New Christian student resources for pandemic
Kate Duncan
Date posted: 1 Oct 2020
Student Christian umbrella group UCCF is launching new resources to enable students to engage with the gospel and keep making Jesus known.
The Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF) has planned resources for Christian Unions (CUs) which cover all eventualities in the current pandemic. ‘More than ever we will need to encourage our CUs to maintain and sharpen the tools used for the kind of evangelism that has been bearing fruit, albeit with a somewhat different expression from what has gone before,’ says Peter Dray, UCCF Head of Creative Evangelism.
UCCF: introducing students to Jesus
Kate Duncan
Date posted: 1 Apr 2020
Manchester CU students woke up on the final day of Home, their February mission week, to a Facebook review that was painful to read. A student, who had attended events during the week, had written: ‘I can’t fault the friendliness of those helping with the week … but Home has put me off Christianity more than any other engagement I’ve had with faith.’
An estimated 50,000 students will have attended a Christian Union (CU) mission over these past few weeks. Across the country, CUs have sought to give every student an opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel through high-profile, focused weeks of engaging, persuasive and creative evangelism. As the Parable of the Sower tells us, the response will be mixed. This Manchester review was a sobering reminder that, despite all the CU’s efforts to bring people to Christ, some seed falls on the path and is immediately snatched away.
The Third Degree
Storytelling
Kate Duncan
Date posted: 1 Apr 2018
‘It is amazing see God work in front of my eyes.
‘I brought my friend to the Story mission week and, despite personal struggles with suffering, she was able to start believing in God.’
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The last best opportunity
Kate Duncan
Date posted: 1 Oct 2017
University is a key moment.
From day one, university promises a chance to reinvent yourself, to make lifelong friends and to load your CV with qualifications that will guarantee you your dream job upon graduating.
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Examgelism!!
Kate Duncan
Date posted: 1 Jul 2017
Spring months are busy.
It’s the time of mission weeks. By contrast the pace of the university summer term can seem slower as students knuckle down for end-of-year deadlines and exams. Yet with these stresses and challenges also comes a stream of evangelistic opportunities – in Christ and in Christ alone can we find rest for our weary souls and purpose for our lives. So, despite the increase in deadlines and work pressures, Christian Unions (CUs) continue in their gospel mission.
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Making friends in Kingston
Kate Duncan
Date posted: 1 Apr 2017
‘Would you be interested in our events this week?’
I was offering an information flyer to passersby in the university hallway, a busy thoroughfare en route to lectures. Most students had taken one. Some even stopped to chat, asking ‘What’s this about?’ or having a go on the ‘Question Wheel’ – discussing purpose, identity or love over a free bowl of cereal or cup of coffee.
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Carols
Kate Duncan
Date posted: 1 Jan 2017
‘I've got some questions’, Rachel began.
‘I think we can take things to another level with the carol service.’
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Great Forum
Kate Duncan
Date posted: 1 Oct 2016
I’m shivering in a tent!
I’m in a Shropshire field surrounded by over 1,000 students. It is Forum, UCCF’s national training conference for Christian Union (CU) leaders, and it’s hugely exciting.
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Students reach students
Kate Duncan
Date posted: 1 Apr 2016
Kate Duncan and relay worker Joanna Robertson share five ways
Over the last three months, more than 38,000 students have attended a university Christian Union mission week event.
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CU Spring missions
Kate Duncan
Date posted: 1 Apr 2015
‘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.
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Student carol services
Kate Duncan
Date posted: 1 Jan 2016
Carol services remain a popular part of Christmas for students.
Christian Unions (CUs) are uniquely placed in their universities to provide that festive celebration and share the good news of Christ incarnate in creative ways.
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IFES World Assembly
Kate Duncan
Date posted: 1 Oct 2015
What do you get when you gather 1,000 evangelicals from 148 countries in a Mexican resort?
Nothing less than una fiesta grande: a plethora of culture and a little foretaste of Revelation 7.9: ‘…there before me was a great multitude that no-one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb…’