University students have spent two weeks creating a range of diverse intellectual and relational opportunities for sharing the gospel on Australia's most famous campus.
Sydney University's Evangelical Union just finished running the first ever RE: Jesus Festival, which spanned August 18 to 29.
Over 50 different events of various sizes and styles were held during the fortnight.
Students ran a range of events ranging from the traditional talks and debates, to more unique events such as dance classes, film screenings, kite-flying and an amazing race.
Senior EU staff worker the Rev Dr Rowan Kemp says he wanted students to take ownership of the events and use their relational networks for creating niche events that would appeal to their various groups.
"Evangelism is relational. We’re proclaiming the gospel of the Lord Jesus to our friends who don’t know him. Since our friends are interested in many different things, we wanted to create many different opportunities for them to hear about Jesus," he says.
"We all know the interests of our own friends better than anyone else. It just makes sense to encourage Christians to show leadership in reaching their friends with the gospel of the Lord Jesus."
Dr Kemp was pleased about the breadth of thought and creativity that students put into running unique events.
"We had opportunities for Spanish language students, education students, those interested in swing dancing, short films, mathematics, psychology, business and more," he says.
"We tried to resource the Christian students with whatever they thought they needed to create an opportunity for their friends to hear about Jesus: finances, room bookings, providing speakers, panellists, plus advice along the way."
Brand new styles, same great message
The internet was an essential method for reaching students, Dr Kemp says, and fresh video content about RE: Jesus was uploaded on a special RE: Jesus each day.
"It is the internet era. The university community lives online. Advertising the web-link meant that people could see and hear what had happened and what was coming up," he says.
Dr Kemp spoke at the "Jesus and Maths?' event, a meeting aimed at engineering students who have an interest in the area of numbers and how the world fits together. Dr Kemp has a PhD in pure mathematics and studied engineering at university.
"I explained that we need a worldview that makes sense of reality as we know it. Our ‘theory of everything’ needs to embrace four realities: the legitimate questions of science and mathematics; the meta-mathematical questions of why is the universe so ordered; the non-scientific questions of relationships, ethics, meaning and mortality; and the glorious data-point of the historical resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Christianity is the framework that makes sense of this reality," Dr Kemp says.
Megan Wannan, a second year Engineering/Arts student who organised the ‘and Maths?' event says it was great having something to invite people to that covered areas specifically addressing her friends’ interests.
"My engineering friends are interested in methodology, logic, real world science and maths and hands-on things. That's what their degree is all about. But many would ask "what's Jesus got to do with me?'," she says.
"Bringing someone credible like Rowan with his strong engineering and maths background to talk about Jesus meant he could effectively challenge the engineering students where they were at with the gospel."
Megan says a significant proportion of non-Christians were present at the small gathering with two indicating they would like to find out more about Jesus.
"It was cool that people responded to the message and decided that Jesus was worth investigating," she says.
