Christian Unions
If you are a Christian student looking for a pay-rise I'm afraid you're in the wrong place.
But ...
If you want to join in the mission to bring Christ to your campus, and grow in your faith as you worship, pray, learn and witness alongside other Christian students, well, then you couldn't be in a better place!
Christian Unions (CUs) are societies - usually affiliated to the campus Students' Union, run by students for students. We describe them as "missional Christian communities". A missional community is one that remembers the purpose that has called them together- to be bearers of Jesus' good news and to participate in God's mission in the world. This means we are committed to:
- evangelism - sharing the good news about Jesus graciously, clearly and creatively, and inviting others to become disciples. This is the heartbeat of our mission.
- serving others - offering welcome and friendship, moving towards those who are different, engaging in social action, being peacemakers, caring for people's physical and emotional needs as well as their spiritual ones.
- being a distinctive community - so that our relationships and our life together show God's heart and the gospel to the world.
It means that we see our whole lives as an opportunity to share the whole good news in words and action with whole people.
We cannot be effective in transforming the culture around us unless we are being transformed by our relationship with God at the same time. So CUs seek to nurture spiritual growth through prayer, Bible study, worship, teaching and service. CUs are interdenominational, welcoming Christians from all traditions or none. CU leaders will normally be asked to sign up to an agreed statement of beliefs or Doctrinal Basis (click here to view), adopted by all the CUs within IFES Ireland.
Christian Unions come in many different shapes and sizes. Some are very large with hundreds of members; others are much smaller with maybe only a few meeting together regularly. Large CUs are run by committees of students elected each year. Their programmes often include a weekly teaching and worship meeting, prayer meetings, small groups, and social action or evangelistic initiatives. Smaller CUs may have one or two leaders and can more closely resemble a small group, but again seeking to worship, pray and learn together with the aim of reaching out to their fellow students.
Click here for a list of CUs in Ireland at present, with contact details and details of where and when they meet. We try to keep these up to date, but if you have any difficulty making contact with a CU please contact us . If you represent an organisation we would ask that you do not contact CUs directly, but contact their staff worker (contact details here ).
CUs are made up of people, so they aren't perfect, but we know of no better group to be part of if you want to grow in your faith and share it with others.