Seven steps towards building outreach into CU small groups

I've been thinking a bit recently about how to make CU small groups in all sorts of different university contexts more effective in outreach.

Here are seven steps I've come up with that can build a more of a missional edge in CU small groups:

1. Work hard to show your small group members how all components of small group time are inter-related. CU small group outreach tends to fail if outreach is seen as an unnatural intrusion to small group life. Outreach becomes more effective and natural when, for instance, Bible study is presented as something which energises the group's mission; as group members grow in trust and relationship with each other, they gain a sense of community in witness, and so on. Prayer topics in CU small groups should be wide-ranging (and it’s important to make space for the real needs that small group members have), but there should be an ongoing eye on outreach.

I made some practical suggestions on how to do this in a post a while back.

2. Ask questions that encourage discussion in the small group about how the gospel really is news that is good for people today. For instance, in a Bible study on 1 Peter 2:9, you could ask:

• What are Christ’s deeds?
• Why are they wonderful?
• What kind of darkness previously surrounded you?
• What is your present experience of God’s light?

(This is based on an approach I read in the book Good Things Come in Small Groups, which I believe is now out of print). Questions like these help small group members grapple with the specifics of God’s love, encourage them to appreciate the grace of the gospel, and help them begin to personalise and talk about it.

3. Set the perspective from the beginning that outreach is both necessary and natural. If your small group is less confident in evangelism, start initially in forms of non-threatening outreach, in which group members confident. As gospel confidence increases in your group, you can step up into more stretching forms of outreach.

4. Ask for help. If you need help in your outreach, don't let this stop you! Speak to your CU's small group coordinator or your CU Staff Worker for help.

5. Press for group ownership in outreach. Work towards small group members seeing your small group as a think tank. Work together to reach consensus on what specific task God has for you. Group ownership enables everyone in the small group to work as a team: this is much more fun, more effective and you'll find small group members are more committed.

6. Plan time for planning. To reduce undesirable last-minute panic, start the planning process far enough in advance. Factor in small group time to make these plans. Make sure too that you've thought about how you'll follow up those people who show interest in the gospel.

7. Surround all outreach in prayer. As we ask God to intervene in lives and events, we learn to rely on his strength rather than ours. While God commands us to be stewards of our gifts, energy and resources, it is not our job to change hearts. The Holy Spirit alone can do that. Our role is to serve as signposts pointing to Jesus.

It’s great when small group members keep a list of 3-5 friends, praying that they get opportunities to share the gospel and that their friends hearts would be open to the gospel. Set aside time regularly for prayer for these friends who are without the knowledge and experience of Christ's love.

When you have an event, ask for prayer wherever you can - at your church, in CU central meetings - and, of course, spend good time praying together in your small group too.

Reaching university subcultures

One of the things I am passionate about is encouraging CU students to be strategic and to reach students in those subcultures who appear to be the very 'hardest' reach with the gospel in their local settings.

When I say this, I'm not saying that CU students should just ignore the pre-existing opportunities that they have in evangelism already; rather, that they should think carefully about how they can best serve the church through engaging with those only realistically reached through CU outreach.

Sometimes some churches in student towns can put on a 'guest service' that will attract a certain type of student - most often those who have come from a Christian or religious background; whether that is lapsed Christians, nominal Christians, those who have attended chapel at school - and so on. Of course, the Holy Spirit blows where he wants as his word is proclaimed, but - without partnership with the CU - church-based student evangelism is often relatively ineffective at reaching others.

I have taken to asking CU leaders to identify those groups or subcultures on campus that they consider that only the CU can realistically reach, with their privileges of contact, access and student-run evangelism. I've been asking Christian students to isolate those groups who wouldn't even consider or have the opportunity to enter the doors of a local church without prior CU contact. It's been quite eye-opening: at many universities it's Muslims, hard-core clubbers and those in private halls of residence. Chatting to a fourth year Durham student yesterday, he identified members of the Conservative club and non-Christian theology students.

I love it when CUs think strategically about reaching their campuses. I love it when local churches encourage their students to think this way, and set them free to be 'missionaries' within the university.

New universities and the need for community

One of the passions that has grown within me over recent years is the desire to see the 'new universities' of Britain reached with the gospel. The main stimulant of this desire was working with the Christian Union at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston.

I was often humbled by the Christian students in Preston, who continued to plug away with gospel proclamation and witness on campus, even though the odds were very much against them. CU numbers never really went over 70 in Preston, what is a university with a massive undergraduate presence.

No doubt there were other Christians on campus. One of the characteristics of new universities is that a large percentage of students commute in from nearby towns, and so never live permanently in their place of study. This makes it difficult to even grow a viable 'mission team' of any size.

