New Day: Church on Campus - A Conversation With Femi Kalejaiye.

Last week I met up with Femi Kalejaiye (Operations Pastor, Rediscover Exeter) to hear all about New Day – a morning of celebration held at the biggest venue in Exeter which happens to be The Great Hall, a spectacular arena smack bang in the middle of the University main campus.

Femi, why ‘New day’?

"We recently doubled up our services at Rediscover Church and wanted an opportunity to bring both the 9.30am and 11.30am crowds together in a big celebration. This started the adventure of creating an event to reach students and the people of the whole city, framed around how Jesus gives us a fresh beginning – hence ‘New Day’. It’s great for the Church to meet but it’s another thing to take Church beyond our walls."

That's great, why don't you tell us a bit about what happened on the day?

"We wanted people to experience Church in a relevant way. Our usual time of passionate worship went ahead and there were loads of stories told of how people came to know Jesus. Many faces we hadn’t seen before were able to connect with faith on a personal level.

I saw that the presence of God can provide what we can’t articulate ourselves. During worship, a friend of a friend said, “I feel like crying but I don’t know why” – the Holy Spirit was actively working on our hearts!

We also put on a kid's programme for over forty 3-11s. They were in the room next door and nine of them ended up giving their lives to Jesus. We were so surprised – we didn’t even have any new Christians’ resources for them!"

Woah! Have you got any more stories?

"Oh yeah, so many! I will share one that particularly stuck out. A student of ours created a video testimony capturing the story of a gent who came to faith last year. Many in the room seemed impacted when we played the video.

His name is Cliff – he was homeless and would have been met with many stereotypes because of his skinhead and face tattoos. Last year, he was invited to our church while at a soup kitchen, and after coming for a few weeks he met with Jesus! His story has had many ripple effects for the kingdom. The video now has 16,000 views on Facebook and the Skinhead society want to put it on their website too!"

What's the vision for New Day? What about the wider Church?

"Because of the event, I learnt a lot about how people see Church. I think there are lot of myths to bust and these events give people a chance to experience a different perspective. Even if we fill the Great Hall (1450 people) next time that will still only be 1% of the city population.

Events in large venues is one way people can explore Jesus but we hope other churches will also be inspired with creativity to apply in their contexts. Together we can continue to make Jesus known and provide spaces for people to explore him."

Watch Cliff's Story

Paul Eaton

Regional Team Leader

Paul found faith just before going to uni and became passionate about reaching his mates as a student. He loves seeing students find home in church and has a heart for welcoming international students.

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