Agapé Students does #FIRESEEDS2023!
By Sean Wood
It only happens once a year, so Fireseeds is a much anticipated weekend gathering for Agapé Students to discover Jesus all-together!
This year, our get-together venue was the picturesque Letton Hall, Norfolk. There were definitely Downtown Abbey vibes to the place as we occupied the entire Georgian manor house that’s situated in the middle of a country estate with fantastic views.
A pretty impressive diversity of students from across the UK (and even the world!) joined us in Norfolk. We were also from a range of different places in our spiritual journeys too: some long-term Christians, some people who’ve only recently made a decision to start following Jesus, and some joined us as part of their ongoing exploration into what they believe about Jesus.
We were honoured by the presence of our guest-speaker, Lord Grantham… Just kidding (that was a Downton Abbey joke – sorry). It was actually the equally honourable Andy Weatherly of Grace Church Stirchley, who inspired and encouraged us on the theme of Rooted & Growing.
Andy wasted no time in diving in deeply to our teaching sessions, as our first evening was spent taking a whistle stop tour through the Bible, reflecting on passages from Genesis to Revelation. Our journey covered looking at where we are, and how our lives fit into the story that’s been running throughout the overall narrative of the Bible and history. Knowing where we fit in God’s grand plan of time, Andy shared, can help our lives to be rooted.
[I've] had a chance to learn more about evangelism and how I can practically do that and bring that back to the University of Birmingham.
We later went on to look through various parables (stories with deeper meanings) that Jesus told, which we then used to help us redefine ‘success’ and ‘fruitfulness’ in the conversations we have about Jesus with people who aren’t following Him. We defined these things as, firstly, how open we are to taking the initiative to have conversations about faith with others, and then how much our lives actually look like Jesus’ life. We can’t (and shouldn’t try to) control the responses of others; that’s God’s part!
Prayer, go-karting and more!
We heard much more from Andy besides these great nuggets, but we also spent some time over the weekend praying and singing, go-karting and sharing some surprise talents!
Fireseeds isn’t just about theory. We also spent an afternoon learning about how we can grow in how we talk about faith with other people.
We learnt about a new campaign that Agapé Students is launching in March called Discover Jesus. This is a resource that’s going to be used by students across the UK to encourage people to discover more about Jesus, as it focusses on the top 5 questions that students in the UK have right now about Him.
‘It’s been super helpful in training me…’
Amber really enjoyed the weekend: ‘I’ve really loved Fireseeds, because it’s been super helpful in training me to do evangelism… I’ve also been so encouraged just by meeting so many different people from different countries and also different unis all across England and sharing our experiences. It’s been super encouraging.’
Anna also loved her time at Fireseeds: ‘I’ve met loads of new people, and I’ve really felt spiritually nourished by the speaker, and also had a chance to learn more about evangelism and how I can practically do that and bring that back to the University of Birmingham.’
Overall, it was a great experience for us to all be able to get away to the fresh air of Letton Hall. Through our times of prayer; singing; listening to what Andy Weatherly brought to us; our personal reflection times; and even the time of just getting to know each other better, and sharing stories and experiences with one another; we were all able to discover a little bit more about Jesus together.
Discover Jesus
Discover more about probably the most famous person who ever lived. A person who’s still a positive source of inspiration, hope and joy to people all over the world: Jesus.
What questions do you have about Jesus?
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