Posts from Students and Twenties Blog

More Baptisms

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 04:57:31 GMT

This week as a church we had the great pleasure of being able to baptise Fiona and Rachael. It was so fantastic to hear how God had broken into their lives, and has already been working in both of them so powerfully.

It was really lovely to watch each of them declare their love for Jesus and witness their obedience in getting baptised. They are both such different characters and yet have this love in common. It was an amazing spectacle to watch and be part of.

We have had the great opportunity of baptising people once a month this year so far and this month we had two lots!! We await the next lot with bated breath!

Praying with Power

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 08:39:34 GMT

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” – John 15:16

It seems that every time I get asked to share about what’s been happening in the students and 20's group at NCC, we always have stories of incredible answers to prayer, and the last term has been no exception.

One thing that we decided upon right at the beginning of the year was to soak everything we do this year in prayer. We introduced our ‘144 prayer nights’ and an early morning prayer time on Thursday mornings, where we have just been crying out to God to move in countless situations, and He has been so faithful in answering our prayers.

I remember at the last week of prayer we spent a few minutes praying for one another and one of the things I mentioned to Tim was that I'd love to see five people get saved in our students and 20s’ group by the end of the year - thinking at the time of almost what a ridiculous thing that would be!

But incredibly God has faithfully answered our prayer and last term we saw five students or 20s respond to the gospel for the first time. Praise the Lord! Maybe if we had prayed for 25 we would have got 25!

But we are believing that this only the foundation, a base or simply just the beginning of what I believe God is going to do amongst us as a group and as a church. And there is no doubt in my mind that we are beginning to see direct answers to prayer, and are beginning to enjoy the fruit of hours of praying and crying out to God to break into peoples’ situations with the power of the gospel. Jesus told us that whatever we ask in His name, He will do it (John 14:14): this creates an incredible opportunity we need to continually hold onto and press into. The fact is Jesus has called each of us by name, and has ordained us to bear fruit through answered prayer (John 15:16).

Our heart as a team is to see you guys becoming even more passionate about prayer, living prayer centred lives and rejoicing when God answers.

Chris

Mobilise July 2010

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 10:00:00 GMT

We are hoping to take a load of students and 20's along this summer, for more information click the link below and sign up through our facebook group.

Mobilise is an annual event held in Brighton for Students and 20's. God is raising up a generation of men and women passionate about the gospel. He is looking for people of influence who will take the message of His kingdom into campuses and workplaces right across this world Now in its eighth year, Mobilise is an event which is gathering over 1600 students and twenties to encounter God and be equipped for the mission ahead. As well as providing great teaching and worship, Mobilise offers the unique opportunity to stand alongside thousands of church leaders at the Together on a Mission conference. Mobilise is unashamedly about helping people to see the bigger picture and equipping them for leadership in order to advance the gospel.

Sign-Up Now

Students and 20s getting Baptised

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 11:59:09 GMT

It is always an incredible joy to see God reveal himself and break into people's lives.

Whether they have come to the church as a Christian but have never been baptised or have been saved at a student alpha course, it's always so exciting to see God working so clearly in an individual. It's even more exciting to think that God has been blessing us with being able to baptise people every month! Bring on next month!

More baptisms from this month can be found here.

Chris

Discipleship Workshop

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:00:00 GMT

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” - Hebrews 10:24

One of the key aspects of being a Christian is that you never stand still. You are always looking for ways to grow, to improve, to become more like Christ. And the great thing about being part of the body of Christ is that you can find the guidance and support needed to do this from within the church itself. This is what discipleship is all about: it is about motivating each other into living lives pleasing to God, that fulfil his purpose and bring glory and honour to his name.

Yesterday’s workshop was aimed at really kick-starting this system, which has been on the hearts of the student team for a while now.

The evening opened up with an ice-breaker aimed at allowing individuals to identify their strengths and weaknesses in areas such as doctrine and theology, relationships and character. Not only is this valuable in encouraging self-assessment and self-awareness, it also helps to identify complimentary disciple/disciple partnerships i.e. we should seek to be discipled by those who are strong in the areas in which we are weak. It was great to look at the theory and practice of discipleship. The key areas touched upon were as follows:

1. Biblical precedent:

Jesus had disciples. These were 12 individuals with whom he had a close relationship, and whom he taught and encouraged in order that they might be sent out to, effectively, change the world through the Gospel message. So basically, you’re not gonna get a better advertisement for discipleship than that!

