In Depth:  Pod Bhogal

Pod Bhogal

UCCF has launched its 2013 Student Link Up campaign.

It is giving a special Uncover – Starting Uni edition of Luke’s Gospel to school leavers when they link up to their university Christian Union through uccf.org.uk/link-up.

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The University of Birmingham Christian Union (UBCU) has been reaffiliated to the Guild of Students after being expelled over seven years ago.

In 2006 the Christian Union had its bank accounts frozen and was ejected from the Guild for being in breach of the university’s equal opportunities policy by refusing to allow non-Christians on to its executive committee. However, after several years of negotiation, the Guild has readmitted the Christian Union, also allowing it to continue to restrict the leadership team to those students who are in sympathy and agreement with the CU’s Basis of Faith. Cara Forster, UBCU President, said: ‘UBCU is delighted to announce its readmission into the Guild of Students. After years of negotiation with the Guild, the UBCU constitution was approved on terms agreeable to both parties, whereby leadership of the executive committee can be restricted to those who wholeheartedly agree with the aims of the society (aka the doctrinal basis). We are thankful for the more recent favour towards the CU in the Guild leadership and their recognition that the CU has a positive contribution to make to the campus and to the Guild itself — this being evidenced, for example, by the holding of an English Club for international students and water-bottle distribution after the Guild's club night each week. The CU is excited and praises God for this new opportunity to further the gospel on campus’.

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Hundreds of Oxford University students are finding out about Christianity.

For many this is a first-time experience at a series of special meetings hosted by the Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union. Each day over 500 students are attending evening and lunchtime meetings where students are presented with a short Bible presentation, before opening the floor for questions.

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An estimated 12,000 students attended Christian Union carol services in 2012, the biggest of which drew over 3,000 attendees.

Associate Christian Union Staff Worker Michael Ots was the speaker at Durham Inter-Collegiate Christian Union (DICCU) carol service. He commented: ‘It was awesome to see over 3,000 people packing every corner of the cathedral to hear about Jesus. It’s not unusual for [carol service] attendance to be at least four times that of the CU. In Durham it was ten times! Student carol services are probably the most effective events of the whole year at getting not yet Christians to hear the gospel’.

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CUs in Great Britain have begun preparations for their February Uncover missions by launching the Uncover ‘pray for five, give to five and invite five’ campaign. UCCF hope that the national initiative, which involves students praying for five friends, giving those friends a Gospel and inviting them to read it one-to-one, will reach 50,000 students in 2012/13.

Tim Rudge, UCCF Field Director, was the main speaker for Royal Holloway Christian Union’s launch event. He commented: ‘The CU did a fine job. They made it simple, so that students could easily understand the strategy. On each chair the CU had put out a copy of the Gospel, a pray for five prayer card and a copy of the Uncover Seeker Bible Study Guide. They bundled their Gospels in to attractive “gift” packages of five.

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UCCF is to embark on an ambitious gospel campaign that aims to see 50,000 non-believing students given an opportunity to read Luke’s Gospel with a Christian friend in the year ahead.

Tim Rudge, UCCF’s Field Director, comments: ‘We will ask our 10,000 most active Christian Union members to commit to praying for five unbelieving friends, to give these friends a copy of the Uncover Luke’s Gospel, and to invite them to a Seeker Bible Study (SBS). Our target over the coming 12 months is to see no fewer than 50,000 non-Christian students reading Luke with a Christian friend, either one-to-one or in a small group’.

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UCCF is set to enter the second phase of the Uncover project by launching an interactive gospel.

Following on from the success of Uncover (where CU members have been reading the Bible with their non-Christian friends), UCCF’s sixth Gospel Project will carry the same name. Using Luke’s account of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the resource will host a number of interactive features utilising new technologies such as QR codes.

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Over 90 CU mission weeks have taken place on campuses all around Britain this academic year.

Responses to the gospel have been varied but Christian Union events weeks continue to be a source of great encouragement.

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Mike Reeves is Head of Theology for UCCF: The Christian Unions.

We caught up for natter about theology, mission and his new book The Good God.

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‘It was a privilege to speak at four packed carol services on December 11 [for Southampton Christian Union]’, commented Adrian Holloway, evangelist at Christ Church in London.

He continued: ‘As 550 people filed out of the first service through one door, another 550 entered through a different door for the second! The CU president had to interrupt the service to ask people to ‘budge up’ to create space for these folks to get seats.