There were other things that can make ministry hard and, for many, frustrating in new universities. Firstly, the subjects studied there are often more practical or vocational, making 'traditional' methods of apologetics and evangelistic proclamation less effective. In addition, my experience suggests that generally students at new universities are 'further back' in their appreciation for the gospel - particularly, there is the widespread assumption that becoming a Christian means you stop having fun (not the sort of objection that might be tackled effectively in an apologetic talk).

On top of all this, there are often no large halls of residence, a lack of emphasis across the university for involvement in extra-curricular activities and, perhaps above all, a lack of public meeting space. Certainly in Preston, students spent much of their time in their rooms, or out together in pubs and clubs. There was little sense of community.

A colleague yesterday was talking about another CU at a different new university. His observation of this group was that it was 'just a community' - that CU students had a tendency to sometimes huddle in a group. The evangelism that this group has tended to do has favoured first contact evangelism - this isn't surprising: as a relatively small group in a university of tens of thousands, it's tempting to think that first contact evangelism is the only way that it might be possible to make an evangelistic 'dent' in the university. The fact is, however, that such a large percentage of students on these campuses see Christianity as so functionally irrelevant, first contact is fairly ineffective. The students on these campuses need to see Christianity lived - to taste and see that the gospel is good - more even than students at traditional universities, who might be persuaded more easily to investigate Christianity through being convinced of its ring of truth. In fact, all of the people I know that have become Christians in Preston (and most of those who have shown any serious interest in Christianity) first became interested because they saw the gospel lived out in a friend or friends.

All this has got me thinking. I wonder if the need for friendship and community, that was so obvious in Preston, and which caused the CU my colleague was talking about yesterday to huddle, should be part of the outreach and evangelistic strategies at new university campuses. Obviously Christian huddling is a long way from the pattern of Biblical gospel ministry - but could CUs at these universities seek to meet the need for community to many around them with an outward emphasis? Sacrifical, outward-looking community, where everyone is accepted as they are, is - after all - a massive implication of authentic gospel living.

Imagine - building on solid gospel convictions, it's the CU at new universities including the lonely international students in dinner plans; it's the CU that runs a football team; it's CU members that offer their front rooms for other university meetings to take place. Imagine the way in which this would place gospel transformation on view, and the way in which this would require CU members to give a reason for the different hope they obviously have. Because CUs are currently very small at these universities, we're not going to talk about massive numbers coming into contact with CU members. But I wonder if the quality of contact might make CU evangelism in these tough mission fields more effective?

Ten important things I learned in Moldova: part 2

Following on from this post...

6. 'Do not forget to entertain strangers' - One of the unique things about the Moldova summer team is that, after the camp, we go home for a short stay with a Moldovan. I wrote about this experience last year. This time, I went home with a non-believing guy called Valentin to his home in a village called Cojuşna. Once again, I was reminded of the poverty that exists even in Europe. The different this year was that Valentin's grasp of English and my grasp of Romanian were on a par (i.e. very low). However, I was blown away by Valetin's hospitality and discovered that it's actually possible to communicate a large amount, even when verbal communication is very limited (although I am hugely grateful for a Romanian phrase book I had, and an ancient Russian-English phrasebook that Valentin owned!).

7. 'I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want' - Last Sunday the team split into three groups and attended three different evangelical churches in Chişinau. I had the opportunity to attend Christos Pentru Moldova, a Pentecostal church in the city centre. It was a really interesting experience. Perhaps the thing that will stand with me longest was the sermon, on trusting in Christ in financial difficulty. Moldova is Europe's poorest country and the pressures of lack of money are very real. It's tempting to think that something other than the gospel is needed when there is severe financial pressure. Of course it's right to aim to alleviate these problems, but the sermon reminded me that Christ is sufficient even in times of great lack.

8. 'But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us' - My friend Cathy Midmer, who'd co-led two previous trips with me, used to always say that being in Moldova makes a British person feel their weakness. It's true. Everyday activities that would normally come very easily all of a sudden become things that are risky and hard. Add the inevitable bout of illness to the mix and you're made to feel very weak. But with the difficulties we faced this time, it was more obvious than ever that the British team were frail and, like everyone, possessing their own honest shortcomings. One of the CSC staff workers commented that she'd always secretly thought that the British teams in Moldova were somehow super-human. This year she'd realised that we struggled like everyone else. But I think this led to greater glory to Christ. It was Christ that kept us going, and when we were whittled away he remained, just as Paul wrote about in 2 Corinthians 4.

9. 'We live by faith, not by sight' - As I mentioned in the previous post, we spent early morning team times on camp studying 2 Corinthians 1-6. I'd looked at this letter a number of times before, but it came alive as we moved through it methodically. The 'gospel' and 'ministry' of the super-apostles impacted me like never before: a gospel of glory and ministry that celebrated present comfort, the seen and the special. I was convicted by how easy I find it to slip into super-apostle thinking, where I am bothered most about what I see, and lose confidence in the Spirit's gospel transformation being what really matters. Even on the camp, it was easy to get most excited by external things rather trusting the Lord's work in people's hearts. And so the experiences of difficulty were helpful, refocusing me (and the team) onto what really matters: the eternal, internal work of gospel transformation, when the heart is God's true target. As well as some Moldovan non-believers, members of our team were moved to real openness, honesty and repentance regarding a wide range of areas of their lives. When Christians are honest about their lives, it can be tempting to despair at all the messiness. But we live by faith and not by sight. And so it is much more wonderful when hearts are changed than when Christians live a false life that outwardly looks sorted.

