It is that time of year when University CU’s break out of their holy huddles tucked away in c50009 and attempt to convert the University in a week. Now I have no problem with their enthusiasm or motivation. I have a problem with the concept.

I have been involved in many ways with Mission Weeks, whilst at University a part of the CU, as an assistant missioner and also as a church representative, through all my experiences I can say that I never saw or met one person who became a Christian through one!

There are a number of things I feel are wrong, I could write a list but I will try to summarise a few of my thoughts and feelings about why I feel they are no longer fit for purpose.

Firstly, they are an outdated premise. All the mission books I read talk about holistic, incarnational and integral models of mission, they talk about moving away from attractonal models to engagement models. They suggest that mission has to engage with all parts of both our lives and the lives of those we are trying to reach, and they say that within post-modern cultures this is ever more important. Although my generation still has some aspects of modern thinking that will not be so much the case with current 18-21 year olds. They are distinctly post-modern, yet the mission week has at its core attractional and unrelational methods of drawing people to Christ, based around the lunchtime talk.

Secondly, the lunch time talk. If you go to University these days you will be bombarded with different ways of learning, seminars, discussions, multi-media learning, the lecture is still king, but in that there will be videos, breakout groups etc. The expert talking at a group for an hour is no longer the primary model, and yet go to a mission week at any university and it reigns supreme. Get a few flyers advertising the talk in some room that nobody has ever heard of, entice them with the promise of some crap sandwiches and some packets of crisp, get them listening to a man (I have opted very specifically not to use the word “person”) talking at them for 30 mins on a subject with a hint of controversy (“Did Jesus really die on a cross”, “why was Darwin right?”), and bingo they will all fall on their knees and confess, only they don’t. The majority if the times the room is full of members of the CU. By the end of the week the CU members have had a lunch each day and listened attentively, but nobody else has.

Thirdly, we all know that 70% of people become Christians because of the witness of a close friend. The problem is that many Christians on campus are so ill equipped to deal with normal relationships they hide in Christian cliques, for fear of being corrupted by the dark and horrible world around them. They live with Christians, socialise with Christians, spend the lunchtimes in the Chaplaincy hanging out with their comfortable Christian friends. Then during mission week they are required to go out and speak to real people, they just don’t really know how! So flyers or posters become the chief vehicle for drawing people in, the focus on a mission week, when for one week you can feel you are “reaching out” to alleviate any sense of guilt that for the fact that the other 51 weeks of the year you do not have to touch, see or smell people who’s lifestyles may offend, unless you are forced to i.e. a lecture.

I remember when I was at Uni, the mission week was on. So I pottered over to the lunchtime “discussion”, I was surprised it was in the refectory, rather than the union, so went to join in. Couldn’t find any sign of them on the first floor where everyone was eating their lunch, or the second floor where the food was served, but they were on the third floor. I had never been to the third floor of the refectory before. The lunchtime discussion was underway, I looked around for new faces, but there were none. It was devoid of any. I asked why we were meeting here rather than the union, I was told that the union sold beer, and some of the committee felt that it would put some of the Christians off. A mission week designed around not offending the Christians, saw one person “converted” but it turned out that he was already a Christian, just had not until that point found the CU.

My final objection (there are others) it is not a sustainable model to take away into the rest of life. You are not going to be able to gather together a group of fellow employees and a have a mission week in your office. Hiring out a venue, getting a speaker along and flyering an area of an inner city asking people to come to a talk on "science versus religion" is not a model for urban mission. University is a place were we learn so much, to look after yourself, to cook, to develop a network of friends, a skill, a degree, surely it has to be place where young adults learn how to share their faith relationally, a place where they are discipled and learn to disciple. By continuing the model of mission that focuses all attention on a series of events over a set period of time, we are not supplying a model that can be maintained beyond the context of university. Students should be given and have put into practice the skills that will enable them to be salt and light wherever thy go after the graduation ceremony has finished.

Taken from http://mikepcshaw.blogspot.com with permission.  Thanks Mike.