Matt Lillicrap has been appointed as the new head of the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF).
UCCF describe Matt as “passionate about equipping and supporting Christian Union students”.
Previously, Lillicrap was the pastor of Hope Community Church, Cambridge, where he and his wife Anika live with their six children.
Raised in Kent, Lillicrap came to faith as a teenager. After studying medicine in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, he worked as a doctor in hospitals across North East England. He served with the Christian Medical Fellowship in student ministry and was part of a church-planting team in Gateshead.
He has led ministry across Cambridge, for students at Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin Universities in an earlier role as Associate Pastor at Eden Baptist Church.
Speaking on his appointment, Matt said:
“Sometime in the last century a student group in North-East England organised a series of events to share what they believed and felt about Jesus. A young geography student found herself at one, wondering why she’d come. The speaker she remembers as boring, but the Jesus he talked about was utterly spell-binding. She decided there and then to follow this Jesus.That’s one of the most exciting stories you could hope to hear, and one echoed in so many lives. It’s also the story of my mum.
“She was one of the first people to share Jesus with me. In some ways my own faith is a legacy of those 1970s Christian Union events.
“Today my own children aren’t very far off university, and that legacy continues. I am deeply excited by the faithful ministry of UCCF, supporting students reaching students with the good news of Jesus, and can’t quite believe I will get to work alongside the many staff and students labouring in this particular harvest field.”
Simon Day, Chair of Trustees for UCCF, said:
“We are especially grateful for the Lord's provision of Matt, and the humble character and pastoral skills He has given him to take on this role leading the Fellowship. Please join with us in praying for Matt: that he would continue to grow in personal devotion to the Lord Jesus, and knowledge of how to please Him, as he steps into these responsibilities in the coming months."