Clubbing – your decision

Posted by Josh Duddy on 19th, 2010

[A guest post by All4God contributor Josh Duddy]

Clubbing; many of you may have no opinions on this, or see why you should. But I hope the brief train of thought which follows, shows you the importance of your decision making. It has become a thing of the times, and therefore something we must be careful of.

I sat in my room one winter’s night, troubled. I had heard stories of how some of my Christian friends had fallen as a result of going clubbing weekly. Indeed I liked to do it. However, I never considered myself part of that culture; I went only for birthdays and the likes, so I wasn’t out every weekend. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to disagree with it because everybody did it, how could it be wrong? That night, I sat in my room, with my bible open at 1 Peter 4:3

“You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols”

I was shocked! I never thought the Bible had a thing to say about clubbing! After all it was a new age thing! But alas I could not ignore the obvious. I sat there, with this challenge before me. I had two paths I could go on. I could ignore this verse; pretend I never saw it and go on with my life, unchallenged. Or, I could go on the other path; I could take this challenge head on. I could look further into this topic and see what the truth of the matter was, to see what God really wanted. Thankfully I choose the latter.

I started by asking myself: What does clubbing involve? What are the bare bones of it? When you are going for a night out what do you expect from it? At the very core of it, without any specific details of the night, clubbing involves getting ready, walking/getting a taxi down to a club, wait outside for a bit, pay and get in, chill and dance with friends. The basics.

Not so evil or sinful eh?! There is nothing wrong with this, in-fact I’m pretty sure we all do this when going to the cinema or going out for a meal (minus the dancing… or including the dancing if it floats your boat!). The place itself isn’t evil, but it is the stigmas attached to it which are evil and give the ill picture a person can have of it; sex, drunkenness, alcohol etc.

Clubbing gives a platform for many things, new friendships, but on the other side it, it offers the temptations of the world. Do you feel tempted to drink and get drunk? Do you see the half naked girls prancing around the club and have lustful desires? Are you one of these half naked girls? Where is the dignity the Lord wants you to have! The Lord’s Prayer says ‘Lead me not into temptation’, not ‘when I’m in temptation help me out of it’.

The world does not expect to see Christians in clubs, for whatever reason. If a person sees you in a shop they will think you have gone in there to do some shopping. So, if a person sees you in a club they may expect you to be getting involved in some of these stigmas. The Bible has something to say on this – I would suggest you look at the weaker brother argument in 1 Corinthians 8:9-13.

The story of Lot is an interesting one too. He went to live in Sodom. He made a life for himself there with his family. He made friends and got along with the people. But in Genesis 19:14, we read “So Lot rushed out to tell his daughters’ fiancés, “Quick, get out of the city! The Lord is about to destroy it.” But the young men thought he was only joking.”

Lot lived so long among the ungodly people that he was no longer a believable witness for God. He had allowed his environment to shape him rather than shaping his environment. Also he had compromised to the point that he was almost useless to God. When he finally took a stand, nobody listened. Do people see you as a witness for God? Or are you a chameleon? If you want to outreach to your friends you must first decide to be different and take a stand for what’s right.

I do not believe Clubbing is right. It is most certainly not the place to evangelise; will the drunks remember your words?  I don’t feel it is the place for a Christian to be. Christians are called to live holy and blameless lives, re-think your decisions if you are tempted or have sinned because of it.  The odd occasion may be fine, but doing it weekly can have devastating effects. Too many of my Christian friends have fallen; they went in with weak faith and fell. Even the ones who were strong fell. The devil’s call is like a chisel on a wall, over time he will break through.

However, it is not up to me, to force on you what I believe. It is up to God to reveal the truth to you. It is a hard thing to deny your own desires. But I ask you to look at what you deny yourself of and for. You turn your back on sin, and you turn your face towards God and his will. Don’t let the devil creep under your radar. God’s laws are here to keep us safe, not to stop us having fun.

Remember, it is not your life. Your life belongs to God. Your very existence is a testament to God’s Glory. Think of the bigger picture, where do you fit in? Where does God call you?

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A post by Josh Duddy

Josh is a a first year physics student at Queens in Belfast. He's a boxer, does Tai-jutsu and seeks to serve God on a daily basis, not for his own self gratitude but for that of God's.

To see more of Josh Duddy's posts click here

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  • keithhouston
    "God tells us to avoid all appearances of evil, and clubbing can certainly be an appearance of evil.".

    If you avoid all situations which may appear to have evil and to go through life with full guard, You can't possibly experience the great opportunity given to you on this world.
    I believe Peter got it spot on with:
    " you aren't compromsing your faith by what you do/don't do in the club then it isn't an issue."


