outreach

Steps of Faith—Reaching the Houseless

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 23:23:55 +0000

Nathan Peterson

Steps of Faith—Reaching the Houseless

White sandy beaches. Turquoise water. Clear skies and beautiful sunsets. They’re usually the first things that come to mind when people think of Hawai’i.

But what about not knowing where your next meal will come from? What about not knowing where you’ll sleep tonight? For the members of Maui’s community who are houseless, those questions are very real.

They’re just as real to God. And he laid these struggles on the hearts of one ��ñ�� chapter, from the University of Hawai’i Maui College, and called them to act. They were inspired by two stories—one helping them truly see the realities of their houseless brothers and sisters and another encouraging them to step out in faith to serve.

Faith Renewed

Last year’s spring semester wasn’t easy for Kahala. By 4:45 a.m., she was up already and moving the van she’d slept in. By 6:30, she needed to be done getting washed up after finding an open bathroom. An hour later, she had to be at her school’s student lounge with microwaveable meals ready to heat up for breakfast. And she had to do all this with three children. For six weeks.

The day Kahala had to gather up the kids, hurry them into the van, driving away from their home, it started pouring across Maui. “The entire time we were homeless and sleeping in our van, that same heavy rain continued,” she said. “I felt as though the heavens were crying with me.”

Kahala did her best to stay strong and confident for her kids, attending small group Bible studies and church just like normal. “This was tremendously hard,” she said. “But we knew that we were doing the right thing, which solidified our faith. We knew it was a matter of time and any other thoughts were banished from existence, even if we cried all night.”

Having lived on the streets of Philadelphia’s inner city when she was younger, Kahala couldn’t help thinking of those times as she tried making the best of her situation in Maui with her kids. “Each day brought plenty of obstacles, emotional baggage, and an ounce of despair,” she said. “Each day equally brought new people who would try to help.”

Throughout this challenging season, God faithfully provided for Kahala and her family through the generous love of her community. Classmates opened up their homes. Kahala was able to deeply connect with new people. And on Valentine’s Day, just when it felt like she couldn’t handle much more, God provided Kahala with an affordable apartment. The landlord, knowing her situation, even covered the first month’s rent.

“Our faith [has been] renewed, and our family reminded of why we are supposed to stick together,” Kahala said.

Faith Over Fear

“Have you thought about planning that outreach event I mentioned a few months ago?” asked Brennan, ��ñ��’s Area Director for Hawai’i.

“Uh . . .” Naomi’s eyes dropped to the floor as she answered her supervisor. “Not yet.”

Brennan’s voice came over the phone, gentle and gracious. “How come? Is there something holding you back?”

“I’m not sure,” Naomi said.

Overall, this past school year had been really encouraging for her. Serving as the campus minister of a newly planted ministry, Naomi had seen 15 students drawn to the chapter at the University of Hawai’i Maui College. Four had either made first-time decisions to follow Jesus or recommitted their lives to him. God had also renewed Naomi’s passion for ministry and Maui, her home island. He’d even giver her the opportunity to serve as the prayer leader for the school’s Hawaiian Club.

But still there was this outreach event . . . she’d been putting it off for months.

“Naomi, are you still there?” Brennan asked.

“Yeah,” she switched the phone to her other hand. “Honestly, I’m not sure what’s holding me back.”

Brennan continued asking questions, listening carefully. Together they discovered the reason behind her procrastinating: Naomi was afraid of failure.

“I didn’t think that talking about not planning and doing one specific event would lead me to such a deep revelation about the internal, emotional work that God was doing,” she said later. “I felt God’s challenge to be unafraid and move forward. Brennan reminded me it wasn’t about just crossing something off the list but about the heart behind it. It was clear that my heart wasn’t fully in it, and that needed to be changed.”

Brennan went on to ask Naomi to pray for faith over her fears. “[Those prayers] would help her to lean into Jesus for his mind and heart,” he recalled. “Naomi responded faithfully . . . and saw God show up in transforming her heart and mind.”

Reminded that God wasn’t asking her to come up with a perfect event but rather was just asking her to try, Naomi took a step of faith planning an outreach event for Maui’s houseless in the city of Kahului to offer them help and hope, tangible encouragement.

Faith Together

Naomi began the outreach by gathering five students together around a picnic table on campus. Kahala was among them and felt led to share. “One thing I have learned very early on is that we need to be the living example of what we need to see,” she said, looking back on that moment. “This leading by example is inspiring to others.”

