You've asked for them! Here are all the interviews from Mobilise 2012. Be inspired to go to the nations, to get church planting, to get stuck into leadership and most importantly if you'd prefer a swan's head on a human body or a human head on a swan's body?

A one-stop page for all your downloads, links and connections from Mobilise 2012.

Audio & Video Downloads

All the main sessions are now available for streaming and download - now including video!.

Handout from PJ Smyth’s final session is available here.

Seminars will be available shortly.
Follow our twitter or facebook pages to get notified when they are here!

Links to Apostolic Spheres

Part of the mission of Mobilise is to link the call God has placed on your life with the right people that can enable that call to come to fruition. Here are some links from the Thursday prayer night that might help with linking you to people that will help with that.  These links will also be available shortly.

Mike Betts / Relational Mission

for churches and planting in the UK, Europe and Canada. Including Lille plant.

Web: http://www.relationalmission.com
Twitter: @RMchurches
Facebook: http://facebook.com/RMchurches
Email: admin@relationalmission.com

Mike Betts: @mikebetts62

Guy Miller

for churches and planting in the UK, Spain, Portugal and India.

Web: http://guymillernews.blogspot.co.uk/
Email: office@gamnfi.org

South and West UK Churches: http://www.newfrontiers-sandw.org/
Westpoint: http://www.togetheratwestpoint.org.uk/

David Devenish

David works into the Russian speaking world and is also reaching primarily unreached peoples in the 10/40 window

Email: ddoffice@swissmail.org

Jeremy Simpkins

for churches and planting in the north of the UK, Ireland and Canada.

Email: north@newfrontierstogether.org

The North Event (Together at North):
Web: http://www.northevent.org
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/northevent
Twitter: @northevent

Jeremy Simpkins: @JPSimpkins

David Holden

for churches in London and France.

Twitter: @DavidEHolden
Email: office@newcommunitychurch.org.uk

Do you believe that you can change the world? Teenagers are often criticised for having lots of idealism but not much focus, while those in their 30s and 40s tend to have plenty of focus and not much idealism. But people in their 20s, well, they’re in the perfect place, balancing a lingering idealism with an increasing sense of focus.

This means that people in their 20s – people like you – are key to social change.

You are at a time of life when people tend to set life goals and start working energetically towards them. This is where Mobilise comes in. What a great opportunity this year’s conference is to get fired up about discipleship, mission, church-planting and changing our nation.

Whatever you feel God is calling you to now or in the future, it is crucial to remember that a key ingredient in a radical discipleship lifestyle is a commitment to social justice and caring for the poor.

I’m not just talking about giving a little to church offerings and praying occasionally for those helping the poor in your neighbourhood. That’s all good, but there is much more that can be done.

Every young adult needs a bit of a vision to change society by getting stuck in with the tough issues. That’s what radical New Testament churches should be doing all over the country. You are probably ideally placed to make a contribution – what’s it going to be?

Making a difference at Mobilise - a foodbank offering

The Newfrontiers Jubilee+ team has been asked to join in this year at Mobilise by helping to promote social action and social justice at the event. So we’ll be there on the Wednesday, when we’ll be taking a huge collection of food which you (yes, you!) are going to bring. And we are going to give it all away to people in need through a food bank at Kirby, near Liverpool. We are also going to be around in the Global Zone on the Wednesday so look out for us there – come and talk to us about why Christians must care for the poor and how you can get involved.

In the meantime, check out what we are doing at www.jubilee-plus.org, on my blog www.martincharlesworth.org or follow @JubileePlus on Twitter.

I find it so easy to think that my friends don’t want anything to do with Jesus – and the statistics seem to back that up.

In the last 20 years churches in the UK have seen a 90% free-fall drop in attendance of under twenties. This has left 59% of churches with no attendees aged 15-19 at all. I don’t need to ask them what they think about God, Jesus and church – they’ve voted with their feet.
 
One of these friends of mine, Phil – more suited to getting into fights on Saturday night than church on Sunday morning – in the middle of watching a typically depressing England game, began to tell the room how he wished his life was different. “I wish that I’d never slept with anyone else so I could say to my girlfriend that she was the only one I had been with. I wish that I had a better relationship with my dad. I wish that I hadn’t done the things I’ve done so God would accept me.”
 
