Notes
This is a great idea that Monash University Christian Union in Melbourne came up with.
They produced postcards of real students, doing real degrees on their campus, with testimony about their faith. This was their advertising for their weekly equivalent of Lunchtime Fellowship.
Pretty neat huh? (If you're viewing this on facebook, hit the link to see some images)
Report on University Fellowship of Christians
Semester 1 President Chris Ives
Progress
The Uni Fellowship has kicked off the year extremely strongly during Mikey Lynch’s second year as campus director, with an emphasis on both telling the gospel message and helping Christians share their faith on campus.
Recruiting new members was made easy at the beginning of the year with our ‘Pre-season Conference’ in which there was opportunity to share the vision of the Uni Fellowship with new students as well as a chance for teaching and socialising amongst the group.
First Semester has been dominated by our ‘Making Love’ preaching series on relationships, the ‘Seriously’ talks addressing a range of theological topics, as well as a series of smaller public lectures at forums at the College Rd accommodation, School of Art and Menzies Centre.
Food giveaways on the various campuses (soups at College Rd, BBQ at Sandy Bay, pastries at Menzies Centre, hot chocolate and cookies at Conservatorium of Music) have been a great opportunity to do something generous for our fellow students.
The addition of three ministry apprentices on the staff team, with newest apprentice and past President Aaron Johnstone adding to the experience of the now second year apprentices Alan Reader and Amy Tivendale, all of whom have brought diverse skills and abilities and form an essential part of running the ministry.
The strength of the Uni Fellowship has also been reflected in the size of the 2011 committee of which there are now approximately 15 students meeting once a week for planning, teaching and praying with staff, as well as the various fellowship groups formed which are solely dedicated to praying for the UTAS campus and form an essential part of the Uni Fellowship.
Our public meetings have also been thriving showing strong attendance throughout semester at both our Tuesday Lunchtime meeting as well as our main meeting in our monthly Citywide gathering at the School of Fine Arts to allow for students from other faculties around Hobart to join in the vision of the Uni Fellowship as a whole.
Plans
Our main plans for the rest of semester consist of beginning our ‘Scripture under Scrutiny’ courses which are aimed at addressing our sceptical friends questions and interest in our Christian faith in a relaxed environment, and are set to begin after the Easter break.
Along with this we plan to run a day conference aimed at teaching as well as encouraging newer members to become actively involved in the Uni Fellowship vision and Christ’s mission on campus. Another integral part of the Uni Fellowship taking place in the mid-year break will be the Mid-year Conference held at Camp Clayton. This conference always creates a major buzz throughout the group and consists of a week of learning from the Bible and growing in our faith together.
Prayer will continue to dominate the actions of the Uni Fellowship both within our public meetings and the Fellowship groups as it forms the basis of all our actions and things we plan to do for the ministry in dependence upon our God.
Predestination is everywhere through the Bible. If you don’t believe me, next time you plough through a major chunk of the Old Testament, keep this in mind, and you’ll see what I mean.
The God of the Bible time and time again acts to bring Israel to himself, often when the people of Israel are at their worst and in no way inclined towards him. He reaches in, and sends them a leader (eg. 1 & 2 Samuel) or brings judgement upon them so that they might repent and believe (eg. Hosea). This is God’s plan for the salvation of his people, and this is God acting for the salvation of his people. And this isn’t reactionary. Hosea 2:16 says: ‘ “In that day,” declares the Lord, “you will call me ‘my husband’ you will no longer call me ‘my master.’”’ Further on in 2:23 it says: ‘I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’’
It is God who decides who will be his loved ones, and who will not. This is predestination: God reaching into human history for the salvation of those whom he loves, and God acting for the punishment of sin that he rejects; God reconciling those people whom he has chosen in Christ, since before the creation of the world, to himself.
