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Running Head: UNIVERSITY CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP

University Christian Fellowship

Paige M. Young
University of Kentucky

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Abstract
Christianity is a major religion with a decreasing rate in attendance at the religious services. As
college students move onto campus their religious habits are changing as well. There is a strong
decrease in the attendance rate in college students who are attending religious services once they
start school. A Christian group on the University of Kentucky's campus called University
Christian Fellowship is working to change these rates in students.
Key Words: Christianity, decrease, college students

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University Christian Fellowship
"And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy.
But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away" (Luke 8:13).
Christianity is a major religion with many followers of Christ. Over the years Christianity has
been losing followers and there has been a decrease in church attendance, especially in college
students. Many colleges and universities have religious groups on campus for students that want
to stay connected with their faith. Statistics show that Christianity is decreasing, especially in
young college students, but the University Christian Fellowship group on campus is trying to
make a change.
Christianity is a religion that believes in the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. Christians are usually people who are bound together by the word of the bible. As
Mitrofanova (2014) stated, there are two major divisions of Christianity, the Orthodox Christian
Church and the Roman Catholic Church. The views between the two are similar but differ in
certain ways. One way in which they differ in is their view point of purgatory. The Roman
Catholic Church believes that purgatory is a place where the souls go in order to cleanse before
going up to the Kingdom of Heaven ( Mitrofanova, 2014). The Orthodox Christian Church
believes that the souls have to enter Hades, which is a place of the dead, before the soul can
rejoin the body (Mitrofanova, 2014). Focusing on the Christian Church in present time, there is
a growing problem in young college students.
Some people view college as a way of life for four years that impacts the beliefs and
attitudes of students. Statistics show that young college students are slowly drifting away from
religious services. This is becoming a huge crisis in the Christian church. According to French
(2010), due to the decline in attendance at religious service, more spiritual students reported that

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"their life is more likely to be filled with stress and anxiety". As students leave home and move
to college, most experience freedom they have never had before. A study done by the Higher
Education Research Institute found that a "steep decline" was occurring at religious service "with
the number of students reporting frequent attendance dropping from 43.7 percent in high school
to 25.4 percent in college" ( French, 2010). These numbers are just the start of the decrease in
attendance.
With these statistics one can assume that the rates will continue to decrease in the
attendance at religious services in the future. The steep decline has caused many Christians to
worry about their church and the amount of people in it. Decades ago church attendance was
high. People were more frequent church goers because of the generation they lived in. The
older generations were raised in a very religious time period where they went to church almost
every Sunday. However, in today's generations things are very different. Some people do not
think it is necessary to go to church or even worship a God. Not as many families are attending
church services every Sunday, nor are they likely to be a part of a bible study group (French,
2006). In this day and age, the ways in which religion is viewed are so different and can vary
based on a variety of things; especially when it comes to college.
Freedom can be described in multiple different ways. Freedom can be expressed as no
longer being restrained, as someone not having authority over them, and even as simple as
having the power to make their own decision. College students see freedom as soon as they set
foot on campus. Whether this freedom is having no parents telling them what to do or the
freedom to make their own choices, some college students take it the wrong way. Yes, freedom
is about making choices without authority, but it is also learning how to make the responsible
choice. Students get to campus and a lot of them tend to join the Greek life. Sororities and

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fraternities tend to take a lot of time out of a person's schedule for Greek life events. Before
college some students lived in a house where they went to church every single Sunday because
that is what their family did. Others went because they made the choice on their own. When
students move on campus they have the freedom to choice whether or not they want to go to
church on Sunday or even if they want to be a part of a local church during school. As statistics
show with the decrease in college students attending religious services, their freedom to choose
is leading to small religious affiliation on campuses.
Extending past the years after college into adulthood, the numbers are not getting better.
Low attendance to church in college is leading to lower rates of active Christians in their middle
to late twenties as well. It was reported that sixty-one percent of adults in their twenties who had
gone to church are now becoming disengaged (French, 2010). The amount of people attending
church and even bible studies are slowly becoming smaller and smaller. With this, some smaller
Christian churches are worried about the existence of their church. Within a church body there
are usually different small groups. For example, most churches have bibles studies or small
groups that meet once a week. These provide a way for a church and its people to stay connected
to one another and with God. Without some of these people would not feel as connected with
God at times of need.
College and university fellowship groups, along with ministry groups, have been around
for over a century trying to keep students connected with God. It started with a gathering of
young people in Williamstown, Massachusetts in 1808 ( Boyd, 2007). They were a small group
of friends who started what was called the Student Christian Movement, with a bible study as the
start of it all (Boyd, 2007). They were simply connected by the want and need to become closer
to God and study his Word. This sparked other students around the country to start their own

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bible studies at their schools. The Student Christian Movement was the start of fellowships,
ministries, bible studies, and small gatherings on campus to unite students from the same
religion.
With Christianity numbers decreasing, there are students all over the world working to
increase those numbers again. One group in particular is at the University of Kentucky campus
called University Christian Fellowship, otherwise known as UCF. This is a group of Christian
based students who share a love for Jesus Christ (Schmoll, A.). It is made up of college students
of all ages, along with recently graduated students who attend the church it is associated with.
They believe in the Word and living out their lives to be more like Christ. In an interview with a
student named Amber, who is involved with UCF, I found out that the fellowship group believes
most importantly in the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ (Schmoll, A.). They
also believe that it is important to be a part of a church body, therefore they are associated with a
church off campus. Once their church became too large, they split it in order to keep it close-knit
between the people in the church. There are now three, what they call "sister churches", that are
made up of members of University Christian Fellowship along with their parents and people
from the community.
The University Christian Fellowship is a closely knit group of students who all come
together for the same purpose: to worship God. Their goal is to bring students closer to God and
give them a place where they can worship freely with others around them. In their everyday
lives, the students try to be more Christ-like in all that they do, along with living out what the
Word says (Schmoll, A.). They feel as if not enough people are trying to live out what the bible
says and therefore that is a strong part of who they are. They believe in doing what is right and
setting a good example for others around them. The students in the University Christian