2. Discipleship is not about ‘better’ Christians helping ‘weaker’ Christians:

It is about forming a relationship with somebody who will encourage you, pray with you, and to whom you will become accountable. It is so important that we spend time with people who have been Christians for longer than we have and who are more mature in their faith, to encourage, challenge and support us.

3. But all of these things come out of genuine friendship:

If you do not have this dynamic, you will not capitalise on the time you spend together because you will not be as open and honest as you should be. Therefore, for both discipler and disciple, the system is not a mechanical routine, but is based on a real heart to heart relationship.

4. Discipleship is a two-way street:

A discipler has to be open and honest with their disciple, and should also be discipled in turn.

5. Some discipleship relationships form naturally, others have to be actively pursued:

Not all look the same: some fail and need to be reassessed, others flourish and need to be maintained: but the onus is on the disciple to pursue this relationship, as this shows a genuine desire to pursue the relationship which in turn will produce the best fruit.

As a students and twenties group, I think we have a real desire to grow daily in all areas of our lives: in our giftings, in our knowledge, in our passion and in our characters. Therefore it makes sense that we should pursue this system of discipleship, which aims to help us do just that. It was great to see people signing up at the end: I think that as these discipleship relationships begin to form, we will the effects both individually and corporately, and that discipleship will prove invaluable in strengthening the group and helping it fulfil its vision.

Students and 20s Update

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT

At our last 'love:worship' (the first of the new term) Chris spoke on the significance and importance of 'loving our campuses like never before'; with our heads, knees, feet, mouths and hearts:

It may sound a bit strange but I promise you there was method behind the madness and it made out for a really challenging and thought provoking evening. Getting our heads around the simple reality that God wants to break out into our campuses much more than we want him to is both amazingly exciting and reassuring. It felt great for the group to all be back together again. Over the Christmas period I had really missed this and it was amazing just how much God blessed us with his presence that night. And although Chris’s talk reminded us a little of the song “head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes” it was rather insightful: knowing that we have a God who loves to reveal himself and has already planned to use us to reveal himself definitely left us stirred to reach out to those close to us on our campuses and in our workplaces.

Our monthly '144 Prayer Night' is always a very different experience but no less compelling. We spent time praying into a number of different areas we are involved in as a student and 20s group, including what is now our current alpha course. This kicked off last Tuesday in a curry house on Sidcup High Street, which subsequently was packed with tables full of students and 20s: a direct and amazing answer to prayer!We also spent time praying for the people of Haiti. It was poignant to pray for a country that has been so devastated and yet still have so much hope and faith; it is truly humbling. The energy of these evenings is always so potent and they just seem to be getting better and better as the year goes on! In the last session I was literally floored by His astounding presence, and was once again assured of a truly breathtaking love I do not deserve but have been given nevertheless. These prayer nights are becoming one of the highlights of all that we are doing, and as we continually call out to God to work in our situations he is faithful with his answers and meets with us powerfully, continually bestowing us with his presence. We have been blessed recently with so many answers to prayer. We are trying to compile a list of areas in which we have seen real breakthrough, from a number of healings we have seen to our uni mates coming along and getting stuck into church life.

Quick reminder: Saturday 13th February is an evening we have set apart to finally go 'treasure hunting' in the surrounding areas and on our local university campuses. I think it’s time we took what we are starting to see when we meet together to the marketplace!

Percy (Students and 20s Team)

Thursday AM Prayer and Fry-up!

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:00:00 GMT

James 5:16 ...The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

I'm sure you will agree that as a student and 20s group we have seen an incredible number of prayers answered this term. God has been so good to us as we deliberately and very intentionally engaged and focused this term on both the importance and the power of prayer. Particularly in our '144 Prayer Nights' which have been dedicated to soaking everything we do in prayer. There have been a number of exciting and incredible answers to prayer from a student Alpha table, to seeing over 45 Bird college students come through our doors, to some palpable encounters with God in our times together.

