Student-Led Prayer and Worship on College Campuses

Do students have the right on college and university campuses to assemble to pray and worship? In light of the tremendous outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Asbury University’s campus and now on over twenty other campuses around the world both secular and Christian, the question arises, should every college or university allow student assembly for student-led worship and prayer?

I have been watching a college in the news (which will remain unnamed) that may have prevented or made it difficult for students to assemble for student-led prayer and worship on the college's campus. Unfortunately, it appears there was no clear process or policy as to how students could request permission to have student-led prayer and worship on campus. It was a case of “students said...administration said” with each pointing their fingers at the other. There was little meaningful dialogue for resolving the misunderstanding and it was allowed to grow into a conflict that local media became interested in. I do believe the administration at this college should have taken the high road and made sure there was a resolution to the conflict and not let it get further out of control.

I believe that there was a miscommunication on both sides at this college. Additionally, I believe that the school administration is not flexible enough for spontaneous happenings like this and the students were emotional and reacted negatively when prevented from assembling on the campus. For the most part in conflicts like these, there will be miscommunications and misunderstandings if there is no clear policy and procedure. To allow student-led prayer and worship that is not sponsored by the college calls for wisdom and a clear policy that is not driven by emotional conflict and strong disagreement.

I believe students have a responsibility to respect the administrators of the school regardless of what the administration does or doesn’t do. Students you take the high road here and demonstrate maturity and understanding. Perhaps if the students had been more responsible in planning and less spontaneous in action, the college administrators and the students could have come to some kind of agreement and the students could have assembled for student-led prayer and worship.

Furthermore, I believe that students should have the right to assemble for prayer and worship on their college campuses. In fact, I think colleges have a responsibility to help students foster student-led worship and prayer. However, there needs to be a clear policy and procedure that allows for good administrative judgment and protects the interests of the students and the college.