Our Mission

Why do mission?

Mission is a brilliant opportunity to make the gospel known. Each of us is in a unique situation in that we each have friends who don’t know any other Christians. A mission is not the work of the committee, or the mission planning team, or the CU Guests, but of every CU member.

Who is it about?	Jesus Christ
Who is it for?	Jesus – for his glory Every student who doesn’t know Jesus
Who is it not about?	Us
Whose work is it?	God’s. In His grace he chooses us to to be the vessels of His glory and to bring His good news to all the nations. He provides us with His Holy Spirit to strengthen, encourage and sustain us.

To help with this, well have hundreds of copies of Free gospels (Marks Gospel), making them available for you to give to your friends. This is a really exciting opportunity to get the gospel into the rooms, hands, and – we pray – the hearts, of thousands of Lancaster students.

Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may receive life in his name.
John 20:30-31

Prayer

Evangelism isn’t about us trying to persuade people to agree with us, or even to simply believe the evidence. Its about people who are spiritually dead being given new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:3). Its about people being rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into the Jesus kingdom (Colossians 1: 13).

During mission, we hope to sow the seed of the Good News anywhere and everywhere! But there’s a problem with our efforts. Unless Gods spirit works through us and alongside us and continues to work long after we stop we will be sowing our seed on concrete (cf. Mark 4:1-20). Our spiritual message can only be accepted by hearts in which Gods Spirit works. So … we must pray.

Lets be praying on our own each day in the lead up to mission events. Also why not commit to praying daily for your friends over the days leading up to events. Do you long for them to be brought from spiritual death to life in Christ? If so … we must plead with God!

Prayer Meetings run throughout the term. Do try and make these! Together we lift our prayers to the Sovereign LORD who created the heavens and the earth and works powerfully in lives to bring new life and the happiness and satisfaction found only in him.

If you have a chat with someone about your faith, find someone to pray about it with you afterwards. If you do first contact, find someone to pray about it with you afterwards. If you find yourself discouraged, find someone to pray about it with you. Just lets pray together lots, anywhere, anytime.

There’ll be times when we’ll be worn out, disheartened, confused, really struggling … but even when we are faithless, He is faithful, so … We must turn to Him. Finally, don’t forget to praise God we pray that He will do many great things but as well as depending on Him we must delight in Him and give Him the glory He deserves!

Whats on?

Inviting friends

Often we don’t invite our friends to events because we think they would never say yes. But actually (a) Jesus is in control (b) he works by his Spirit secretly in peoples hearts and (c) there is no-one who the gospel is not for, so we should just ask people! Think about which of your friends you could invite to events, and how you will invite them.

Personal Evangelism

Because its Jesus who actually works in evangelism, every one of us is equipped to do this work. We feel like were not up to the job – that we don’t know the Bible well enough, that were not eloquent speakers, that we don’t live the gospel well enough – and that’s exactly right!

But Jesus is up to the job, and he never leaves us! So lets step out, and trust in the grace that has been, and will be given to each of us.

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.
Revelation 7:9

Serving

Running mission events every week is a big task and, practically, it needs a big task-force. There are many areas in which we need your help:

Questionnaire and Flyering
Questionnaires and Flyering are a good way engage with people and let them know what CU events are on. Both normally take place before lunchbars on Thursdays.

PA
As Romans 10:17 says, faith comes from hearing the message. If non-Christians come to events, and the gospel is faithfully preached, but they can’t hear it we’re failing in our work. The PA system is very important, and takes a lot of work. You don’t need to have experience to help out – most of the work involves moving equipment around, setting up the system and monitoring the sound.

Lunchbar Stewarding
We need people to set out lots of chairs before lunchbars, and down again afterwards. We need stewards to ensure lots of people can get in easily to hear the talk as well as people to help provide and serve food.

Contacts

If you have any questions or ideas, please contact the following:

Michael Crookes or Michelle Thompson - Events Coordinators
evangelism@lancscu.org.uk