The untold story of local churches reaching students
Miriam Swanson
Miriam Swanson is the Global Student Mission Leader for Fusion, a movement that seeks to help students find their hope in Jesus and their home in the local church. Go to www.fusionmovement.org for more information and to see how your church might be served in reaching young adults.
I wonder what you may have heard about Christianity in Europe? If I asked you to picture a local church in England for example, what springs to mind? Perhaps it’s the pretty stones and heavy doors of an ancient parish building, more of a monument to historical Christianity than a living, breathing movement. Perhaps it’s the scary headline stats of church closures and decline in numbers that you recall from an article you read somewhere. Perhaps it’s the image of a few people gathering together to pray, a remnant clinging on to survival in a culture that has long since rejected the label of Christian? Perhaps it’s the personal story of a friend, a child, or a relative, who left for a European adventure and returned without the faith they were raised in.
I was born and raised in England, was introduced to Jesus by my parents, and have loved him for as long as I can remember. I have also been working full-time to serve local churches across Europe in the much-needed mission field of university students for a decade. And I have some really good news to share: there is life in the bones of the churches of Europe. There is hope on the streets of what is now being called ‘pre-Christian’ England. As someone who feels deeply called to equip the local church for mission and evangelism, I have found living in a context many have told me they assumed was “spiritually dead”, to actually be an incredible and fruitful opportunity for the gospel to be shared and received. Can I invite you to take a step back and allow yourself to think again about the health of the Christian faith and the church in Europe? There is more to discover, and it is good news.
For the last year and a half, I have been grateful to call the United States home, having married a wonderful man from Florida. The more I learn to live and serve churches in this new culture, the more I see how different and helpful my experiences in England have been. Where many faithful Christians in the United States are concerned about the perceived decline of Christianity happening across the nation, I see hope. Hope that anything that was an inherited cultural expression of Christianity is dying off, just as it has in England. Hope that a real, living, powerful faith in the risen Jesus can emerge from the baggage of cultural expectations or assumptions and bring a new dawn for discipleship. Hope that churches will realize they can no longer build bigger buildings or put on better events and the people (especially young people) will just come. Because, just as we’ve experienced in England, the Sunday church default button has been reset. They won’t come to us. We must therefore go to them. Now is the time to remember our New Testament roots, to be the church, and incarnate our faith out in the streets and in our neighborhoods and on the campuses, no buildings necessary.
Nearly 25 years ago, Fusion, the movement I work for today was born. Out of wild prayer meetings and strong convictions that more must be possible, Fusion was started by a small group of friends in the South of England. Desperate to see the sky-rocketing population of university students discover hope in Jesus and home in his local church, it was clear that more had to be done, more workers had to be called into this harvest field. Unlike any other university mission agency, Fusion felt compelled to only reach students through the local church. No going around it, but only working in and through it. Over twenty years ago in England, this was not an easy thing to imagine would work. Mobilizing people across denominations, traditions and expressions isn’t a simple task at the best of times. Convincing local churches with small numbers that the campus on their doorstep was exactly the kind of neighbor they were equipped to love and reach was a hard sell. And learning to work with so many churches, to help each community find their confidence and calling in the student mission story, takes time, relationship, prayer, and faith.
"They won’t come to us. We must therefore go to them. Now is the time to remember our New Testament roots, to be the church, and incarnate our faith out in the streets and in our neighborhoods and on the campuses, no buildings necessary. "
Fast forward a couple of decades and Fusion works with over 2000 local churches in the United Kingdom and hundreds more abroad. What we have seen in the last twenty years is local churches gaining fresh confidence and vision that they can be the local church, the missional body of Christ, and they don’t need to outsource their student mission to someone more ‘qualified’ or ‘relevant’ than them. Churches have been moving to raise and employ young adult pastors in the hundreds, finally recognizing the need to invest resources in the unique life stage of the 18-25’s. Parents, youth workers, churches, and even some schools now, have been taking hold of the call to train young people for the transition to university, not just by teaching them how to boil an egg, but through preparation for university courses that get them ready in faith for this make-or-break change. Fusion has created a mechanism called ‘Student Linkup’ now in app form, by which any university student can “linkup” who they are and where they are going to university and be personally introduced to new local churches in their area ready to welcome them and help them find the right church to call home. We are doing our best to help churches reverse the drop-off rate experienced when their young people leave home. It is almost unbelievable how much of a difference some simple preparation and personal connection makes to a nineteen-year-olds story of following Jesus from home and into their adult years.
The stories of student missions coming out of the United Kingdom would make you second-guess any talk of hopelessness or the fearful reality of the end of Christendom. Students have said “yes” to the invitation to “try church” for the first time in the hundreds over the last few years. They aren’t put off by the local church, they’ve literally never been. Jesus is good news to all the world, but in much of Europe, it feels like it really is news, a brand new story so many young people have simply never been told and never had the chance to experience for themselves. Churches engaging in acts of service like being night club stewards and offering pastoral support and prayer for vulnerable students on big nights out have become a normal part of student missions. God is indeed present on the dancefloor not just in the bible study. Missional small groups continue to be planted across campuses and cities as students, already living in communities 24-7, invite their friends and housemates to pray and talk and worship with them. This generation is crying out for hope, for authentic love, relationships, and belonging. If a small group of student disciples can genuinely be the church, open up the table for another to have a seat, and welcome their peers into Jesus’ community, this good news becomes contagious. Are we ready as local churches to respond to this kind of messy, organic growth?
At the time of writing this, England is in another national lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. And yet, stories of student salvations continue to come in. Even when all church buildings are closed and the big student gatherings have been cancelled for nearly a year now, Jesus’ church is still making disciples. Online small groups are springing up all over, students are turning to faith and prayer as mental health struggles and feelings of isolation soar. I am delighted to say that the church has not gone missing in a time of global human crisis, and it has not abandoned young people. Instead, many have set to prayer-walking campuses with other churches in unity, they have fed hundreds of stranded international students who couldn’t get out or get home, and the church continues believing that even in the face of restrictions and grief, Jesus loves his bride, is leading his body, and is longing for his lost children to find home in him and with his people.
As I stand at the start of 2021 and look ahead to life in the United States, a land saturated with university campuses and all shapes and sizes of local churches, I long to see more of what I have experienced in Europe happen in this nation. I pray that Fusion can wash the feet of the churches of the US and see many rise and go out in new faith and vision for young adults and the campus. I pray that there would be less fear around young people losing faith at university, and more engagement with being Jesus’ family with them, even as they seek to wrestle through what they believe. I pray there would be no church that feels disqualified in reaching students, instead taking hold of the great commission that allows us all to share the goodness of Jesus with anyone we come across as we go because it is His authority and not our own that makes the difference. I have been wrecked for a local church student mission for over a decade now, and I hope that your faith has been raised for this rising generation too. I don’t just see a grave of declining numbers and sliding morality even when the stats look bleak. I see resurrection life springing up and a new true faith in Jesus that is very much alive breaking forth, both in Europe and I pray in the United States.
