STUFF FOR STUDENTS AT CITY CHURCH SHEFFIELD

Blog posts, videos, quotes, audio, links - we keep it all here and we hope it helps you.

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Daniel: No compromise

“Dan was only a young man when he moved away to a distant city and watched everything change around him. He was selected due to his aptitude for learning, but his physical strengths and natural good looks hadn't gone unnoticed either! He was to be trained for 3 years, after which he would enter into official service of the state.

“But the new culture Dan was living in, and the authority he was under, expected him to change his previously held convictions. He was given a new diet, taught new languages, and even received a new name to suit his new identity. Many around him adopted this new culture whole heartedly, but something didn't sit quite right with Dan. He missed home, and how much simpler life had been. There was only one comforting constant in his world of change.”

This could be a story about any 18 year old heading off to university. A big change, met by even bigger changes, all accumulating in identity shifts which can cause students to be pretty unrecognizable from the person they were when they arrived.  

But would it surprise you to hear this is a story from the Bible? Flick to the middle of the old testament and find Daniel, a young Israelite man, who was brought into the King Nebuchadnezzar’s service after Babylon had besieged Jerusalem. In his new home, Daniel receives training, is fed new types of food and wine, and is renamed Belteshazzar. This was all in a cunning attempt to raise up young men into Babylonian service, forgetting their Israelite identity along the way.

In the following chapters, Daniel is used by God to influence the most powerful man in the Babylonian empire, despite attempts to discourage and, ultimately, kill him. Every Friday evening, students at City Church Sheffield will be tucking into tasty food, and opening up the word of God, exploring what we can learn from the way Daniel responded to the many changes he faced.

Join us for Soul Food, 6pm at the Jubilee Centre on Wilson Road (S11 8RN).

And in the meantime, take a trip down memory lane and watch some leeks (or are they asparaguses asparagi?) making schemes to get rid of Daniel…  https://youtu.be/a5Ksk_zgtv4

[citychurchstudents]

5 things to pack for student life in Sheffield

With only a few weeks to go til the start of term in Sheffield, if you’re anything like me you’ll be stressing about what to pack, forming a pile in the corner of your room which breaks a sweat out for your parents, as they try to imagine how on earth it’s all going to fit in the back of the Mondeo!

Here are my top 5 items to bring as you start student life in Sheffield:

1.       Coat, hat & scarf. Sorry to start on such a downer, but I want to ensure there are no illusions about Yorkshire weather! When I came to visit, both for the open day and my interview, there was blistering sunshine, which definitely lulled me into a false impression that this city was warm and dry. Bring warm clothes, particularly as you make the most of heading out into the neighbouring peak district, so you don’t let the windy gusts ruin your enjoyment of the awesome scenery!

2.       A fancy dress outfit. A first year student wouldn’t be prepared for uni without a handy outfit to sling on for a spontaneous fancy dress party! So bring along your banana onsie, Mario dungarees and set of face paints, for the inevitable “Impromp-tarts” (Impromptu Pop-tarts, as affectionately named by my flat mates).

3.       Photos and decorations. No student room would be complete without a smattering of photos, posters and fairy lights (though realise this is more likely a female requirement than a male one…). Not only do these remind you of home and fond memories, but also provide a great conversation starter for those who pass by your room. Leading wonderfully to…

4.       Door stop. One of the best items I took to first year halls was something to hold my door open; showing an open invitation for my flatmates to drop by or just say hello as they passed. Deciding early on to prioritise giving time to the odd bunch of souls I lived with led to some of my most treasured memories of first year; the privilege of burdens shared, tears shed, and many more belly ache moments from laughing so hard. You have a unique opportunity to honestly share life with these people, many of which will have never met a committed Christian before, and intrigued to see how it affects your day-to-day life. I had many great conversations with flat mates about the highs and lows of my faith, not because I tried to muscle it into conversation, but because they could see that relationship with Jesus was something I gave time and energy to. You don’t have to be perfect, any attempts to give that impression will be seen straight through, but, instead, be honest about why you chose to follow Jesus.

