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 Christian Students Uniting (CSU) mission worker, Adrian White, is in his fifth year studying engineering at the Univiersity of Technology, Sydney. He works closely with Shaun Gessler, the student president of CSU at Sydney University.
Christian Students Uniting (CSU) has groups at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS); the University of Sydney; and the University of New South Wales. Though he was raised in the Uniting Church, Adrian wasn’t intending to join a university Christian community when he began his degree. “I was at an orientation camp in my first year and all the clubs and societies had their stalls up,” says Adrian. “I was looking for a hockey club and saw the CSU stall. The group was so welcoming it was easy to become a part of them. It offered a place to be Christian openly and easily within the university. “Through participation in Bible studies and learning about how we bring our Christianity into the world and how it is relevant in the world, we see that being a Christian is part of being in the world and being aware of what’s going on. “We’ve been able to develop relationships with other groups in a multi-faith context — Islamic and Buddhist groups — and we’re able to break free of the Christian group on campus stereotype because of our actions in social justice. “I met Shaun at Ultimo Uniting and I’m now the mission worker for the two universities. “Shaun is a very genuine person. He’s always happy to welcome people. He’s easy to talk to and approachable so it’s easy to work with him.  “Our group is very, very close and we’re always aware of where our members are and how they’re going. Maintaining that close contact is really important to us.”
Shaun became involved with the group after seeing a CSU sign advertising Bible study during the first year of his Liberal Studies degree. “I thought I might go along and see what they were about. It was a small group and they gave people an opportunity to talk about their faith on a real personal level in an environment where it wasn’t confronting. I’d seen other groups giving out leaflets or trying to convert people but CSU seemed different. “What I found in CSU was a university approach to Bible study, so that it wouldn’t be like a Sunday school approach. We use hermeneutical principals and we look at the text critically. Personally I wanted to back up my faith not just with my heart but also with my head. I thought it was important to look at the Bible with a more scholarly approach. “What we do around campus defines who we are. For example, last year during the APEX summit, we put up a prayer wall where people could write their thoughts about what’s going on around the world. Radical discipleship is a term we talk about a lot in our group. We talk about what it means to be a Christian. “Adrian is dedicated. He puts in a lot of work behind the scenes that people don’t see in terms of putting out newsletters and liaising with people. He’s quite modest. “It’s a strong association of faith. Adrian and I look at things we can talk about in our Bible studies. We’re participating in the Vision Generation. We had someone from World Vision come a few weeks ago with Tim Costello talking about the need for fair trade coffee and to support that and we’ve decided to get on board with that so we’ll conduct Bible studies about fair trade and how that relates to Christian ideas. That’s the kind of thing Adrian and I look into. “When I came here I didn’t know many people. We’re a close-knit community. After each Bible study we’ll go back to the chaplaincy, have cups of tea, chat and just hang out.”
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