Across the world, one of the fertile grounds of Christian evangelism is the University campus. In their bid to catch them younger, churches have fashioned out parishes on the various campuses to particularly fit into the temperaments of the youth and address their kinds of topics but within the precepts of the gospel. Yinka, one of the proteges of Pastor Bimbo Odukoya, writes on her experience at the Nigeria's most volatile campus, Lagos State University, Ojo Lagos Nigeria.

The glory of the youth is their strength, wrote the author of the book of Proverbs. By every standard, this refers to the attraction of the youth all over the world.

For anything to hold their attraction, it must be something they have come to trust, something they have come to believe in. It holds true that hardly will a young person be committed to something about which he has not been convinced. This relatively account for the short attention span of a young person.

How does this relate to Christianity on campuses?
The preceding fact make necessary the customizing of Christian activities to that which young people can run with without loosing the essence of it. Thus, in the word of a youth fellowship pastor, “keeping it real”.

This is a case study of the Lagos State University , Ojo, Lagos Nigeria . An institution reported as one of the most cult-infested universities in Nigeria . This is to capture a worst-case scenario of what Christianity is like in unusually volatile university campus.

As at the year 2003, the number of registered Christian organization in LASU exceeded 60. Of this number, only 26 meet regularly. Today religious activities, largely of the Christian faith have been restricted to the chapel. This is not to say that the rules have not been violated on many occasions. This is usually done under the camouflage of Non-governmental Organization (NGO) seminars.

One effect of this regulation, however, is that a good number of students pass through the school without ever being involved in a Christian fellowship. According to Niyi, a final year student of the university, “if you can get them to attend the fellowship once, chances are it will also be their last time, unless they find something ‘fascinating' to keep them coming. This could be either the ‘exuberance' of the fellowship or the babes around. And of course, we often feel God Himself can use the girls to keep them, though that is risky if the girls are not grounded in God's word.

Some of the thriving fellowship on campus include LASU Christian Fellowship, Redeemed Christian Fellowship ((R.C.C.G), Believers Love world (Christ Embassy) and Springs of Life Fellowship (Fountain of Life Church) which is the largest. This fellowship records about 300 people attendances at weekly meetings and about 700 in special programmes.

The fellowships seek to find their individual selling points. The most appealing issue or topic which attracts students to the chapel are issues such as fun, relationships, sex, dressing, etc. Another fact is that more students attend such meetings when they are discussed far away from the unattractive chapel area.

The word Church, according to one of the coordinators of the fellowship, does not appeal to the kind of people that we reach out to: cultists, club girls and aristo-girls . This reading of their moods, and response to catching them as and where they are, have been so successful. Today, the congregation is full of people like the ex-cultists, ex-club boys, etc, so many people with strong and ground-shaking testimonies of God's transforming power. So many of them are now diligently serving God.

Another fellowship is Rock Foundation, (House on the Rock) which after years of struggling to meet in the conventional way, have now struck gold. The fellowship meets in the student hostels after school hours. Called C.I.T.H (Church in the hostel) pronounced “Seethe” the strategy is helping to draw a great number of people closer to God.

And with C.I.T.H centers springing up everywhere, one indeed can only accept the best from them. Results are remarkable but slow. What else could one expect when you are building lives?

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