But, of course, from our end it’s not that simple sometimes. It gets personal. We have non-Christian friends and family. We see and hear of people dying without faith in Jesus, and we wrestle with the idea that God allowed them to die without faith. So what should we do as we struggle with the concept of predestination? We could argue and rationalise these ideas until they feel more acceptable. We could go to the theory books and the blogs. Of course, discourse is an important part of our faith, and good helpful resources written by (generally) older, wiser people than ourselves affirms us in good doctrine, but ironically, the best place to go when struggling with predestination is the Bible.
The irony is in the fact that on the most contentious of doctrine, the Bible is but a proof text for our arguments that often don’t seek the mind of God, not taking our thoughts and opinions captive to God’s truth.
There is a time and place to think about theology abstract from the Bible, but the most helpful way to grab predestination by the horns is to read what God has done in context. The idea of a God that chooses who will be saved and who won’t be, abstract from the Bible, is unpalatable. Who would want to believe in a God that sends people to Hell? To eternal torment? And actually chooses to do so.
But when we read about God’s salvation in the Scriptures, and make the observation that we are wicked evil people marred by sin, full of greed and malice, realising that none of us deserve a salvation at all, and read about the holiness of God, and his perfection, and needing to cast from himself all sin and evil, we realise that it is good that God would choose to send people to Hell. It is right that we would ultimately face the eternal consequences of our persistent sin.
The marvel of predestination isn’t that God would pick some and not others for salvation. It’s that he would reach in and choose any at all. And that he would call this good.
And why does God exercise his salvation? Ephesians 1:5-6 says that it’s “in accordance with his pleasure and will – to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves” God has saved some for the praise of his glory. Again this idea is repeated in verses 11 and 12 “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory”
Whether you call God’s sovereign choice in your salvation his predestined will or not, this we must read in the Bible and affirm: It is God who saves through Jesus Christ, and it is God who judges the world for its rebellion, and it is God who determines the eternal fate of every person, according to his purposes, so that he may be glorified.
The next time you’re struggling with predestination, read the Bible. Read about the God of mercy and of power who has acted throughout history so that those he loves will not perish, but have life in him.
By Alan Reader
Ministry Apprentice
Often when the topic of predestination comes up in discussion I'll usually find myself willing to jump out of a window to avoid that conversation. While firm in my own convictions it seems a topic that many get stuck on and a favourite for the argumentative types. There's regularly a “Yeah but, what about...” so I generally try to steer clear of it's circular nature.
Having said all that, Predestination is something that really shouldn't be considered as just a theological conundrum, dilemma or problem detached from everyday reality. Upon closer inspection it actually shapes our entire theology and our everyday lives.
To summarise the argument:
- some will say God is 100% sovereign, responsible for everything good and/or bad, nothing is out of his control.
- Then opposed to that is some who will say we have free will, we are responsible for what we do, our choices are very much exclusively our choices, the consequences that follow (good or bad) are directly influenced by our actions.
In short the Fatalism vs Autonomy discussion. The dilemma often occurs when people ask which one is true. Or perhaps what is the ratio? Is it 50/50, 70/30 etc...
Now I'm just going to be blunt and bypass the arguments for and against because I believe both statements to be 100% true. I don't mean this in a 'let's be post-modern and tolerant sort of' way, but I'm thinking in a practical everyday Christian living sort of way, both must be true.
Take prayer for example. If we say it is one or the other then prayer simply doesn't work.
- By saying that God is sovereign and we have no free will or responsibility it makes prayer redundant because God will give it to you anyway, regardless of what you pray (even if you don't pray at all).
- But if you go the other way and say we have absolute and complete control and any choice in our lives and we shape our own destiny (we're the ones who say yes to God) then surely you are limiting his power, saying God is not in control of all things. If you don't acknowledge God is sovereign over all things how can you depend on him in prayer? He won't be able to help here.
It will affect many other facets of life, most importantly the ways we live and relate to God and his world e.g. attitudes towards evangelism, godliness, work, how someone (including yourself) is saved, even how we understand his word and the power of the cross. So when you're thinking through these things and finding it a struggle, you're not excited or hopeful about them, maybe have a think about the way you think about Predestination. Maybe the discussion is worth having with someone after all...
