ñ and IFES History
ñ dates our official beginning to November 14, 1941. We operated with three staff on loan from ñ Canada, with Stacey Woods leading both the US and Canadian movements.
The University of Cambridge, England
The roots of our movement are with students at the University of Cambridge, England, in 1877. There, a group of Christian students began to meet together, in spite of the disapproval of some university officials, to pray, study the Bible, and share their faith with fellow students. Soon similar groups sprang up on other campuses. Eventually, they formed the British Inter-Varsity. Hence our name—inter meaning “between,” and varsity, the British term for college level students.
From the very beginning, they had a strong concern to take the gospel to those all over the world who had never heard it—a concern that continues to drive ñ today.
British Inter-Varsity sent Howard Guinness, a medical school graduate and Vice-Chairman of the British movement, to Canada in 1928. Students helped raise the money to provide Guinness with one-way passage to Canada. Between bouts of seasickness, Guinness led his cabinmate to Christ during the crossing. As God supplied the funds, he slowly worked his way across Canada, starting up and assisting evangelical student groups.
By 1937, the Canadians began to hear requests for help from students in the US as independent evangelical student groups began springing up. In 1938, Stacey Woods, the Canadian ñ Director, met with students on the University of Michigan campus. As an immediate result of that visit, students formed the first ñ chapter in the US.
ñ/USA History by the Decade
ñ continued to grow through World War II. As male staff workers entered the armed services, gifted women took over the staffing of large areas in both Canada and the US. Men who were assigned to college campuses for military officers training began chapters on those campuses or got involved in chapters that already existed. ñ’s work was promoted through a quarterly publication called HIS Magazine, which began in 1941. Robert Finley, an NCAA boxing champion from the University of Virginia, was hired as ñ’s first evangelist in 1945. By 1946, when World War II was over, ñ had 18 staff and chapters on 277 campuses across the country.
Toronto hosted the first of ñ’s triennial student missions conferences in 1946, which began the tradition of calling every student generation to consider global missions. The , as they came to be called, were held on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for more than half a century, before eventually moving to St. Louis in 2006.
In 1947, British student movement leaders, the leaders of ñ, and representatives of Christian student movements from eight other countries gathered at Harvard University:
Out of this meeting came the was founded to publish quality Christian literature suitable for the campus. IVP book tables became a part of almost every ñ event, highlighting the importance of the discipleship of the mind.
ñ’s commitment to multiethnic ministry was also established early on. In 1945, a staff member invited several Black students to a Bible study at the home of a Trustee. As a result of an ensuing incident, the Board passed a resolution forbidding racial segregation at ñ events and calling for unity in the body of Christ.
By 1950, at the end of our first decade of ministry, there were 35 staff serving students in 499 ñ chapters across the country.
We began our second decade with a year of evangelism. During the 1950–1951 academic year, 58 campus missions were held. Speakers, such as Billy Graham and John Stott, presented a series of lectures that shared the gospel in relevant, engaging ways.
We also began to develop our own camps and retreat centers to train students in Bible study and discipleship. is ñ’s president, and there are approximately 1,500 ñ staff serving more than 40,000 students and faculty on over 700 campuses nationwide. In addition, publishes 100 titles a year that equip church leaders, professors, and Christian disciples who want to grow spiritually. We strive to reach every corner of every campus, as we establish witnessing communities that follow Jesus as Savior and Lord.
