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Mobilise 2009
by Hannah Horton, Leeds, UK
At Mobilise this year we saw around 1,300 students and twenties gathering together to seek more of the presence of God and to be envisioned with Jesus’ call on their lives.
Andrew Wilson kicked off the Mobilise morning sessions speaking on ‘The Cross and the Cosmos’, detailing how the cross of Jesus is the answer to evil and thus the central issue in the question every Christian will be asked at some point, ‘why does God allow suffering in the world?’ Whilst equipping students with apologetic responses, on a more personal level this talk raised the challenge ‘are we engaging on God’s behalf to save the world?’ As God’s people we have a responsibility to stop evil. The inhabitants of Babel abdicated this responsibility holding tightly to their comfortable lives – are we going to do the same?
On Wednesday morning Tom Shaw (Canterbury, UK) identified four key idols we allow to eclipse our focus on God:
(1) Comfort (2) Control (3) Power (4) Approval. Tom investigated the underlying issues behind these idols and then led us straight to Jesus, the only one who ‘looked at these potential idols and smacked them in the face’ because he was totally drenched in the waterfall of God’s approval, approval we too can receive because of what Jesus did for us!
David Stroud (London, UK) ended the Mobilise sessions with the bold and simple truth ‘The Cross sets us Free.’ It was quite incredible to see how clearly God was speaking to us about freedom and redemption through each of these talks. Over the days at Mobilise, I know from speaking to a number of people, that the Holy Spirit was highlighting how easily we fail to live fully in the light of the lavish, outrageous truth of God’s freedom, and we were presented with the solution: Jesus. David’s statement ‘you are free to leave the gods that hold you because Jesus broke the power of every god’ is such an empowering truth.
These simple and astounding truths spoke powerfully to a generation who are repeatedly told success is dependant upon achievement; that how you look, speak, dress and present yourself is more important than what is hiding underneath; that no one’s going to do you any favours so the way to get to the top is by selfish ambition. Living as a student in an intense academic environment where, particularly in the present economic climate, the pressure to make yourself employable is huge, gospel-centred living seems a far cry from the norm. How important it is to preach grace and freedom continually, and how exciting it is that over 3,000 students and twenties returned to their situations firmly established in freedom – what an impact they will have!
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