The work of UCCF began over 100 years ago and the vision of this ministry remains the same today as it was back in 1919, ‘to make disciples of Jesus Christ in the student world.’ As a fellowship of staff, students and supporters, we’re united in this mission. And it’s our hope and prayer that we would be marked by our values, six priorities that define our ministry and guide our actions. Here Liz Hume (Executive Assistant to the Director, and former Oxford Staff Worker) shares her reflections on two of UCCF’s values.
My connection with UCCF covers over 20 years, from being a member of CU at university, through some volunteer CU guesting at mission weeks, to employment: first as a CU Staff Worker in the Central Region and then (till the present) as a member of the team in our Oxford office. I can bring back to mind scenes from all of these episodes that remind me why I love being part of this fellowship.
I’m a first-year student – fairly shy, young in faith, invited to a CU getaway before the start of first term. The welcome and friendship offered from day one is amazing, but the thing that stands out to me most is the passion so many of these young people seem to have about sharing their faith.
I’m standing outside in the middle of campus on a cold winter’s day in February, a CU guest doing cold contact questionnaires with some enthusiastic students during their mission week. We’ve had to spur each other on to have the confidence to do this, and I’m so encouraged as I see a couple of students step out in faith and love for their peers to try something that they felt was beyond them even two days ago.
Maybe four years later, I’m a Staff Worker; and I stare, smiling, at the unrecognisable mission venue I’ve stepped into – an airy hall transformed into a beautiful, warm cafe space completely tailored by the CU to be a home for the week for their fellow students: to feel welcome and relaxed, to drink coffee, chat to friends or catch up on some revision; and then a couple of times a day to have the opportunity to hear Jesus persuasively and beautifully proclaimed. Just within earshot, a student turns to their CU friend as they enter the room and says, ‘wow – someone really wanted us to be here!’
Love and truth; grace and urgent proclamation. I think of these values as the lifeblood of UCCF’s mission, and I’ve seen so many wonderful and humbling examples of them, held together and serving one another, throughout my time here. They are what keep me delighted to be part of this fellowship.
Creative, engaging and persuasive proclamation of Christ crucified.
It still never ceases to inspire me when we hear weekly stories from student mission on the field in our Blue Boar House office team meetings to this day, or when we get to read letters from supporters who still pray faithfully for the CUs that shaped their own evangelistic passion in years gone by. We are, right down to the core, an evangelistic fellowship.
I love to think of students back when the fellowship was first formed in the 1920s, holding out the good news of Jesus Christ, and how today all around the campuses of Great Britain students still stand in their place and fulfil this same great commission.
The ways they must do so now have changed, perhaps radically, in order to connect with this generation and all its own particular fears, failings and hopes; but the deepest need is the same as it was when our Intervarsity Fellowship forebears first founded this missionary movement.
Jesus Christ is still the answer, still the Saviour for all in this generation as in every generation; and so we are compelled to pour all our resources into the creative, persuasive and passionate proclamation of that Saviour to every student, for as long as we have opportunity.
Rejoicing in our salvation, serving one another and loving the lost.
What drives that urgency is a second cherished value: motivated by grace. We express this motivation as ‘rejoicing in our salvation, serving one another, and loving the lost’. This means that in all our teaching and training, our publications and our resources we want to center on and celebrate the news that God in His undeserved and lavish kindness calls us to Himself in Christ. That we bring nothing to the table but our sin, and yet we are completely welcomed, forever forgiven and, amazingly, sent in His service.
This grace frees us to serve one another as we labour in the gospel with love and humility because we are all one in Him and what He has done. The love and community of Christians within the CU have so often been, in my experience, the thing that first sparks interest in an unbelieving student: wanting to understand what makes these people so gracious, loving and welcoming of all.
This grace also compels us because we know what it is to be so undeservedly loved by God, that we long for others to know it too. And so we’re back – urgent in evangelism, because the grace of God motivates and compels us.
Right here right now, in 2024, students are still best placed to know and feel the challenges, aches, fears and sins of their generation. Right here, right now, staff are still equipping them to be able to connect the truth of Christ with their friends. Love and truth; grace and urgent proclamation. I pray that some things will never change!
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