Kahala began opening up about her own experience of houselessness and how she had just found an apartment a few weeks earlier. She spoke of how her faith has grown in God’s provision, how he’s called her to give generously to other families who are struggling, even when she didn’t have much. The others listened intently, coming around to comfort her as she began to weep.

“The students . . . could tell that even though [Kahala] shared about her own generosity, there was much more she has given but wasn’t sharing,” Naomi recalled. “They were able to see [her] heart of generosity, aloha, and humility.”

Naomi went on to read Acts 2:42–47. Her longing to see this kind of beautiful community, when combined with Kahala’s testimony, inspired the students to give their own money to cover some of the supplies for the outreach event.

They then took to the streets of downtown Kahului to hand out blankets, towels, and feminine products, spending time listening and talking to their houseless brothers and sisters. Moved by all they’d heard, the students boldly stepped out in faith, inviting many people to upcoming chapter events.

“Being seen on the streets . . . meant that folks who knew the students might have seen them and been concerned or worried for their well-being or just wondered what they were doing out there in the middle of the afternoon talking with houseless folks,” Naomi said. “This would provide opportunities for these students to have conversations about their faith or about God.

“I saw students grow in determination and their heart for other people,” she continued. “I knew they loved each other, the small group on campus, and their classmates, who they were close with, but seeing them reach out to strangers, to talk and even pray with them was a side of them I hadn’t seen all the time.”

“[We] listened to the hearts of those who wanted to share their journeys with us,” Kahala said. “We were able to pray with them and provide support. It felt great to do this with our brothers and sisters in faith and not through an existing human service provider. It showed us how much our friends in faith truly cared and that we were all ready to stand to make a difference.”

As Kahala continued to cling to her faith through a difficult season, as Naomi faced her fears head-on through God’s grace and power, many lives were changed. Maui’s houseless tangibly experienced the love of Christ.

News Keywords

#good4campus

Hawaii

University of Hawai’i Maui College

Maui

outreach

houseless

Laborers of Many Harvests–Transformation of a Middle School, College Campus, and City

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 17:16:15 +0000

Ashlye Vanderworp

Laborers of Many Harvests–Transformation of a Middle School, College Campus, and City

If you ask Campus Staff Minister Jamal Morris what makes his ministry unique, he’ll laugh and say, “It’d probably take an outsider to tell you . . . It’s just second nature to me.” When he came on staff with ��ñ�� almost 12 years ago, he kept encountering the same problem. Students he met at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga (UTC) didn’t want to have anything to do with Christianity because they didn’t see how it made an actual difference in the world. They wanted to be a part of something real, particularly something that could alleviate pain in the inner-city.

Jamal coined a term for these students: the “unchurchable.” He recognized that these students were done with church, and ��ñ��’s traditional method of ministry wouldn’t enable him to reach the unchurchable at UTC. He needed to do something more.

Through his connections as a former youth pastor, Jamal began reaching out to local middle schools to see if there was a way they could partner with his campus ministry. These were some of the lowest performing schools in Tennessee, plagued by generations of segregation and gentrification, and were often seen as “gang initiating” schools.

Orchard Knob Middle School, where UTC ��ñ�� currently serves, responded. “I asked the principal if I could observe the students and build relationships with them,” Jamal said. “Then, I asked the college students to come with me and observe their conversations using the OIA [observation, interpretation, application] method.”

This birthed ��ñ��/Urban Initiative, a turning point for Jamal’s ministry at UTC. Since then, ��ñ�� students have hosted SHINE and RARE, one-and-a-half-year mentoring courses for female and male students, respectively, at Orchard Knob. Students there normally have no access to college students, so they’re seeing a picture of what their lives can be like in the years to come that they wouldn’t otherwise.

In order to put on SHINE and RARE, the format of ��ñ�� at UTC looks a little different than it does at most other campuses. In small groups, college students do inductive Bible study that then helps them prepare curriculum for the middle school students. They look at Scripture, think about what the students are needing, and then ask God how to apply Scripture to the students’ situations.

SHINE has covered all sorts of topics, such as body image, often through some sort of craft or activity. RARE discussions also range widely and have included topics like what to do when you feel like taking revenge on someone who has hurt you, followed by some sort of sports activity like dodgeball.

“We’re helping them learn how to make the right decisions,” Jamal said. “It’s discipleship from a place of foolishness to a place of wisdom.”

And ��ñ��/Urban Initiative has seen God move in powerful ways in the lives of students and in the community as a whole.

