In Authority and Under Authority  

Student Worker Day 2007

How do we express confidence in the timeless truths of scripture whilst equipping one another to engage with contemporary culture? The most recent Mobilise Student Worker Day was an excellent example of how we can remain fixed on Jesus and Bible truth, whilst engaging competently with issues in our culture that demand our attention.

In February, students and student workers gathered in Oxford for a day of encouragement and equipping in God. Through the worship, teaching and friendship we found that God was not only willing to reinforce the truths of scripture, but to give us pointers as to how to apply these in present situations, particularly those found in a student context.

We lingered in God’s presence as we sung in worship to Him. Worshipping alongside people from different contexts is effective in building unity – as we joined in singing to this great God I was struck again: “hey – this is family!”

Tom Shaw spoke from his heart from John 5:19-24, reminding us that God has amazing things for this nation, and that students are an intrinsic part of that. Engaging with questions like ‘what does God think about CUs suing Student Union organisations?’ in the context of looking at what the Bible says was very effective. And the overarching message was that our attitude towards seeing the promises of God fulfilled must be one of authority. Knowing that we are under authority brings great humility and confidence to those who have been given authority.

During the seminars things got even more practical. Andrew Wilson (Eastbourne) sought to build faith in us to engage with work like The DaVinci Code and The God Delusion. And he was certainly successful as he classified many of the unsubstantiated claims of these books as “BUNK”.

Mark Bullen (Norwich) tackled the issue of how we prepare for graduation.  How do we find the right job after graduating? Must we get it “right” first time? And how do we approach the whole concept of work? These were all questions Mark dealt with effectively again using the Bible as a base.

Matt Hogg (Portsmouth) had the task of helping us answer some tough issues we encounter regularly in student-dom. For the first half of the seminar he spoke generally on how we can biblically tackle tough issues, and in the second we were opening the Bible up for ourselves to discuss how we might approach particular examples.

After the seminars the remaining session was a time for Q&A. There was a variety of questions from "How can I preach the gospel to my friends in a culturally relevant way?" to "Should students tithe their student loans?" It was a good opportunity to be able to engage with the guys who had been teaching us throughout the day and watching a breadth of approaches and answers. The fact that each one on the panel was able to be real about their opinions and experiences added to the sense of this being family together.

The privilege of gathering with a group so passionate to see God glorified is one which strikes me every time we gather as students and student workers. And the Student Worker Day was no different – we weren’t gathering simply for gathering’s sake, but because we know our coming together equips us to accelerate change in the contexts we represent. As we approach the future we can be confident in Christ’s authority and therefore in our mandate to extend His kingdom on earth!

Luke Wood is part of the Student team at City Church, Sheffield. At the end of this academic year he will be moving to Southampton to join Life Church, a new church plant into central Southampton.