The following article is compiled from three articles published online by Lovewise, a Christian organisation that teaches young people about sex, love, and wise living. Further articles looking at other aspects of university life (including compulsory consent lectures, party culture and use of gender pronouns) are available online at lovewiseonline.org.
You’re going to university! You’ve checked out which halls you’ll be in, bought all that you think you might need (plus a few extras). For many, university is one of the biggest transitions of your life. It’s a huge investment of time and money, so it makes sense to take time to prepare before you go.
But it is not just a geographical move to a new city or a social shift to a new community of fellow students. If you have grown up attending church with your parents, this may be the first time you have had to make the decision for yourself. Have you done as much preparation for this as for other areas of university life?
When you start university, you’ll be confronted with lots of opportunities and choices. Now is the time to anticipate these and think about what choices you’ll make. Nights out, friendships, relationships (and not to forget studying!) offer many attractive opportunities for interest and fun but they are also an opportunity to show your friends who Jesus is and live differently from the student norm.
However, these opportunities also represent a spiritual battleground which will test and tempt you. This is the time to embrace opportunities with the strong foundations that underpin your faith, and discover what it looks like to walk with God as you prepare for university and navigate those first few days and weeks.
Remember, if you’re a Christian, you are already a member of God’s people, and so you need to prioritise finding a church where you can become part of a worshipping community and be provided with godly friendship.
Find a good church and commit to it!
One of the very first things you should do when you start at university is to find a good church. Why? Well, for most people it’s really hard living away from home for the first time. With the challenges and excitement of Freshers events, new friends, studies, societies, and sports teams, it’s all too easy to get distracted and carried away with other things and find yourself either hiding your faith or soon drifting away from your faith.
God does not intend for us to be just individual believers in isolation, but to be part of a wider Christian community in which we can both grow and mature in our faith and help to serve others. When you are far away from your home and family, it’s so important (and such a blessing) to have a church family who can support you in your faith and to whom you can belong.
It’s important to find a church which will help your faith to grow – one which prioritises clear biblical teaching and can help you to mature as a Christian. Are the services Bible-focused? Is the Bible taught faithfully? Is the worship reverential? Is the church’s teaching on marriage and sexuality biblical? Do they seek to share the gospel clearly and would you feel confident inviting non-Christian friends to the services?
While it’s important to make sure the church you choose is a good Bible-teaching church, don’t waste too much time though on ‘church-shopping’. No church is perfect (or exactly the same as your home church!) so it’s better to try and commit fairly early on if you can, so you can get stuck in, build friendships quickly, and start to serve. Getting some good church recommendations from your minister, parents, or other trusted Christians before you go to (or apply for) university can be really helpful to narrow down the search so that you can settle into a good church more quickly.
It’s really helpful to be part of the Christian Union as well, but CUs are not churches and cannot replace being part of a church. Rather, CUs can really help you to be part of an outward-looking mission team with an amazing opportunity to share the gospel with other students. CUs have special access and opportunities on campus that a local church would not have so easily, so do get involved with the CU so you can make the most of this unique opportunity to share the good news about Jesus with students who may have never heard it taught clearly before.
Stay rooted in the Bible
The Bible teaches us that ‘All Scripture is breathed out by God’ (2 Timothy 3:16). This means that it is a book unlike any other, because it is how God speaks directly to us. By studying the Bible, we learn more about God and how he wants us to live.
The psalmist says that the person who regularly delights in the law of the Lord – who meditates upon or thinks prayerfully about it – is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields good fruit and has healthy leaves. That person is contrasted with the wicked man who is like chaff, easily blown away by the wind (Psalm 1:1-4).
Developing a regular Bible-reading habit helps a Christian to be like a stable, healthy tree. This is important at university, where you will be surrounded by people who think very differently about how to live their lives. Many people don’t believe in the goodness of God’s design for marriage, relationships, and sex. There can be pressure to compromise in all sorts of ways, and you can be tempted to doubt God’s goodness and wisdom. If you are to remain faithful and trust God in the hard times, you need to know his Word well.
It is helpful to make time every day to read and prayerfully reflect upon a portion of Scripture, allowing it to shape your thoughts and attitudes as well as your behaviour. You could decide to create your own plan, reading through different Bible books a small section at a time. Alternatively, you could use some Bible-reading notes to give guidance and structure. One good place to begin is the Explore series of notes published by the Good Book Company, available as an app as well as in hard copy. Establish a Bible-reading habit before arriving at university (when there will be so many new opportunities competing for your attention) and make it a priority while you are there.
You may come across people who question the truth of the Bible directly, whether in a lecture or a conversation. Someone might say to you ‘How do you know the Bible is reliable?’ or ‘How do you know that Jesus is the Son of God?’ You can prepare for such challenges by reading books such as The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus by Lee Strobel.
You will find that the biblical understanding of marriage, relationships, and sex is frequently challenged. Prepare for this by reading a book such as God’s Design for Women in an Age of Gender Confusion by Sharon James. It helpfully compares biblical teaching with secular ideas, showing that we can trust God’s design because God himself is good, and because good fruit results from following his way.
You can trust the Bible in every area of life because it is authored by the God who made you. Make sure you hold onto this truth through your time at university and you will be able to stand firm in your faith.
Further advice for Christians heading off to university is available at lovewiseonline.org.
