Replanting the Bible on campus

UCCF came into being as it defended Bible Christianity on campus. Recent events Loughborough University show that their historical stance is still necessary...

We are two Christian students at Loughborough and this is our account of the attempts that have been made to maintain a biblical witness on campus over the last few years. Our purpose in writing this article is to encourage university students to be faithful disciples of Christ by rooting evangelism and discipleship in the word of God.

The story began in 1997, when Fusion was launched. It reached the Loughborough CU through a local church called Open Heaven, which is co-led by a Fusion network manager. Since then we have seen the theology* behind Fusion put into practice by the Loughborough CU and the chaplaincy.

In 1999 Loughborough CU (called Revive) largely removed Bible teaching from their main meetings, making them 'worship meetings' and argued that this made them Jesus-centred. It seemed they thought that merely teaching the Bible was dry. Better to have meetings where people could enjoy Jesus and experience him rather than have to listen to a talk. In other words, for them, being Bible-centred and being Jesus-centred were two separate things. It appeared they did not believe that it was primarily through God's Word that people met with Jesus.
The result was that when the Bible was used in talks it was rarely allowed to speak for itself. Verses were frequently taken out of context and the teaching given was vague at best and often untrue or misleading at worst. Other methods of coming to know God better were recommended, including: creation, friendships, new words of knowledge and activities like clubbing or fair-trade campaigning. The overall result was that social action and 'worship' evangelism tended to dominate the agenda.

Test bed

Loughborough has been something of a test bed for a number of Fusion's initiatives. One of these, Taste and See, was a series of 'new style' cell-based missions. One Taste and See local representative stated that this initiative was rooted in the idea that 'the university attracts a whole range of personalities so different people will respond to different ways of meeting God and knowing Jesus - although all are as valid as each other'.

Using such initiatives, Fusion seemed to communicate the view that all students (whether Christian or non-Christian) are on a spiritual journey towards reaching their potential in God, so students need a revelation from God appropriate to their place on the road and their personality. In this view, repentance isn't taught as turning back to God since we are all on a journey towards him.

Setting up Bible studies

Having become aware of these problems a small group of students who went along to Revive began to express their concern to the executive committee. They were worried that Revive was no longer proclaiming the gospel or providing opportunities to bring their friends to hear the gospel. They felt that Revive was not being Jesus-centred because it was not Bible-centred. As the Bible is God's primary word to us, it is to the Bible we must go if we want to understand and get to know the Lord Jesus better. If we leave the Bible out of meetings, the Jesus we encounter may be no longer the Jesus God has revealed to us in his Word but instead one of our own making. However, the Fusion cell-group material was rooted in the idea that Bible study was separate from worship and therefore not central in meeting with Christ.

The views and convictions of these concerned students were not perceived by the Revive executive committee to be important enough to warrant a change in direction. In the first term of 2000 these students and some first years attending Revive started to meet for Bible study simply to fill the teaching void. Revive had been weakening links with UCCF since 1998 and had positioned itself more with the growing Fusion movement. The local CU staff worker (Jonathan Clark) continued to go to Revive meetings and concentrated on meeting with students interested in one-to-one Bible studies. These students invited the CU staff worker to help them, and they began studying 2 Timothy together.

From Bible study to Mission

In 2001 UCCF offered resources nationally to CUs to run the Identity mission based on Mark's Gospel. Those who had been studying 2 Timothy, in consultation with the Revive executive committee, decided to take on and run Identity. It quickly became apparent that Revive's support was only notional as they had adopted a policy to stop running 'meeting-based' evangelism. The students from the 2 Timothy study groups managed to organise a three-day mission with three talks: Science and Christianity, Other Religions, and Suffering, as well as some questionnaire evangelism around campus.

At about this time Revive wrote to the CU staff worker asking him, and any other UCCF staff, to stop attending their meetings, on the grounds that he was a 'divisive influence'. This (although it hadn't been conducted in a constitutional way) effectively confirmed Revive's intention to disaffiliate from UCCF.

Follow up

In order to organise some follow-up to the Identity mission, students invited the CU staff worker to continue to help. They carried on meeting and speakers were brought in to help them study Mark's Gospel. This group, known as Identity, now numbered around 30 students.

Identity then put on another evangelistic event in the final term of that year and approached UCCF for advice on formalising the group. In response the staff worker suggested that a student-based leadership be put in place to set out some objectives to shape the new group. This happened over the summer of 2001 and the group was named 'The Fellowship of Evangelical Students' (FES).

FES and UCCF were keen to keep everything out in the open, so all the churches in Loughborough that had a ministry to students were visited in person by UCCF staff. They met with strong opposition from some, indifference from others, but received support from two local evangelical free churches. They have continued to support FES and have argued the case for FES's existence in meetings with other churches on a number of occasions.

In the autumn term of 2001 FES officially started as a Bible-centred group for mission and maturity. FES started in the first term with 15 - 20 students and now has 63 on the books and around 30 to each meeting. The meetings have a simple format: Bible teaching and prayer with a bit of singing. FES has managed to put on an evangelistic event every term and a mission every year, including an evening with John Blanchard when over 80 people came. They have also run a number of courses including Christianity Explored where 13 non-Christians attended last term.

FES and Fusion

Over the past three years the FES leadership has had a number of exchanges with Fusion representatives. FES was seen as a divisive group and was encouraged to put on a 'united front' with Revive.

This pressure was stepped up as the chaplaincy positioned itself as the authority over all student Christian groups. They took over the running of hall groups and Fusion representatives from Open Heaven were invited to run the hall-group training. The chaplaincy openly adopted Fusion and its 'unity in diversity' approach which looks for a 'relational' unity between groups rather than a 'confessional' unity in the non-negotiable truths of the gospel. In all correspondence with Fusion representatives, chaplains and the Revive executive team, FES has tried to present its position from the Bible. However, to date, Fusion, Revive and chaplaincy have not replied in the same terms.

The issues here in Loughborough were not about a conservative/charismatic split or the result of mere 'differences of style'. The story of FES is about the defence of the primary issues of the sufficiency, authority and centrality of Scripture in evangelism and discipleship. Fusion representatives and Revive have not seen these as primary non-negotiable issues.

Pressing on

In 2002 FES officially affiliated to UCCF and at Easter 2003 we handed over the running of FES to a new elected executive committee made up of undergraduates. Under the new leadership FES continues to promote mission and maturity rooted in the Bible among students.

The students involved in the setting up of FES have had an extraordinary time. We've been taught to rely on God as we have faced, at times, formidable opposition. By the grace of God we have learned to rely on his revealed will in his Word as the power of God for salvation, and have been able to commend the Bible and prayer to new students to Loughborough, many of whom have caught the vision for mission and maturity rooted in the Bible.

Since the launch of Fusion, Loughborough is not the only campus where God's Word seems to be sidelined and presented as an optional extra - though the situation may vary from place to place. We simply want to encourage other Christians to be faithful to God and the Bible.

Jonny Woodrow & Matthew Spriggs

* 'Student witness in confusion' by Rupert Evans, Evangelicals Now, March 2003