Monthly column on student work

One year ago Claire Osborne walked into the Quinta Centre a confident graduate. She was looking forward to a year on the UCCF Relay programme 'meeting students for coffee and loving people'. All her illusions were soon to be shattered. The reality was that she was to be stretched and challenged more than she could ever have imagined.

'Relay' began as a response to UCCF's desire to put more people on the ground to work among students and to invest in and develop student leaders. It is now an established one-year training and discipleship training programme that has placed almost 400 recent graduates with Christian Unions across the country.

The year kicks off in September with the first of three training conferences, an event that Claire recalls: 'I walked through the door and suddenly felt like a shrivelled balloon. What was I doing? I felt so daunted by the prospect of having so much responsibility.' But she was not alone: 'I soon met others who also felt the size of a pea! Over the week it was like I had never heard the gospel before. We heard more and more about grace. The conference kept reflecting where I was at: when I felt I couldn't go on, I would be reminded that God makes us perfect in our weakness; and when I felt great, I would be reminded of how sinful I am.'

From the first week to the last, the emphasis is on grace. Andy Shudall was in the first batch of Relay workers. He is now the national co-ordinator and has developed the extensive training programme: 'The gospel is the driving force; so all the talks are centred on the fact that it is the gospel that matters.' Each Relay worker has regular supervision with a staff worker in addition to two half days of personal study in which they work through a core doctrine programme. The relay worker usually works with one CU (often the one they were involved with as a student) helping students to grow and share the gospel with others.

Long-term

Nigel Pollock, who is now Associate Head of Student Ministries at UCCF, pioneered the Relay programme. Reflecting on the last decade he said: 'When we started the programme we had no idea how significant it was going to be. It has been a humbling thing for UCCF to see generations of graduates wanting to give a year of their lives to the CU movement, but the greatest encouragement has been what they have gone on to do after Relay.'

Ex-Relay workers have gone on to serve Christ on every continent, something that has been a tangible encouragement to UCCF. Dozens have gone on to be CU staff workers in subsequent years (half of the current staff team are former Relay workers) and many others have given their lives to world mission. At the last reunion, ex-Relay who are now army officers, teachers, housewives, TV producers, vicars and accountants were found to be seeking to live with integrity and witness to Christ in a wide variety of Christian and secular environments.

Ask CU staff workers what the highlight of their work is, and most will speak enthusiastically of their involvement in Relay training, or relationship with an individual Relay worker. David Todd, CU staff worker in Sheffield says: 'It is exciting to be involved in serving the church in this way and seeing Relay workers really develop initiative and ideas. One of my Relay workers began the year with very little confidence, but by the end was planning to go to Portugal with IFES and he is still serving Christ in that country.'

David Gibson is part of the Religious and Theological Students Fellowship (RTSF) team at UCCF. At the end of his year as Relay worker in Nottingham he said: 'I began the year as a gospel-believing Christian and ended it as a gospel-needing Christian.' It's a subtle yet transforming difference, and one that many Relay workers have experienced.

Next year the Relay programme will be ten years old. UCCF are planning a reunion of all ex-Relay workers.

Emma Carswell

© Evangelicals Now - October 2002
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