Blog

My journey to Asbury was not my idea. I love God, I love spaces and places where God is moving and I live with Christ in me. I don’t need to go anywhere to get ‘more’ of God. Except that is far too simplistic and God consumes my theology with his ways. His ways are higher than mine, way higher,...

It is difficult to comprehend how quickly 25 years has flown by. So much has happened and yet so much remains unrealised. Like many student movements of previous generations and eras the early years don’t give much away for what will follow. These years have had wonderful moments, lives impacted by the love of Jesus and eternal identity bestowed on...

The Fusion Conference is just around the corner and we are excited to gather together. However, with all the chaos and disruption in the last 18 months how can we prepare? When it comes to preparing for this new academic year there are all kinds of training and inspiration we could give but we believe at this time we should be gathering to...

‘All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed...’ (Isaiah 61:9) What does a blessed life look like? Much of the world would assert that wealth, health and happiness are central to a blessed life. However, if we are to take our lead from the one from whom all blessings flow it is worth remembering the teaching Jesus...

"In my faithfulness I will reward my people..." (Isaiah 61:8) This announcement by the prophet Isaiah heralds a new day and a renewed commitment. There had been a few bumps in the road for the people of God. They hadn’t a particularly good track record of faithfulness and found themselves in a long and painful exile. The same can be said of...

"The oil of joy instead of mourning..." (Isaiah 61:3) There has been much to mourn since the start of 2020. We have said goodbye to people very close to us, we have had dreams dismantled and livelihoods lost, we have had hopes for a specific future evaporate. Our mourning has been real and necessary and for many that mourning will continue. What this...

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me..." These are the words Jesus quoted as he began his public ministry. He understood them better than anyone else and for anyone else, this would have been an utterly preposterous declaration, except in uttering them and embodying the message he made a way for us to join in. It’s a cosmic microphone drop moment. This...

Isaiah 61 whispers gently to our grief and our loss, our lingering heartache and hopes deferred. It is honest about the devastation and destruction, and it is determined and resolute in announcing there will be rebuilding and restoring and renewing.  It is blazen in its stop at nothing commitment for justice and freedom. It is good news for the poor and...

It that time of year again, how quickly a New Year comes round and after such an eventful and uneventful year I still want to enter 2021 deliberately. Spiritual times and seasons, shakings and awakenings, viruses, and vaccines are not impacted by the crossing over of another calendar year. They are things far outside my control, so what can I...

Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot, yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root. And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—     the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might,     the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. He will delight in obeying the Lord. Isaiah 11:1-3   David’s family has been...

>>This blog is a long read. Estimated read time 5 minutes.<< Ideas and advice for students, student workers and churches Student mission is not on hold, God is on the move and wants to do something new across the campuses and universities. However, with COVID restrictions in place how can we advance student ministry in a way that is safe, effective and...

For Christians starting university this year, finding a church to be part of will make a huge difference to the quality of their university experience, wellbeing and calling in God. There will also be lots of students open to trying church for the first time and exploring what faith in Jesus is all about. Now is the time to start...

So much of the university experience rises and falls on the friends you make. The good news is everybody is looking for friendship and God has people for you to journey with. Start praying now into what God has in store; the friends who will become friends for life, the friends who really need your friendship and the friends for...

Go to university with disciplines and habits that will serve you and start them today. This is how to make the most of your time: You need disciplines and habits that serve you in becoming the person your future self will thank you for. So make some decisions or rules for yourself. Go to bed at a set time (and sensible...

Making the most of a long summer will not only prepare you for university, it will nurture skills that you will need your whole working life. Whatever you do, don’t do nothing! Find a job or do some volunteering. Options may be limited, but it is better to do something than nothing. Work is not just about money, you learn a...

When it is time to start university in the Autumn; what can we expect? How will we learn and gather? What will student life be like? There are many questions and important areas of clarity needed when it comes to starting university in 2020. These details tend to dominate our thoughts and emotions and it is difficult to prepare with so...