Next term I'm sure will be no different, but we felt we wanted to 'up the anti' a little more by introducing a Thursday morning worship and prayer time leading into our regular Weatherspoons breakfast on Sidcup high street. These times will take place at the centre at 10am every Thursday morning with a particular focus on praying for one another and inviting the Holy Spirit to come equip and empower us to live bold and radical New Testament Christianity on our campuses and in our workplaces, and to give space for God to speak to us prophetically. Depending on the response from the number of you who are on campus, we will be organising lifts to make it as easy as possible to come along and join us. I'm sure these times will be significant for us next term. As we continue to press into God he will continue to faithfully meet with us and answer our cry. Chris

Weekend Away 'Love:Intimacy'

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:02:00 GMT

'Abide in me' was the offer Jesus gave his disciples in John 15, presenting the joys and the fruit of a closer walk with himself.

Expectant and excited about a weekend themed around intimacy with the Holy Spirit, forty of our students and twenties convoyed to Oak Hall Manor somewhere in deep Kent.

It is rare that we get time to simply 'soak' in God's love and presence and so a weekend such as this is a precious commodity. The freedom to pray, worship and wait on the Holy Spirit for as long as is necessary was just an incredible experience. Thanks to this, we saw a massive amount of people stepping up and sharing prophecies, words of knowledge and songs, some for the first time.

Everyone was blessed by Dave Holden's sermon on the Saturday night about abiding in the vine, highlighting the need and the blessing of a consistent and intimate relationship with our creator and saviour. There was a sense that this could be a seminal moment in the lives of many of our students and twenties really guiding us from experiencing the Holy Spirit only on Sundays and Life Groups into knowing Him in every aspect of our lives.

This was the mindset we were encouraged to take in a seminar on 'Treasure Hunting' (if you've not heard of it, look it up!). Rather than a day out with the Holy Spirit we were challenged to spend every day with our spiritual eyes open, ready and expectant for God to break out – anytime and anywhere.

One of the key themes that came up in the worship was that our actions, our desire to abide, our expectation of the spirit all came out of a response to what God has done and is doing. This was powerfully articulated by Chris Smyth on the Sunday morning spurring us on to apply everything we had learnt and experienced throughout the weekend and to live a life of praise. Because (quote of the week) as Jesus said:

“I tell you, If these were silent, the very stones would cry out” and no-one wants to be shown up by a rock!

Mike Addis

144 Prayer Nights

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:00:00 GMT

James speaks about how the prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective, in light of this it is vital that everything we do is soaked in prayer.

Our prayer nights kick off with an hour of worship, God’s presence has been really evident during these times and we have had some amazing times resting in his presence and receiving from him. Prayer has been focussed on the work we are doing at Rose brufords, Birds college, Greenwich and Ravensbourne, we have also been focussing prayer on Alpha. We have a number of students at Alpha which has been a great answer to prayer in itself. We have also spent time praying for one another and on the previous prayer night God totally took over and mightily filled those we were praying for with the Holy Spirit (Needless to say, there was much laughter!). God has really blessed our worship and prayer times not just with the presence of his Holy Spirit but with answered prayer, we are expectant for more, eager for more of a filling of his Holy Spirit and eager to see more answers to prayer which, as mentioned earlier is both powerful and effective.

Chris

More About Students and 20's

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:00:00 GMT

Our heart as New Community Church students and 20s team is to:

Empower and equip our students to live bold, radical New Testament Christianity on campus, resulting in places and people transformed by the truth of the gospel.

University is a place of partying, learning, sleeping, eating, discussion and debate and topics such as your faith, God and the Bible are often on the radar. We are hungry for God to break into our campuses and therefore we need, more than ever, to have strong spirit-filled Christians on our campuses who will be witnesses for Christ because we strongly believe no-one can do student evangelism as well as you can.

