remain a key way of reaching every student on campus with the gospel.
Creative evangelism
Durham CU ran a blog sharing the testimonies of about 80 of its members in the run up to their events week. It has had thousands of hits from around the world and has been the catalyst for a number of gospel conversations. Meanwhile, Bath Spa CU set up a ‘Wheel of Controversy’ in a prominent place on campus, which allowed passing students to ask any question they liked about Christianity – an easy way to invite someone to investigate further.
And at LSE, UCL and SOAS CUs an event in Mandarin Chinese on ‘Christianity: Just a religion for Westerners?’ drew in many Chinese students, most of whom stayed for at least an hour afterwards looking at the Bible with CU members.
Bristol CU ran their second events week of the academic year in February. At least 200 students came each day to the various lunchtime and evening events, many of them hearing the gospel explained for the first time. Brian Whittaker, UCCF staff worker in Bristol, reflects: ‘The CU was inundated with questions from interested students who were hungry to find out more about Jesus, and several students professed faith across the week!’
The fruit from these weeks has been evident. UCCF estimates that at least 38,000 students will have heard the gospel though events weeks these past three months. A significant number of students have professed faith for the first time and are now settling into local churches, and many others have started looking into Christianity seriously.
Far-reaching impact
But this is not the only impact of these weeks. It is also a time of great growth for the Christian students involved. For many fresh-ers, it is often their first experience of large-scale evangelism, and is a prime opportunity for them to nail their colours to the mast. As we were doing first-contact evangelism during Oxford CU’s events week, one fresher commented: ‘This is actually the first time most of my friends have discovered I’m a Christian. I’ve not really told them before.’ For others it gives a good taste of the highs and lows of Christian ministry.
When asked why he continues to speak at CU missions, Os Guinness (who delivered the lunchtime talks in Oxford this year) responded: ‘Universities will always be crucial. First, students are in their “big seven” years (roughly 18-25) when they make most of the major decisions of their lives. So they are particularly open to faith. Second, the current generation of students is a key part of the “crunch generation” that will be crucial for humanity in the global era … These major, week-long missions have been so vital for Christian life in Britain because of the stature of the leaders won to Christ in their university days.’
‘Too good to be true!’
The hard work of these events weeks doesn’t finish on the Friday. Follow-up is a key component, as CUs offer students the chance to delve deeper into the gospel and ask their questions.
In Newcastle and Cambridge, CU students are opening Uncover John (UCCF’s seeker Bible study resource in John’s Gospel) one-to-one with their friends and peers, while in Oxford the CU is hosting a seeker course two evenings a week in a local café. Numbers there have grown each week, with more than 70 non-believing students attending.
In Edinburgh, the CUs have been running two follow-up courses: one for seekers, and one for new believers. During a recent study at the new believers’ course one student joyfully exclaimed, ‘It's too good to be true; and yet it is!’ – a wonderful reminder of why these events week are so worthwhile.
Want to know what went on during a particular CU events week? Email prayer@uccf.org.uk
