Mission weeks are the focal point of a CU’s evangelistic campaign. These weeks are where CU members can invite their friends to hear the gospel being preached in a way that is persuasive, attractive and relevant.
Pod Bhogal, UCCF’s Head of Communications talks to Michael Ots (Associate Christian Union Staff Worker, itinerant evangelist and mission speaker) about his involvement with CU mission weeks this year.
PB: What’s it like being a mission speaker for a CU events week? Do you just turn up, give a bunch of talks and go home?
MO: I want to be more than a ‘talk machine’ so I aim to be involved right through the year with the CU.
I’ll normally meet the CU leaders at Forum (UCCF’s National CU leaders’ conference) and discuss their plans for the year and feed in ideas. I’ll be back to speak at their house party, which is a great evangelism training opportunity, and then again for the carol service. This is really helpful in getting to know the CU and giving them confidence in me as a speaker.
Between times I’ll keep in touch as they plan the mission, helping them to think through what a good mission would look like in their context.
PB: What’s been particularly exciting about CU missions this year?
MO: It is always a joy to see so many people hearing the gospel for the first time. This year was no different. Almost without exception, university CUs will get a higher percentage of non-Christians along to evangelistic events than anything else I do.
This was the second year I have spoken at Liverpool. The lunch-bar venue was packed out each day with more chairs being brought in. Christians got asked to stand outside the door to make room for others who wanted to hear. It was also wonderful to meet a student who had trusted the Lord after the mission the previous year.
The Free Project in London (see the report on the front page of the April EN) was such an exciting thing to be a part of. There was a real buzz about the city as hundreds of students heard the gospel day after day. It was also one of the most fruitful missions I have seen.
Missions in London have traditionally been quite tough, so it was great to see them leading the way in confident proclamation of Christ in a really relevant and accessible format.
PB: What’s been really tough?
MO: The biggest challenge is to motivate the CU with the right thing. It is easy to guilt-trip people into evangelism for a week, but this is rarely very effective in the long-term, nor very fruitful.
Seeing students fall in love with Jesus so that they long for opportunities to speak about him is what we want. That means not just putting on a good programme but seeing hearts in the CU changed by the gospel first.
Speaking in a way that really deals with people’s questions and objections, as well as clearly explaining the gospel and doing it all in a short space of time is a challenge. It is always easier to do this when the talk has been billed as the main part of the event rather than a tack on to something else.
Sometimes Student Unions, while not being opposed to the CU, can still be less than helpful when it comes to a mission. Changing venues at the last minute is a frequent problem.
PB: How has the student mission landscape changed in the past five to ten years?
MO: I led my first mission five years ago, so there are perhaps others who could comment more insightfully. However, I’ve noticed that there are more missions happening. This is obviously great. The challenge, though, is making sure there are enough speakers to go round and also ensuring that we work on quality and not just quantity.
Increasingly, we see that people are becoming Christians after mission weeks (often during a follow-up course) and not during the week itself. This is particularly as people start further and further back when it comes to understanding the gospel. It does mean that follow-up is so important. I actually banned some CUs from calling it follow-up (which sounds like an afterthought) and renamed it ‘mission phase two’! We need to work really hard at not letting people slip through the net after a mission week has finished.
This interview is printed in UCCF’s Annual Review. To find out more about what Christian Unions are doing order your free annual review by emailing Pod Bhogal at pb@uccf.org.uk