5.       Bible. The first few weeks of uni will be a bit of a whirlwind, with so many new people and so many changes to your once predictable life. But one thing that can be sure of, amongst all the uncertainty, is that your identity in Christ will not change. We are his adopted children, and “in him have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.” (Eph 1.7). We can rest assured that our identity is in Him who saved us, and not dependant on being known, being friends with tonnes of people, or being the best at beer-pong. This is a lesson I learnt the hard way during my first year (you can read a bit about it on a previous blog post).

We at City Church would love to welcome you when you arrive in Sheffield. We meet on Sunday mornings at 9.30am and 11.30am at the Jubilee Centre on Wilson Road (S11 8RN), and on final Sunday of the month at an altogether meeting at 10.30am. We will have lunch after the later meeting, so make sure to stick around for good food and good banter!

We hope and pray your packing and travels are as stress-free as possible!

[citychurchstudents]

Welcome to Sheffield!

If you're just arrived or coming back to this glorious city, it’s great to have you! 

Whether you’re with us regularly or just popping by for a visit, hopefully this page will give you a flavour of what we get up to...

We are a community of people of different ages and backgrounds, brought together by a passion for Jesus. Church is not just a series of meetings, but a living and active group of people, worshipping God together in unity and seeking to bring His good news to our city, our nation and the rest of the world.

Main Meetings

We meet at 9:30am and 11:30am Sundays at the Jubilee Centre, Wilson Road, S11 8RN. We also have another congregation that meets at 3:30pm in Shirecliffe Community Centre in the North of the City. On the last Sunday of the month all three of these congregations meet at 10:30am at the Jubilee Centre. 

We also meet to worship and pray every Friday from 7:30pm at the Jubilee Centre. Do come along to those as well as Sundays to see what we are really about!

Student Stuff

We meet as students on Friday evenings before the prayer meeting for Soul Food, a chance for us to dig into the bible (and some delicious food) and see what it has to say, particularly on topics relevant to students. The first one will be at 5.45pm Friday 2nd October at the Jubilee Centre, and following Fridays at the same time. 

We also will be following the 11:30 Sunday meeting with the Sunday Munch, a chance to get to know new and old faces, held at the JC. Even if you come along to the earlier service you’re more than welcome to come back for food!

Getting in Touch

If you want more info or want to get in touch you can text or call us on 07762425105 or email [email protected], or message us on Facebook (City Church Students) or twitter (@CCShefStudents). 

[citychurchstudents]

The Lord's Supper - What's it's all About?

The following post by John Allen is based on a discussion had at our Devoted meeting on 9th March 2014, which was facilitated by John. 

We are not big on ritual.

It would be fair to say that we lag behind the Greek Orthodox church in this respect. Yet in our haste to dispose of all things ritualistic (mostly because we associate ritual with formality, and formality with lifelessness) we must not go beyond the bounds of scripture.

The Bible clearly indicates that Jesus himself initiated two rituals that should be observed by every church. The first is baptism, a one off event in the life of each believer, often (though not always) as they set out on the Christian life. The second is the Lord’s Supper, which is to be repeated regularly as a sign of our continued fellowship with Christ.

Relevant Bible passages: Matt 26: 26 – 29, John 6: 53 – 57, 1 Cor 11: 23 – 26

As a ritual, the Lord’s Supper is packed with meaning. It proclaims the Lord’s death and our benefit from it. It nourishes us spiritually (see the John’s gospel passage). It unites us with other believers – ‘because there is one bread, we who are many are one body’. We cannot afford to neglect the Lord’s Supper…. indeed, why would we want to?

Differing Views on the Meaning 

Through church history, there have been different views of how Jesus is present in the Lord’s Supper.  Some have believed that the bread and the wine actually become the body and blood of Christ during the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. There are two weaknesses to this view. Firstly, it fails to recognise that Jesus often used symbolic language. Those who believe that the wine really is Jesus blood, in order to be consistent, would also have to believe that he is an actual vine (Jn 15:1) and/or an actual door (Jn 10:9). Secondly, and more seriously, this view seems to ignore the clear message in the New Testament that Jesus sacrifice was final and complete in his lifetime. Any hint that the Lord’s Supper is a repeat of Jesus’ death can lead to the old covenant idea of remaining guilt, which must be atoned for week by week. The unhelpful implications of this are so obvious as to need no unpacking here.

