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What is the Christian Graduate Society?

The Christian Graduate Society (CGS) has been reaching out to the graduate student community at Cambridge University for over 10 years, and no doubt you've heard from us now and then, either directly, or else through the International Student Welcome Programme (ISW) which we run each year in conjunction with the Kairos Trust and with the help of numerous volunteers from local evangelical churches.

A. Issues Facing Post-Graduates

To briefly set the stage, here are a few facts about post-graduates: Cambridge has about 15,500 full time students, of which nearly 4,500 are post-graduates spread out between 3-year PhD courses and numerous 1-year or 2-year Masters courses. Nearly half are from abroad, many from countries with little gospel witness, or with active surpression of Christianity. The number of graduates has grown rapidly over the last 10 or 20 years as various Masters and MPhil courses gained popularity and research labs expanded. While the focus of undergraduate life is the college, graduates are based more in their respective departments and the strength of the college link differs greatly from student to student. Whereas the undergraduates are here mainly in three 8-week terms, most graduates are here for the entire year. On average the pressure of work and limitations on time are more keenly felt by graduates than by undergraduates. Clearly the post-graduate world is a needy and expanding mission field with considerably different dynamics and needs than the under-graduate world which has, for over 100 years, been reached so effectively by the CICCU.

B. The CGS Vision

Our current vision statement is:

``Recognising Christ's command to make disciples of all nations, the Christian Graduate Society aims to provide opportunities for Christian witness to the graduate community, and to encourage the building-up of Christian graduates. The membership and programme reflect the high proportion of international graduates studying at the University.''

We take the UCCF basis of faith as our doctrinal statement. (enclosed)

C. CGS Activities

1.

Bible Studies At the core of CGS are 5 different Bible Studies on Monday - Thursday, and an Alpha-type intro to Christianity course on Fridays. The Bible Studies and Alpha-course are all aimed primarily at reaching out to non-Christians and nominal Christians.

In addition, we've found that some (international) Christian graduates may find it difficult to integrate fully into a local church, especially if they are here on a 1-year course only. The Bible studies provide support and community for these students as well. (We have suggestions later on for improving integration.)

2.

International Student Welcome (ISW)

The International Student Welcome is a very significant aspect of CGS's work. Every year, in close collaboration with CICCU, the Kairos Trust and local churches, we give the arriving (primarily graduate) international students a hearty welcome, by meeting them at the bus and train stations as they arrive. Volunteers (including many non-student helpers from local churches) also visit students who want to be visited. Besides hosting different welcome events every day during the welcome week, we follow this up in Michaelmas term with a welcome party, a trip to Ely, an international Food evening, a weekend away and a Christmas party. During Easter and Lent terms a number of follow-up activities such as international food evenings etc... are held. Through all of this, our aim is to show Jesus' love to the many hundreds of new students we meet; every year, lasting friendships are formed, within which we hope and pray that students will be naturally introduced to Christ.

3.

Other Events

In addition to the events flowing directly from the ISW, the CGS also holds termly dinners at Leckhampton, the Corpus Christi College graduate residence, aimed at meeting people in a more social setting, and several ``pudding parties'', where an invited speaker speaks on an evangelistically oriented topic (which hopefully will be of benefit to Christians as well). After the talk, relaxed discussion can continue at the tables. We also plan to hold a weekend away and a garden party in the summer.

How could the CGS and local churches better work together?

The CGS recognises the centrality of the local church; We aim to work with local churches and not to compete with you in any way. At the same time, the CGS is a cooperative interdenominational evangelistic ministry; we find that events organised by post-graduate students (from various churches) for post-graduate students can seem far less threatening than events which are seen as explicitly church-based. In addition, our presence in departments and colleges around the university creates a natural basis for contact and outreach, and the CGS offers an excellent structure for building upon these natural contacts. There are strong parallels between the work and mission of the CICCU in the undergraduate world and those of the CGS in the graduate world.

Perhaps one could best describe the CGS as a peer-pier group: A community of peers from many different churches in Cambridge, acting as a pier from those churches into the local graduate community. In that light, here are some more specific aspects of our relationship to churches that we would like to develop further:

1.

Bridging the gap between churches and post-graduate students: Through its Bible studies and events, the CGS provides contexts for Christian graduates to establish relationships, invite friends to church, and help them be incorporated into their churches. This is especially important for international students who may not always feel naturally at home in the English culture of many churches, and for British students who have not been exposed to church life before. We hope improved communication between CGS leaders and church leaders can help facilitate the incorporation of post-graduates into local church life.

2.

Linking in with church-based teams: The CGS organises a number of evangelistically oriented activities such as our pudding and garden parties from which church based groups with many postgraduate members, such as twenties/thirties groups could benefit. Their presence would be welcome. In addition, City Church and St. Andrew the Great have formed international teams which can work closely together with CGS. On the one hand these teams can form a natural basis for church support of CGS, and on the other hand the teams reach a broader group of internationals than just post-graduates. We feel these international teams are a very significant development, and hope to hear of similar developments in other churches in due course.

3.

Church support of CGS activities and aims: Church people can support CGS through prayer and awareness. We already receive significant practical support from many churches for the international student welcome. The CGS can supply information on our events if churches would like to advertise them, or point people to them.

4.

Church support of CGS members: The churches can support CGS members through prayer, teaching and encouragement, and through welcoming new post-grads; the CGS can in turn can help link these post-grads to the churches. Many CGS members come from other countries, and their time here provides an important opportunity to receive teaching and training in ministry. One way the CGS does this is by giving its Christian members practice in leading Bible Studies. Churches could support these members both while they are here, and possibly when they've returned to their respective countries.

5.

Church support of CGS leaders: We feel this is a very important way that local churches can be involved with the CGS.

(a)

Accountability - We greatly value pastoral oversight of our leaders; we don't believe in ``lone rangers''.

(b)

Leadership training - You have resources for this that we lack. Would it be possible for CGS leaders attending your church to participate in some of your existing leadership training programmes?

(c)

Release - We realize that if we are to devote time to graduate outreach, then at times we may be less directly useful in our own churches, so we ask you to release us with your blessing for the work of the Lord (Acts 13:1-3).

(d)

Identifying new leaders - As new Christian post-graduates join local churches or move on from undergraduate degrees, might church leaders consider pointing them towards CGS as one genuine ministry option among others? Currently our membership consists mainly of non-British students since most of our contacts come through the ISW. A broader base would ease the work-load of the CGS leaders considerably, and we believe a greater British input into CGS could only be very positive.

We recognise that each church has its own unique leadership structure and church culture into which we hope that support for CGS leaders can be incorporated. However, simply adding a new set of meetings to attend may put undue strain on often overburdened schedules. A number of churches have over the years developed effective ways of discipling undergraduate leaders in CICCU, and to some degree similar strategies may work well for CGS leaders.

We feel a key to supporting CGS leaders is the development of relationships between church leaders and the leaders of CGS. For example, one church in town has pursued this through fortnightly meetings between its members who are CGS leaders and key church staff. This has resulted in personal support and training for CGS leaders, but has also given an opportunity for church input into the CGS and allowed the CGS to help the church become more effective at its outreach to the postgraduate community in Cambridge.

We look forward to greater cooperation with local churches, and hope to benefit from church input and feedback as together we reach the Cambridge post-graduate community for Christ.