1980-2000. Refocus and Growth in Partnership

Larry Hand was President in 1976 when the SUEU was at its weakest. One of the ironies of his presidency is that it was he who recommended in his outgoing report that a mission be held the following year, 1977. This mission was the beginning of the turnaround in the fortunes of the SUEU. Titled ‘Go Back: You’re Going the Wrong Way’, and aimed at the University, it might well be taken as aptly referring to the SUEU itself. And the message was heeded. Two features stand out in particular - first, the mission reasserted the evangelistic mandate of the SUEU, and although only 12 people were known to have been converted through it, this mission set the direction. In fact, further missions were held in 1980 (‘No Christ, No Life’) and 1981 (‘Future Failure’), on both occasions with John Chapman and Philip Jensen as missioners, which ensured that this reassertion endured.

Second, the SUEU again found highly involved outside help. Rosemary Waugh, a staffworker at St Barnabas, was appointed mission co-ordinator, a role which she again fulfilled in 1980, and did so on both occasions with outstanding ability and success, being repeatedly thanked in reports for her hard work and guidance. Her ability to provide a sure hand, without dominating the students, set the pattern for future staffworking relations with the SUEU. By the close of 1980, the SUEU was again on a sure footing, with over 300 actively involved students, evangelistic in its thrust, and solidly evangelical in its perspective, taking its place preparing hundreds students for a lifetime of Christian ministry.

In 1983 Robert Forsyth was appointed as the Rector at St Barnabas and also as the Anglican Chaplain to the Universiy. His arrival signalled the beginning of a new phase in the life of the SUEU. Until the 1970\'s, the SUEU had been a genuinely autonomous student society calling in older and more experienced friends to help, with the only formal outside help coming from IVF/AFES ‘Travelling Secretaries’ who were responsible for the whole IVF movement and thus could only give limited time and energy. During the 1980\'s the student leaders of the SUEU pioneered with Forsyth a new model of partnership between an essentially student group and outside help. Working alongside students and preserving student initiative, Rob developed his ‘Uncle Model’. He was a member of the family; not a father, but nor simply a brother. He was not merely a travelling visitor, but local and committed for the long term; he did not seek to run the ministry, but provided teaching and advice at the invitation of the student leadership. As student trust in Forsyth grew, they invited him along with other staff at St Barnabas’ to be more involved in the ministry. This required the development of a more formal 'head-to-head' relationship between the student President and the leader of what was slowly developing into a staff team.

The crucial step came in 1989 when a number of factors coincided. Graeme Chiswell was appointed by AFES as the first long-term, theologically trained senior staffworker for the SUEU. Rod Morris, staff member at St Barnabas joined a student team to organise the mission ‘The Truth is a Person’ and thus formed the first Staff-Student team. Finally, the idea of forming a fund, financed by graduates and dedicated to providing staff for the SUEU, was hatched by the then President (Andrew Katay) and Treasurer (Michael Jensen), as they swapped notes in a Greek class, and actually implemented the following year with the formation of the ‘EU Graduates Fund’. Realising that both the AFES and St Barnabas’ had other responsibilities, this was a significant move in which the SUEU took responsibility for providing its own staff. Accordingly, Alan Lukabyo was employed in 1991 as the first full-time Graduates Fund staffworker, serving the SUEU and being trained in ministry in what has come to be known as the ‘Howard Guinness Project’ (HGP). By the year 2000, the Graduates Fund had grown significantly to be employing 15 staff for a total of 51 staff days with an annual budget of $125,000. Throughout this process the original vision for genuine partnership in the gospel between students and staff was developed and maintained.

While this rich partnership developed, the SUEU was making significant steps forward in evangelism and edification. The 1980’s and 90’s saw consistent attempts to proclaim Christ as Lord to the campus, and a series of missions met with varying degrees of success: 1984 Phillip Jensen & Robert Forsyth Knowing God; 1986 J.John Life means What?; 1988 David Mansfield The Gods Must be Lazy; 1989 Robert Forsyth & Ed Vaughan The Truth is a Person; 1991 Phillip Jensen & Robert Forsyth The Christless Life; 1995 Stephen Abbott Don’t buy the lie; and 1997 Phillip Jensen Who do you say that I am?. The year 2000 saw the phenomenal success of the Nailing God mission with Ian Powell and Dr. Chris Forbes, as 2,000 students packed the Great Hall and the McLauren Hall on the first day to see a debate between Andrew Katay, newly appointed as Anglican Chaplain to the University, and Dr Adrian Heathcote from the Philosophy department. Over 65 students responded to the two week mission saying that they had committed themselves to Christ, and many more were challenged with the gospel.

On the edification front, the first Annual Conference of the SUEU, which set the direction for future such Annual Conferences, was held in 1990. Embodying the SUEU’s commitment to developing students of sound and deep biblical faith, a definite and central theme of the Christian faith was addressed (in this case Justification by Faith) through talks from one speaker (Robert Forsyth) and as part of an integrated program. In addition to this the decade saw the clarification of the ‘The Big Three’ SUEU events: weekly Public Meetings focussed around a Bible talk with an evangelistic edge; weekly faculty-based small group Bible studies; and the Annual Conference. Into this increasingly stable and fruitful ministry mixture was thrown the ACES (Australian Chinese Evangelical Students) faculty, which formed in 1998, and which has happily enriched and strengthened the witness of the SUEU to the Lord Jesus Christ. By the year 2000, SUEU had grown to be a group of around 500 students, making up 2.7% of the day student population of 18,000.

The privilege and challenge for the current generation of students and staff is to continue in this great cause for the sake of the name of the Lord Jesus and the glory of God the Father at the University of Sydney.

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