An interview with new UCCF head Matt Lillicrap

This summer saw more than 1,000 students descend on The Quinta Christian Centre in Oswestry, Shropshire, for the annual Forum conference, hosted by the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF).

Attending the gathering for the first time in his role as CEO was Matt Lillicrap, who took over leadership last autumn. en had an exclusive opportunity to chat with him about all things student ministry, just as UCCF is launching its brand-new Uncover Luke publication.

en: Matt, how have you found your first Forum as UCCF CEO?
Matt: Encouraging. There is nothing like being together with lots of brothers and sisters in Christ, being pointed to Jesus, and celebrating Him together. And the theme of “Rejoice” that the team brought out of [Luke’s Gospel] has felt exactly right. In the current student context, to be able to say that we have a Lord who is worth rejoicing in is exactly what we need to be reminding one another of. I have felt able to delight in the Lord myself, meet with Him through His word, alongside the students – and seeing them doing that too has been fantastic.

en: Have you had any notable conversations with students?
Matt: I’m doing the Warwick Christian Union [CU] weekend away and events week, so I’ve been hanging out with Warwick CU quite a bit. And I had a lovely conversation with a student just now who was talking about all the challenges that are involved in being a student in today’s climate, with all sorts of ideologies competing. She’s finding it particularly hard to talk about issues of sexuality and gender, but knowing that UCCF has her back as a student, is key. That’s probably one of the most deeply encouraging conversations that I’ve had, because that’s what we want to do.

en: In terms of having students’ backs, does the new Uncover Luke come into that? In what way is the book going to aid students in the current context?
Matt: That’s a great question. One of the things that’s been really encouraging has been seeing the way that students have taken to Uncover [Luke] almost without us needing to drum up enthusiasm. And I wonder if one of the reasons might be that this is their Uncover. The first Uncover was launched in 2011, and the last three have all essentially been the same format. [The original] Uncover Luke, Uncover John and Uncover Mark have all aimed in the same place. They’ve aimed to be: “Here is the evidence for Jesus, read it for yourself, you can decide.” And that for 2011, a little beyond, and a bit before, was exactly the right place [to be] – that was the question being asked in student culture. It was the question being asked when I was a student back in the mid-noughties! But the “Is it true?” question is not the main question being asked anymore by students; it’s not even “Is it good?”; it’s “Is He good?” And also: “Does it work?” “Does it lead to flourishing?” And, therefore, uncovering the God who is there is the aim; that’s the change of emphasis, and change of angle, that’s come with [the new Uncover Luke].

en: I’m quite struck by what you said about the students feeling like it’s their Uncover, because they’ll always be able to say that they were at the Forum where it launched.
Matt: Yes, I mean Graham [Daniels] said it [at the evening meeting] last night, didn’t he? “We’re really blessed” – and he was including himself – “to be here, but the students are blessed to be undergraduates this year when Uncover launches.” There is something about it being a really quite new Uncover, that it’s just the beginning of a slightly new – maybe new – phase, a new stage in student evangelism, student mission. And, in so many ways, that feels exactly like the right way of talking about it – as a little bit of a new phase, a new stage. The cultural context has shifted this side of Covid-19; it’s changed so much. And so many things have changed over the last five years or so. The cultural conversations now – as opposed to if you wound back the clock to, say, 2015 – connected to the gospel, are vastly different. The conversations provide enormous opportunities; in some ways, maybe even bigger and better opportunities than the sort of rational “Is it true?” questions.

We stand on a 100-year-old legacy of making disciples of Jesus in the student world, giving every student the opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel of Jesus.

You can find out more about the new Uncover Luke here.