What do we believe? 

At City Church, we take the view that the bread and wine symbolize the body and blood of Jesus, and that Jesus is spiritually present in a special way as we observe communion together. We only encourage believers to take part in the Lord’s supper and therefore only break bread as a whole church at Family nights, which are just for church members. Core Groups often observe the Lord’s Supper at a mid-week meeting, recreating an environment similar to that in which Jesus initiated it.

How is it administered?

The New Testament doesn’t have anything to say about who should organise or oversee communion, so we have freedom to decide what is wise and appropriate, and then to get on with it.

Any questions? 

This is only a brief overview which we hope has been helpful, but if you have any questions, get in touch.

[citychurchstudents]

THRIVE, DON'T JUST SURVIVE - Our Guide for Students

So you’re at Uni. You’re excited? Nervous? Scared? Raring to go? What are the next 3 or 4 years going to be like? What will you have achieved at the end of that time? How will you have changed for the better, or for the worse?

This post is about giving you some tips on not just surviving student life, but thriving, really thriving. We want you to get the most out of University and we hope this all helps.

Find a good church

We reckon this is the biggy. Numero Uno. Top of the pack. We know you know that getting involved with a church is a good idea, perhaps even a great idea. The problem is, ideas don’t just become realities automatically. So if you take only one piece of advice from this guide this is it: find a good church and get stuck in. Why? Well, this is what the Bible says about the church:

The church is the bride of Christ;

She expresses the manifold wisdom of God;

She is the fullness of Christ;

And all the ‘wisdom’ of hell will not hold her back from what Jesus has planned for her.

 Powerful stuff.

 A good church is a church that understands what the Bible says about it, and that seeks to do what the church did in the early days: bible-based preaching and discipleship; connecting relationally – not just notionally but deeply, sharing with and caring for one another; Christ-centred worship in all areas of church life; filled with and welcoming the activity of the Holy Spirit; reaching people in the places where God has put us; and seeking to help those in need within and outside of the church.

 We aim to be that type of church, and there are others doing the same in the city. Pick one quickly, get stuck in, get involved in a small/cell group, get serving, get rooted, get support. Thrive.

 (See: Ephesians, Acts 2:23-47)

Make a Home from Home

Leaving home can produce a whole spectrum of emotions: from freedom to fear; or delight to depression. You may get homesick. You may abuse your freedoms. It may not make a massive difference to you. Whatever happens, we would recommend you make a home in Sheffield, by which we mean, find people you can talk to and who can look after you. Not just people the same age, but those who are older and who come with more experience. You’re not trying to replace your parents, but making sure you are looked after when you are at University. The best way to do this is get involved with a small/cell group (ours are called Core Groups), and you can do this by emailing [email protected]. They meet mid-week every week – it’s where the rubber hits the road and where you can be looked after, and look after others. It’s where we apply what’s been preached on Sunday, and where we often break bread and share wine together too.

(See: Acts 2:23-47, John 13:34, Ephesians 5:19-21, Colossians 3:16, Hebrews 10:24-25)

Don’t be Funny with Money

From now on in, you are responsible for what you spend your money on – and it can be a challenge to be responsible with it. The Bible says a lot about handling our money, and handling it well. We haven’t got space to note it all here but here are some things to think about:

What do you think is appropriate to spend on food, clothes, drink, fun, going out, presents etc? Are you going to stick to that? How?

How will you be able to give (cheerfully and hilariously)?

How will you manage your debt if you get into it?

From time to time, we run courses on Handling Money and budgeting. If you are interested in these email [email protected].

(See: Romans 13:6-8, Psalm 37:21, 2 Corinthians 9, Matthew 25:14-28)

Stay on the Right Track

Jesus talked about walking the narrow road. Normal student life is mainly about the wide path – and that’s the path that leads to destruction. It’s easy to take the wide path: get drunk, mess around, get in and out of relationships, party life away – it’s easier than you would think. The wide path suggests freedom and satisfaction but it’s an empty promise that eventually squeezes the life out of you.

Following Jesus wholeheartedly down the narrow path is real life and the Bible says everything else compared to Him is absolute rubbish. So which path is it going to be?

