If you were invited to a “Jesus meditation”, you might associate it more with Eastern new-age spirituality than with Evangelical Christianity. But Andrew, a third-year Arts student with the EU, having been inspired by a group of Christians he met in India, has brought this innovative new ministry idea to Sydney University.

A group of people meet together weekly on a lawn on campus; Andrew leads them in a directed meditation where they put out of their minds the distractions of the day, and the concerns of the world. From that place of quietness and stillness, Andrew reads aloud a short passage from the Bible three or four times, with space in between each reading for silent reflection. Then the space is opened for people to share their reflections on the passage.

While aspects of it may look like Eastern mysticism, the essence of it is thoroughly Christian. And yet what is essentially a Bible study has been rethought and packaged in such a way as to be a comfortable, appealing way of drawing people who are interested in new-age spirituality, and introducing them to the truth in the person of Jesus.

Being a very new initiative in the EU, the prayer meditations have had a limited chance to produce fruit, evangelistically speaking. But, while attendees have been mostly EU students, Andrew is happy that there have been a couple of newer or more nominal Christians coming and spending time in the word of God. Andrew also finds for himself that a Jesus meditation, as opposed to a traditional, intellectually rigorous EU-style Bible study, is a welcome break from the stresses of uni life.

Please pray that in the transient nature of university ministry, prayer meditations would find a way to continue into 2015 as Andrew graduates.