Blog

Leadership is a popular buzzword in the current Western Evangelical Christian community.  Its all about leadership and, encouragingly, increasingly about young leadership.  In churches throughout the UK students are pioneering, preaching and sitting on church leadership teams.  Elsewhere, churches are even scheming to church plant with students! This is an exciting season.  When we talk of ‘leadership’ though, its most often...

In the last few weeks I have heard a report which has left me shocked and appalled.  I have the privilege of supporting, encouraging and connecting student workers across the UK.*  In face to face meetings and over the phone we share the joys and sorrows of this pioneering and potent ministry. Within the last few weeks, a student worker has shared...

Dear son, dear daughter, I wanted to drop you a line because we haven’t had that much time to talk recently. I know you’re so so busy with the final year of your degree,  and I know it counts so you’re making it count, as the book pile mounts around your head. And you sit at that desk all day in the library and...

I wish I’d known how to budget my student loan in my first year… If only I’d signed up for Volley Ball instead of watching daytime TV…I wish I’d made a decision to live with the friends I’d made in Halls so I could have stayed committed to those friendships … If only I was prepared for what to do...

I’ve only gone and read a book haven’t I?!  When people write books about their lives, their faith, what they’ve learnt about God and his world, we expect a book of “best practice”. Excellent people writing excellent words about the excellent things they’ve done for Jesus. And then sometimes you come across authors who have not put excellence in a book... they...

When you get an email that starts with ‘grace and peace in abundance to you’ you know you’re hearing from a legend.   A week later I was sat across from an enthusiastic pastor who church planted to the north ten months ago and now leads a community of around 50 adults and 30-40 children.  It still counts itself a small...

5. Church It is the none or casual attendance of church that quickly erodes vibrant faith. If church is treated like an optional extra or a gym membership it becomes just another student consumer choice. Invariably those school leavers who decide to take a holiday from church during the student years rarely go back. I believe one of the elements that could...