Each season can offer a picture of what may be going on spiritually in our lives. Whatever season you are in right now, you can be sure that God is with you, has good things for you and wants to give you his perspective. Unlike nature’s seasons, these spiritual seasons don’t always transition smoothly from one to another. We experience abrupt...

Dear Class of 2020, Welcome to a new beginning, a new era and new opportunities. It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day. It’s a new life. For me. And I’m feeling…… And that’s the problem, we aren’t sure how we are feeling about the ‘new’ when the ‘old’ was serving so many so well, it was enjoyable, purposeful and yet it...

When you are twice the age you are now and look back on this time it will be only a short season. However, it will be a defining season, partly because of what has gone on around you, but mainly because of the choices you will have made in this season. Choices are like little seeds in our lives that...

Students have had a tough time in 2020 – first strikes and now sent home, university days cut short, money invested and qualifications delayed. Grad balls cancelled, graduation ceremonies postponed and post exam parties left unplanned. Eighteen years of education ending in confusion and isolation rather than purposeful next steps and celebration.  Most students and specifically final year students have had...

I don’t believe for one moment that just because the universities are shut that God doesn’t want to reach students. I continue to believe that every student deserves an opportunity to put their hope in Jesus and find home in the local church today. God’s mission to students has not been furloughed, no one has pressed pause and it is not...

I entered 2018 with feelings of trepidation and expectation, and both continue to jostle one another now this year is well underway. They stem from a growing conviction that God is on the move. I sense the green shoots of revival fighting to penetrate through the land and a society that is groaning and longing for new life. C.S. Lewis writes...

As Fusion turns 20, Rich takes stock of all that God has done. Fusion started with an explosion in Autumn 1997! Different leaders, church traditions, church networks and Christian organisations came together to serve a much larger God-agenda for the student world. Fusion didn't claim to be the answer and still doesn't, however, it was very clear God had spoken to...

I see God moving across Europe, with many finding faith in Jesus and many more expressions of church planting in the coming years. I recently spent a few days in Bologna, Italy; home of the world’s oldest university. Students have studied in this city for over 900 years. Bologna is known as the learned one, the fat one and the red one....

Our nation is broken Our nation is hurting Our nation is deeply divided 2016 has been a tumultuous year. It has surprised and shocked and has revealed woundedness, bitterness, generational division and identity insecurities that fear and dehumanise the other. God has neither been surprised or shocked and is fully committed to his rescue plan. As we enter into this Christmas season and...

Dear class of 2016 (to those graduating from the EU whether you wanted to or not), I see hope. My hope comes not from the events and attitudes expressed over the last few days – that would be odd. I see hope because I see God in and at work in the 18-25s. This generation coming through fill me with hope, I am really...

The adventure that is Escape and Pray is gathering momentum, over 20 teams booked so far and about 72 people are being sent (where have we heard that before?). To help prepare people we have come up will 10 commandments to help keep us safe and centred on Christ before and during the adventure. 1.    Pause God knows where you are going and...

When I lick my finger and hold it up in prayer to try and get a sense for where God is moving and his Spirit is blowing I believe student mission is about to get a whole lot more exciting. I sense that holy breeze coming from two directions. Firstly, Christian students capturing and embodying the adventurous and wild Spirit,...

Be on the alert for symptoms of inner Hope, Love, Joy and Peace. The hearts of a great many have already been exposed to this virus and it is possible that people everywhere could come down with it in epidemic proportions. This could pose a serious threat to what has, up to now, been a fairly stable condition of conflict in...

Fusion has sailed into a very exciting season. Over the last 15 years we have successfully helped the local church be a safe harbour for many Christian students starting university for the first time. There has never been a time like it for student ministry in the local church. However, our vision has always been that students regularly leave the safe harbour...

In a monastery just outside Madrid last week God spoke to me. I was part of God-charged gathering with 24 nations present at the 24-7 Prayer Euro gathering. The stories for what God is doing through his church engaging in society were humbling, terrifying and awe inspiring. I felt built up and small at the same time. In one of the...

