Student Linkup is Fusion’s church finding app and website: www.studentlinkup.org. Annabel and Adam explain why they would recommend it.
Annabel
Annabel Hawkins is a law student who found that Student Linkup helped her get stuck into church straightaway. By the end of her first year two of her mates had got involved too.
I signed up to the Student Linkup app at a Christian summer festival. Once I got to uni the app meant I got emails from different churches about what they were doing and where and when they met.
I arrived knowing there were churches I could go to that wanted to welcome me. It made it much easier. I had applied for university whilst I was in Bolivia on a gap year and I was a bit nervous because I hadn’t even visited my university!
If you’re going to be a fresher soon don’t be scared to try different churches. You’ll be going somewhere where you don’t know anyone but they want to welcome you. Don’t leave it too long because otherwise you can get caught up in uni life and forget.
Because I’ve been involved from the beginning I have a strong sense of community. Some people come to uni and feel a bit lost but I’ve not had to experience that. I’ve made good friends in church, I lead a cell group and some of my Christian friends have had the opportunity to do talks in church.
Two of my friends became Christians in my first year. They were always commenting on how friendly my Christian friends were. One became a Christian in the first term of uni and got baptised before the Easter holidays. Another became a Christian later in our first year. Because I got involved in church from the start I felt I had somewhere I could invite friends to, rather than somewhere I myself didn’t even belong yet.
Adam
Adam Mitchell-Baker studies Politics at the University of York where he’s part of G2 Church.
I didn’t use Student Linkup and I regret that. I prioritised rugby in my first term and didn’t find G2 until the end of term. I went along once or twice then I broke my leg. At the start of my second term people in the church who didn’t really know me offered me lifts, cooked for me and did washing for me. That really endeared me to the church and I’ve been involved since. In my second year I watched freshers coming in at the start of the year. The app helped them get hooked in straight away and that’s so good to see.
At first I assumed I was strong in my faith and didn’t need to go to church. But in a church people really get alongside you and support you. Uni culture can be quite challenging, and also full of opportunities to share faith. Having a community that supports you makes such a difference.
Now I lead a Missional Community in my church. We started a football group because we were struggling to get blokes along. The first week we had 12 people, then the next 16, then 25. It’s great to get people along who aren’t Christians and have never been to church, or they’ve only come once or twice, but they come to football and then bring their mates along.
Sometimes you wonder if what you’re doing is making a difference, so it’s incredible to see how God uses it. We had Christmas Dinner for students at people’s houses before a G2 meeting. Four people who came along became Christians and one of them got baptised last term.
I would tell new students to make an effort to get to know flatmates and course mates. It’s easy to get into a Christian bubble but uni is such a good opportunity to model Jesus for people. A big part of that, of course, is having a church to support you. Try as you might, you can’t do it without church.