    I suppose it is always good for everyone to have some faith, but I believe that in a nutshell life is here to enjoy, as long as you are happy and you aren't hurting anyone else, then why hold back because the Bible says so..?
  • andrew
    i think Jesus would be in the clubs with the broken, the hurting and the lost souls if he were here today!
  • elainedurheim
    I applaud you for your committment. God tells us to avoid all appearances of evil, and clubbing can certainly be an appearance of evil.
  • PeteMcM
    I guess the key thing in this is moderation - if it is an irregular/infrequent thing, and you aren't compromsing your faith by what you do/don't do in the club (ie how you look at people, how much you drink - no problems with an occassional drink) then it isn't an issue. If it starts eating up all your spare time then it becomes an issue, just as if something like watching TV was taking up all your spare time.
    I agree going out can be good fun, and a great way to relax wit your friends and some good tunes.
    There have been times I have been out when everyone else was getting drunk, and to be honest I do feel somewhat isolated in those occassions being the only one keeping to sensible limits. And there are other times when I've been out with others who aren't getting drunk and found it all so much more enjoyable. I guess when everyone else is drunk you just feel this extra duty to look out for them...

    I also feel that an aspect of whether to go clubbing or not as a Christian is your personality. I know personally I find going ten pin bowling/crazy golfing etc more fun than the average night out at a club, but that'll vary for different people, and given that as Christians we are meant to glorify God, and he is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him (ie when we are best enjoying the life He has given us), maybe the best witness we can give non-Christians is to simply show them that we can have a good time too, without indulging in sin, be that in a club or at some other activity
  • Lisa
    This is such a relevant issue for Christians at university, and something that I have been really challenged about over the past few months. I think it's important to put forward the other side of the argument, although I totally understand what Josh is saying and by no means am I saying he's wrong. I like going out with my friends, mostly Christians, but with a few non Christians too. I don't go out every week, but maybe every 2 or 3 weeks.
    In my opinion, we have to remember that we're called to be the light in the dark places, although it takes a strong Christian to go clubbing and resist the temptation of drink. Clubbing is totally a matter of opinion, some people just don't feel comfortable with it. Personally, I wouldn't go out if everyone I was going out with was going to get drunk, as I much prefer to have someone else there who isn't drinking. I think that going out shows people that it is possible to have a good night without getting really drunk. Going clubbing also helps me to relate to people who I might otherwise have nothing in common with, and so I can witness to them by going clubbing, although in an indirect way. Every Christian has their own way of witnessing to people.. mine is (partially, not entirely) by going out and trying to lose the image that Christians seem to have of being unapproachable and thinking we're better than everyone else.. "smug", I've heard it described as before!
    I think that for Christians going out, they have to look at why they're doing it.. as long as they're going out to show that they're different, that they're in the world but not of it, have a good group of friends and are aware of the dangers and temptations then Christians going out clubbing could potentially extend God's kingdom. Just thought I had to put my side across! :)
  • keithhouston
    Some really good points made here.
    The point I'd like to make though is, surely clubs are simply a purer concentration of our society, with all these temptations packed into one large room. Your going to stumble upon these experiences throughout your entire life, so why avoid them during your teenage years and miss out of the pro's, i.e the social aspect of clubbing.

    Unless your so easily swayed, your going to come out of the club in the same mindset that you went in (unless of course you've had a little bit too much).
    Like you said,
    "The place itself isn’t evil, but it is the stigmas attached to it which are evil and give the ill picture a person can have of it;"

    It's not so much the club itself, but the people that you might associate yourself with, which again runs true throughout your life.

    As a non-Christian, I can honestly say I can go out the odd-time without Alcohol for the entire duration of the night and have just as great a time. It's the atmosphere and the social aspect of the night that really makes it for me.

    Again great post :D
  • PeteMcM
    Just to add my personal views on this matter seen as this was a guest post. By and large I agree with what Josh has to say (hence why I approved the article :) ), but just wanted to add a little of my experiences.
    I'm not a big club go-er, although I have been to a few different clubs on different occassions, and I have to agree, they are places where you can easily get very tempted, and if alcohol is an issue for you should certaintly be avoided. On the other hand, if you can resist that temptation, I have found in my experience that by going out to clubs with people from my halls of residence that aren't Christian (and who are going out with the intent of getting wasted) it can strengthen your relationship with them, and enables you to show them that Christians can have a good time without getting drunk. Plus you will be there to safely escort them home. True you probably won't save any souls in the club, but it might just open the door for some good conversations at a later date.
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