In 1919 a group of English undergraduates met in Trinity College, Cambridge, to discuss the possibility of merging the Student Christian Movement with the 42-year-old Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union. Eventually the vital question was put: “Does the SCM consider the atoning blood of Jesus Christ as the central point of its message?” The answer given was: “No, not as central, although it is given a place in our teaching.” Commented Norman P. Grubb, one of the CICCU men present: “That answer settled the matter, for we explained to them at once that the atoning blood was so much the heart of our message that we could never join with a movement which gave it any lesser place.” This was the real beginning of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Evangelical Unions.
In the inter-war years, despite predominantly liberal influences in British academic circles, the fellowship established itself in all the universities of the United Kingdom, and was signally blessed of God in conversions and in the production of mature and able younger leaders in church and secular affairs. After World War II its influence rapidly increased. Liberalism was no longer the force it had been; a generation of older students arose whose Christian faith had been tested in the armed services, and student leaders of the pre-war generation were emerging as notable preachers and teachers. The work extended to technical and training colleges, and was consolidated in theological colleges where the age and maturity of students helped them stand up to liberal professors. IVF literature was gathering momentum, and filled a long-standing need for scholarly, up-to-date, evangelical works. Few of the books currently on the fellowship’s lists existed, or had any adequate counterpart, before 1945. Many of the new writers were young men, and they made an immense contribution also to the IVF’s New Bible Dictionary, which major project, with its largely British authorship, could not possibly have been produced two decades ago.
An increasing number of students entered full-time Christian service—for example, about one-third of the graduates now offering themselves for the Church of England ministry have IVF associations, in marked contrast to pre-war days. Moreover, this factor has given the lie to the charge that such interdenominational work cannot develop a proper church-consciousness. Ecclesiastical leaders of the larger denominations have even expressed horror at the prospect of what they usually call “a fundamentalist theology” returning on any extensive scale to British pulpits. At present IVF members, who sign a short declaration of faith on joining the local union, constitute about three per cent of the student population. (It is understood, of course, that in many cases evangelicals have a wider base than the IVF.)
From the start there has been a strong missionary spirit. The chief aim in creating the Christian Unions was usually to witness to fellow students. It is also true that many have gone abroad as missionaries, and in the last few years nearly ten per cent have gone overseas to less-developed countries as missionaries or in secular occupations. Another notable feature is that the work has always been strongest in the medical and science faculties. The fruits of this are now appearing in a number of prominent young professors and specialists in these fields who are definite evangelical Christians.
A new complicating factor has lately arisen. With the marked decline of the SCM, denominations are taking a hand and appointing more and more full-time chaplains, and establishing student centers. An unhappy corollary of this is that most chaplains fail to appreciate the value of student leadership, and smother the student with kindness and unnecessary facilities. The IVF practice of meeting in classrooms and residence halls reaches the unchurched much more effectively, by means of Bible study and informal opportunities for evangelism. A conflict of loyalties is deliberately encouraged by a few chaplains who say that one cannot be both a good church member and an IVF supporter, even though IVF specifically advocates support of a local church where students meet people of all classes. (Student church-going is now estimated at between one-quarter and one-half of the total—i.e., considerably above the national average.) The “denominational society,” if it isolates its adherents from normal church life, can be an even more damaging preparation for church membership than an interdenominational Christian Union which no one mistakes for the church. Some British denominations are dissatisfied with their own provision for work in the universities, but are unwilling to encourage the IVF. All too often their answer is to pile on staff and facilities, and so increasingly kill student responsibility.
That such a danger is by no means confined to Britain is acknowledged by Denis Baly in his book Academic Illusion (Seabury Press, 1961). He suggests that patronage by well-meaning people and churches in America is doing considerable harm. The effectiveness of the IVF type of work depends precisely on the fact that local groups are student-led and that it is essential to their well-being that members make their contribution. Many who are now doughty warriors for Christ were in their time given such tasks. Often there was no one locally to advise, IVF was small and only rarely available for more than correspondence, and a terrific spiritual load had to be borne by those barely out of their teens. Against liberal professors and chaplains they learned to stand up for their convictions, to appeal to Scripture rather than to human authorities, and to rely on the Lord for wisdom and grace to deal with tasks and situations far beyond their natural aptitude and experience. Where older people have tried to give too much help it has frequently resulted in a stifling of the groups and a limiting of their outreach to non-Christians.
In Britain the experience of years suggests that it is exceedingly doubtful whether problems inherent in the student world can ever be completely and effectively tackled by a task force from without. Even those missioners whose evangelistic campaigns have seen many won for Christ agree that in the last analysis it is Christian students who must bear the burden of witness toward their fellows. They and we, each in his vocation, may recall with profit the prayer of F. D. Coggan, a former editor of the IVF magazine and now Archbishop of York. He said 30 years ago in the book Christ and the Colleges: “May God grant that this present generation may strain every nerve to complete the task and evangelise to a finish to bring back the King.”
British Editorial Director