(See: Matthew 7, Philippians 3)

Pick me, pick me!

Within the coming days and weeks it’s very likely that you will have picked friends for life. The people you choose to spend your time with now may well be the people you are still friends with when you are retiring. So choose wisely. Don’t surround yourself with friends who love the wide path. And don’t just surround yourself with Christians. Get a healthy mix – and make sure you are most closely connected to those who can help you most effectively live for God. Get stuck into church!

And just to say: all around you, people will be picking that special someone – for life, for a few years, or in some cases a few days. Uni culture pushes people towards romantic relationships. Even Christian Uni culture can head that way sometimes. Feel free to relieve yourself of this pressure. Feel free to enjoy the joys of singleness – and when it’s time, feel free to enjoy the one person that God has got for you for life.

(See: Proverbs 12:26, 13:20, Matthew 28: 16-20, Acts 2:47, Song of Songs 8:4, 1 Corinthians 7: 32-35)

Prioritise Your Priorities

Are you a planner? Do you just take life one step at a time?  Either way, at times, life as a student can get pretty hectic and it’s at those times you need to know what your priorities are. So what are they? Who are they? What’s God called you to do? There’s not really a right or wrong answer with this and it’s different for every person. We would recommend working that out with advice from wise friends. Right at the top of the list though, is getting time with God. We have the privilege of spending time with the Almighty One because Jesus died on the cross for us. Get Him in your life, get involved in a church, get on top of your studies (that is why you are here of course!), get involved in societies (including the CU), get having some fun!

(See: Mark 1:35, Matthew 6:33, Luke 10:38-42, 1 Corinthians 15:10, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

KEEPING IN TOUCH

There’s only so much you can write on blog post before peeps get bored but we hope this has been useful in perhaps suggesting what might help you thrive at Uni. Our prayer is you do and that you get stuck in with us. 

[citychurchstudents]

The real message of Easter....

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What's on in 2014?

[citychurchstudents]

Money Money Money - A Bible Study

We originally covered this material at one of our Devoted meetings on 24th November. This is a reflection on the conversation and conclusions that came out of that evening.

As we do whenever we have one of these sessions, we're looking for open minds to allow the Word to shape us, open hearts to determine what it means for us today, and open discussion in working these things out together.

CONTEXT

Before kicking into the study, it’s worth nothing the following:

Giving is a personal thing – Matt 6:2 – don’t let the left hand know what the right hand is doing. We’re not shouting about it from the rooftops but working out together, with the Word and with God what’s right for us as individuals right now.

The Bible says.

Money is important – even if you haven’t got any: MATT 6: - where your treasure is there is your heart. Reflects our heart – gives us an insight into our relationship with God.

You cannot serve both God and money/mammon – MATT 6:24

We’re primarily looking at money, but included in that is possessions – and  it’s a proxy for other idols in our lives: Everything can become unhelpful/a god; we suspect we can take same principles to resources or talents that God gives us.

 QUESTIONS ABOUT EACH PASSAGE

What does it tell you about God?

What does it tell you about money/mammon/possessions?

What principles about money and possessions can you pick out?

 PASSAGES TO LOOK AT

2 Cor 8:1-13 – The Grace of Giving

1 Tim 6:6-10 – The Love of Money

Matt 6:25-33 – Do not worry

Matt 6:19-24 – Where your treasure is

Prov 27:23-27 – Know the condition of your flocks

1 Tim 6:17-19 – Don’t put your hope in wealth

There are tonnes more to look at including loads of parables so feel free to dig into those too!

THE PRINCIPLES WE CAME OUT WITH

In our discussions, we came up with these principles from the above passages:

Money can be a master. It can rule us.

There’s no money in heaven / you can’t take it with you!

God provides everything for our enjoyment – money isn’t inherently bad or wrong.

Contentment is key, no coveting or desiring more than you have

We look to God to provide, not to money, or jobs, or loans.

Don’t love money. Simples.

If Proverbs tells us that knowing the state of your flock is important, we probably need to have an idea of the state of our finances.

Don’t worry.

Give in proportion to what you have, but realise God can allow you to give beyond your means.

God loves a cheerful giver, not a grumpy one.

