In Loughborough, students are getting creative in mission and evangelism.
At the beginning of the year, several students at Open Heaven Church formed a small group with a specific vision to grow their confidence in mission and to reach their town.
On their first small group session these students decided to write down every crazy missional idea they could think of no matter how audacious or terrifying. From ideas like worship on a roundabout to washing the feet of strangers, no idea was allowed to be too insane.
One week they looked at their list and decided on an idea they’d written down called ‘food week’. Their idea was simple:
Step 1: Head to Lidl, pray, and ask God what food to buy
Step 2: Buy the food and then head over to the area of Loughborough saturated with student housing
Step 3: Pray and ask God for what door number they should knock on for each item
Step 4: Knock and wait…
Towards the end of the night, having knocked on almost 30 doors, they were left with a small sad-looking fruit compote. Again, the students prayed, asked God for a door number plucked up the courage again, and knocked.
As they opened the door they saw a young female student standing at the door, who happened to be a friend of a friend. As they offered her the fruit compote they said ‘We just wanted to give this to you and let you know that Jesus loves you'. The student looked at these other students in shock and exclaimed ‘No way, I’ve just finished my last one of those’.
This may seem like a simple interaction yet in that moment, God was doing something in the heart of that student.
Off the back of that interaction, this student is now exploring faith, reading the Bible with their student worker, and attending student nights - all because of the courage of these students (and a Lidl fruit compote).
Rob, one of the students leading the group said this ‘It was the most breakthrough we have seen in one night, one of the students in our group had only been a Christian for a week but she led the charge knocking on every door’.
What crazy missional ideas could you try? What if it changed someone's life? What if a student who was lost could be found?
