Canvas | Issue 99: Walking With Jesus
Students in small group studies at Summit 2025.
How do you summarise a TSCF Summit Conference?
Is it in songs sung or biscuits consumed? Do you summarise it by how late students stayed up playing games or how many dances were danced during the Ceilidh? Do you spend time rehashing every minute of the large-group sessions, or do you ask students what stood out to them the most?
It is easy to forget, amongst the details, that the things that happen during Summit 2025 are eternal.
While the staff spend months before Summit 2025 planning registration, content, and how to transport equipment halfway across the country, it means absolutely nothing if Jesus is not at the centre. Therefore, it is the people who have walked with and met Jesus that are the gleaming gems of Summit.
It was people like Animoa Goold who brought honest stories from the Waikato – stories of tangata whenua responding to the gospel of Jesus and working out their faith, even in the midst of war and displacement.
It was those like Fern, Dominic, Anna, and Wei who were brave enough to look back at their lives before walking with Jesus and tell their peers that they have been changed, shaped, and transformed by knowing Jesus. Students who boldly shared the challenges of doubt and resistance they face amongst their families and peers.
For some who have walked with Jesus for decades, like Brydon, Robyn, and Annette, there are trials in life that are sometimes too deep for words. Hearing the stories of those who have been disappointed, grieved, and found hope in how God can use painful situations for good brings relief to students in similar situations.
Likewise, it was people like Darryl Ward who urged us to look at Jesus through the book of Mark to see Him for who He is – the God of the seen and the unseen. We were each challenged to consider whether we believe this about Jesus. Do we “frown” at Jesus, thinking Him a bit of a “mad man,” are we interested in Jesus but not committed to what He might call us to, or might we recognise our ultimate need for Him and walk with Him, step by step, as He leads us eternally?
But even when we recognise our need, what does it mean for our lives? How do we have faith that endures hardship and defies the pull of this life to be comfortable?
We stay connected.
Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, his it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5 ESV)
We stay connected to the one who nourishes us with His Word and Spirit.
We are not alone – a single branch waving solitary in the breeze, but we are many branches, connected to the same vine. Therefore, we stay connected to each other in fellowship as the many branches of the vine that brings abundant life.
And this is something that is so valuable and so intrinsic to Summit. It is why we do not pre-record the large-group sessions at Summit and sit behind our computers, secluded and cut off from those who would encourage us to stay connected to the vine.
It is why Lizandro and Wendy, staff members from TSCF’s sister movement in Ecuador, called CECE (Comunidad de Estudiantes Cristianos del Ecuador), braved the chilly New Zealand winter (and 24 hours of air travel) to come and share their stories of the gospel spreading in Ecuador. Lizandro and Wendy work alongside students who fear that when they leave the house to attend university, they may never return. These students do not bring their laptops or valuables to school as they are likely to be mugged or held at gunpoint on their way to class.
It was with somberness that Lizandro told us that over 100 young people had been killed in his city in the last year due to local violence and fighting between the mafias. But when he crosses the street, the violence seems to stop for a moment because they know Lizandro is a man of peace. In their respective communities, Lizandro and Wendy are a courageous representation of the hope of the gospel, ministering to those who need it amid deep wounds and fears.
These were brothers and sisters suffering for the sake of the gospel, bringing the joy of Christ to those on the other side of the world. It was a great gift to see their faithfulness and trust in what the Lord is doing amongst their friends and families.
Lastly, it is because of the students, individually and collectively, that we meet in fellowship. It is when they see others struggling alongside them, hoping in the same gospel as them, discovering Jesus for the first time, just like them, that they catch a glimpse of the beauty of Jesus. It is in small groups discussing the everyday walk of faith or the quietness of sitting in silence with a newfound friend who’s hurting. It is in the spontaneous verses of “Amazing Grace” that bubble up while around the campfire.
Why does this reveal a glimpse of the beauty of the God we worship? Because the God we worship is a God of relationship, of love and unending community and when we see this inour communities, we experience something of Him.
This is why the things that happen at Summit are eternal.
So, yes, we might have eaten 1000+ biscuits at afternoon tea, stayed up until 3 AM, and danced our hearts out at the Ceilidh, but that is dim compared to the fact that the gospel will be carried forth by people at Summit 2025 into eternity.
