Nottingham University Christian Union (NUCU) have been highly praised by local nightclubs and the university .
This boost to their student outreach programme — Club Outreach — came as they were described as providing an ‘invaluable service to the nightclub venue and the students of Nottingham University’.
Club Outreach is where members of the CU hand out bottles of water, sweets and biscuits to clubbing students each week; often helping the students safely home and in many cases sharing what they believe about issues of faith.
Working with the Students’ Union
Heidi Lawrence is a Club Outreach Leader for the CU and a third-year student at Nottingham University. She explains how the Christian Union were invited to help alongside a Students’ Union (SU) ‘drink responsibly’ campaign because of their good standing within the university: ‘NUCU were approached by the SU, who explained the positive reputation the CU had gained for the Club Outreach work at Ocean, [a large city-centre nightclub]. The SU rep. went on to invite the CU to take over the running of this campaign, which involved promoting and ensuring safety, distributing refreshments and assisting the university team where needed during the freshers’ week club nights.’
An excellent opportunity
Heidi added, ‘After some discussion, we agreed that this would be an excellent opportunity to make the CU known to thousands of freshers during their first week of university. We took on the campaign with the agreement from the SU that they would fund our costs, allow us to share the gospel and wear our CU t-shirts and hoodies.’
Heidi reports that, over the course of the week, the CU went on to cover ten events and multiple venues, and met thousands of new students. ‘Many great conversations were had and follow-up is continuing with students. It was an amazing opportunity to be able to proclaim the good news of Jesus, serving the students practically where they were at and taking the gospel to them.’
Since freshers’ week, the owner of Ocean nightclub has provided the CU with a substantial donation, covering the costs of Club Outreach for the foreseeable future.
They enjoy giving their help
Andy Hoe, the nightclub owner, said: ‘The NUCU and their Club Outreach programme provide an invaluable service to both my venue and the students of Nottingham University. They are there week in, week out, rain or shine, with smiles on their faces, helping anyone who needs them. Even when faced with students that have overindulged and are not always as thankful for their help as they should be, or as polite as they should be, they keep smiling and enjoying giving their help’.
One student commented: ‘I’m an atheist, but the Christian Union is my favourite society. You’re just always there’. Heidi talked about the impact Club Outreach has had, adding: ‘Many great relationships were developed with venue owners, Student Union Exec., SU Reps., university officials and venue staff. One guy we met in fresher's week has been attending church and has been meeting up with a member of the CU at least once a week to discuss Christianity.’