10. 'And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit' - Perhaps the thing above all that I will remember from Moldova 2009 was the deep work of transformation that the Lord did through his Word and by his Spirit. Nearly every member of our team experienced deep spiritual renewal as they were shown their weakness and sin and driven back to the cross. Several members of the team came face to face with sin and with situations that they had buried for years. The Lord granted some of our team members deep forgiveness. At the same time, at least four Moldovan students professed faith for the first time on the camp, and several others left the camp counting the cost of following Jesus. I have returned reminded once more of the powerful transformation of the gospel and the life that it brings.


Perhaps the three weeks in Moldova this time were three of the most intense weeks of my life. It's difficult to find words to describe some of the things that went on. But please join me in praying that this summer team might prove to have the long-term fruitfulness that I think it might have had, both in Christians and in non-Christians. Pray that the Moldova 2009 summer team might prove of tremendous value for the kingdom.

Ten important things I learned in Moldova

Yesterday evening the UCCF Moldova summer team arrived back in Luton after 15 hours of travelling. It was the last stage of an incredible three weeks.

I'd rarely - perhaps never - previously had the opportunity to see the gospel at work so powerfully in the way that it was during our time away. To be honest I'm still finding it a bit difficult to process everything that went on. But here are ten things I'll remember:

1. 'He who began a good work in you will carry it on to the day of completion' - It was so encouraging to see ongoing growth in many of the students I'd met in previous years. Ştefan (a room mate on camp three weeks ago) now works as an accountant and is active in his local church - I was so grateful to God for letting me bump into him again. Another former roommate, Artur is about to start as a volunteer with CSC (the Moldovan equivalent of UCCF) on a programme a bit like UCCF's Relay; Victor (who became a Christian on the camp two years ago) is to start training as a priest in the Orthodox Church, looking to apply what he's learned and serve the saviour he loves there; Tanea (who became a Christian on the camp last year) is going strong as a believer. It was also amazing to see how several friends from last year have softened to the gospel over the past twelve months. There are other stories just like this. It's brilliant to see that our ministry is not 'hit and run' and makes a real difference in the long term.

2. 'I urge that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for those in authority' - Until this trip I guess I'd had quite a romantic view of the former Soviet regime. But over the course of the trip this time it became evident how in Moldova - a former Soviet country with an elected Communist government - this sort of governance plays out. It's a strange time in Moldova. The upcoming elections are the most important in the country's history. Meanwhile, the government seem paranoid about 'destabilising influences'. As Westerners working with students - perhaps those amongst the more politically active in Moldova - we were viewed suspiciously. Roll on endless bureaucracy given to our Moldovan hosts. The whole system works on fear: a real fear of negative consequences if you don't do as you are told. Having had just a taste of this, I've realised how difficult it is to be in this sort of system (especially to be a Christian). Pray for the upcoming elections, especially for the Christians standing to reform the system.

3. 'Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn' - Due to the culture of fear that I described above, our team ended up having an ultimately unnecessary brush with the authorities. What followed was really invasive and painful for some of the members of our team. One of the things that I'll remember, though, was the way in which our team pulled together. I've never really been part of a group of Christians that has modelled all suffering when one part suffers in the same way. Deep love for each other and deep love for Jesus was behind the deep emotional response that the group showed.

4. 'We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the hardships we suffered in the Republic of Moldova. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure... But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God' - I felt out of my depth for nearly all of our time away. Day to day different situations emerged where things just seemed to be spinning out of control. I know that several other individuals experienced this too, especially in the situation I sketched above. There were a whole series of pressures that I'd never experienced in leading other summer teams. On the mornings of the camp, the British team studied 2 Corinthians together. It was very appropriate. Together we realised the great blessing of being made to cast ourselves once more upon Christ and his Spirit. In our time of debrief, several people shared that they had experienced the joy and freedom of this, even in situations of pain and pressure.

5. 'I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh' - In the evangelistic Bible studies on the camp this year, we used an adapted version of The World We All Want course. In my opinion, one of the real strengths of the course is the way in which it emphasises that real change is impossible without the Holy Spirit, but with the Spirit change of heart and desires is possible and realistic. As this truth penetrated people's hearts, we saw amazing things happen. In our orientation, the British team were convicted of deep sin as we went through these studies - especially regarding trust in works, rules and law to change oneself, rather than the Spirit. On the camp, many Moldovan non-believers camp to crave this indwelling of the Spirit, realising their helplessness to see real heart change without his special work. One girl, just before she trusted Christ, asked a member of the group how many times she needed to pray to receive the Spirit's indwelling. She was amazed to hear that, if the prayer was genuine, she needed to turn to Jesus only once to be forgiven and receive his Spirit. What a privilege it was to bring this good news!

