Last weekend, 55 University of New England students, 16 Southern Cross Uni students, and 8 staff invaded the Coffs coast for mid year conference (myc09). You may have heard about myc – it was a weekend where students would hear from God’s word, get together for seminars and have some fun. The weekend didn’t disappoint!
Over the weekend, we listened to 4 talks on Titus and were challenged to think about our world view – is it centred on hope of eternal life in Jesus, and does it shape our lives? We thought about what it means to be a godly leader, what it means living for Christ as younger men and younger women (and how to practice being older men and older women now). We thought about our motivation for doing good deeds – our own pride or obligation? Or in response to God’s grace and mercy to us?
Also the students had the opportunity to participate in seminars and think through the implications of what they were learning from Titus: what it means to “take control” of stuff like our time, money, friendships, our emotions and mood. The most popular seminar (by far!) was the relationship and sex seminar. Hearing some of the students talk about it afterwards, they were challenged to think through how to keep Christ the centre of their relationships and have godly motives in approaching any relationship.
Overall the weekend was great opportunity to see the bigger picture of uni ministry. We got to hear what 
gospel ministry is happening at both Lismore and Armidale campuses. It was encouraging for us TBTers to hear the Armidale students talk of the ministry that is happening on another regional uni campus and how they are caring for other students, who don’t know Christ. But we didn’t just think bout our own situations – we also spent some time looking at student ministry around Australia and the world.
Please pray that…
– The students may retaining what they learnt at MYC
– The students may grow in their understanding of the gospel & live transformed lives at SCU
– The students may have a greater vision for student ministry in regional Australia and beyond
okay, maybe I’m a little biased, but MYC was a great weekend… I learnt a stack from Titus – was really challenged to think about my worldview (if I’m really being honest, can I say that I let Jesus and the hope of eternal life shape my everyday life, decisions, behaviour, etc…?).
the vid we showed at church today shows what some students learnt at MYC… (you can re-watch it on the tbt blog; http://www.thebibletalks.com) – but I’d love to hear more from other students – highlights, challenges of MYC, good convos you had?
Thanks Katharine for your dedication to this mission at uni. May you continue to grow in letting Jesus shape your everyday life its a hard journey. James 1 is worth reading
thanks Trev for that encouragement… am going to read James now.
I would have to agree with you guys, MYC was in fact quite fabulous 🙂
It was SO encouraging to spend the weekend with the TBT crew, and also with the bunch from Armidale and Coffs Harbour !
The talks on Titus were very great. It’s been good to start thinking about how our belief in the hope of eternal life should be shaping our behaviour.
The seminars were indeed awesome! I mean, I may be bias, considering I did go to Katharine’s seminar…. BUT! from discussions with many people over the weekend they too found the seminars they attended really encouraging and challenging in “taking control” in so many aspects of life.
God has placed many things on my heart since MYC, but one of the key challenges has been in aiming to live with an “others-centred” view, and with a focus on serving others in order to serve Christ. I think we were all quite moved to think about what it really means to be loving to each other and to be living for the Gospel.
So I could go on forever but will stop for the sake of preventing square eyed church members 😉
To finish: MYC was definately worth the adventure!
its so good to be encouraged and challened to take God seriously and let him shape all our future.
i want to live for the God who created all that exists rather than myself!
thanks for making this happen.