Students at Christian Colleges Face Challenges Too! (An Arts Student’s Story)

If you’re going to attend a Christian college or university, then keeping your biblical worldview uncompromised will be easy—right?

Not necessarily.

Certainly, Christian institutions with phenomenal biblical teachings do exist. A number of them will even be coming to the Creation College Expo from November 4–6th at the Ark Encounter. (I’ll be there too, God willing, so please feel free to come say hello!) But like the book Already Compromised documents, many faith-based colleges teach students to accept ideas like evolutionary origins or millions of years—ideas which undermine the gospel.1

That’s just one example of how attending a faith-based college does not let students off the hook from the need for biblical critical thinking. Knowing this reality in theory is one thing, but seeing it play out in real students’ stories is another. So, let me invite you into a conversation with one such former student, a Christian friend of mine who attended both a secular acting school and a faith-based arts college.

The Student’s Story

“Let’s start with your experiences at the secular school,” I suggested once we’d settled onto adjacent living room couches, a French press filled with coffee occupying the table between us.

“It was almost easier being a Christian at the secular school,” my friend shared. To illustrate, she described how while learning accents in theater school, she found that accents from far away places were easier to disentangle because they had more obvious differences to her home dialect.

“That’s how [school] was like,” she said. “When I was at secular school, it was really obvious what I shouldn’t engage in. But when I went to a faith-based school, people there were asking hard questions.2 And when you all come from similar backgrounds and say you believe the same things, then it’s easier to start justifying questionable behaviours and ideas.”

At the secular school, challenges included being asked to play roles that involved portraying behaviours which were far from God-honouring. On the positive side, however, she also had the opportunity to introduce one of her classmates to Jesus.

“How about the Christian school?” I asked. “What challenges did you experience there?”

“People seemed to be a lot more influential,” she said, explaining how peer pressure amplifies when students think, These people are all Christians, so their behaviours and ideas must be okay.3

The art world’s emphasis on emotions also began affecting my friend’s beliefs, as though the validity of her faith rested in subjective experiences (feelings) rather than external reality (facts). “That’s not how faith works,” she said, “but that’s how I grew to think about it. If my emotions fluctuated, so did my faith.”

She explained how in this situation, she felt like one of the “children” Paul described in Ephesians 4:14: “So that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”

“Turning to the bright side,” I continued, “what were some positives of attending the Christian school?”

“There were some solid older people there whom I could wrestle through my faith and questions with,” she answered, describing an especially well-grounded Christian couple who viewed supporting students as a personal ministry.

Mentorship connections with godly older adults, I thought—the theme that pops up in almost every student interview! But aloud, I asked, “So, would you say your experience was positive overall?”

“Yep, I would say that. I came out the other side, and here I am still walking by faith.”

Still, she added, out of the three other girls she roomed with at the Christian school, she’s the only one living out a biblical worldview today.

Tips for Other Christian Students

“What advice would you give to other students, either at secular or Christian schools?” I wondered.

“My first advice would be to find a solid, biblically based church and stick with it through your entire time—no matter what you do, no matter what you face at school. That was probably my lifeline.”

Local church and mentorship—two key aspects of having strong interpersonal foundations, or a Christian support network. Another key aspect involves finding godly friends, something this former student mentioned as well.

“I made some good friends, which was helpful,” she said, “people who were kind and generous to me, and who were good presences in my life. Their lives were little reminders that Christianity lives on in the midst of a world which doesn’t live that way.”

My friend’s next bit of advice highlighted the importance of intellectual foundations, or being able to defend a biblical worldview against tough questions which arise.

“Expect that what you have learned will come into question at some point,” she said. “You’re never going to go through the entirety of your young adulthood like it’s Sunday school—like everybody in the room believes the same thing as you and takes it for granted. If you’re going to believe in God, you should understand why.”4

“How do you think churches and families can support students more?” I asked.

“When I went to school and tried to find a place to live,” she replied, “I found a church nearby where a couple was willing to board me. So, I found a good, safe place to live. That’s an excellent way to support students, if at all possible—to open your home to them. It’s an excellent, excellent thing.”

Churches can also support students’ spiritual foundations, or personal walks with God, by presenting solid biblical teaching.

“Be a Bible-based church,” the arts student said, “so that when those students walk in, you’re teaching the right stuff.”

The Moral of the Story

As we rose and cleared the coffee table, I marveled at how this former student’s insights mirrored theme for theme what I’d heard from other Christians around the world. Mentorship, church, godly friendships, biblical teaching, answers to tough questions—all these themes tied back to the importance of building spiritual, intellectual, and interpersonal foundations.

These are the foundations which students worldwide say helped them keep their faith at secular university. And as this arts student’s experiences highlight, these foundations are just as important for students in other settings too—even Christian colleges.