Part 2 follows in due course...

Moldova 2009

On Monday, I'm heading out for the third and final time with a team of students to Moldova to partner with the IFES movement there, CSC.

I'm a swirl of emotions as I prepare to return to Moldova. It's been a hard period of sad goodbyes to friends in Lancashire, and the past few weeks have been quite demanding. The whole setup in Moldova means that you are made to feel weak. I'm already feeling weak and so I'm somewhat nervous about how I might cope this year.

At the same time, I'm aware of how amazing an opportunity we have in Moldova. The main part of the camp is resourcing an 'English and Bible Camp' where there will be about 60 Moldovan students (including 40 non-believers) who come to practice conversational English and study the Bible. We're using The World We All Want evangelistic Bible overview and I'm excited to see the impact this makes in the Moldovan context.

Please pray for us. We're a big team with an extraordinary amount of diversity. Pray that this acts to underline the truth of the gospel that we are proclaiming, rather than act as something that undermines team unity. Pray that we're not ashamed of the gospel, that the British team grow in their knowledge and love of Jesus, and that God draws people to himself.

I'll try to update from Moldova, but this might not be possible.

Itinerary:

• 29th June: team meets in Luton
• 30th June: early morning flight from Luton to Bucharest, then travel by coach to Chisinau
• 1st July: arrive early morning in Chisinau; team orientation lasts until 6th July
• 6th-15th July: on the English and Bible camp
• 15th-16th July: team members stay with Moldovan hosts
• 17th-19th July: team debrief in Chisinau
• 19th July: travel to Bucharest
• 20th July: flight back from Bucharest to Luton

Sarah has some more detailed daily prayer requests here.

Evangelism-driven legalism

I've been thinking a bit recently about a subtle form of legalism which I think seems to be common in many evangelical churches.

The argument runs a bit like this:

• Unbelievers will have the gospel commended to them by Christian behaviour, and so will want to ask questions of Christians.
• Therefore make an effort to impress non-believers by your behaviour - this might take various forms: be outgoing, be generous at work, arrive early at church to chat to newcomers... and so on.

It's certainly true that lifestyle commends the gospel. But I feel uneasy when I hear this sort of teaching. Here's why:

1. It seems to forget or sideline the place of grace. Titus 2, for instance, speaks of how different groups can commend the gospel through the way that they live - older men, older women, younger men and slaves. But the whole chapter is bound up with a theology of grace: Titus 2:11-14. The gospel of Christ (and the redemption in full from sin that he has achieved) gives a Christian a whole new perspective and teaches them to say no to ungodliness. The chapter is bound up with Jesus and his grace, not merely with exhortation.
2. For this reason, the implication of the above exhortation without grace is that Christians should try hard to be something that they are not really e.g. friendly, outgoing, generous. These actions are stripped away from the salvation we have received in Christ.
3. This effectively relegates godliness to a place where it is not much more than a piece of bait that can be dangled before non-believers to win conversations.
4. It also is likely to promote self-righteousness and/or despair amongst believers as they seek to strive towards these outward forms of behaviour. This behaviour is not coming from believers' hearts, and it ignores the empowering of the Holy Spirit.
5. This emphasis means that believers consider that if they show non-believers their sin, they've blown it forever.

There is a missing stage to the above teaching...

• Jesus' gospel of grace has freed you and empowers you to live a life of love.
• Unbelievers will have the gospel commended to them by Christian behaviour, and so will want to ask questions of Christians.
• Therefore, be what you are called to be - loving Christ above all, and therefore radically seeking to meet the needs of others, trusting that all your needs will be supplied by Jesus. Be confident in the transforming power of Jesus to commend itself, even in someone as sinful and broken as you.

Dave makes a helpful addition to this post.

The Trinity: unbiblical, illogical, irrelevant?

I had the privilege and opportunity to speak on a lunchbar with the above title at Lancaster University last week.

As part of the lunchbar, I stated that I believed that any religion based upon a singular god shows itself (at least in part) in works. After all, this god might demand obedience and religious service and sacrifice and prayer and elaborate worship. If it's going to come from anyone, it has to come from humans. Religion is about humans paying all of this to a god. (This contrasts to Biblical Christianity, in which the Son makes forgiveness possible, and whose righteousness is credited to those who trust in him).

I had an interesting conversation afterwards with a Christadelphian. I have to admit that I didn't know very much about Christadelphian doctrine, beyond the fact that they denied the Trinity. But the girl I met was adamant that works have no part in salvation in the Christadelphian view.