Friends like Phil are desperate to be rescued, the problem is that they simply wouldn’t recognise the rescue boat when it arrived. Having not grown up in church or in a religious society, they have no initial frame of reference for the gospel. This is the heart of Mobilise 2012 – The Rescue: that we would refocus our gaze onto Jesus, for only he can rescue us; and that our worship of him would launch a thousand rescue missions into our nation.
 
The Speakers
 
PJ Smyth, Tom Shaw, Andrew Wilson, Joel Virgo, Mike Betts, Adrian Holloway and Stef Liston.
 
The Venue
 
Pontins Holiday Camp, Prestatyn. We’re excited to be all on one site for our main celebrations, seminars and accommodation! There’s lots of extra activities on site including a swimming pool, football and tennis courts, high ropes and a fabulous beach just over the road.
 
Accommodation
 
We’ve made getting accommodation really easy for you this year as we’re all on one site! You can choose from 4 or 6 person self-catering chalets in Popular or Classic style.
 
All-in-one price from just £110
 
We’ve scoured the country to find the best venue and accommodation all at an amazing price. Popular chalets will cost students just £110 for your ticket and chalet from Tuesday to Friday. For regular delegates it will cost just £125.

It’s easy to book, just click here

God loves enthusiasm, loves it. The excitement of discovering a pearl of great price and selling all we have to buy it is one of the stories Jesus told to illustrate the kind of desire God looks for in His people. Students are some of the most enthusiastic people I know, confident that everything’s possible and refusing to believe that anything could ever go wrong – anyone who thinks anything else is a miserable defeatist, and probably old.

The Bible offers a corrective to this perspective. Of course there’s no book more faith-stimulating, more confident in the power of God and the accomplishment of His purposes than His Word – but what that looks like may surprise those who expect every good thing to happen right now. Abraham and Sarah are promised a son when they are pensioners, then have to wait 25 years for the promise to be fulfilled. Acts is full of amazing demonstrations of God’s power – over a 30-year period. And there are plenty of persecutions in that time too.

This is important: if you’re not expecting obstacles and challenges, you will be floored by them when they come. If you expect every moment of your life to be thrilling, you’ll quit on important things at the wrong time. Terms will drag, friends will resist the gospel, colleagues will sin – the world is in a state.

Learn from the lives of heroes of faith, Jesus above all. See the time gaps between the chapters: the waiting, the frustrations – God in charge over them too. We don’t give up in the face of opposition, none of those heroes did. We must be prepared to stay the course: people can be healed, set free, and saved in a moment, but they are brought into a lifetime’s discipleship. We’re called to change campuses, workplaces and communities, and to build mighty churches – this will take a generation at least. Enthusiasm won’t be enough.

One of the reasons for this is that God wants to do things in you as well as through you. He loves your enthusiasm but He wants you to have more than a bit of excitement. Charles Spurgeon, a preacher and church leader for 40 years, explains:

Faith untried may be true faith, but it is sure to be little faith, and it is likely to remain dwarfish so long as it is without trials… Tried faith brings experience. You could not have believed your own weakness had you not been compelled to pass through the rivers; and you would never have known God’s strength had you not been supported amid the water-floods. Faith increases in solidity, assurance, and intensity, the more it is exercised with tribulation. Faith is precious, and its trials are precious too.

God loves enthusiasm; He loves tried and tested faith even more.

We've got hundred's of reasons for you to book into Mobilise 2012. Here, Mobilise host Tom Shaw shares just one big one.

Mobilise 2012 - The Rescue Essentials

Everything you need to book into Mobilise 2012

Event info

Accommodation info

How to book

All my life I've been a Christian. While I had my faults and life was by no means perfect, I stayed on the straight and narrow, did well in GCSE's, A levels, and got accepted into the University of Portsmouth to study Business Studies at 18. Things were good.

