Why I Will No Longer Attend Student Worship

Upon arriving at university, I was eager to involve myself in the student-led worship events. I quickly joined a worship team as a bass player, a capacity I served in for my entire first year. The following year, I took my involvement a step further, acting as a worship team leader. By the end of that year, I was feeling burnt out and decided not to participate in my third year.

And now, in my fourth year, I have come to the realization that I can never again involve myself student worship again, whether as a leader, or as a participant. I will not attend Worship 937 or chapel services, nor help plan them, nor be involved in any study groups, nor any ministry groups within the student body.

The reason for my complete abstinence is quite simple: it is my heart-felt conviction that what is being called “worship” at all these events is not the worship of the One True God; what is being practiced does not honour God – in fact, it openly and blatantly dishonours Him, and hinders the cause of Christ.

In my two years in worship ministry, I have seen teaching ranging from the orthodox to the questionable to the outright heretical; and all of it has been accepted without question. The students here, by and large, lack the fundamental skill with the Word of God to discern what is true and what is false. There is no standard of truth, save what comes under the banner of “Christianity”.

The result is that any speaker, from one who preaches an emergent, social gospel such as Colin McCartney (not "Scott", as I erroneously wrote the first time), to one who denies hell and preaches a Socinian moralistic gospel such as Rob Bell, is welcomed as speaking from God. Worse, these types of false gospels are not only tolerated, but actively encouraged by the student leaders. From among the same student body which lacks any real Biblical discernment come the student leaders, who will ultimately aid in deceiving their fellow students. The deceived become the deceivers – the blind lead the blind (Matt 15:14).

And this is the heart of the matter. The problem is not simply one of leadership, because it is the students themselves who are the main culprits in their own self-deception. This makes it impossible to “reform from within”, for the prevailing spirit of the student ministry is one of willful self-deception – and anyone who dares preach the true gospel of Christ is considered an aberration. The message that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3) is considered foolishness.

What kind of people would call the gospel of Christ foolishness? Only those that are not saved: “For to those who are perishing the message of the cross is foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is God’s power” (1 Cor. 1:18). For me to attend such events is to participate in a “ministry” which is slowly but surely, step-by-step, inch-by-inch, leading my fellow students ever closer to hell. It calls itself Christian, yet opposes the gospel of Christ and considers it foolishness.

This does not honour God, nor does it edify the believer. It dishonours God and helps damn those who claim to believe. I cannot in good conscience help to support these efforts, whether through leadership or through willing participation. If I am to obey Christ, I must oppose student ministry.

May the Lord have mercy on all His own.