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‘What I've discovered is that what works best with non-Christians is opening up the Bible with them.’

So said Doug, a student at Glasgow University, who was surprised at the effectiveness of discussing God’s Word with non-Christian students, in a forum often called seeker or evangelistic Bible studies.

Over the past five years, more than 3,000 students have taken advantage of UCCF’s student Link-Up scheme.

Through this they are able to register their details with their campus CU before they head off to university or college.

‘God is Bob, Steve, or any of those generic killjoys that you run into at the pub. Not only are they constantly judging you, they prevent you from having fun. No drinking to excess, no banter, no sin. Worst of all, whenever you decide to chat to a woman he swoops in and stops you. In other words, I don’t want to go to the pub with Bob’ (anonymous student, London).

Is God really like Bob? One suspects that said student is not alone in thinking that God is just one great big cosmic killjoy. According to the gospel of Bob, God is rule maker and sin is rule breaking. The — rather unattractive — solution is rule keeping and salvation is just avoiding an almighty whacking. Who’d want to worship a cosmic headmaster like Bob?

We are saddened by the recent death on January 10 2011 of Robin Wells, third General Secretary of UCCF.