Except that I never had a girlfriend. As a result, I never had to consider seriously my standing on sex before marriage prior to university. Sex just wasn't an option for me. I could tell you what youth group had taught me, but I had yet to live it.

Amazingly this changed when I went to university! In a miraculous move of God, I managed to find myself a good looking, godly woman who wanted to date me! This was good. And for the first time in my life I had to practically think about where I stood on sex before marriage. On living together before marriage. On having your girlfriend stay over in your room. And all of a sudden, I found that I didn’t believe the youth group arguments.

So I had my girlfriend stay over in my room. Many times.

Somehow, we didn’t have sex - she was a Christian too, and a better one than me - but we didn’t see the harm in sharing a room, and we were even planning to live together in a house share in our second year. Fortunately for us, we had some good friends.

A couple in the church who were, and still are, very dear to us challenged us on our choices in this area.

They pointed out that actually the standard Jesus calls us too isn’t just to live God’s way of no sex before marriage and then try and get as close as you can to that guidance without breaking it by having sleep overs, but to flee from sin. In fact, in this area the Bible tells us to not even give the appearance of sin! While we weren’t sleeping together, it certainly looked like we did. And this was a bad thing. God didn’t approve.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t hugely like the challenge.

Obviously we were living this way because it was what we wanted, but the problem was that it wasn’t what God wanted. So we prayed about it. Studied the Bible. Talked openly about the issue of sex and where we stood on the issue as a couple. And while I didn’t like the fact that we would have to have a curfew and had to be seen to be doing the right thing, we couldn’t ignore what God’s standard was and we both made the decision to rise to his challenge.

So our relationship changed.

All of a sudden we had to do things other than make out with the door closed and have sleep overs. We had to go out more, and talk more, and maybe even pray together. And for the first time in my life I could see why we are called to not have sex before marriage. It’s not to spoil our fun, but to deepen our relationships. To build a foundation on which a marriage can rise up.

From those days I remember walking Natalie home at the end of a date, and leaving on the doorstep. I remember walking on my own back to my place and realising that by me honouring the decision we’d made to live God’s way and not even giving the appearance of having sex I was demonstrating my growing love for this woman and for my God. And that was priceless.

My only regret with our pre-marital relationship is that we had those first months, and I praise God for the people that encouraged us not to continue living that way before we got married. When we finally did get married I found that we had in fact made the right decision. Our relationship and commitment to one another was based on a deep friendship and respect. And that was the best possible foundation to have before we saw each other naked.

If you’re going through a similar situation, why not follow Owen’s example of chatting it through with each other, looking at what God has to say and seeking out your leaders’ advice.  You never know, something better might be on offer.

If you’re a fresher or new into a relationship and wondering how to work this out.  Why not make friends with a Christian of the same gender as you in the first few weeks of term and ask if you can sleep on their floor when your girlfriend or boyfriend comes to visit.  You can then offer your hall room or digs to your partner and demonstrate your love louder than any words or gifts - it also makes an incredible witness too.

In America most uni students get their food provided for them. This fast food is of such poor quality that freshers often gain quite a bit of weight coining a phrase the 'Freshman 15' - for when someone gains up to 15 pounds in weight in their first year at uni. Recently Jeff Brewer, an Acts 29 pastor in America, gave an alternative 'Freshman 15' on The Gospel Coalition website that is really worth checking out.

In it, Jeff brings 4 missional and 11 discipleship ways that freshers (or second or third years for that matter) can seek to glorify God as they head of to uni in the next month.  Check out the full article here, but some of the missional highlights include:

5. Take advantage of the unique opportunity to get to know a wide variety of people from different backgrounds who have all been sovereignly put in the same dorm. Ask people to tell you their story.  Sit, listen, and ask follow-up questions.

6. Seek to radically love others as Christ did. Avoid gossips and gossiping. It’s gross. Loving like Christ isn’t.

9. Remember that others are going through the same changes and new experiences. Look for opportunities to speak truth about the gospel to people who want a fresh start in college. Show them the hope in the gospel and forgiveness available to them.

14. Make a prayer list and pray for the people on it. Start with your roommate and the guys down the hall who don’t give a rip about Christ.