There is plenty for you to be getting involved with and throughout the year we will meet together monthly to worship, enjoy teaching relevant to where you are at, and lift up our campuses and our workplaces in prayer. You can also join one of our student life-groups, which meet weekly and are a great place to meet other students from the surrounding colleges and universities. We also host our 144 Prayer Nights monthly at the church centre. These prayer nights are really the backbone of all we do as a students and 20s group and are a great opportunity to drop your studying for a night and press into what God has in store for you. Every-year we also go for a week-end away together. Our next weekend away is in February 2011 but you can click here to read about last years time away 'love:intimacy'

The church meet together every Sunday morning at 9.30am and at 11.30am at the church centre. Most students prefer the 11:30 service as we meet together in one of the local pubs for lunch afterwards. If you are a new student make sure you get a hold of a "Free Lunch" pass as our welcome gift to you. This will entitle you to a full refund so make sure you hold on to your receipt!

We look forward to meeting you this Sunday or at one of our events. If you would like any more information please email chris.smyth@newcommunitychurch.org.uk and one of the team will get back to you as soon as we can. The team are here for you, so if there is anything we can do to help or make your settling in to university and church life any easier just ask.

Chris Smyth

Chris heads up the students and 20’s leadership team and joined New Community four years ago when he came to the area to study design. As well as drinking coffee with students he can normally be found in the office as he is contracted by the church as a designer, so if anything goes wrong with the website it is probably his fault! For more information about student and 20’s work email chris.smyth@newcommunitychurch.org.uk

Fresh Freshers

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:00:00 GMT

The first months of the year are always an incredibly busy time for student work. Freshers fairs after freshers fairs, coffees after coffees, free lunches after free lunches.

It all has to be done in a time where freshers are being poached from very direction by organisations, SU societies and free drink flyers, all crying out for their attention in the hope that they would give them selves to that thing for the year.

Having a church stand like ours at all of the local freshers fairs always raises a few eyebrows. "A church? Why would I want to join that," is a response we get time and time again, and its not until you are their among them that you realise what a dark and needy place that our universities are.

But as a result of these fairs we have been blessed massively this year with a whole heap of quality freshers amongst us already. It was so great to see so many students at the 11:30am service on Sunday as the whole of the right hand side of the room was packed with students. This is not just a one off, this is only the beginning. God has spoken so clearly over the students and 20s work not to limit him this year. God is adding to our group each week I believe he will continue to do so throughout the year. New freshers, you are so welcome with us. We have been praying for you guys for months and we are so glad you have joined us and our prayer is that you will catch the vision this year and see God move powerfully on your campuses.

Last Sunday we had our first 'love:worship' evening of the year and apart from Leanne breaking a sofa, we had an incredible evening as God drew so close to us by his Holy Spirit. God is so clearly doing something to stir us up as a generation with a heart for our campuses, taking the gospel onto our campuses and into our workplaces with a heart to see God break out in signs and wonders. Not just for the sake of the miraculous, but because his glory and majesty is displayed. Over the summer we have been crying out to God to begin to break out in sign and wonders, which lead to salvation on our campuses and in our workplaces, so it was encouraging to see almost the whole room stand at the end of the meeting expressing their heart for God to move through them. My prayer is that this attitude will continue this year and when we see things happen, and we will, we are going to rejoice in our Father and give him all the glory.

Up-coming Weekend Away 'Love:Intimacy'

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:00:00 GMT

Our Student and 20s weekend away 'love:intimacy' is already fast approaching! These weekends from my experience are always not only a lot of fun but for some reason God just seems to turn up in abundance, speak to us and meet with us.

More details will be released very soon but in the mean time (as of today!) you will be able to sign up our facebook page for the weekend. Places are quite limited so please try and get in quick so we can get a good idea of numbers. We will be going again to Oakhall Manor in Otford, from 20th - 22nd Nov and the weekend will only cost you £45 for accommodation and all your food! We have subsidized this figure to make this weekend as financially viable as possible but please don't let the money be a deciding factor, do get in touch with me if you really can't afford all of the amount and we will see what we can do. £10 will be required as a deposit in the next few weeks. Looking forward to it already!

More details coming soon, but if you would like to check out the click here

'Love:Worship' 4th Oct

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:00:00 GMT

We have changed a lot of how we do thing this year so I know at first it's a lot to take in but bare with it and it will all make sense.