During my student years I took some time out. I lived on Mount Carmel for 3 months. As an adventurous 20yr old with a summer to fill I said to God ‘I’ll go anywhere in the world to serve you this summer. Where shall I go?’ I sensed God reply ‘Go wherever you want’. That’s how I ended up in...

The majority of the world’s population are green with envy that you get to go to university. This is your time to embrace some great opportunities, lay some strong foundations and discover what it looks like to have God walk with you through it all. The decisions you make will shape not only your time at university but will lay foundations...

Over the last decade Fusion has prepared tens of thousands of students for their university years. These sessions are designed to help you lay the very best foundation for your time at university and think about who you want to be, how you want to live and what you want to achieve. The university years are to be treasured and enjoyed....

“Prayer has to be our first priority, if we are to call more people to follow Christ, and to invite others to share in the story of God’s love for the world. The wonderful news is God is always ready to hear our prayers and to send his Spirit that we may proclaim the good news afresh. I urge every...

For a Christian, being fully integrated in to the church family is a lifelong commitment. The university years are not a season for time out, rather an opportunity to move from being a youth to an adult in the church family. It is not about just hanging out with people your own age but embracing the generations and taking responsibility...

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...

4. Money According to Jesus the love of money is a deadly disease. He devoted 25% of the Sermon on the Mount to the subject of money and possessions. He prescribed the antidote to this particular heart disease to be through radical generosity and sacrificial giving for the Kingdom cause. The symptoms of the disease are consumerism and materialism. It is a...

3. Sex Sex@oxbridge is a blog that makes disturbing reading and will send a shiver down any Christian parents’ spine. It is a female students’ account of her one night stands and her appetite for lots of sex. This might seem like an extreme example, but is indicative of the expectation, availability and celebration of sexual encounters at university. The media...

2. Drink I’d been thinking about this night on and off for the previous few days and all the day before i had a sense of both nervousness and excitement. When it came to the evening and a time when I’d normally be thinking about going to bed, I was instead wide awake and sensing the adrenalin in my body. I...

As the Church in the UK continues to haemorrhage students and young adults it is time to take a fresh look at the five biggest battlegrounds that contest their faith. If we can identify the battles and prescribe both preventative and remedial action to the massive cultural challenges, rather than just surviving these years we can sow new seeds of revival...

A few nights ago I was watching a TV programme that was titled ‘YouTube – The Future of TV?’ There was a certain irony about the content watching it on TV. The main premise of the programme was that last year for the first time 13-24 year olds spent more time online than they did watching TV and YouTube is having...

A few nights ago I was watching a TV programme that was titled ‘YouTube – The Future of TV?’ There was a certain irony about the content watching it on TV. The main premise of the programme was that last year for the first time 13-24 year olds spent more time online than they did watching TV and YouTube is...

How do you start a global movement?  This is a question that, at this moment in time, I could really do with knowing the answer to because I want to be involved in starting a one! Why? I hear you say. It is a big statement of intent and could just be another grandiose dream in our over-hyped celebrity culture, where fame is...

This book is an invitation. An invitation to look again at a message that makes us alive as human beings and how we can spread it in a way that's natural, instinctive and fulfilling. Long before this digital age dawned, humanity had been hardwired for relationship with God. Programmed into our DNA is a living mission that, once activated changes how...

I’ve been thinking about how the majority of us in the West live in the most affluent time and have some of the most decadent lifestyles in history, I’ve wondered how this has become ‘normal’ and something often subconsciously we feel entitled to. I have also thought that for the most part, most of us have made no contribution to...

This generation is growing up with the reality that virtually any information we desire is only a few clicks away. Bombarded with advertising and constantly made aware of the latest happenings from across the globe, we are the most informed generation ever, but is all this information doing us any good? It is good to pray for those we see suffering...

I read recently that the word for ‘listening’ in Latin is ‘obedire’ and the Latin word ‘audire’ means ‘listening with great attention’. This is where the word ‘obedience’ originates from. To be obedient is to listen. Jesus listened to the Father in the midst of suffering and he learned experimentally and practically. ‘Even though Jesus was God's Son, he learned obedience from...

