transition

��ñ�� Seeks New President

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Tue, 03 Nov 2015 16:12:13 +0000

��ñ�� Seeks New President

For Immediate Release

(Madison, WI) -- ��ñ�� is seeking a leader to advance what God is doing through ��ñ�� on college and university campuses in the United States.

An Opportunity Profile has been assembled by the Board of ��ñ�� which details the story of God’s provision of missional, relational, spiritual, and financial growth for our ministry. ��ñ�� seeks a leader who can build upon this momentum and will expand the mission in the face of the great spiritual opportunities in our culture today.

In May of 2015, ��ñ�� president Alec Hill announced he was stepping down from the office in order to seek treatment for bone marrow cancer. Jim Lundgren, a 42-year veteran staff member, was appointed interim president by ��ñ��’s board in June. An ��ñ�� board task force is currently in the process of identifying candidates for the role of president.

��ñ�� Christian Fellowship is a campus ministry employing more than 1,100 field staff who work with more than 40,000 students and faculty on 649 U.S. college and university campuses. ��ñ��’s national office is in Madison, Wisconsin. ��ñ�� Press, our publishing arm, is located in Westmont, Illinois. We also run retreat and training centers in California, Michigan, and New Hampshire.

View the full profile for this opportunity here.

News Keywords

transition

Presidential Search

Leadership

Janet Balajthy Appointed Vice President

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Tue, 09 Jun 2015 15:17:20 +0000

Press Room

Janet Balajthy Appointed Vice President

^{For Immediate Release}

(Madison, WI) --- Janet Luhrs Balajthy has been appointed interim vice president and director of Collegiate Ministries for ��ñ�� Christian Fellowship.

Janet began her career with ��ñ�� planting campus chapters on Long Island in 1975, and she became ��ñ��’s first female regional director, overseeing the work in New York/New Jersey for seven years. She served as the national field director for the Northeast for 13 years before becoming the associate director of Collegiate Ministries. Janet also presides over ��ñ��’s Women’s Council.

Janet holds graduate degrees in counseling from Hofstra University and in biblical studies from Wheaton College Graduate School. She and her husband live in Rochester, New York, and have two grown children.

“Janet brings a wealth of insight and experience from her decades ministering among students and faculty,” said president Jim Lundgren. “She has been invaluable to the movement as associate director of Collegiate Ministries, and ��ñ�� is blessed to have someone so well prepared for this role.” Janet will continue to reside in Rochester, and will begin her new role on June 22.

Janet’s appointment was one of the first decisions announced by Jim, after becoming president of ��ñ��. Jim was appointed interim president by ��ñ��’s board of trustees following the announcement by former president Alec Hill that he was stepping down, due to a diagnosis of bone marrow cancer.

��ñ�� is a campus ministry that has been active on U.S. college and university campuses for almost 75 years. ��ñ�� is a charter affiliate with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES), and is a charter member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).

^{For more information contact:

Gordon Govier

ggovier@intervarsity.org

608/443-3688}

News Keywords

Vice President

transition

Collegiate Ministries

��ñ�� Enters Leadership Transition

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Thu, 14 May 2015 19:03:54 +0000

Press Room

��ñ�� Enters Leadership Transition

For Immediate Release

(Madison, WI) -- We are deeply saddened to announce that ��ñ�� President Alec Hill has been diagnosed with myelodysplasia, a cancer of the bone marrow, which requires rigorous treatment. As a result of this news, Alec will enter cancer treatment on June 10.

The entire ��ñ�� Christian Fellowship family laments and joins together in prayer for Alec’s complete healing.

The ��ñ�� Board of Trustees will meet in early June, at which point an interim president will be appointed.

Alec had originally planned to announce his departure from the president’s role this November and then to stay in office until the selection of a new president in the spring of 2016. The Board has already formed a Discernment and Search Task Force to begin the process of finding a new president.

��ñ�� is deeply thankful for Alec’s 14 fruitful years of service. Through him, God has led us to a clarified vision and a more focused strategy to see students and faculty transformed, campuses renewed, and men and women sent into the world to serve God.

Ron Williams, ��ñ��’s Board Chair, expresses his appreciation: “Alec has played a key role in encouraging and shepherding us. And we pray that he will experience God’s shepherding and grace as he faces the unexpected journey ahead.”

Please join us in praying that God will bring him complete healing.

Alec gives thanks for the community he has led since 2001: “I am so grateful for the truly remarkable people—trustees, vice presidents, staff, faculty, students, and supporters—that I’ve had the honor to serve with. The Lord has blessed our campus mission in ways that I couldn’t have imagined possible. I look to a future guided by His hand.”

