Walking down the windswept Eastern Avenue during the winter break, it would be easy to think the university has entered hibernation. There are days when you’ll see nary a student except for groups of high schoolers on an excursion to campus.
But it would be a mistake to think that the Gradsfund goes into hibernation over the exam and holiday period. This time of year is a hive of activity for the staff team as we get ready for the EU’s Annual Conference.
Preparing to Teach
The Howies and a few senior staff will spend time preparing to teach their faculties as part of the morning program at AnCon. This year in Faculty Bible Seminars at AnCon, the students will be reading Psalms 103–105 as part of our study on the doctrine of God. Across three slots, the Bible seminars include a combination of staff speaking from the front, encouraging table group-based work, and perhaps some time for personal reflection. Over the exam period, staff will spend a week with Paddy Benn being trained in how to teach these psalms. For some of the Howies, this might be the first time in their life that they teach from the front.
Senior staff who aren’t involved in faculty teaching will be preparing electives for AnCon. This year, there are 15 different electives. Half of the topics are connected to the EU’s 2030 Big Kingdom Vision; the other electives cover topics as diverse as suffering, greed, decision-making, imposter syndrome, and the Trinity.
Preparing to Gather
Staff are preparing for all kinds of gatherings at AnCon and in the lead-up to AnCon. As I write, there are around 600 registrations for AnCon. The AnCon numbers are getting back to where they were before the pandemic. However, registration doesn’t close for a few more weeks yet. At this point of the year, it’s often staff having conversations with students who feel unsure about coming to AnCon for many different reasons – ‘it’s so big’, ‘I won’t know anyone’, ‘it costs so much’, ‘what could I gain from so much time away?’. Our hope and prayer is that more students would register for Annual Conference, so that across the EU and in our faculties we would see hundreds of students transformed by God’s Spirit, through God’s word, as they gather with God’s people.
Besides encouraging students to come to AnCon, there’s also lots of time spent in the coming weeks gathering student leaders to prepare them for their different responsibilities at AnCon.
At AnCon itself, there are gatherings of all kinds of shapes and sizes with different groups of students. There are plenary sessions each night, where the EU will hear not just from Rowan Kemp, but from students, staff workers, and visiting LRLR worker guests about different aspects of the EU’s mission and vision. But there are also smaller gatherings for students thinking about vocational ministry in the future, honours students thinking about postgraduate study, and students who have been invited by a friend to spend a week investigating who Jesus is.
A lot of the conference is spent gathering in faculty groups. There, students will hear from the Bible (the aforementioned Bible seminars), spend time reflecting, praying, singing, hearing about God’s global church, and having fun. Staff play a pivotal role in shaping and leading these moments. In a conference as big as AnCon, these small faculty-based gatherings provide students with a space to not just know other students in their faculty, but to be known as well. That was certainly my experience as a student. I didn’t know many people when I arrived at Sydney University, so it was easy to feel anonymous on campus. It was after my first EU AnCon that I felt known and seen on campus.
Of course, staff would love to gather with our supporters at AnCon. Each year, Wednesday night is thrown open to the supporters of the EU Graduates Fund for Supporters Night. It’s accessible online. But for those who brave the trek up the mountains, it’s tangible to witness and experience the ministry on campus, which, under God, is enabled by the prayer and generosity of our supporters.
Preparing to Launch
Some of the preparations the staff team are working on now are not about AnCon, but ministry in Semester 2. Except that much of this ministry is launched at Annual Conference. From small groups, to walk-up teams, and the EU’s Semester 2 evangelistic mission, AnCon provides the optimal platform to launch the EU into another semester of ministry together. Much of our work now is not only for AnCon, but for what comes after it.
And that is the way it should be for AnCon. The EU’s Annual Conference is not an end in itself. We pray that God would use all the training and teaching at AnCon this year to help students trust in Jesus and follow him for all the days God grants them.
