The Rev Paul Grimmond is reflecting on the changing face of university ministry after giving his last talk at Campus Bible Study on Thursday.
The Unichurch rector, who has served with the well-known University of New South Wales ministry for seven-and-a-half years, says he is making the move to Matthias Media “for my health’s sake”.
"I need to have a break away from the busyness and intensity of ministry on campus," he says.
"But I'm very sad to be going and I'll miss it a lot."
Mr Grimmond has been reflecting on the significant changes he has seen in student life since his ministry there began as assistant minister in January 2001, and then became rector in 2005.
"People used to come to uni for an educational, social and personal maturity experience," he says.
"Now people are coming to uni just to get a degree, and lots of people are having to work long hours part-time just to make ends meet."
The extra demands on individual students' time, shorter semesters, extra costs of living such as mobile phone bills and other changes to campus life which have come as a result of the Howard government's ban on compulsory student union fees, have taken a toll on university ministry, Mr Grimmond concedes.
"Another thing is the concept of there being a common free time " there is no time we can run events and we have trouble finding times when people who would like to come together can actually do that," he says.
"People feel so busy and pressured that they say, "yes it would be valuable to check out Campus Bible Study but I just don't have the time'."
However Mr Grimmond stresses that he is “profoundly thankful” for the “amazing opportunities” he has had through his ministry at UNSW.
"The main highlight has been seeing a number of people become Christian," he says, recalling a particular situation in which a staunch Atheist student "turned around by coming to understand that Jesus is real".
Seeing transformations in students who, through their university life, have gone from not being Christian at all, to being Christians who want to tell others about Jesus has been a particular privilege, he says.
"I have seen real changes and people making difficult and costly decisions to follow Jesus rather than what the rest of the world is doing," he says.
"Another highlight has been being at Mid-Year Conference and watching people spend a week reading the Bible and really wanting to obey it."
Grimmo’s new gig
The new task lying ahead of Mr Grimmond is his role at Matthias Media as editor of The Briefing and resources, a position in which he hopes he will be able to use the material and ideas he has been accumulating in recent years.
"It would be great to make this stuff available to a wider audience rather than just people on campus at NSW," he says.
Apart from writing resources and editing, the role could also include preaching engagements down the track.
"The people at Matthias Media produce excellent material and I hope to be able to contribute to that," he says.
Mr Grimmond will take up his new Matthias Media post on Monday, September 1.