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We’re thrilled by what the Lord has been doing through Christian Unions last term. Here are some highlights.

The CU at Reading, in partnership with local churches, hosted a meal for a remarkable 280 international students. Susie, a member of the CU, met a Chinese girl who said she would like to find out more about the Bible. ‘She was very enthusiastic’, commented Gareth Leaney (Staff Worker, Reading). He continues, ‘[she] even asked if she could use a Bible app on her phone so she could understand the translation’.

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Imagine the impact of 1,000s of students, Relay workers and UCCF staff reading the Bible with a non-Christian friend while at university.

Imagine if every student in Britain were given the opportunity to meet with Jesus in the Scriptures.

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Over the past five years, more than 3,000 students have taken advantage of UCCF’s student Link-Up scheme.

Through this they are able to register their details with their campus CU before they head off to university or college.

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‘What I've discovered is that what works best with non-Christians is opening up the Bible with them.’

So said Doug, a student at Glasgow University, who was surprised at the effectiveness of discussing God’s Word with non-Christian students, in a forum often called seeker or evangelistic Bible studies.

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‘God is Bob, Steve, or any of those generic killjoys that you run into at the pub. Not only are they constantly judging you, they prevent you from having fun. No drinking to excess, no banter, no sin. Worst of all, whenever you decide to chat to a woman he swoops in and stops you. In other words, I don’t want to go to the pub with Bob’ (anonymous student, London).

Is God really like Bob? One suspects that said student is not alone in thinking that God is just one great big cosmic killjoy. According to the gospel of Bob, God is rule maker and sin is rule breaking. The — rather unattractive — solution is rule keeping and salvation is just avoiding an almighty whacking. Who’d want to worship a cosmic headmaster like Bob?

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We are saddened by the recent death on January 10 2011 of Robin Wells, third General Secretary of UCCF.

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UCCF loves it when students hear, engage with and respond to the love of God expressed in Jesus Christ. We want students to ‘live life to the full’ — that is, to know that Jesus loves them and see that life with him is the best way to live.

Here are some testimonies from students, UCCF Staff Workers and Relay volunteers from this last year for you to enjoy.

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Mission weeks are the focal point of a CU’s evangelistic campaign. These weeks are where CU members can invite their friends to hear the gospel being preached in a way that is persuasive, attractive and relevant.

Pod Bhogal, UCCF’s Head of Communications talks to Michael Ots (Associate Christian Union Staff Worker, itinerant evangelist and mission speaker) about his involvement with CU mission weeks this year.

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Do you know someone who’s starting university this year?

Christian Unions are a great place for new students to be supported in their Christian faith from day one of freshers’ week. They’re full of other Christian students who know what it’s like to start university and experience the daily challenges and opportunities of being a Christian. CUs are also committed to making sure students get involved in a local church while they’re at university.

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I remember the time when I was a Fresher going to university. I had been a Christian a month and was really excited about all the adventures and exploits I would get up to.

The first few weeks were just a crazy experience — everyone was up for meeting new people and wanted to go out and party. Even though I was a Christian, I ended up spending a third of my student loan going out, drinking and partying within the first month.

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The FREE gospel project was officially launched this September at UCCF’s national conference for Christian Union leaders, Forum. Almost 1,000 delegates, staff, volunteers were the first to hold copies of the 400,000 freshly designed copies of Mark’s Gospel set to be distributed to campuses in Great Britain in February 2009.

Since then it has been a fantastic privilege to observe the enthusiasm, commitment and excitement with which the project has been embraced by Christian Unions.

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From March 31 to April 5 around 1,800 students attended Word Alive, making it the biggest student conference in Europe. For over 15 years Word Alive has been bringing ‘Rolls-Royce’ Bible expositions, seminar tracks and workshops to build up the people of God and resource them for mission.

With over 130 Christian Unions represented at this year’s conference, Word Alive continues to be a major event in the CU calendar and is a massive opportunity to equip Christian students for mission on campus. The Chronological Bible Overview, Understanding and Communicating the Bible and Using the Bible in Evangelism were among the most popular seminar tracks this year.

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It has been said that the Christian Union (CU) is the only university club or society that exists primarily for non-members. CUs are mission teams with a clear and focused agenda — to live for Jesus and speak for Jesus on campus. Their main priority is to see students come to a living faith in Jesus Christ.

Although CUs are led by students, Christian Union Staff Workers (CUSWs) have a vital role in keeping our university CUs healthy, vibrant, outward-looking and mission-focused.

