What we believe

B-Less takes its name and its ethos from the call of Abraham to be a blessing to the nations in Genesis 12. In a world shouting at us always to be more, God calls us to be less and find in that step away from self-reliance and towards reliance on him, the germ of the blessing he intends for us and for the world.

Vision

In Genesis 12, the story of the call of Abraham is presented in sharp contrast to the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 which epitomises the degeneration of God’s world after the fall. The people of Babel want to make it back to heaven on their own terms. They want strength in numbers, they want to make a name for themselves. But God knows that success in this enterprise will mean spiritual suicide.

Doesn’t this sound a lot like a modern university?

Contrast Abraham. In the Abraham project, God takes the initiative. Abraham is sent out from his familiar place and relationships depending on God alone. Abraham is told to be less – and, in being less, that he will be a blessing and that God will give him a great name. That is the vision that animates B-Less.

Graduate students have much to offer when they’re sent out from the security of their peer group to serve struggling undergrads. Graduate students have much to offer when they sidestep the constant barrage of messages about their future influence and earnings potential and devote themselves to serving behind the scenes to make undergraduate ministries succeed. Graduate students have much to offer when they leave the question of their own blessings to God and concentrate on blessing others.

Doctrine, Mission, Ethos

B-less works in close partnership with the ministries of the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF), and joyfully embraces both the UCCF doctrinal basis and its associated statements of mission and ethos describing our shared sense of what we do and how to do it as evangelical Christians in the university context.