UCCF is delighted to announce the appointment of Matt Lillicrap as the new CEO of UCCF. Matt will start in this role in the Autumn. Matt’s appointment to this crucial leadership role comes after a thorough and prayerful search process.
UCCF is passionate about equipping and supporting Christian Union students across Great Britian to reach their friends with the good news of Jesus Christ. As we begin this new chapter, we are confident that Matt's vision, passion, and commitment to the gospel and his heart for evangelism and discipleship equips him well to lead UCCF, and will further strengthen our mission and impact amongst students.
After growing up in Kent where he came to faith as a teenager, Matt studied medicine in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He worked for seven years as a doctor in hospitals across the North East of England, as well as serving with the Christian Medical Fellowship in student ministry, and as part of a church-planting team in Gateshead.
In 2013 he and his family moved to Oak Hill College in North London, where he lived and studied for four years, before heading to Cambridge, where he took up the post of Associate Pastor at Eden Baptist Church, leading the student ministry, and supporting student ministry more broadly across the city at both Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin Universities.
For the past three years Matt has been pastor at Hope Community Church in Cambridge, where he lives with his wife Anika and their six children.
Matt shares this of his appointment:
Sometime in the last century a student group in North-East England organised a series of events to share what they believed and felt about Jesus. A young geography student found herself at one, wondering why she’d come. The speaker she remembers as boring(!), but the Jesus he talked about was utterly spell-binding.
She decided there and then to follow this Jesus.
That’s one of the most exciting stories you could hope to hear, and one echoed in so many lives.
It’s also the story of my mum.
She was one of the first people to share Jesus with me. In some ways my own faith is a legacy of those 1970s Christian Union events. My own story is also filled with countless ways the Lord used a later generation of the same Christian Union at the same university to strengthen my faith, build me up in Christ, and embed a passion for sharing Jesus with those who need to meet Him.
Today my own children aren’t very far off university, and that legacy continues. I am deeply excited by the faithful ministry of UCCF, supporting students reaching students with the good news of Jesus, and can’t quite believe I will get to work alongside the many staff and students labouring in this particular harvest field.
Simon Day, UCCF Chair of Trustees, says:
We give thanks to God for the multiple strong candidates who participated in the process, and are grateful for all the prayers and advice of our supporters over recent months. We are especially grateful for the Lord's provision of Matt, and the humble character and pastoral skills He has given him to take on this role leading the Fellowship. Please join with us in praying for Matt: that he would continue to grow in personal devotion to the Lord Jesus, and knowledge of how to please Him, as he steps into these responsibilities in the coming months.
We would like to invite you to join us in welcoming Matt to UCCF. Let’s pray together for God's wisdom and blessing as he steps into this new role, and for UCCF as we continue to strive to make Christ known in the universities of Great Britain.
ENDS
Editor’s notes:
UCCF is a Christian charity, passionate about student reaching students with the good news of Jesus. Christian Unions (CUs) are groups of students from a range of local churches, joining together to share the gospel with those around them. For more information about UCCF, visit uccf.org.uk.
Picture notes:
Hi-res JPEG picture of Matt Lillicrap available here.
11 July 2024