“It was strange. I saw so many students that looked really lost and afraid, but they would just gather around the music and felt like they were a part of something.”
It was Freshers week in Manchester. 6 churches in the city had decided to come together and invite students to try church at university by gathering together on campus. Unsure of where to start, one of the student workers who had brought a guitar with him began to worship.
Paul, a Student Worker in Manchester and part of the Fusion team, shares what happened.
“Standing right in front of the Students Union, we just started singing and worshipping. Honestly, people from the churches were a little unsure at the start because public worship hadn't happened for a while, and there were students everywhere. But as people started to worship more freely, we began to share words and scriptures.
We ended up praying and worshipping for about an hour, and then students just started gathering around us. We were asked why we were singing and if we were busking!”
Ordinarily, campuses during Freshers Week would be full of groups of students exploring their city, but Paul noticed that many of the students who stopped to watch were alone.
“It was strange. I saw so many students that looked really lost and afraid. But they would just gather around the worship and felt like they were a part of something.
It felt prophetic that people were gathering around the worship but they didn’t know why they were gathering until the gospel was preached. A couple of us went around and shared the gospel with students, and 2 students gave their lives to Jesus!”
Paul noticed that some security guards began to film the worship breaking out on campus and expected that they’d be asked to move. When the security approached them, they were amazed at what they saw and filmed them so they didn’t forget.
Paul adds, “the whole experience felt like a prophetic declaration of prayer and mission coming together which is so important for student mission.”
Stories of church unity and spontaneous worship breaking out on campus are becoming more and more common. When worship and mission come together, we begin to see powerful moves of God and students find hope in Jesus