However, as the conversation continued, I think my original statement was endorsed. Christadelphians believe that humans are separated from God because of their sins, and can be reconciled to him by becoming disciples of Jesus Christ. This comes through faith, confession and it seems baptism (although the girl wasn't completely sure on this point). But, above all, she explained that salvation comes as a result of making a commitment to follow the commands of God. The work, it seems, is a commitment to obedience.

I left the conversation sad, because we seemed to get nowhere. But then I got to reflect again on the amazing Trinitarian God - a plurality that offers all those who trust in Christ forgiveness in full as a gift of grace, the reputation and righteousness of Christ, the very status of Christ, adoption as heirs and the gift of the Holy Spirit. What a God!

"I have many people in this city"

One of the most tender parts of the book of Acts comes in chapter 18. Paul is feeling discouraged in Corinth: having been chased out of town after town, the Lord appears to him:

One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: "Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city." So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God. (Acts 18:9-11)

A few of us were considering these verses at the Lancaster CU small group leaders' meeting on Tuesday. Christ gives Paul an incredible promise - he had in Corinth 'many people'. These people had not yet believed in him, but they would do so because, as Stott puts it, 'already according to his purpose they belonged to him.' And so we considered the implications of God's sovereignty in evangelism: this conviction did not cause Paul to pack up and go on holiday, but he had the great conviction to keep going as an evangelist, knowing his efforts would not be wasted.

We haven't had a specific word about the campus of Lancaster University - but as we look forward to the great crowd in Revelation, we discussed as to how we can be very optimistic that Christ has 'many people' at Lancaster University - eternally his, but not yet trusting him.

Last night we maybe had a glimpse of some of 'the many' on the campus. The CU organised a 'toastie and question' event from 6pm to 2am. It was quite an amazing event: there were three 'stations' that were all making toasties, and dozens of CU members involved in taking the toasties out, chatting and answering questions.

The stories are still filtering through the CU. A whole football squad listened to a CU member explain something of the gospel; several people want to come to church on Sunday; the campus radio station texted in for a toastie and featured the answer on their station! Literally hundreds of conversations happened over the course of the night.

In a couple of times especially we were aware of God's leading the conversation. In one instance, the CU members were there for nearly 2 hours - a banterous conversation turned very serious, and the CU members were invited back to chat further over dinner. In another conversation, the final question was, 'So how would I become a Christian?'

As we prayed last night, we reflected on Christ's promise to Paul: 'I have many people in this city.' We couldn't help thinking that he has many people on the campus. How precious the conviction of God's sovereignty is in evangelism!

The development of theology and evangelism

I've been reading through Timothy Ware's book The Orthodox Church as part of preparation for the summer team I'm co-leading to Moldova in June and July*. I've been wanting to brush up on Orthodox beliefs as many of the non-believers that attend the camp are influenced at least nominally by the Orthodox Church.

One of the things that has struck me is the extent to which Orthodox and Protestant beliefs diverge because of a difference in whether Scripture or Church is the ultimate authority. Protestants argue that Scripture is the ultimate authority, whereas Orthodox argue that because the canon was formalised by the Spirit-driven Church, Church effectively is the authority above Scripture. (And so church creeds and the writings of the Church effectively have equal authority to Scripture).

This inevitably has an impact on the development of theology. Whereas Orthodox believers would certainly grant the possibility of theological development (in deepening existing Orthodox doctrines), it seems to me that the Orthodox Church's default position is to look at the writings of the early Orthodox saints. Protestanism - with its insistence of being Scripture-driven - places much more emphasis on theological development. The weakness of the Protestant position is that it can be faddish and perhaps (at least in evangelical circles) does not place enough emphasis on the historical testimony of Christians from other generations. But it appears to me that Orthodox theology starves itself of many of the theological developments that a sola Scriptura conviction has brought - diverse issues, including the nature of sin, the atonement, common grace, the doctrine of humanity and so on. I've no doubt that there are many genuine believers in the Orthodox community (and met some incredible people last time round in Moldova), but these under-developed doctrines seem to be very unhelpful.

Certainly my study so far means that I am inclined to run a session for our team's orientation on the doctrine of revelation. I'm also going to be inclined to show that the beliefs that many Moldovans find incredulous (for instance, that Jesus is not just 'Son of God' (which they learn by rote), but also 'God in the flesh') were testified by early Eastern believers. Eventually perhaps these thoughts will come to fruition in a short resource designed to help evangelicals share the gospel more effectively with nominally Orthodox unbelievers.

* The book, recommended by my dad, is a massively helpful and detailed introduction to Orthodoxy. There are second-hand copies on the Internet for next to nothing. Ware himself is a bishop in the Greek Orthodox Church.

A tool to help engage with philosophy and pop culture

I've recently come across a series of very useful books for those of us involved in cultural engagement, apologetics and evangelism.

