The end of year ball is a well established tradition for Student Life at Auckland University. It’s a way to celebrate the year in style with the students who have been involved with us. This year’s theme was “Cultures of the World”, 80+ students dressed as someone from a different culture, the staff dressed in Indian theme and composed our own bollywood dance! It was a bit crazy but fun! I was in charge of food for the event, we went with foods from 12 different cultures. I spent 4 days in the kitchen preparing, which was a challenge I enjoyed! (Although slept through most of the following day). The evening went really well; some students commented that it was the best ball they had been to!

Photos are available online.

It’s no secret that I think evangelism is a good thing! I’ve been thinking about the message that was given at church on Sunday by our new vicar, Iain. He raised some good points that I think are worth discussion.

Iain is currently walking through a series on the book UnChristian; it talks about how non-Christians perceive Christians today.

Iain started off by saying (and this is my paraphrase) that he hopes his life will be one that reflects Christ’s. We should aim to have our lives reflect his. This reminded me of some things that Roger Hershey spoke of at our student conference earlier in the year. One of Roger’s sons, Brett, died a few years ago, and at his funeral, one of his friends said something to the effect of “I’m not a Christian yet, but if there’s one thing to be said about Brett, it’s that he wanted everyone to know the Jesus Christ that he knew.” I hope that this will be true of my life!

Iain talked about how there are a range of different perspectives that people have about Christians/Christianity, from those who are closed off to it, to those who are cautiously open. However, according to research in UnChristian, 70% of those 16-30 years old think Christians are too focused on conversion, and don’t genuinely care about them.

This is certainly a provocative statement, but to be honest, I’m not really surprised by it. When I talk to people on campus, I hear stories of how Christians have tried to force the gospel on people, or bad experiences people have had with Christians in their lives. Often, a person has heard how their friends perceive Christians, and their perception becomes a reality to them (Iain mentioned this as well).

I do think that we need to be intentional about sharing our faith. So how do we do that when non-Christians perceive us in this way?

I don’t pretend to have all the answers about how to solve this problem, but I do have a few ideas:

• Be prepared to have a conversation when you talk about spiritual things with someone. Having a conversation means it’s a two-way event, and that involves listening. I’m not trying to blow my own trumpet in any way here, but I’ve had people say to me “Thanks for taking the time to listen to what I had to say when you shared with me.” I hope that this is something I can always do.
• It’s OK if you have a spiritual conversation with someone, and don’t get to share the entire gospel. Whether you’re using a tract of some sort with a stranger, sharing your testimony with a friend, or talking to a group of people, it’s good to get them sharing their thoughts. If the person you’re talking to walks away from the conversation with a positive experience, then the door is potentially open for another conversation in future. Not everyone is ready to receive Christ the first time you meet them.
• Be prepared to say sorry. If you talk to someone and they’ve had a bad experience in the past with a Christian (or even think they have), then I believe it’s OK to say “I’m sorry for your past experience, and any pain we as Christians have caused you.” The fact that it wasn’t your personal fault doesn’t really matter to them at this point.
• I really like what Bill Bright said about sharing the gospel. “Successful witnessing is taking the initiative to share the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit, and leaving the results up to God.” I know for some of you this is like preaching to the choir, but when you leave the results up to God, you don’t have to worry about converting someone, because you know that you can’t! I honestly believe that if we were all able to live this out all the time, then non-Christians wouldn’t have many of the perceptions which they have about us now.

Iain challenged us to look for a “Truly prophetic imagination to see and express the alternative reality we seek to live by.” For me, this means I need to rely on God’s Spirit to help me live in a way that honours him, especially when it comes to non-Christians, as the way I live represents Christ to them.

What are your thoughts or experiences on this?

We recently had our first guys retreat for the students here in Auckland. (In the past we’ve had a leader’s retreat for the guys, this year we opened it up to all). The retreat was three days, and a great opportunity to connect with those who have got involved more recently. Specifically we:

• Had four talks given. I spoke on “What it Means to be a Hero”, a study on the character of Daniel.
• Spent time getting to know others over meals (we ate plenty) and games.
• Challenged the guys to grow in their walk with the Lord, and build good community to support each other in doing so.

The retreat was a success, and looks like it’ll be something we’ll do again in the future.

An important part of what we do in ministry both on and off campus is evaluation. Last week we took three days as a staff team to do just this. Specifically:

• We looked at what activities do we do each year, and how important they are to the ministry (If we stopped them, what effect would that have on our mission?)
• We rated how much energy is required for these activities. Mostly the energy required was in line with how important each activity was, but we identified a few areas in which we’ll change things.
• We spent some time in personal evaluation, thinking about things like our walk with God, how we feel we’re doing in our roles, etc. I found this very helpful in identifying a few things to tweak in my own life.
• We were able to spend some time having fun and relaxing with each other as a team, something we don’t always get a lot of time for.

These are all helpful things as we go into the last term of the year, and into the year ahead.

