Monthly column on student work

Emma Carswell, the regular writer of this column, is on her honeymoon. I am sure that even the most enthusiastic reader will forgive her absence in the circumstances. I had the pleasure of being at the wedding where Roger Carswell preached with an enthusiasm and directness which only the father of the bride could have pulled off. Rico Tice, who was conducting the wedding, told me he almost became a Christian (again).

Weddings always bring into focus for me what student ministry is all about. I believe that the effectiveness of any student ministry is seen most clearly in the quality of its graduates. The end point is seeing young men and women making the transition into the workplace with a love for the Lord and a passion for the gospel. Many start as students with a better idea of what they don't want to be like as parents, partners and workers. The challenge is to give them a positive vision of what God could do in and through them.

Weddings are places where you encounter the students of yesterday and get some sense of the people they are becoming. Are they standing for the gospel, integrating faith and work, concerned for God's world, serving in their local church, using their resources to practice hospitality and resource mission or can you see the signs of compromise, greed, self-centredness and pride? It is a great encouragement to see graduates growing in their faith and a real sadness where you detect a spiritual cooling. Sometimes it is those who people say 'are doing very well for themselves' whom I am most concerned about. One of the prayers at Emma's and Ollie's wedding was that they be kept from the love of money. It is in the daily decisions of money, gossip, honesty, the use of power and influence and relating to people that discipleship is worked out. It is in the giving up of rights and the taking on of responsibilities which nurtures maturity.

Three fundamentals

Stephen Gerber in 'The Fabric of Faithfulness' identifies three things which he sees as fundamental in the experience of those who have gone on with the Lord after graduation. While they were students such people developed: Convictions - theological understanding which became foundational to their thinking and values; character - Christian integrity sustained by discipline and godly habits; community - relationships of quality and depth which lasted through the seasons of life and provided support and encouragement to follow Christ.

Next time you are at a graduation pray for these things in the hearts and heads of those who are graduating. Next time you are at a Christian wedding look for opportunities to encourage these things in the couple and in their friends. The father of the bride will not always be calling them to follow Christ but maybe you will. Get Christian graduates in the corner and give them the 'third degree'; you do not have to be a professor to do post graduate education.

Nigel Pollock,
Associate Head of Student Ministries, UCCF

Wedding days

Three fundamentals

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