[carve out some time] loveyouruni

If you ask a group of friends in your church about their best experience of ‘mission’, I’m sure you’ll hear a lot of variety. We all have preferences, different backgrounds and upbringings, unique interests, motivations, passions and desires. It’s not a great leap to suggest that these influence our approach to mission. Consciously or sub-consciously, we all approach mission and see it through a lens which has been formed through these factors and more.

As part of the loveyouruni tour we’ve been presenting a seminar called ‘mission styles’. It hasn’t been part of every tour event but hundreds of students have now taken part. The basic idea is to provide an opportunity to start us thinking. How can we work with the grain of who God has made us to be in student mission and how can we appreciate and facilitate the differing approaches to mission that we see and experience in others?

Think about a time that sharing your faith felt energising and effective. For some people it might be when they’re hanging out with a friend at three in the morning and the conversation turns to the deeper things of life. For others it might be the little conversations you have with someone when you hand them a free bottle of water.

Maybe some of you love explaining and having theological debates with people who really want to thrash out the details of the Christian faith. We’re all likely to have preferences and it’s essential because the university population is more diverse than ever. We need to work together and get creative to engage our generation with the gospel, proclaiming the truth and living it, speaking about it and demonstrating it with our lives.

My challenge is, when you think of the time that sharing your faith felt most life giving and natural, make sure you’re carving out time in your life to prioritise opportunities where it might happen again. If you’re a free water fiend, make sure you do that regularly, if late night conversations are your niche, make sure you’re staying up with people after midnight. If you’re struggling for ideas for sharing your faith at all, check out the new loveyouruni guide to 21st century student mission.