connecting

CMF exists to unite Christian doctors and students. It connects us to other Christian students in medical school, to local doctors, to medics nationally and internationally.

Locally, you can meet up one-to-one for Bible study and prayer, maybe with an older student or junior doctor, to help you both to grow in your application of God's Word to your life and work as a Christian medic. You can also link up with a Christian doctor to advise and support you in your chosen career. And when you qualify and work in different hospitals or practices, CMF can connect you with other local doctors.

You can meet as a group of medical students in your university for mutual encouragement, to pray for each other and your friends, to learn together how to integrate your faith with your medicine and to tell others about Jesus. Students can meet with local doctors for social and other events. Doctors can meet with other Christian healthcare professionals in their places of work for the same things.

You can meet regionally at day conferences such as Confident Christianity, or nationally at the annual student conference or at summer school.

You can join other student leaders on the National Student Committee, helping shape CMF's student ministry in the UK and Ireland, and supporting medical school reps in your region. As doctors, you can join with others in many areas of CMF's work; in ethics, public policy, mission, and so on. And you can network with others as you face particular issues in your speciality.

You can meet with students from other countries on summer teams to Eastern Europe or Central Asia, or further afield through ICMDA. You can connect with other Christian doctors and students on your elective, wherever you go.

We can connect virtually with medics throughout the world, through our Facebook page and Twitter. Many medical school groups have their own Facebook pages too. CMF sends monthly e-news updates to members, as well as a hard-copy newsletter three times a year. Our website and blog are also regularly updated with news of what's going on.

It's through all these connections that we can help support and equip each other more effectively, and that we can stand together for Christ. In a world that rejects Christ and Christian values, it becomes more important for Christian medics to unite publicly for the promotion of those values and the proclamation of the gospel.

And as we face increasing pressure to compromise our faith, it becomes more important for us to be part of a fellowship that can support us when we need help.

learning

CMF exists to equip Christian doctors and students. We can do this as we connect and learn with one another, one-to-one or in meetings, courses and conferences. We can do this through our publications and online materials.

In a typical year's programme, local groups can cover many specifically Christian and medical topics that churches and CUs don't. CMF can help provide speakers for local events.

Confident Christianity, Answering other Faiths and Saline Solution are day conferences to help us to share our faith more effectively. Much of the material for these courses is also available online. CMF also provides media training days.

National and regional conferences offer Bible teaching and seminars applied to many aspects of life as a Christian medical student or doctor. Summer school provides in-depth, small-group teaching on a range of issues. We run student leader training events at UCCF's Forum and at other day conferences.

Of our publications, Nucleus is our student magazine and Triple Helix is sent to all members. CMF Files are a series of ethical papers. These are all published three times a year. Copies are also sent internationally to developing world countries.

We produce books, including John Wyatt's Matters of Life and Death (Christian medical ethics), and Bernard Palmer's Cure for Life (an introduction to Jesus). These books are also translated and distributed especially to the former Soviet Union.

The website and blog are an online source of articles and publications, and information about CMF's work and events. Multimedia downloads are available from conferences.

CMF offers resources and training for evangelism, ethics, electives and many other topics to equip medical students for more effective service for Christ.

supporting

CMF exists to unite and equip Christian doctors and students...so that we can more effectively serve Christ and his kingdom! And CMF provides many opportunities to serve. Being a member of CMF is not just about who we can meet or what we can learn. It's about being part of the team, serving Christ in medicine.

Simply by being a member, you add strength to our voice as we speak out in the public square. By your subscriptions and gifts you help pay for the work of CMF, for our aims to be fulfilled in the UK and elsewhere. But more importantly, by being kept informed of what's happening, you are better able to pray for that work. And as a member you will be better equipped to do that work.

Opportunities for students to serve include: one-to-one pastoral care and discipleship; evangelism and practical service to your friends and community; encouraging your church to support our work in prayer; speaking at meetings; leadership in your local group; membership of the National Student Committee; writing articles for Nucleus or the website; an elective in the developing world; summer teams to help support medical student camps in Eastern Europe or Central Asia; keeping in touch with and praying for those medical students throughout the year; being a part-time intern with CMF if you intercalate; speaking out for Christian values in the student union or BMA.

These are just some of many ways for students to help CMF fulfil its aims of discipleship, evangelism and mission. And when you graduate, there will be more and different ways to serve too - not least, in helping support the student work in your nearest medical school! But we're not doing this just to help CMF; we're serving Christ in medicine. We're not just medics, who happen to be Christians. We're not just Christians, who happen to be medics. We're Christian medics, and we seek to serve Christ as we live and speak for him in medicine. And it's through CMF that we can most effectively be united and equipped for this purpose.

How to join

Did you know that CMF membership subs for students have been reduced to just SIX POUNDS per year? That's 50 pence a month, or for the very mathematically minded 1.64 pence per day! It's much easier for you and for us if you pay subscriptions by direct debit - you don't have to remember to pay, and we don't have to remind you each year. If you sign up this way, we'll give you a FREE six months membership as a thank you.

Student membership is open to all medical students studying in the UK or Ireland who are in agreement with the membership declaration, which states:

• I wish to join the Christian Medical Fellowship
• I am in sympathy with the aims of the Christian Medical Fellowship
• I declare my faith in God the Father, in God the Son - the Lord Jesus Christ who is my Saviour - and in God the Holy Spirit
• I accept the Bible as the supreme authority in matters of faith and conduct

If you're reading Nucleusem> and aren't yet a member but could be, why not join today? Members get a TEN POUNDS discount on National Student Conference, so why not encourage any friends coming to conference who are not members to sign up as they book? You only need to do one piece of maths to see that it makes sense!