“Agapé’s National Student Conference equipped me, built me up and encouraged me”, says Simon Lennox who returned to Oxford University energised and raring to go. He was pleasantly shocked to see hundreds of students willing to surrender their all to God and his plans.

“It was great to talk to students from all over the country and to hear what they are doing at their universities,” said Simon. “It was a time of mutual encouragement, sharing ideas and also the difficulties we face trying to share our faith on campus. I could have stayed for a week!"

WHAT IS THE NATIONAL STUDENT CONFERENCE?

The annual weekend, run by Agapé, challenges students not just to think about evangelism while they’re at university, but to offer their whole lives to God: to serve him any time, anywhere.

There is worship and Bible teaching, along with seminars on a variety of subjects, such as:

· evangelism
· sharing Jesus with people of other faiths,
· how we can be sure the Bible is true,
· how to discern God’s will,
and many others.

There is also the opportunity for practical application, as each year delegates go out for an afternoon of evangelism to share their faith at nearby universities

AS A RESULT....

“We should do so much more evangelism!” declared Matt, from Birmingham University. Back on campus, he and two others, inspired by the conference, are coming up with ideas to reach their fellow students with the gospel. They are making plans to start a weekly “lunchbar” event, where a short, evangelistic talk is given over lunch. Radically, they will be inviting their non-Christians friends to choose the subjects for discussion at the events, and will have a “question of the day” linked to each topic.

Before the conference, Edinburgh University had two “Action Groups” of students who would go out to share their faith with other students on campus each week. Now that number has doubled. In Liverpool too, students returned from the conference with a new feeling of refreshment and joy towards sharing with their friends. In fact, on the bus ride home, they had masterminded how they could start their own Action Group on campus. At a Christian Union meeting, one of the students announced how he had realised the urgency and the importance of evangelism at the conference and shared their idea to start an Action Group. He passed a sheet around and told people to sign up if they were interested, and by the end of the night, twenty-six people had signed their name.

Since returning to Oxford, Simon Lennox invited his entire football team to come to the Christian Union Mission events, and is arranging a CONNECT course of investigative Bible studies for those who were interested. “It has kicked off a new era in terms of relationships with the football team… they are very open and love to talk about it all… the CONNECT course will be great – it will help them see what the Bible says for themselves.”

THE NEXT AGAPÉ NATIONAL STUDENT CONFERENCE WILL BE HELD IN JANUARY, 2009.

To find out how you can start your own Action Group, click here

For training in evangelism, click here

To apply for an international Summer Project, click here

To look at the CONNECT course (six evangelistic Bible studies) click here