By Aaron Johnstone
Ministry Apprentice
Need to get a bit more organised? Well now you can download a handy and free resource which may help you in managing dates, deadlines and to do's better.
You can print the 4 pages back to back and cut into quarters for a handy A5, 8 card Hipster PDA.
Check out the Hipster PDA page here
The Uni Fellowship of Christians is led by a partnership of the student committee of the TUU society and staff of AFES - including Mikey and Sam, the senior staff and three ministry apprentices, Alan, Aaron and Amy. Among other thngs the staff operate the HQ, along with the website, Facebook page, email and SMS mailing lists and fundraising.
The greatest work can be done on campus when the student leaders and Fellowship Groups make the most of the staff and the Uni Fellowship HQ. For example, the Uni Fellowship HQ can do things like:
- advertise stuff through the website, Facebook Page and announce@ufcutas.org mailing lists,
- include information on our powerpoint slides in our public meetings,
- maintain up-to-date databases,
- design, print and pay for top quality advertising material, giving the 'brand power' of the Uni Fellowship,
- give the big picture vision and identity to everyone through the Citywide Gathering,
- do the administrative and resource-finding work of organising major mission events,
- provide training, teaching and resources to the student leaders and Fellowship Groups.
What makes this so worthwhile, is the this frees up massive amounts of time and energy so that the student leaders can focus on something they are uniquely positioned to do: invest in relationships with fellow students - whether Christians or not.
We were discussing how to help people pray at Fellowship Groups during the Pre-Season Conference and someone suggested that you could ask people to pray short, one sentence 'popcorn prayers' from time to time.
If everyone is praying very briefly, then people won't feel like they need to pray long, complicated prayers.
Come and visit us at TUU Clubs and Societies Day and sign up as a member of the University Fellowship of Christians for 2011. Membership of our society costs $15 and members will receive:
- Brew Cafe free coffee voucher,
- Uni Fellowship button badge,
- CMS Prayer Diary,
- 'Hipster PDA',
- AFES 'Thrive' magazine,
- Thumb drive of local sermons and
- Bottle of Wellspring water.
Only a few weeks to go until Pre-Season Conference. We'll be ordering the hoodies on Friday 28th, so please register before then so you can tell us your size.
Here's a taste of what's in store:
Wednesday
- Handing out fliers at Orientation lectures for Med, Law, Business and Music school first years (optional)
- Teaching on Hebrews 12 and what it means to 'fear God' by Mikey
- Discussing the Vision of the Uni Fellowship and the purpose of Fellowship groups
- Training on phonecalls and handing out fliers
- Coffee run
- Planning for Fellowship Groups and painting the TUU tunnel.
- Sports and beach in low Sandy Bay (student committee member to organise)
- 5pm Wednesday soccer
- 7pm Indian Banquet at Anna Purna
Thursday
- Handing out fliers at Orientation lectures of Pharmacy and Science school first years (optional)
- Electives of 'The Centrality of the Gospel' or 'How to run Scripture Under Scrutiny' by Alan Reader and Aaron Johnstone
- Values and commitments of Uni Fellowship
- Training on welcoming new people and making friends with those who aren't Christians
- Coffee run
- Planning for start of year socials and Friday evening of Pre-Season
- Bushwalk (committee member to organise) or help Nikki with cooking and kids @ the Lynchs.
- 5pm Dinner together @ the Lynchs' 22 Augusta Rd, Lenah Valley
- Go to a movie at Village.
Friday
- Handing out fliers at Orientation lectures of Engineering, Arts and Fine Arts school first years (optional)
- Teaching on how the fear of the Lord helps us to have courage in evangelism
- Overview of our calendar and plans for Semester 1
- Training on running Fellowship Groups and serving on rosters
- Coffee run
- Planning for Friday evening of Pre-Season
- Prayer
- Dinner together
- Student-organised activity
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