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Students and the Local Church
by Geoffrey Thomas
[taken from The Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 169, October 1977]
'If anything is striking about student attitudes, it is not the espousal of new beliefs, of eastern mysticism or whatever, but the sheer quantity of unbelief, of scepticism . . . for the great majority of students who do not retain conventional values and faiths, there is no sense of optimism at having gained new values or a regenerated personal authenticity. There is instead an overwhelming sense of having nothing, of complete scepticism. Emotional experiences often destroy faith in relationships, intellectual questioning destroys rational structures. To learn to question is rarely to discover adequate answers. In the new cult religions there is at least the optimism that if all the panoply of social structures, bourgeois and Protestant ethics, is stripped away, then there is something real, "natural" and "authentic" left at the centre. But for most there is simply the sense that if you keep peeling the onion there is nothing to be found at the centre . . .'.
This personal view of the student mentality, expressed by Mark Goldie, a Cambridge research student, reflects with considerable accuracy the mores which confronts the local evangelical church in a university town. It is a situation of great opportunity for ministry and evangelism. The relationship of the student and the local church is often discussed. [cf. Banner of Truth No. 61 'Christian Students and the Local Church' by Paul Helm.] What may each rightly expect from the other?
WHAT CHRISTIAN STUDENTS MAY EXPECT FROM THE LOCAL CHURCH
That it is seeking with all its strength to be a true gospel church; a visible witnessing community of peace and love; a worshipping assembly led by men so authorised by God and gifted by his Spirit, who preach his Word, administer his ordinances and maintain discipline. The exposition of Scripture, week by week, should give the whole moral and doctrinal framework for the student's fife. The members of the congregation express the whole range of fellowship and so exercise a necessary ministry which the irregular fellowship of similar age and intelligence student Christian groups can never provide.
This is the chief calling of the local church as it seeks to minister to students, or for that matter to any group of individuals. But are there special ways in which the church may minister to this fraternity? I suggest the following :
1. That the Word of God be regularly applied to the student situation. There are special needs and temptations which today's students face. There are halls of residence completely integrated, with men and women living in alternate rooms and sharing the same cooking and toilet facilities. There are peculiar pressures on those just out of school suddenly given such freedom from parental oversight. The apostles were always mindful of the needs of their hearers [John - 1 John 2 -'I write unto you little children . . . fathers . . . young men'; Paul - 1 Tim 5 & 6, 'Elders younger men elder women younger women . . . widows younger widows servants masters . . . teachers']. It is simply thoughtlessness on the part of preachers if the presence of a group of students is ignored week by week, and the minister does not familiarise himself with their particular needs, or ask himself what the Bible has to say to them - just as he seeks to apply it to others in the congregation.
This is a ministry which is not exclusively the preacher's. As David Jackman has written: 'Ought we not to seek out mature Christians within the church who will make it a major part of their Christian service to pray for and give themselves to a ministry among the students ? Two or three couples of mature spiritual judgement who are prepared to open their homes and hearts to the students can be the difference between effectiveness and aimlessness in a C.U. Such a ministry rarely develops through a self-conscious setting up of a team of student counsellors, so much as by the long term work of open friendship. Students do readily open up to those whom they know and respect, and who clearly love them for Christ's sake. Not every volunteer is necessarily equipped for this specialist ministry [they must be able to advise and listen!] but this is a key role in the current situation and we must encourage its development in the churches.'
2. That the Word of God be regularly and earnestly applied to the unconverted who attend the services. Students should expect, if they have had an opportunity to bring someone along to a service, that the preacher will not only use the lordly 'we' throughout the service ['We sin . . . we pray . . . we must do this . . . we should not be doing that'], but that the application of Scripture to the unconverted, whether the sermon is on prayer and the devotional life, or any other theme, should be transparently clear. Unbelieving students must hear the way of salvation regularly in the local church; it is not simply the prerogative of the triennial evangelistic mission to the university.
3. That a welcome should be given not just from the pulpit and also from the stewards at the door, but from the whole congregation. This welcome is not just to a building but into a caring fellowship and into Christian homes. Next in importance to the church as a divine institution is the family. The door into the one frequently becomes the door into the other. The student who can learn what a church is only by exposure to one week by week, will also learn the nature of Christian family life, relationships, nurture and discipline, only through coming often into such a welcoming environment.
4. That there should be no patronising tolerance of the work and witness of the Christian Union, as though this were some necessary evil, but rather active sympathy and identification with its stand, its doctrinal basis, its earnest leaders and tireless travelling-secretaries. The blessings of free-grace doctrine were learned by the writer not in any local church, alas, but in the life of the Christian Union at the University and in the U.C.C.F. conferences. The writer's experience is not unusual and preachers must lead their congregations into prayerful support for the work of the Christian Unions.
5. That there should be some help in specialised matters like the Bible and Science, evolutionism, education, social work, and modem attacks on the inspiration and authorship of the Scriptures. In evangelical churches in university towns it is not uncommon to find Christian faculty members or high school teachers who have been forced to consider these problems and are able to advise in ways that the preacher cannot.
WHAT THE LOCAL CHURCH MAY EXPECT FROM CHRISTIAN STUDENTS
1. To bear witness to the Lord Jesus Christ by life and word in the university. This must be their chief responsibility. The university is their sphere of influence; it is an area where most church members will never go. The students are the missionary arm of the church on the campus.
2. To keep the Lord's Day as the local church day, avoiding any special student meetings, in order to become a part of the church in its worship and ministry.
3. To integrate into its fellowship in just the same way as any other individual settles into that fellowship, by showing interest, attending its mid-week meeting, and befriending the other members of the church.
4. To prayerfully understand the witness of that congregation and its many failings, and yet to love and pray for it as the apostle Paul cared for similar churches with enormous problems.
5. To share with the congregation in the mid-week meeting whenever it is possible, the activities, encouragements and plans of the witness in the university.
6. To lovingly appreciate one's own home church and enthusiastically speak its praise throughout the time one is in university. It happens all too often that the student gets intoxicated with the religious atmosphere of the church in the university town. At home the congregation is small and elderly; little takes place with the passing years that is headline hitting, but the great and glorious work of the normal church is being done. God is being worshipped in spirit and truth. That congregation can hardly afford one of its own young people, whom it has nurtured and observed grow in grace with obvious pleasure, return in the vacations with a new critical and superior spirit, boasting of the marvellous 'fellow-ship' enjoyed in the 'super' university town church, and lamenting all the deficiencies in the home congregation. Shame on such spiritual striplings! God give them a repentant heart for causing their pastors such dismay! Churches are different, and we must not expect more from a fellowship in any given situation than it can possibly give. It is never helpful to be a regular worshipper in two congregations; comparisons are bound to be made, and ultimately neither church profits. An unusual degree of maturity is called for in Christian students in such circumstances.
CONCLUSION
It is right to strike a cautionary note about building congregations in university towns and not building churches. Students are birds of passage, and it is an unhappy day for a congregation if a minister gets more excited about their occasional presence than that of the members of the church. Nevertheless, it is a privilege to preach the gospel near a large educational institution. and to see crowds of students in the congregation week by week. One thanks God for their love of the truth and earnest desire to serve him. What an encouragement they are to a local church!