'love:worship' is an evening which will be taking place monthly on Sunday evenings to meet together for coffee, worship and to enjoy teaching relevant to where you are at. These evenings will be somewhat different to how we have done things in the past and we as a team are so focused that everything we do comes out of a place of worship. Everything we do on campus and in our local communities is an act of worship and we want to create a safe and welcoming place to focus on this.

The way these meetings are done will, I'm sure change and develop throughout the year as we learn evening by evening but the heart for these times will never change.

The central point is a heart for creating a space to hear God speak and meet with us powerfully by his spirit, and a place to be equipped to reach our friends on campus and in our workplaces.

Get it in your diaries and come expectant to encounter God as we worship and lift up his name. During the year we will have a number of guest speakers and elders joining with us in these times but at this first time together I will be speaking on 'God's heart for this generation' which I will share a bit about the vision that He has spoken over us prophetically and my heart for all that we are going to be doing.

All of this term at '114 Prayer Nights' in our life-groups, at 'love:worship and at our weekend away we will be going through a series called 'love:relationship' which is pretty self explanatory but we will be looking at the importance of intimacy in relationship with Him, walking In Christ, gifts of the spirit and baptism in the Spirit. So load's to look forward to!

Every evening thing we do now will start at 8pm and we shall hit 'Spoons' after for a drink! Look forward to having you with us.

Paint-ball Day

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:00:00 GMT

After the success and the pain (Particularly Leanne and Jones!) of last years Student's and 20's Paintball Day we are going to have another on the 10th of October, which I know feels like a long way away but we need to get a idea of numbers well in advance so we can get the best deal and location! I expect we will go again to Ruxley Wood's as it is the nearest and they do have a great selection of games and their prices aren't to bad!

I am trying to sort out a number of elders to join us as I simply love the idea of shooting them but I will let you know how this goes. We may have to play freshers vs 'the world' or mix it up again due to numbers but I'm hoping to have a good 30 people this year but again we will sort this out nearer the time.

We will wait right until the last minuet before we book officially so we can get it as cheap as possible but sign up now so we get a good idea of numbers. We normally have to pay a deposit when we book but again I'll let you know nearer the time.

Prices should be in the region of £15 basic for guns and camo gear and £6 for each set of 100 balls but we may be able to get it a little cheaper the bigger the group.

I know we have an ex-marshal and ex-tournament player (you know who you are!) amongst the group so the standards normally pretty high! So get yourself signed up!

A New Year A New Vision

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:00:00 GMT

This year sees a number of changes to how doing things. Our heart is to empower and equip our students to live bold, radical New Testament Christianity on campus, resulting in places and people transformed by the truth of the gospel. love:campus is what we are calling our campus outreach programme and is all about putting these words into action.

University is a place of partying, learning, sleeping, eating, discussion and debate and topics such as your faith, God and the Bible are often on the radar. We are hungry for God to break into our campuses and therefore we more than ever need to have strong spirit filled Christians on our campuses to be witnesses for Christ as we strongly believe one can do student evangelism as well as you can.

There is plenty for our students and 20s to be getting involved with and throughout the year we will meet together to worship, enjoy teaching relevant to where you are at and lift up our campuses in prayer. Their is also the opportunity to join one of our student life-groups, which meet weekly and are great places to meet other students from the surrounding colleges and universities. We also host our '144 Prayer Nights' at the church centre. These prayer nights are really the backbone of all we do as a student and 20’s group and are a great opportunity to drop your studying for a night and press into what God has for you.

On a weekly basis the church meet together on a Sunday morning at 9.30am and at 11.30am at the church centre. Most student’s prefer the 11.30 service and then meet together in one the local pubs for lunch afterwards. If you are a new student make sure you get hold of a ‘Free Lunch’ pass as our welcome gift to you. This will entitle you to a full refund so make sure you hold on to your receipt!

We also have a number of extra events taking place throughout the year including our weekend away in November and our Xmas Ball and our fancy dress night’s out to name a few.

We look forward to meeting you on a Sunday or at one of our events. If you would like any more information you can email students@newcommunitychurch.org and one of the team will get back to you as soon as we can. The team are here for you, so if there is anything we can do to help or make your settling in to university and church life any easier just ask.

That's all for now. Keep checking back regularly for more information.