One of the things I love most about what I do is getting to lead students. The "Student Moment" (as Louie Giglio calls it) is a highly formative and significant season of life. In the time frame between 18-25 we are bombarded with messages about "the good life". Our culture implicitly and explicitly communicates what matters most, what our legacy should be & what should shape our value system.
This is why Charlotte & I love serving our Church through leading the student ministry. We get to play a part in seeing these young men & women derive their identity, value system, world view & legacy from a different source. We get to point them to the sufficiency & supremacy of Christ. We get to communicate to them the importance of building their lives on the solid rock of the gospel & it's implications. And in the process of doing this, we get a front row seat in seeing God radical disciples by His Holy Spirit.
The RBC Student Weekend is a moment in the Student Diary every year that we eagerly look forward to for the reason that it gives us an opportunity to take 40 of our students away to enjoy the beach, have lots of fun together & spend time in God's presence getting our lives orientated around His glory & grace. This years weekend away was nothing short of spectacular. We approached the weekend having prayed loads & really anticipating a significant & transforming move of God amongst our students. We weren't disappointed.
Our worship times were phenomenal. Rarely have I experienced such a tender, sweet & profound sense of the Spirit of God moving in our midst. On Saturday night there was a moment where it just felt like the peace of Christ descended on our hearts as a prophetic song was sung out around Matthew 11:28 ("Come to me all you who are weary"). Much tears and prayer followed as God semented a deep work in many peoples hearts about His Fatherhood & sovereign care.
On the Sunday morning the opposite end of the worship spectrum was experienced as we moved from the tenderness of God's healing presence to the triumph & joy of the gospel. I can remember nearly bursting at the end of "You alone can rescue" as I just felt the heart of God that we should be a happy people in the gospel, not grumpy & cynical, but exploding with joy. As I prayed for an awakening of joy on the University campuses of Cardiff it felt like the place erupted in agreement and faith.
Likewise, the teaching was truly powerful. From a message by my good friend & Church Planter, Ben Franks on "Jesus & Money" that called us to treasure Jesus more than anything & led us to our knees to repent of half-heartedness & idolatry, to a challenging & fresh look at "Jesus & Sexuality" from Dave Mcnee that called us to make the Bible, not our own opinions, the over-riding authority in our relationships & sex life, we were truly blessed. I preached a message on "Jesus & drink", calling people to be filled afresh with the life-giving Spirit of God, exchanging fakes for the real thing (the glory of God) & we saw many people filled & empowered by the Spirit of God. The Weekends teaching ended with me doing a session on "Jesus & Significance", looking at how Jesus desires us to pursue greatness & success, but a greatness & success that rests in sonship & expresses itself in servanthood.
On top of all this we managed to raise over £600 for the Cardiff Churches NIght Shelter Project! Unbelievably incredible from a bunch of poor students! That to me summed up the work that God had been doing in setting our hearts alight with the glory of Jesus & the advance of the kingdom.
I'm left grateful & in awe at the God who "is able to do abundantly more than we can ask or imagine". To Him truly be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:20-21)!
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