UPDATE: Alec Hill returns to ��ñ�� as president emeritus.

Information contact:

Gordon Govier
ggovier@intervarsity.org
608/628-8609(m)
608/443-3688(o)

��ñ��
635 Science Drive, P.O. Box 7895
Madison, WI 53707-7895

News Keywords

transition

President

Celebrating the Long Wait

webteam@intervarsity.org — Mon, 17 May 2010 05:00:00 +0000

News

Abi Christian

Celebrating the Long Wait

For college students, hearing the question, “What’s your major?” is as common as late night cramming and a diet of cheap food. Everyone wants to know. For me, I felt my brief answer revealed some of my strengths, interests, and potential career paths. The answer was a convenient way to let someone know who I was.

After graduation, the question inevitably changes to, “What do you do?” As I spent my first few years trying to navigate new jobs, entry level positions, and unemployment, my answer sounded startlingly bleak. In a time of difficult transition, my identity began to feel hazy.

The Red-Eye-Shift Baker

Two weeks after graduating, I had found a job to pay rent, working early hours in a bakery. But I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do in the long term or where God wanted me to go. I prayed for direction and diligently applied for jobs.

One day during the peak of my job-hunting frustration, I was cleaning an enormous industrial metal bowl used for mixing bread dough. As I tipped it to the side, I lost control and the bowl toppled over on top of my foot.

With the sudden shooting pain, my anger with God shot to the surface. “I’m done!” I exploded. “I want out!” I was tired of waiting on God, not knowing what would come next. American author James Baldwin once wrote, “An identity is questioned only when it is menaced,” and I was wondering if my faith was enough to carry me through.

After two years, I quit my job to focus on finding a better fit. Unfortunately, the economy was having its own troubles and open positions were scarce. I remember avoiding calls from the alumni department at my university, who would ask about my job title, salary, and whether or not I was working in my field of major for their statistical reports. I had been a good student in college, but I felt I was failing Life 101. I let my unemployment begin to define who I was, and I wasn’t happy with the result.

A Firm Foundation

Thankfully, my church began a series of sermons that reminded me of how God sees me. When doubt and fear creep in, my confidence comes from being a child of God, adopted into a heavenly family. No job, circumstance, or relationship can alter the fact that my salvation comes from Jesus’ death on the cross.

If my identity came from the job I held, the threat of change would topple me. If my foundation was in my own skill and talent, I would constantly fear failure. Instead, as a new creation, my identity rests in God, whom the Bible depicts as a mighty fortress, and Jesus as the chief cornerstone.

As Christians, we often learn these truths when we first decide to follow Jesus. But when times of uncertainty threaten to overwhelm us, we’re given the opportunity to act on who we are in Christ. We can even celebrate the long wait for our circumstances to change, knowing God may be trying to show us how he sees us—unblemished and beautiful.

Despite my anger that day in the bakery, I knew that God had been faithful to me in the past, and that he delights to give good things. I was still waiting and unsure of my next step, but my wait was not unprecedented.

The Wait

In the Bible, after promising him descendants like the stars, God made Abraham wait until old-age for a son, and then asked Abraham to sacrifice his son. David was anointed as the next king of Israel, but then returned to care for his sheep, perfecting his sling-shot aim. God had good things lined up, but first he made those he loved go through painfully trying times or small, mundane tasks.

Waiting gave Abraham stronger faith and gave David wisdom to lead his future flock. As I waited for my career change, God began to remind me of the reasons why I wanted Jesus in my life when I was child, why I chose to follow God rather than people in high school, and why I pursued ways to serve God in college. I was re-learning the basics of my relationship with God, my identity as his child growing deeper.

I don’t think I always celebrate my time of waiting very well. I still have moments of anxiety, doubt, and cynicism. But I realize that although my circumstances may move slowly, God is still teaching me to see myself the way he sees me. And that is worth celebrating.

News Keywords

Life after College

transition

transition

��ñ���� Seeks New President

��ñ���� Seeks New President

Janet Balajthy Appointed Vice President

Janet Balajthy Appointed Vice President

��ñ���� Enters Leadership Transition

��ñ���� Enters Leadership Transition

Celebrating the Long Wait

Celebrating the Long Wait

��ñ�� Seeks New President

��ñ�� Seeks New President

��ñ�� Enters Leadership Transition

��ñ�� Enters Leadership Transition