I have found it fascinating  to watch how the US elections have played out and how the candidates Romney and Obama are trying to connect and give a message that resonates with the majority of US citizens so they can be voted in as the leader of the United States.  Pleasing the majority in order to win is a difficult and compromising...

I was amazed to read a story in the paper yesterday of the blind grandfather who was tasered with 50,000 volts for carrying his white stick. The officer then proceeded to use excessive force and continued to arrest and handcuff the man. The reason? Apparently there was a 'swordsman' on the loose and this was a case of mistaken identity.  The old...

Whilst unloading the dishwasher at 7:20am on the 17th January 2012 I had an epiphany. It was a moment of clarity after many years of musing. In fact it has been two separate musings/prayers. The first has been around why 18-30 Christians are struggling to stay connected to church. The second musing/prayer has been a conviction that continues to grow steadily...

Over the last decade tens of thousands have benefitted from Student Linkup. Students have found great friends and churches, parents have been reassured, churches have grown. Student Linkup is a positive response to the latest research that shows  ‘73% of Christian students don’t connect with a church at uni’. Student Linkup lasts for 90 days and it costs £200 a day. This...

5 days | £5 each | 5 celebrities | 5,000 people | Raising over £500,000 In May 2012 we invite you to join the movement and Live Below the Line for Christian Aid 5 days eating off £1 a day, 7-11 May*, you can raise money to fight extreme poverty. What is Live Below the Line? There's not much you can do with £1. In...

Fusion are committed to changing the following statistic. Please will you help us?  ‘73% of Christian students don’t connect to church at uni’* Over 90 days this Summer Fusion aim to prepare and connect 2500 new students to churches in their place of study. It is essential this is done well; damaging not to do it at all. Connecting to a local...

Don’t you realise that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! (1Corinthians 9:24) Corinth was a city famous for the Isthmus Games. Attendance at the Games was considered the high point in the experience of a lifetime – they had a similar prestige to the Olympic Games today. Before the games, messengers would...

Life is constantly moving forward. Even when we think our lives are going nowhere, they are going somewhere. We might feel static or stuck, locked into a job or a location, a relationship or a bed. However, our mind and spirit isn’t still. They continue to throw out thoughts, opinions, longings, trying to make sense of the road we are on....

Fusion @ Function @ Spring Harvest  Tuesday 10 - Sunday 15 April 2012 It's about sharing life, honest conversation, authentic worship and living differently. It is designed for 18-30s and it is going to be a blast! The theme is Church Actually - a passion that us and God have in common In Church Actually we want to bring two vital questions to the exploration of the...

As we career at breakneck speed though the first couple of decades of the 21st century we are overwhelmed with knowledge and information.  When God gave the command to humanity in Genesis 2:17 to live in glorious freedom and avoid the tree of knowledge he knew that we were not designed to ‘see’ good and evil. Humanity incurred a double judgement,...

- a new resource for student blokes I am delighted to announce that Fusion has struck up a great partnership with CVM (Christian Vision for Men). Fusion want to reach students for Jesus. CVM want to reach blokes for Jesus. So we have formed a partnership called 'Invicta' to reach student blokes for Jesus. We hope that this partnership will create a...

Has the tide turned for youth and students in our nation? For the last few decades the church has been haemorrhaging youth, students and young adults at an alarming rate and despite our best efforts it has been apparent that the tide has been going out. Proportionally youth, student and young adult Christian numbers have been a shrinking percentage. This has certainly...

I have a sense of anticipation for 2010 but also for this new decade. I sense a new resolve and purpose in my spirit to make a difference through living for God and have been asking questions that start with ‘in 10 years time…’ and end with things like: Who will be my friends? What will my relationship with my wife and kids...

I’d been thinking about this on and off for the last few days and all yesterday i had a sense of both nervousness and excitement. when it came to the evening and a time when i’d normally be thinking about going to bed, i was instead wide awake and sensing the adrenalin in my body. I was praying with the club...