Oak Hill newsletter
MESSAGE FROM THE COLLEGE PRESIDENT
SPRING 2020
Above: Students dressed smartly for Martyrs Monday, as a sign of solidarity with students at the Uganda Seminary in Namugongo, which we support. Photo: Steve Sweet
As a college community we are constantly seeking God’s grace to devote ourselves to ‘prayer and the ministry of the word’ (Acts 6:4), in that order. Every minister knows that’s not easy. Please pray with us for this pattern to be built into our lives, and sustained in the lives of our students through the pressures of life and ministry, for decades beyond College. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 oakhill.ac.uk/newsletter 1
Growing stronger
PLEASE PRAY WITH US Please pray for... J Numbers of students to increase
from last year, as we aim to prepare more students for ministry in the real world from September 2020 J Students who will be involved in missions in the UK and abroad in the coming months J Students who are looking for ministry positions when they leave Oak Hill in the summer. J Our teaching and support staff teams, that they will be strengthened as they help students to grow in Christ J The College Council as it considers ways to train more disciple-making disciples. Thanks for your prayer support. For more of our current prayer requests, visit: oakhill.ac.uk/pray-for-us
We are still here, and we certainly don’t take that for granted! We are grateful for steady student numbers last September, a few more independent students and a few less Anglican ordinands, and overall a delightful fresh cohort of fully committed students and their families. We remain under pressure financially, along with other seminaries all over the world. We are capturing and controlling costs wherever possible, and we are thankful for generous support from individuals and churches across the country – and we trust God to sustain the College. We would value your prayers for the strengthening and development of the teams across the College. Please join us in asking the Lord of the harvest to send out more labourers into a rapidly changing culture, where the challenges facing the churches are increasing. For the moment, there are more churches seeking students from Oak Hill than we are training. Will you pray with us for a full College, filled with as many full time students as possible, more part time students, and others making the most of the flexible learning options? Our freshly revalidated undergraduate programme is stronger than ever, more integrated than before, and allows for flexible pathways for students training towards different ministries. We are eager to welcome students from ethnic churches across London, so please pray for progress in this area. Expanding horizons On several Wednesdays each year we welcome a visiting speaker, to hear their story and the shape of their ministry, allowing our students to encounter an eclectic mix of ministries reaching beyond their previous experience. During the autumn, we spent half a day thinking about listening well; we were stimulated by a session from the Operation World team; and Rico Tice shared the biblical principles and patterns he deploys in evangelism training. In the coming months Vaughan Roberts will join us; Andrea Williams will share news from Christian Concern; and we’ll hear heartening news of God’s grace among a particular people group, where many are turning to Christ from another faith background. Our students are enjoying these sessions. Please pray for spiritual horizons that are growing large enough to grasp more of what God is doing through his church around the world. Making disciples Every time I travel by tube I see around me the nations of the world, brought by God’s sovereign rule to London and crammed onto the Piccadilly Line. Every journey is a helpful and powerful reminder of the great commission, and the reason that Oak Hill exists. Will you kindly pray for God’s grace to train growing numbers of disciple-making disciples? Johnny Juckes, College President
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LUNCH WITH THE GLOBE What would cause a score of theology students to give up their lunchtimes to hear about people and places on the other side of the world? God’s love of the nations, that’s what! Once a month, 20-30 students and staff gather, dinner plates balanced on top of soup bowls, to hear from and pray for something God is doing
Above: Students Matt Hodson and Ben Wildman preparing to talk to people.
BUS STOP GOSPEL ‘Bus stops are far more interesting and useful places to have art than in museums.’ – Banksy Above: Students hearing about the work of UFM across the world.
in another part of the world. We call it a Global Focus Lunch. In September we heard from Oak Hill mission team members just back from the annual partnership weeks in Namugongo, Uganda. In October it was the turn of students who had returned from North East Asia, from a country we all thought was ‘closed’. These lunches are part of the antidote we all need to inoculate us against our tendency to keep the rest of the world at arm’s length, out of mind, and out of our privileged cloisters. And I love ‘em! David Baldwin, Director of Global Missions
We’re often told that most people in the UK are not interested in Christianity. In the most recent British Social Attitudes survey, 53% of people said they have no faith, and 25% said there is no God. But in contrast, Oak Hill students have found that bus stops are certainly ‘interesting and useful places’ to have engaging conversations about the gospel. Every Friday students go in pairs to Southgate Bus station, a 15 minute walk from College, where they talk with people about life, God and the gospel. Here are four soundbites of conversation, with the names changed: Byran is a Muslim. We had a fruitful discussion about what Jesus said compared to what Muhammad said. He wanted me to show him what bits of John’s Gospel he should read and took a copy of the Gospel with him. Simeon believes there is no God, that religion is a psychological crutch, and that science and empiricism reign. But he took a flyer for the carol service. Hector is an ex-convict who knows he is not ‘good’. He didn’t want a booklet. Norton is a nominal Christian, and we talked about the purpose of Jesus’ death and the second coming, and what it means to be ready for it. Please pray for boldness and clarity for the students. and for the people they meet to see the light of the gospel at the time, and in time. oakhill.ac.uk/newsletter 3
PARTNER WITH US If you would like to support the training of more people for gospel ministry, please visit: oakhill.ac.uk/ financial-support. Thank you for your partnership with us.
PROSPECTUS For more details of the new programme and to read the new prospectus, please see our website: oakhill.ac.uk/prospectus
Oak Hill College Chase Side Southgate London N14 4PS Phone: 020 8449 0467 Website: oakhill.ac.uk
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UPCOMING EVENTS Open Mornings 14 March & 25 April 2020 Oak Hill Open Mornings are an opportunity for anyone who’s thinking about theological training to find out what life and learning at Oak Hill is like first-hand. More information and booking: oakhill.ac.uk/open-mornings Equip: The Sovereign God 28 March & repeated 2 April 2020 Deepen your understanding of God’s sovereignty, and the way you view his unfailing and unflappable involvement in your life. More information and booking: oakhill.ac.uk/ the-sovereign-god
School of Theology 2020 14 July 2020 The Oak Hill School of Theology is for pastors and teachers seeking to deepen and strengthen their exegetical, biblical, theological and practical grasp of key doctrines, and help them apply what they have learned to ministry in the real world. More information: oakhill.ac.uk/school-of-theology Language Refreshers 2020 15-16 July 2020 The Language Refreshers event offers pastors and teachers who have already studied Hebrew or Greek an opportunity to refresh their language skills and enhance their ability to use one of the biblical languages for teaching and preaching. More information and booking: oakhill.ac.uk/language-refreshers