Published by Wiley-Blackwell, the Philosophy and Pop Culture series helps the reader to get their heads around the various philosophies that popular films and television programmes both espouse and reflect. Why is it that we find David Brent so ridiculous? What is the form of philosophy that drives Jack Bauer? These are amongst the questions that the books investigate. As well as 24 and The Office, there are also guides on other series including Battlestar Galatica, Family Guy, Lost, South Park and the Batman films, amongst others. You can view the full list of titles here.

The books aren't easy reads (especially the one I read on 24). It's academic philosophers that have written the chapters. But I found the guides both helpful in illustrating quite abstract philosophical ideas, and in helping me to engage with the ideas these shows present and play around with. I'm hoping that as well as deepening my appreciation of these programmes, the books have armed me with new material for sermons and lunchbars.

Who will reach the north of England?

I've been in the north of England for nearly five years now. It certainly wasn't my plan to move this way, nor did I envisage my move northwards being any more than a brief foray. But the Lord has other plans, and now it seems that we're set to be in the north of England for the forseeable future.

One of the things that has struck me in the north of England is the comparitive need of the Church here compared to the south of England. I guess I'd always assumed that the needs of the gospel were fairly similar across the UK. But this isn't the case.

Most recently, I came across this article from Tearfund. The statistics aren't full and there's a lot more going on, but I was impacted by the paragraph showing the groups of people that are consistently under represented in UK church attendance (the figures are the percentage of people that attend church at least once a year - the UK figure for adults was 26%):

• Men (21%)
• 16-24s (16%)
  
• 25-34s (22%)
• C2 social class i.e. skilled manual (21%)
• DE social class i.e. unskilled labour and unemployed (22%)
• single people (19%)
• council tenants (19%)
• NE region (18%)
• Yorkshire & Humberside (17%)
• Wales (24%).

I guess there'd be quite a lot of cross over between some of these categories. The headline is, I think, clear. It's the poorer areas in the north of England where church attendance is at its very lowest. (Interestingly, the north west of England had also featured in previous surveys as being under-represented but church attendance apparently shot up 8% last year - possibly a sign for optimism but possibly a statistical anomaly).

I think this fact has been brought home to me personally over recent years. In my region of the north west, the churches are generally reaching middle class people (certainly evangelicals seem to be making barely any impression on the working classes). There have been a number of occasions when northern students have become Christians through CUs and we've wanted to recommend an evangelical church in their home town, only to realise their isn't one.

What is to be done? I'm pleased to see that Tim Chester and co. and others are seeking to buck the trend. I'm seeking to do my bit too (and getting a reputation for it!) - through encouraging fairly footloose Christian graduates to stay in the north (whether in full time paid Christian ministry or not). Often more attractive jobs are in the south of England (both in secular work and Christian ministry). But we need to ask - if we are not to reach the poorer northern towns with the gospel, who will?

Real life ministry

Closing in on Day 8 of a 10-day mission at Lancaster University, many of us involved are now beginning to feel a bit weary. Like any CU mission there have been real frustrations and some sadness, but also a whole load of encouragements and joys.

A particular joy today was spending time with Christian students from the English Literature department who put on an evangelistic event dedicated to Biblical motifs in secular literature. I then asked as part of this event to present an overview of the Biblical story to help the students see how these themes work themselves out in Scripture. There were about 20 of us there, nearly half were not Christian. Some fascinating stories and really interesting questions. A great event organised by students who are convinced of the gospel's truth and reality, and who are growing in discerning common grace in literature. I'll try and upload my talk if I get a chance.

It's tempting during a mission week to begin to resent the sacrifices that one has to make. It was really helpful, then, for my own godliness and perspective to study Philippians 1:12-28 with the Cumbria cell leaders this afternoon. It was great chatting about how Paul's view of the gospel isn't that of a religious maniac but of someone who just sees the gospel as it really is. I've blogged about how amazing I consider this passage before, and so I'm now praying that I'll see my time now to serve others with Christ-centred and Christ-empowered ministry and death as gain.

Joys and sorrows, feeling out of one's depth, relying on God's grace to keep persevering: it is real life ministry after all.

The deeper gospel

I'm writing from the last day of the first of two weeks of outreach events at Lancaster University. As ever, it's been a mixed time: frustration and heartache is inevitable, but there have also been great encouragements. I'd encourage you to check out things from the perspectives of Michael, the speaker this week, and Sarah, one of the team of CU Guests.

I've also found that this week has made me reflect more on my own walk with the Lord, and what it means for me to be a Christian. This is my fifth mission week at Lancaster University, and so it feels that reflections have been inevitable both in comparison with the first, four years ago, and the most recent, a year ago.

It was during my time as a Relay Worker that I think I realised that the gospel was really real. Not just in an existential kind of way, not just as truths in a spiritual subsection in my mind, but really real, more real than anything else. And that conviction has just kept on growing over the years since.

