“By 2030 the EU community will have a culture of devoted prayer for revival. We are committed to praying for a gracious reviving movement of God, by His Word and Spirit, amongst the lost at Sydney University, in the hearts of all Christians on the campus, and for the sake of God’s global kingdom and glory.” 

This statement is one of the Big Kingdom Vision Goals the EU has set as we move towards our centenary in 2030. We hope that God would help us be a community marked by expectant and persistent prayer, seeking our great God to do great things for His kingdom. We pray that this might be true in EUers’ personal prayer habits and in the commitments and rhythms of our EU fellowship when we are gathered together.

If you ask an EUer how they think the EU is currently doing with the above goal, you would get a range of answers. In a survey of EUers at AnCon in 2024, in response to the question “In your opinion, to what extent is the EU marked by personal and communal habits of prayer for revival?” 64% of EUers said to a great or extreme extent. Yet, if you were to ask them about their personal prayer life, many would say they feel pretty uncertain of how to pray, unsure if their prayers are making a difference, and a bit stuck with building consistent routines and prayer habits. The EU is a community encouraging prayerfulness, but many people feel they have a long way to go! 

One of our strategies to help people grow in 2025 and 2026 is to have some heightened moments of prayer, gathering larger numbers of EUers together for prayer evenings: something the EU has not been in the habit of doing for quite some time. In Semester One, Week 7 Public Meetings, we learnt from Luke 11 how the Lord Jesus taught his disciples to pray with shameless audacity. At the end of that week, over a hundred students came together for a night of prayer organised by the EU’s executive. For many students, this was a new experience, and they weren’t sure exactly what to expect, but they still came along with friends from their EU faculty, their small group bible study, and with staff workers. We had first-year students and seniors, local and international students. a handful of recent grads keen to pray, and even some students investigating Christianity, who got to see what it was like for Christians to call on God as father, and freely bring praise and petition to him. 

The exec led the EU through sessions of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication;  using the ACTS framework for prayer (and an oldie but a goodie) to model a way to come humbly and joyfully before God, especially for those feeling less confident or clear on how to pray together. We had moments of singing praise (in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin), of personal prayer, of led prayers, and praying in small groups. It was a profoundly encouraging time to remember the great God to whom we lift our prayers, and to take heart in the precious gift of being able to do that in fellowship with one another. Most of all, we were exhorted to be bold in our prayers, asking God to act mercifully and bring untold numbers of people from death to life in Jesus, as his gospel goes out. Would you join with the EU in seeking to pray for God’s great reviving work, across Sydney Uni and beyond?

Thou art coming to a King,

large petitions with thee bring,

for his grace and pow’r are such,

none can ever ask too much.

John Newton, 1779

– Laura Southam, EU Senior Staff