Here are some of the discipleship highlights:

1. There is no greater way you can spend your time, energy, and effort than pursuing Christ with all your heart. Education matters. That’s why you’re going to college. But pursuing Christ matters more.

2. Join a church. Find one that preaches the Word, loves worshiping God as a body, and seeks to make Christ known. Once you find it, join it and start building relationships. [I would add here one that values the work of the Holy Spirit too.  You can do this easily through Uni Connect].

8. Look for opportunities to serve. Serve broadly, serve lovingly, serve faithfully, and serve diligently. Look for where there is a need and dive in. [The obvious place to serve is in your church, but look for opportunities to serve your friends, lecturers and neighbours too].

11. Work hard. Fight against laziness by remembering you are seeking to please Christ, not your professor (or mom or dad).

12. When you find someone you are interested in dating, make sure that their one aim in life is the same as yours (see #1 above).

15. Pursue God joyfully. Is there anything greater than knowing Christ? Make the joy of pursuing Christ a hallmark of your life.

Would you agree with these?
Would you add anything else?

If you’re heading off to uni this Autumn it’s also worth downloading ‘How to thrive at uni’ - a seminar given at Newday for those heading to uni.

Its that time of year again when 18 year old's across the country wait impatiently for their A-level results.

It feels like this moment could define the rest of your life. You feel like some bad results will come as a crushing blow to your future that you will never recover from. The possibilities of University life look tantalizing and petrifying all at the same time.

Let me tell you what happened to me on A-level day in 1995 (I don’t look it but I am THAT old).

I failed.

I failed badly. I got a “D” a “U” and a “N”. You ever hear of anyone else who got “N”? Me neither. Crushing failure.

I discovered that you cannot start a punk band in your last year of A-levels, develop a debilitating passion for beer, perfect the art of non-attendance AND never ever hand in any work and still expect to go to University.

I remember opening the letter and looking at the “grades” I’d got and realizing I had been a little bit stupid/immature/lazy. That feeling is burned into my memory.

I took two years out. Year 1 was volunteering for a church as youth worker and year 2 was as a volunteer in a homeless hostel.

My time volunteering in the homeless hostel helped me realize how ridiculously privileged I was and how easy my life had been up until that point. I applied to University as a mature student and got in by the skin of my teeth. Three years later I got a 2:1 in a degree that I worked hard for.

The moral of the story? Well, firstly don’t start a punk band two months before your exams start, but perhaps more importantly don’t worry about failure. Failure just means you need to learn a few lessons before you try again.

This story was first posted on Christ Church Manchester’s blog.

Continuing our series of stories from freshers, Emily shares about what it can be like when you don't fit the student norm and you end up worrying if you might not fit in at all.

When I first came to the University of the Creative Arts I was pretty exited about being a Christian and having the chance to meet new people.  I wanted to show them that Christianity isn’t weird, we don’t have stern faces and that we’re not all about rules. I did have a few worries though.

I knew a lot of students would go out to clubs and drinking. I had never been to a club as I have epilepsy and although I haven’t had a seizure for about 10 years I didn’t want to risk the strobes. I’m not a big fan of alcohol either, I’d much prefer a massive glass of apple juice on the beach! However I didn’t want to exclude myself or be seen as boring! As I am quite a confident person and am happy to just be who I am, I left those worries behind. I was excited about going to Uni!

Freshers week was the week that I moved into halls. I used that week to get to know the people around and get used to living by myself. People did go out clubbing a lot, but I enjoyed getting to know everyone in cozy environments like the pub and each others’ flats. My new friends started to recognize I was a Christian when they asked me what I was up to on Sunday evenings. I didn’t hide the fact I was a Christian but I wanted the conversation to just come up naturally, which it did. We started to talk a bit deeper about things, which I loved!

I was so exited about starting a new church. A couple of people from my home church had already come to uni ahead of me and joined a church when they had come to uni and they loved it. Everyone was so friendly and I just felt so welcome. And there were so many more people to meet! Lush!

I feel like this year has been a real step in my relationship with Jesus and I have loved every minute!

Catch up on Dan’s story too.