In the past year, I think I've seen that Jesus' diagnosis of humans is really real too. I've written about this before. I think I used to have two categories of Christians in my head: those that were basically sorted, and those that were basically unsorted. The last year has helped me to see that all of us are basically unsorted: struggling with sin, knowing hurt and feeling sore under the effects of the sin of ourselves and others in our lives. And knowing this truth in experience has had a whole number of different knock-ons: knowing that we are broken and hurting jars of clay offering other broken and hurting people hope (and don't need to be 'sorted' to first offer this hope), and knowing that only Jesus can clear up the mess.

So this mission week has felt like it's been in a richer colour. I'm grateful to God that he's helping me to see and feel these basic truths more. The gospel that I'm aware we're offering is rendered more deeply. I'm praying and having to ensure that this doesn't spill over into frustration with other Christians that appear to have a much smaller (more clinical) gospel. I'm desperate to see the gospel changing lives, in bringing people into the kingdom and then in changing lives. Because that is the ministry that, with the Holy Spirit's help, we have.

Free at Lancaster University

The 'Free machine' rolls into Lancaster University over the next fortnight: it's the turn of the CU there to offer their campus the opportunity to engage with Jesus and his claims.

The CU at Lancaster have got quite brave plans for the next fortnight: aiming to give out 4000 Gospels by hand (representing over one-third of the university undergraduate population), five lunchbars, five evening talks the following week as well as events in departments and colleges. I've also been really delighted to see how creative the CU have been in putting together plans: there's a Free 'Zine of poetry that's been made by some Creative Writing students, a series of audiovisuals to be shown on the uni LCD boards and a whole 'bedroom' assembled in the centre of campus where people will be able to come, chill out and say what they think constitutes true freedom. It's been great seeing everyone pull together and use their gifts.

Please pray for the CU over the coming fortnight. This next couple of weeks is probably as high-profile as the group there have been during my time; not least because of the Free marquee currently standing outside of a busy university building. We can expect opposition and things probably won't be plain sailing. But pray that we're bold in proclaiming the gospel, and that God uses these efforts to bring others to faith over the coming weeks and months.

Week 1 speaker Michael Ots gives his perspective.

"What does it matter...?"

I've spent the day soaking in Philippians 1, challenged again by Paul's attitude in putting the gospel first that caused him be to be willing to face personal discomfort, denigration of his name and bruised feelings so long as the gospel is preached.

What shines through this passage is the great splendour, goodness, potency and effect of the proclaimed gospel message, and the glory that goes to Christ through its proclamation. In the light of the gospel, nothing else can hold first place for our ambitions and motivations.

Here are two quotes I've been reflecting on today in this light:

"Putting the gospel first ought not to be the exception among us, but the rule. We are talking about the good news that reconciles lost men and women to the eternal God. We are confessing the gospel: that God himself has provided a redeemer who died, the just for the unjust, to bring us to himself. Without the gospel we are cut off, without hope in this world or the next, utterly undone. Compared with this good news, what could possibly compete?" (Don Carson, Basics for Believers)

"[O]ne day, as we know from his promises, he [Christ] will come again in unimaginable splendor to perfect his kingdom. We are commanded to watch and be ready. Meanwhile, the gap between his two comings is to be filled with the Christian missionary enterprise. We have been told to go to the ends of the earth with the gospel, and we have been promised that the end of the age will come only when we have done so. The two ends (of earth space and time) will coincide. Until then he has pledged to be with us. So the Christian mission is an urgent task. We do not know how long we have. We certainly have no time to waste. And in order to get on urgently with our responsibility, other qualities will be necessary, especially unity (we must evangelize together) and sacrifice (we must count and accept the cost). Our covenant at Lausanne was "to pray, to plan and to work together for the evangelization of the whole world". Our manifesto at Manila is that the whole church is called to take the whole gospel to the whole world, proclaiming Christ until he comes, with all necessary urgency, unity and sacrifice." (The Manila Manifesto, Lausanne Covenant 1989)

Making CU small groups work - part 2: think relationship

In part 1 of this mini series, I highlighted that I consider mission to be an integral part of making CU small groups work. Without a focus on being explicitly outward looking, CU small groups run the risk of becoming social groups or otherwise merely replicating that which could be done in church small groups. An all-round mission focus, like the one I suggested, is necessary.

Think relationship

An equally important emphasis needs to be placed on relationships, and to let small groups be as strategic as they can as small groups. As a rough rule of thumb, I think that a small group that has more than about twelve regular attendees in it should be split. Getting much larger than this takes away all of those things that makes the small group format work. One of the larger college groups in Lancaster splits into two groups for some of their small group time. Two Bible studies are run concurrently, allowing all members of the group to discover and engage with Bible passages for themselves. This is particularly helpful for those who are non-auditory learners.

