Fusion UK: Reaching the leaders of tomorrow

Fusion believes that every student should have the opportunity to find hope in Jesus and home in the local church during their time at university. There are so many students who want to have the opportunity to meet Jesus, but don’t know where to begin.

A spiritually hungry generation

Insights from their Student Worldview Survey - conducted in partnership with local churches earlier this year - engaged 1395 students from 45 university locations. The survey reported some incredible findings, such as 74% of students who would not call themselves Christian would go to church if they were invited by a friend. 

This is a relational generation and one that is spiritually open. 73% say "yes" or "maybe later" to the question, "Would you like to hear the story of Jesus?" The challenge is that Christian students are generally not inviting their friends because they think they aren't ready and don't want to offend them. 

This presents a huge opportunity because these leaders of tomorrow are possibly more open than ever before to accepting an invite to church and meeting Jesus.

Reaching the nations with the Gospel

 

Roscoe, Fusion's Partnership Developer in Bristol shared that:

"One morning, during the Bristol Uni freshers week, I found myself praying for international students. I didn’t really know what to pray for but I felt led to ask God that international students would find church communities and settle well into university life. While this was happening, a random bakery came to mind that was in the main ‘student area’ of Bristol. I thought this might be a prompt from the Spirit so decided to work there that morning and see what might happen.

I spent the morning in the bakery but nothing special seemed to be happening so I decided to move on. While I was leaving, a number of international students walked in. I thought I could at least ask them to do the Fusion Worldview Survey on my way out. They were happy to answer the questions and told me they had just moved to Bristol three days ago from China.

One student asked me if I was a Christian (probably because the last few questions in the survey are about Jesus/church/prayer). I said, "Yes" and she told me that she was raised Buddhist but a teacher from her school had told her all about Jesus. Since then, she has always wanted to know more, but didn’t know how to find a church or meet a Christian in the UK. I asked if she would want to come to church on Sunday to find out more about Jesus and she said, "Yes, definitely!".

She came to church and said, "It was more than I could have imagined". She felt peace in the worship and when she was prayed for. She left with her own Bible and said that she couldn’t wait to come back again.

 

A few weeks later, I hosted a dinner for students at our church. At the end of the evening, I gave them all a lift back to their Halls, and in the car, we started talking about faith. That was when the student I'd spoken to in the bakery began sharing about why she wasn't ready to call herself a Christian. We talked about the Gospel and how God had given everything for her to have a new life in Him. I said that it is as simple as praying and asking the Holy Spirit to come into her life. So, in that moment, she prayed exactly that and gave her life to Jesus".

 

Who is Fusion?

Fusion seeks to equip students for a life of mission and discipleship by guiding them into local churches that are trained and resourced to effectively care for and release students into the calling God has placed on their lives.

GIVE 

This academic year, Fusion want to have thousands more conversations with students using the Worldview Survey. To deliver the survey, Fusion works directly with local church student workers and students to go on to campus to invite participation. To deliver the survey with more churches and produce resources to respond to the openness of students to hear the good news and try church, Fusion is looking to raise £20,000. 

Support Fusion UK

ACT

Find out more about Fusion and what they do on their website.

PRAY

We are increasingly hearing stories of students waking up to who Jesus is and our prayer is that this is the beginning of a student awakening. Please join Fusion in praying for boldness among Christian students to invite, and a continued openness in the wider student population to respond to the good news of Jesus.