About Us

We are a mission team here in Portsmouth University wanting to reach out to those students around us and tell them about the difference that Jesus can have in their lives. We are an interdenominational team welcoming everyone, whatever your church background. What unites us together are our common beliefs that God sent His son Jesus Christ to earth, to be crucified and raised to life and that by believing in Jesus and His resurrection we may have eternal life, not through our own works but because of God's grace alone. We come together around the message of the Gospel to actively engage in mission on campus and to mature in the Christian faith by regularly meeting together to pray, worship and to study God's word. We seek to encourage one another, and care for each other as God's children, to grow to become more like Jesus.

The CU aims not to be a substitute for a church but instead a missionary arm of it and encourage all of the members to get stuck into their local church.

Vision

Our vision for this year is simply of Jesus - that He may be at the centre of everything we do!
Joyfully
Encouraging
Students to
Unite in
Spreading the gospel

The Doctrinal Basis ("Dejargonified")

This version has a bit more explanation, and you may find it easier to understand:
1. There is one God, but there are three distinct people who make up the one God: the Father, the Son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit. No one fully understands how three people can be one person, but it's true.

2. God is the King and rules over everything. He created everything; He reveals everything that is revealed; He's the only one who can restore our relationship with Himself; He will decide whether we've lived up to His standards.

3. The Bible, as originally written down, was inspired by God. As such it's God's message to us: His words, and it's infallible. It is the supreme authority in all matters of belief and behaviour.

4. Since Adam and Eve rejected God's rule over their lives, the whole of humankind is in a state of rebellion against God, not living up to His standards, and is guilty, so that everyone deserves God's anger, condemnation and punishment.

5. The Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son born on Earth, is fully God; He was born miraculously (his mother was a virgin at the time); He's fully human, but He's perfect and has always lived up to God's standard; He died on the cross, was physically brought back from death and is now the King, ruling over heaven and earth.

6. Human beings who have rebelled against God and don't live up to His standards are bought back (repossessed, freed) from the guilt, penalty and control of sin (godlessness, hostility towards God) only through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. He was a substitute for them, representing them to God and being punished instead of them. The death of Jesus was a one-off event, and it applies to all people for all time. Nothing more is needed. Jesus is the only mediator (go-between, representative) between them and God.

7. We need to believe everything about Christ: who He is, what He said and what He did, and we need to trust Him. Those who do are forgiven for their rebellion against God and all the times they haven't lived up to His standards. They are seen as perfect by God and reconciled with Him only because He sees Jesus' perfection when He looks at them; this is God's act of undeserved mercy, received only by those who trust Jesus, accept the forgiveness He offers us and give Him control of their lives. They recognise that they can't be good enough for God by themselves.

8. We can only recognise the problem of our rebellion against God and find the solution to it if the Holy Spirit shows us. It is the Holy Spirit who shows us our faults, enables us to turn towards God and recognise who He is, and enables us to believe everything about Jesus Christ and to trust Him.

9. The Holy Spirit lives in all those He has reintroduced to God. He makes them more like Jesus in character and behaviour and gives them the power to represent Jesus in the world and tell the world about Him.

10. There is only one church. It's set apart as belonging to God and it's universal. It is referred to in the Bible as the Body of Christ, ie it is living, it functions as a body would, and Christ is the head of it. All true believers belong to it.

11. The Lord Jesus Christ will return to the world in person to measure everyone against God's standards, to condemn and punish those who haven't had their relationship with God restored (God has given Him the authority to do this), and to take the believers (those who have had their relationship with God restored) to be in heaven with Him forever.