Making phone calls isn’t always the easiest thing to do. We can worry about what we say and how we said it, hope that other people aren’t listening in, and maybe even question whether it was worth it. But a phone call can go a long way.
The role of a Church Relations Developer at Fusion is to help grow and sustain the relationships with churches that are connected to us, making sure they are valued and known.
We connect with churches across the UK to resource and train them when it comes to developing student workers, discipling students, and preparing young people for Uni, so that they are equipped and encouraged to do student mission in their local area.
That’s why Fusion prioritises relationships; we want to know churches well so we can serve them well.
A phone call may not seem like much, but it can do more than we think. One phone call is all it can take to start a fresh relationship, rekindle another one, or trigger a passion for student mission. One phone call can be the starting point by which local churches decide to make a stand for students in their town or city.
This is why one of my highlights as a Church Relations Developer has been the relationship we have started to build with a church called Sutton Bonington Baptist Church. Sutton Bonington is a small village 20 minutes outside of Loughborough – however a University of Nottingham campus is located there. Most Christians who study there tend to go to churches elsewhere, but when calling this church I discovered they have seen a wave of students join, growing from 2 students to 20! As I called they were at the point where they were looking for guidance on how to build on this. We just so happened to be running a Small Groups training session in Loughborough the following week and I invited them along, and it was amazing to have them in the room and provide practical training.
"We want to know churches well so we can serve them well."
It’s exciting to see how even a church in a rural village has a stake in student mission, and how students can be a vital part of it.
At Fusion we believe the whole church has a role to play in empowering students to lead lives of mission and discipleship, whether they are receiving students, sending them to Uni, or interceding on their behalf. As the body of Christ we all have different roles to play, and it’s the same for when it comes to advancing God’s Kingdom in the student world.
You can find out more, by contacting Luke on luke.smith@fusionmovment.org or apply for a specific role here. We’d love to hear from you!
This blog is part of a series called Joining The Movement. For more from this series, click here.
