Students are one of the UK’s biggest and most influential people groups – and new research shows that, far from being hostile to Christianity, a third would read the Bible with a friend, and a quarter find scripture personally helpful. If Christians believe the gospel changes lives, it’s time to step up and help them access it
When a swathe of young people move across the country to start university each autumn, it is the biggest annual migration of people in the UK. They go north to south, east to west, home to halls and, as they move, the landscape moves with them.
Cities swell to accommodate them and businesses boom because of them. Think of any successful start-up or scientific advance, artistic or cultural triumph. Chances are, it was started by a student. Students are more than a label, category or 20 per cent discount at the supermarket. They are ground shakers, rule breakers and culture makers. They contain a pent up energy that is often a catalyst for change. And in this country, there are 2.4 million of them. Students are one of the UK’s biggest people groups.
Are we willing to get stuck into scripture with students? Are we bold enough to invite them into the story?
As a people group, they have their own dialect, sense of humour, rules and codes of behaviour. For a long time, we’ve understood them pretty well. There has been a clear framework for what life as a student looks like. Budgeting, partying, all-nighters, revelling in the freedom of being away from parents for the first time. These are the hallmarks of student life.
But increasingly, this generation is breaking that stereotype. The old framework no longer fits. Gen Z students are less interested than their predecessors in being right and more interested in finding truth. With this comes an openness to new ideas, experiences and ways of life. And one of these is the gospel.
Open to the gospel
According to research commissioned by Fusion last year, 33 per cent of non-Christian students are open to reading the Bible with a friend, to exploring the possibility that scripture could be a source of truth that they simply haven’t explored yet. A third actively want to read it. Those that do open the pages of the Bible often find the Holy Spirit breathing through the words written there.
Fusion has been sharing the stories of lives transformed at university for decades. But, in the last year, the nature of these testimonies has changed. Students are dreaming dreams, seeing visions and, increasingly, encountering Jesus through the Bible. Getting scripture into their hands is crucial. The word of God transforms lives and students are embracing it.
The vast majority of this people group is unreached by the gospel. Yet every Christian who leaves their home church or youth group and moves to university can be sent as a missionary to their campus. They can be an evangelist to their peers - and know that their peers are receptive.
Students are dreaming dreams, seeing visions and, increasingly, encountering Jesus through the Bible
Our study found that half of all students think that the Bible is relevant to today’s world. That’s 1.2 million young adults in the United Kingdom. In a world saturated with media snippets and viral copycatting, half of all students say the word of God has something to say to them. 26 per cent of non-Christian students even say they have found it personally helpful.
The word of God is speaking, just as it has been for thousands of generations. This might just be the generation who finally take off their headphones and hear it.
The challenge for the Church
This is comes both a challenge and a choice for the Church. Are we willing to get stuck into scripture with students? Are we bold enough to invite them into the story? Are we ready to find the hungry ones and give them the bread of life?
As a result of this research, Fusion are on a mission to give every spiritually-open student a Bible. You can partner with us in this by donating a Bible, or by committing to read one with a non-Christian student this year. They are hungry and coming with questions. You have the answers they are looking for sitting on your bookshelf. Open the word with them.
This matters because students matter. And students matter because they change the culture around them and, then, go on to change the world. Right now, you have a chance to change them with the gospel before they go.
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