I’ve been reading through Philippians, and came across the familiar 4:19 (ESV):

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

What can I learn from this? Well, a few things!

• Firstly it is God who will supply our needs. Obviously he does this as I work to raise the money I need, but in the end, it’s him who provides.
• God will supply my needs. Not might, but will.
• For God to supply my needs, that mean he also knows my needs. This is encouraging when times are hard.
• If I know that God knows my needs, and that he will supply them, then I know that he has the riches to supply them.
• In this case, God’s riches are in his glory in Jesus Christ. This glory is even greater than money; how easy is it then for him to provide money!

I look forward to sharing more of what I’ve been learning with you soon.

Semester B and Tune In start tomorrow! We’ll be collecting cards from students Monday through Wednesday. Pray that the campaign goes well, especially when it comes to following up the cards we get!

Many students ponder answers to life’s big questions, although they wouldn’t necessarily admit it. The Big Ask is the name of a video series that we’re going to be using in the second semester to create discussion on some of these questions. Things like “Where’s God in all the suffering we see?” is an example of an issue that’s tackled by the three interviewed in the videos – Rob Bell, Lee Strobel and Philip Yancey (they’re interviewed by New Zealand’s own Rob Harley).

Our course is going to be run over several weeks, and like the Alpha course that you may be familiar with, this is a great place for students to bring their non-Christian friends along to, where they can feel safe to ask questions. Starting on the 6th of August, we’ll be running this each week with a light meal, showing the video, and then breaking off into discussion groups. The point is not to “give all the answers” to those who attend. Rather, we’ll pull back a bit on this front; through the relationships that we establish, we can answer questions in a more personal setting.

While we will be doing a big advertising campaign on campus, we’d like our students to bring along their non-Christian friends. Pray that they’ll be prompted by the Holy Spirit about those who they can ask to come along with them.

There’s a promo video available online for The Big Ask.

I.D. is Student Life’s conference for 2009. It’s a regional thing, with both a North and South Island event taking place. It’s one of my highlights every year! Along with students from Auckland (both Auckland Uni and Massey), we’re also going to see students from Waikato and Wellington attend. The conference is a great opportunity not only for students to be discipled and learn how to apply evangelism to their context, it’s also a great place for them to meet students from other campuses and make lasting friendships!

It is more than likely — and I’ve seen this time and time again — that a student who attends this conference will see their life changed. Students come away with a new/renewed sense of vision for the Kingdom of God; they want to honour God with their own lives, and as a part of that, take opportunities to share it with those that matter to them! They’ll come away with a vision that is bigger than just for their campus. (Although that it important too!)

The North Island conference runs from 1-8 July (for staff), it’s at Totara Springs. We’ve been busy preparing for the last few weeks (and months in some cases). My jobs include filming/editing video, photography, first aid, and a talk to senior students on full time Christian service. Of these, the filming/video editing and preparing my talk are taking up most of my time beforehand, the others during. Please pray that I can get everything done to a good standard, and done on time!

Please pray especially for students, that God will work in their hearts, both in preparation for and during the conference. Please pray for safe travel for everyone! Please also pray that swine flu will not be an issue for us at this conference. We are of course taking measures to prevent and deal with anything that arises, but with 200 people in a single location, there is potential for a major problem here.

Your prayers are appreciated!

The first semester at University means it’s Tune In time! This is a campaign where we ask students to fill in a small postcard sized questionnaire, with four questions on it.

The fourth question asks “Would you like to know more about tuning into a relationship with God?”; possible answers are ‘yes’, ‘no’ and ‘maybe’. Approximately 3,000 students fill out one of these cards, and around 2,000 students say ‘yes’ or ‘maybe’ to this question! That’s 2,000 people who we can potentially share the gospel with, as soon as the year starts!

We give each of these people a phone call, and organise a time to meet them on campus. We give them a magazine (pictured), and talk through the article on tuning into a relationship with God with them (there are also articles on studying, relationships, and life’s big questions).

Praise God for this great opportunity, and pray that the students who we’ve been able to share the gospel with this term will keep thinking about what we’ve shared with them! Praise God for the 13 students who have received Christ at Auckland University through this campaign in the last few weeks, and pray for their continued growth in their walk with God!

Auckland Student Life’s Download is a weekend retreat held every year at the end of the first term, and it’s coming up this weekend! Download has two purposes:

1. To provide an opportunity for students to get to know each other better. Often students who have just got involved with Student Life have only met the students in their Action Group (bible study), and perhaps a few others. This gives them a chance to see a piece of the wider movement!
2. We get a chance to communicate the vision of Student Life to those who are thinking about being involved, or who have been hanging around the fringes somewhat. We’ll challenge them to be involved!

Please pray that the weekend goes well. Specifically, pray that we can get a good amount of students along, that they have fun, and feel both challenged and welcomed! Please pray for me as I prepare to give a talk about the vision of Student Life. Pray that I can challenge students effectively!