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The media and creative industries are increasingly influencing British culture and especially student culture. As society changes, UCCF: The Christian Unions remains committed to helping students to live and speak for Jesus with integrity in engaging and culturally relevant ways.

The creative arts can be a difficult place for students to witness, with some being labelled as naive, arrogant or unintelligent for their belief in Christ. Laura, a student studying at the Courtauld Institute, commented: ‘My college can be a depressing, spiritually, as all students come into contact with the Bible at some stage (for their course) but few seem to respond positively or regard it as something relevant for today’

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Charlie is a typical student. His mop of unkempt hair hides an enquiring mind.

When he isn’t watching daytime TV, or attending one of his twice-weekly lectures, he likes nothing better than partying with his pals in the Students Union, where the beer flows freely. Dancing together, ankle deep in spilt drinks with the sweaty hordes might not be your idea of a good night out, but for Charlie it’s probably the best wash he’s had in weeks. And don’t let his image scare you off; Charlie wants to talk. He wants to know how he can help his friend Anna, who has an eating disorder. And how he can deal with the suffering his family is going through as a result of his mother being diagnosed with bowel cancer. So, he wants to meet you for coffee, to talk about how Christian hope might be able to give him some hope.

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On debating religion, Richard Dawkins likens all religious activity to ‘medieval superstition’. He goes on to argue that, ‘The hypothesis of God offers no worthwhile explanation for anything’, and that, ‘Faith is a great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence’. In light of these comments it is interesting to observe the impact the gospel is having on the students at Durham University.

The University of Durham has a long-standing reputation for academic excellence in the fields of science, literature and engineering. Its students are sporty, clever, articulate, and can expect future success. If Dawkins’s hypothesis is correct, Durham is probably the last place in the world you would expect the gospel to be flourishing, but, by God’s grace, it is!

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Christmas on campus

From November onwards, it’s really difficult to miss the fact that Christmas is on the way. Shopping centres become busier, the Christmas lights go up and there are lots of shiny decorations in shop windows. However, despite all the glitz, glamour and commercialism, Christmas also brings with it a wealth of opportunities for evangelism.

This Christmas saw literally thousands of students attending carol services across the UK — put on and hosted by evangelical CUs. For many non-believers this represented a significant opportunity to hear the gospel explained clearly and faithfully, often for the first time. Here’s just a glimpse of what was happening and where:

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Imagine the impact that could be made on our campuses if we could train and equip a generation of Christian persuaders who would not be ashamed of the gospel but would be confident in their declaration of God’s Word.

That’s the vision behind UCCF’s Biblical Evangelism Conference for students and recent graduates.

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In the evangelical student world, theology can hardly be said to have a good name. ‘Ivory Tower’, ‘God in a box’ — such are the slogans used to describe and dismiss the rigorous thinking-through of biblical truth.

Added to this, the secular academy has had a long history of antagonism towards any place for personal belief within its theology and religious studies departments, providing a significant challenge for any evangelical students. So, Dr. Bruce Winter, Warden and Director of Tyndale House, writes:

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In the beginning…

uccf:thechristianunions has always held the cross at the centre of its ministry. It was in 1910 that the first Christian Union (Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union) disaffiliated from the dominant Christian student movement of the time (the SCM) because of the SCM’s liberal interpretation of key gospel doctrines — notably they did not hold as central the atoning blood of Jesus.

The Inter-Varsity Fellowship (now known as uccf:thechristianunions) was formed shortly after. ‘It was only a few months later that the realisation dawned on us that if a CICCU was a necessity in Cambridge, a union of the same kind was also a necessity in every university of the world’ (F. Donald Coggan, Christ and the colleges, p.71).

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September is an important time for students! It marks the end of summer and for many it’s the beginning of a new journey as they leave home — often for the first time.

It was also a key time for CU leaders across the UK as they gathered together for Forum 2005 — UCCF’s national CU leaders’ training conference. Over 400 CU leaders, 60 CU Staff Workers and 50 Relay volunteers attended this year’s event at the Quinta Conference Centre, Oswestry, from September 5 to 9. From Bangor to Bognor they were all united in heart and mind with a common purpose and vision — the evangelisation of our universities and colleges.

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Question: What can get over 100 students out of bed at 7.30 am on a rainy Monday morning in the middle of November

Answer: Pure — a six week interactive course looking at what God has to say about sex and relationships.