 APPLYING THE PRINCIPLES

What do these principles mean for us today as a student in Sheffield?

How should we be thinking about money?

How important is it to know what you’re spending your money on/ how big your loan/debt is?

Should we be giving – if so, how?

Answer the questions for yourself before reading our answers but here’s what we came up with:

It’s good to give even if you’re a student with technically no income.

Often you won’t think twice about buying a treat for yourself, or present for another out of your ‘loan’, therefore, why not something for God out of it?

Building a ‘giving’ principle into your life as early as possible is a good idea. If we operate on the ‘when this happens, I’ll start giving’ we might be in unhelpful territory.

But you don’t have to give anything! Better to give nothing that to give reluctantly!

[citychurchstudents]

My First Year - Emma Brown

Reading back on my prayer diary from 14th September, the concerns I had about moving away from home and starting university kept me awake the night before I left. I appealed to God to help me make friends, find a church and cope with life away from my family.

9 months later, and a whole year at university done, all these fears were clearly unnecessary.

Making friends was so much easier than expected, and God has blessed me with likeminded people in my flat and on my course. Not wishing to use a cliché phrase, but I genuinely do feel like I’ve known them for much longer than a year! For me, finding people that had similar views when it came to drinking, going out and relationships was really important, and here God exceeded the shameful expectation I had of Him by placing specific people in my life who had similar values, but were also there to challenge me when I strayed from my own. The first night of uni was a whirlwind, arriving into a drinking game of “never have I ever” in full swing. It didn’t give me the best first impression of my future flat mates, yet they have grown to be some of my best friends and I couldn’t imagine this year without them.

Finding a church wasn’t so difficult either, though it did take me 5 attempts to locate the right one! God blessed me with a beautiful church family, and has revealed more of His vast and wonderful character through them. I expected to find somewhere very similar to my home church, but instead I landed in a more charismatic church where God has grown in me an understanding of the gifts of the Spirit and their natural place in a Sunday meeting. I also expected to settle at a church filled predominantly with students, but when I came to City Church I loved the mixture of ages, and how this was a refreshing breath of normality amongst my week filled entirely with students.

Though the most worrying aspect of this massive change in my life, and cause of insomnia the night before I left, was how it would change my identity. I grew up in a safe town just outside Birmingham where the most exciting local news was a post box closed down due to dog walkers allowing their pets to spray their scent all over it! Now coming out of that safe bubble, out of a Christian home and caring church family, I worried about how my sense of worth and identity would be rocked by leaving all these security blankets behind.

Looking back I would say my personality has changed, but positively so. I’ve grown in confidence, realising I could actually make friends and people do enjoy spending time with me. I’ve also discovered more about how I react under pressure. It says in Psalm 66 “For you, God, tested us; you refined us like silver.” The testing experiences I’ve had at university have shown me how necessary it is to rely on God for strength and His eternal perspective. I struggled with tensions in specific relationships, but here God turned tough situations into ones for Him. I don’t claim to be a finished work but through difficulties and challenges I have seen God working to develop me to reflect His glory, much like a silversmith seeking to see his face reflected in the molten metal he refines (Malachi 3:3).

But it is identity more than personality that I have discovered this year. Whilst my personality is subject to change depending on experiences, my identity will never waver as it is firmly grounded in Jesus Christ. He is the source of my worth. In the first few weeks, whilst everyone was finding their feet I found that my course mates were particularly struggling with how to obtain their sense of worth. We all came from schools where we may have been high up in the year, heavily involved and known by most teachers. Take the big fish out of the little pond and put them in the ocean, where everyone else is exactly the same as them, and suddenly it’s all different. The areas they once prided themselves in, someone else is there who does it better - and manages to be captain of the hockey team, head boy, and ambassador to the UN. In this barrage of competitiveness and low self-worth, it was so reassuring to know my own worth had not changed at all. Romans 6:16-17 “For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs.” I was still a chosen child of God, wholly loved and cherished in His eyes. It was also good to remember that each of my course mates could be too, and the only solution to their identity crisis was encountering Jesus’s love.

So all in all, a fantastic year! Not at all what I expected, but it has exceeded all I had hoped for. Here’s to new excitement and challenges in the next year to come!