It's not only Bible study that benefits from a 'smaller' small group. CU members can support each other more adequately too. Of course, primary pastoral support for small group members should come through their own local church. However, the Bible does envisage that all Christians should care for each other (as shown in the 'one another’s'). Rather, support amongst CU small group members should fall into two categories:

• Small group members care for each other and encourage each other to radically live and speak for Jesus through prayer and friendship;
• Small group members are on the lookout for any deeper problems that cannot be handled by ‘one-anothering’, humbly leading people struggling with these problems to those in local churches who can help.

I've seen trust amongst small group members develop as they loved each other in these ways. This has an amazing effect on wanting to witness together. As I mentioned last time, evangelism can be transformed from the activity of an individual to a group activity through regular small group outreach. It's been really pleasing here to see one small group in particular take this to heart. They're not only friends with each other, but also friends with each other's non-Christian friends.

I would say that the other important relationship in making CU small groups work is the relationship between the small group leaders and their Staff Worker. Ideally, small group leaders need to commit to attending weekly training. This acts as a kind of 'team time' for small group leaders. Ideally, this acts as a safe time when leaders can ask questions, grow, develop godly practice and get trained. Weekly meetings help small group leaders bond on a corporate journey as they grow, and also allow the staff worker to ensure that small group leaders aren't getting overburdened, or playing the role of church leaders.

Part 3: coming soon - think grace

Making CU small groups work - evangelistic events

In a recent post, I said that if CU small groups are to be evangelistically effective, then evangelism needs to be written into each small group gathering.

In the CUs I work with, we use a system called 1-2-3-Go! (or at the University of Cumbria 1-2-3-Connect4). Having an evangelistic event every four weeks is a good way of keeping small groups outward looking. However, small group events will normally fail if the fourth week is just seen as an 'interruption' to normal service. Small group leaders need to be encouraged to weave outreach and personal evangelism into every small group gathering.

Below is a table we use at Lancaster University helping small group leaders to do just that:

Making CU small groups work - part 1: think mission

I've found myself chatting over the past few days to a wide range of people about CU small groups. Some people think that they merely replicate church, others think they are wonderful, others are just left confused.

Over the past few years, I've been thinking about how CU small groups can best function. Here are my rough thoughts:

Think mission

CUs are not designed to be rivals to local churches - rather, CUs serve local churches by uniting members of their congregations to live and speak for Jesus in areas which might otherwise remain unreached (Dave outlines the vision beautifully here). For CU small groups to be really strategic, and to avoid merely replicating church, it's important that we don't just think uncritically about the existence of small groups. CU small groups must fit into the CU's ultimate reason for existence: outreach to students.

Small groups (both in CUs and in local churches) aren't generally outward-looking by default. In CU small groups, mission needs to be threaded into every area of their life. Part of this means ensuring that the group has regular outreach times together. In our area, we tend to use the 1-2-3-Go system where every fourth gathering is an outreach night. This keeps outreach very high on the agenda. However, merely hosting regular outreach events, by themselves, isn't enough. All of the gatherings of the small group also need to be outward-looking. At the very least, prayer for friends and outreach to them should be included, as well as reviews of outreach nights.

The nature of outreach events can vary. Sometimes, CU small groups can organise very effective larger events. (These are particularly worth thinking about if the small group meets in a hall with shared space - such as a bar or TV room - and where access to all rooms or kitchens makes flyering easy). However, I'd recommend CU small groups to focus on smaller-scale events, where those invited have already seen something of the gospel in their Christian friends' lives. Events can be effectively 'tailored' to what's most appropriate, and this is a great way of showing Christian community on a small scale. My non-believing friends can meet with some of my Christian friends: given these Christian friends are then likely to bump into my non-believing friends, I'm no longer left witnessing alone.

Hall-based small groups tend to be most effective as there is a ready-made 'mission field' in existence. This tends to focus the mind of small group members. However, there's no reason why other CU small groups shouldn't remain effective and strategic in outreach, and avoid merely replicating the content of church home groups. This is especially true if the group takes joint responsibility for witnessing to the close friends of other Christian small group members (housemates, sports team mates and so on).

Part 2: coming soon - think relationship

Two ways to miss out on the kingdom

Jesus' parable of the great banquet (Luke 14:15-24) - representing the kingdom of God - shows that there are two ways of missing out.

The first way - the emphasis of the parable - is through having wrong priorities. People give poor excuses for why they can't attend the banquet. All of these excuses underline that, in fact, they just consider other things to be of greater importance. So often people's rejection of Jesus and his invitation into the kingdom comes not through investigation or because they've come to the conclusion there isn't really a banquet. Instead, they have wrong priorities... which lead them missing out on the greatest banquet of all time, hosting by the God they were created to be in relationship with.

Perhaps the second way is hinted at in verse 23. 'Unworthy' people have to be compelled to come into the banquet - they consider themselves not good enough for the banquet. They don't realise that their invitation is not based upon their performance, but upon the goodness of the host.

How can we best speak of the kingdom to these two groups of people?