“I in them and you in me--so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” - John 17:23

Last year, a couple of students from church set up a student-led worship event called Union. The vision was to combat any disunity that was creeping in between students who attended different churches on a Sunday and create a space for everyone to come and worship Jesus together as one. The core of the heart of Union is centred around the message of John 17:23, which I've written above. It's all in the name: our generation needs true unity and that sort of unity can only come from Jesus. 

I'm a fresher this year - so I didn't get to see Union in its earliest stages, but in October, a month after I'd moved to Falmouth, I was welcomed as part of the team responsible for hosting the event which was mega exciting. When I initially got involved I didn’t have much idea what it would look like - but I definitely didn't envision there being as many people who don’t know Jesus showing up as there were on the night! 

Something Kept them from Leaving

A few of these people were friends of mine - mainly from my course but also a couple of people I knew from around campus. Some of them came because one of their friends had hired out a bar in town for their 21st which they planned to go to afterwards. Their idea was to pop along to Union for an hour to check it out and then leave half-way through. But there was something about Union that kept them from leaving; something they couldn’t put their finger on; something different; something contagious. They ended up staying until after the event had finished. They didn’t want to leave.

I've been learning since coming to uni that mission doesn't have to be hard; it doesn’t have to be stressful; it doesn’t have to look like anything specific at all. Sometimes it’s as simple as prayerfully inviting friends along to a worship event that I’m involved with and watching the Holy Spirit move people’s hearts and open their minds.

Hearts Alligned

There’s so much power in unity - in coming together and getting stuck into worship - and my friends felt that. They couldn't understand exactly why the atmosphere moved them and made them feel how it did, but I believe that what they were feeling was the presence of God. If our hearts are aligned with His as we step out and try to help grow His kingdom then we’ll start to see more and more crazy and exciting things happening when we invite our non-Christian friends into God-filled spaces.

Jesus has the capacity catch our friends off guard; to shake them to their cores and show them amazing glimpses of his glory and wonder — we just need to give Him the opportunity.

Debs is a Falmouth Fresher and goes to The Harbour Church, if you have a story and fancy writing a guest blog for us too, drop us a line at hello@fusionmovement.org we'd love to publish it!