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Fellowship will do anything for one another no matter the circumstances. Amber said that
people always ask her how about twelve girls can live together in one house and everyone gets
along. She said it is because they are all there for a reason, and that reason being that they all
love and want to worship God together. This trend in the house obviously carries over to the
group as a whole. In total there are around one hundred people that are either an active part in
University Christian Fellowship, or are closely associated with them. With their fellowship
group being so close it creates a sense of family throughout the entire group. One thing that
Amber mentioned was that they incorporate the students families into what the group does on
occasions. The fellowship being associated with a local church helps create that family aspect of
it.
The family aspect can be taken many different ways. The parents are incorporated in
some of the activities that the fellowship takes part in primarily due to the fact that most of the
students come from the same church in Lexington (Schmoll, A.). One of the family aspects of
this fellowship group is that they have houses that some of the students live in together. There is
a girls house and a boys within a few miles of one another that house students from the
fellowship group. These houses serve as places where they can live together, study together, and
worship the Lord with the same perspectives. This is just one of the ways they try to live their
lives in a more Christ-like way. Another way that they try to be more Christ-like is the way in
which they uphold themselves on a daily basis. They are more conservative when it comes to
their clothing and their actions in public. These students try to create a way of life that people
can look up to and that is why they love getting together. Occasionally they will meet on
Tuesday nights and play sand volleyball outside at a local park just to do something together as a
group (Watts, E.). A lot of the time one of the houses will host a dinner where everyone from

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the fellowship can join for a free dinner. Usually everyone will stick around after dinner and
converse or play games (Watts, E.). In the fall the University Christian Fellowship group does a
retreat where they go away for a weekend to spend time together. On this retreat they relax, play
games, and study the bible for a weekend getaway (Watts, E.). The retreat is meant to bring all
of the students closer together after the long summer break.
Worship is a huge part of what University Christian Fellowship believes in. In order for
the members of UCF to worship together, they hold weekly services on Thursday nights at eight
o'clock (Watts, E.). These services are held in the student center and usually last a little over an
hour (Watts, E.). The service is lead by a young preacher who is in his twenties. As Ellen had
stated, the students usually come into the room and converse with one another about their weeks
until it is time for the service. Service usually opens with prayer and goes straight in to
worshiping, where a few students play guitar and the assembly sings songs of worship (Watts,
E.). After the songs are over the preacher usually reads versus and preaches about them, or they
do testimonies of how God came into their lives. Testimonies are usually when someone in the
group stands up and tells the rest about how God has done an amazing thing in their life (Watts,
E.). People in the fellowship group always look forward to hearing testimonies from others
around them. If time allows at the end, they will form small groups of about six people and join
together to talk about what is troubling them in their lives. After they go around and say what is
troublesome, one person will start off in prayer and then be followed by the person next to them
(Watts, E.). This is one way in which University Christian Fellowship tries to maintain a
closely-knit group of students.
Having a smaller fellowship group on campus allows them to have more opportunity to
do things within the Christian Church outside of the activities that the university group does.

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One of the ways that they try to keep the traditions of Christianity and build up the church is by
having what are called "home groups" (Schmoll, A.). Home groups are small divisions within
the church that include both the students and the adults. The home groups meet once a week on
a given day to spend quality time together, talk about the Word, and what is stressing them out in
their lives. This is one way in which the Christian religion is trying to save their churches from
decreasing in numbers. In their church the numbers are actually increasing with the amount of
people who are frequently attending the services and home group sessions. These home group
sessions serve as a way to unite people within the church and give them people to fall back on in
times of despair.
The University Christian Fellowship serves as a way for college students to stay
connected to their Christian Faith. The fellowship group paves a way for Christian students at
the University of Kentucky to worship after they leave home. With Christianity on the decline,
these students work to change that within the campus setting. As studies have shown, the biggest
decline in attendance is when students reach college and university campuses. This decline is
due to the freedom of choices that students have once they start to live on their own. The
University Christian Fellowship strides to provide a humble environment for Christian students
to worship and seek God in their life. Keeping this in mind even when the numbers are low, this
group of college students is one of many working hard in order to keep the Christian faith alive
and growing.

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Reference List
Boyd, R. (2007). The Witness of the Student Christian Movement. International Bulletin Of
Missionary Research, 31(1), 3-8.
French, D. (2006). Expelling God from the University. Academic Questions, 19(3), 75-84.
French, D. (2010). Decadence, Scorn, and the Decline of Christian Practice on Campus.
Academic Questions, 23(2), 235-245.
Ma, S. Y. (2003). The Christian College Experience and the Development of Spirituality Among
Students. Christian Higher Education, 2(4), 321.
Mitrofanova, A. V. (2014). Christianity, Orthodox. Value Inquiry Book Series, 27661-63.
Schmoll, A., student. (2014, October 1). Personal interview.
Watts, E., student. (2014, October 8). Personal interview.