Preparing Christians to Engage a Fragmented World

The Fellowship of Evangelical Students has always been a missional organisation. Since its inception in 1960, the aims of the fellowship include promoting and coordinating Christian witness in the institutes of higher learning in Singapore, and to stimulate an active interest in evangelistic and Christian work throughout the world. Now into its 66th year, this identity and spirit of FES continues but not without regular struggle. There is always the tendency for Christian Fellowships to become a holy huddle; to use the community as a place to escape from the pressures of the campus. There is also the inclination to see the campus as a war zone, particularly as a battleground of competing ideologies. This second inclination was how university life was often pitched to me while I was a student in NUS in the 2000s and which coloured my perspective of higher education. However, I have come to reconsider whether such militant language and imagination is the only way to view campus life.

Chatraw provides the insight that “American Christianity, particularly evangelicalism, has been immersed in a model of cultural engagement aptly termed ‘the culture wars.’ The metaphor of war is … more than merely a metaphor. The power of the image is such that it not only describes but also prescribes corresponding mindsets and tactics … many Christians have allowed fears about what might be lost in the battle to overshadow concerns with how we should engage in it.”[1] In writing about engaging contemporary culture, Chatraw simply offers that “engaging in culture is nothing more – and nothing less – than seeking the truth in order to love with a godly love.”

Campus engagement initiatives by some CFs

One of the ways in which FES expresses its missional identity is with the phrase campus engagement, which takes into account the culture of the campus. To engage covers a diverse range of meanings. Indeed, one meaning includes the engagement of enemies. However, most uses of the word are far less militant and used to connote the activity of conversation and dialogue. Are we called to invade the campus or are we called to invite the campus to encounter the salvation and glory of our Lord? I believe that the Gospels reveal the incarnational ministry of Jesus as one that shows God’s desire and willingness to meet with His people where they are, walk alongside them, and invite them to believe in and receive His salvation. The incarnation of Christ is the very model of Christian engagement. To engage in this manner is not to display hostility but to extend hospitality.

In collating the stories of students living and speaking for Jesus around the world, Cawley writes that “to fully engage the university means to be maximally present and involved with the places, people, events, and enterprises occurring across the institution. A Christian student movement should … ideally be a community collectively committed to engagement with the university as a whole and not solely to the personal salvation of individual students.”[2] A fully engaged student movement will also become “full participants who seek the good of [the university] and those who inhabit and frequent it.”

It would be this unique approach and mindset that FES ministries take towards campus engagement that would allow for Sheppard to consider the CFs to be “campus initiatives as lasting communities of scholarship and evangelistic faith rather than as temporary projects for quick conversion” and not a movement that is “working from the outside like a propaganda agency trying to tell students what they should believe or what they should do [but] a genuine grass-roots student movement, a genuine expression of feeling and conviction.”[3]

The modern world is increasingly fragmented. This can mean that there are more differences that can lead to violent divisions or virtuous diversity. The responsibility of FES in developing future Christian leaders is not to treat such differences superficially but to engage with them meaningfully. The ability to engage in a fragmented world will be crucial and should be expected as Ian Markham explains in A Theology of Engagement, that[4]:

• the existence of diversity has always been intended by God since the creation at the beginning
• we believe in a God that wants to relate to the whole of creation and cosmos
• the Christian tradition has constantly sought to make itself intelligible to others by entering into dialogue with contemporary forms of thought and culture, thus shaping traditions and Scripture throughout history
• the world needs examples of a positive relationship with diversity and the exploration of boundaries between faiths and theology provides a means to demonstrate such relationships.

In Markham’s view, the more Christians learn to meaningfully engage with the differences that surround us, the more opportunity Christians might have to reduce and remove conflicts and help people come to terms with the God-given diversity of creation. Such is the imagination that FES has in developing its student leaders.

Integrated Engagement Curriculum

On a more practical note, the application of this approach and mindset of campus engagement has resulted in two key efforts in FES, just to name a few. The first one is the consolidation of the Integrated Engagement Curriculum for all student and graduate ministries that was submitted in November 2025. This curriculum is the culmination of work that began in 2023 to align what FES actually does and teaches to its students and graduates, and to offer a coherent, comprehensive, and compelling picture of Christian witness and mission on campus. On one hand, the development of a shared curriculum is a major attempt at bridging the divergent, diverse, and distinct ministry contexts of FES across campuses, languages, and sections. More crucially, this integrated curriculum more thoughtfully expresses how FES is to be a genuine grass-roots student movement that is to be fully engaged with the campus (and graduates engaged with the workplace).

First run of MET

The second effort is the development and execution of the Missions Education Training (MET) in 2026, the spiritual successor to the long line of missions programmes developed by FES. The missions landscape has constantly changed since the early days of Medical Missions; and when the Missions Education and Exposure Training (MEET) programme was at its peak. Just as there are many more church groups on campus today, so there are more churches and organisations offering their own missions programmes and experiences. In this latest iteration of a missions programme by FES, it does not duplicate or replicate things that might be better covered by other organisations but focuses instead on the approach and understanding of campus engagement, paying special attention to the unique cultures and trends of the universities and polytechnics of Singapore.

I have only briefly mentioned these two efforts as they are the latest ones that are being carried out for this new year in 2026. The outcomes from implementing such a curriculum and programme go beyond measuring the number of students who go through the diversity of topics or who complete the training. Engaging students and graduates involve fostering biblical values and mindset, the mindset that understands Christian mission as the invitation to seek truth together and to experience the love and glory of God.

– Jeremiah Goh
FES General Secretary

[1] Chatraw, J. D., and Prior, K. S. (2019). Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues. Zondervan Academic.

[2] Cawley, L. (2019). Campus Lights: Students Living and Speaking for Jesus Around the World. Muddy Pearl.

[3] Sheppard, T. (2009). God on Campus: Sacred Causes and Global Effects. IVP Books.

[4] Markham, I. S. (2003). A Theology of Engagement. Wiley-Blackwell.