Influencing Life at Orchard Knob

Of the many stories they’ve been a part of, ��ñ��/Urban Initiative most recently played a major role in the life of eighth grader, Tyler. Tyler never saw schoolwork as important and saw being intelligent as a feminine trait. This became such a problem that he was expelled in the 2017–2018 school year. Getting a second chance, Tyler came back to Orchard Knob in the fall and joined RARE. Being around and learning from college-aged men was new for him, and he was able to see through them how it’s possible to be both manly and smart. As he also learned the importance of setting goals, his life did a complete 180, and he finished the school year with a 4.0 GPA. On top of that, Tyler was the winner of the city’s middle school wrestling tournament.

��ñ��’s influencing extends to Orchard Knob administration as well. When the school experiences difficult situations such as gang or mental health issues, ��ñ�� is who they call. They also continually involve themselves in Orchard Knob life and community, hosting festivals, attending students’ basketball games, and more. They’re caring deeply for the school and helping fix problems that are neglected by other community groups, the city itself, and even churches.

Influencing the College Campus

But it’s not just the lives of middle schoolers that have been influenced through ��ñ�� at UTC. The college students, as well, are experiencing their worldviews shifting. Students who used to see their future careers, including multiple pre-med students, as a way to live a wealthy and successful lifestyle to escape the injustices of the city now see their degrees and professions as an opportunity to pour back into the community.

Students involved in ��ñ��/Urban Initiative now also have an easier time inviting classmates and friends to Large Group and other events because they can easily point to how they’re a part of real change. They’ve learned how to talk about Scripture and Jesus’ love for the world with specific examples of what they’ve seen, and that’s appealing to others.

“It’s not a sheltered belief system,” Jamal said. “It makes it more ‘cool.’”

Their Large Group strategy also seeks to better contextualize ministry for UTC students’ needs. Rather than coming up with content at the beginning of the semester, they pay close attention to what’s happening in the culture on campus. Then, Large Groups alternate between more typical inductive Bible studies and topical discussions based around addressing some sort of event or situation on campus. They also use Large Groups as a chance to invite more students to serve with them at Orchard Knob.

Growing in Influence

In 2018, ��ñ��/Urban Initiative was awarded Best Student Organization by UTC. Others are seeing the value of what the organization does on campus and in the community. That year, the student leadership team’s principles were relevancy and relationships, and they based everything they did on Matthew 9:36-38: "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.'” They wanted to have compassion for the issues and the students at both the middle school and college campus, as they sought to be laborers of both harvests.

��ñ��/Urban Initiative’s influence continues to grow, and they look forward to serving an additional middle school this year. Jamal is also working to expand this model of ministry to Tennessee State University, so that another group of middle school students, another college campus, and another city will experience the transformative, healing power of Jesus in the unique way Chattanooga has.

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Partnership, Commitment, and the Power of Cookies

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Wed, 23 Oct 2019 15:26:26 +0000

Emily Baez

Partnership, Commitment, and the Power of Cookies

When asked about outreach, students couldn’t agree on the best part.

“Outreach is great because it’s so easy” and “I like it for the calm feeling you get when you invite strangers to Bible study” were common answers.

Others mentioned how much they love being ignored or never hearing from someone again after a meaningful conversation they had while doing outreach.

If what you just read sounds made up, that’s because it is.

For a lot of Christians, efforts to spread awareness of our ministry, and of the gospel, and welcome others into our lives (aka outreach), can be challenging, to say the least. It’s not that we lack confidence in a good and faithful God. Often, the difficulty is rooted in the anxiety we feel when we share our core values with others, only to face rejection. Because outreach can be an awkward experience, some avoid it completely. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

��ñ�� students at Russell Sage College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, made this discovery. Two years ago, they decided to try a cookie drive as a way to engage their campus. Their plan was to deliver cookies weekly through a sign up sheet in which students could receive cookies up to a few times a semester–for free.

“I didn’t believe there were good people in the world,” a student said when ��ñ�� campus staff, Niki, explained the no-cost, no-catch, baked goods service.

“Me neither,” Niki replied. “But I believe in a God who helps me do better.”

Before the cookie drive, the highest number of students the Russell Sage and Rensselaer ��ñ�� chapters had met in any new student outreach was 500. Their first year doing the cookie drive, they met 1,000 students. This past year? 1,400. That’s 2,400 students who received cookies and an introduction to “that ��ñ�� club.”

The way they’re pulling it off is simple: partnership, commitment, and the power of cookies.

Partnership

Local churches partnered with the ��ñ�� chapters at Rensselaer and Russell Sage to prepare and bake the cookies each week. Then, as word got out about the drive, neighbors and other church members got involved. They reached out to Niki and asked how they could be praying for students. One man in Troy offered to bake cookies every Monday and has now been doing so for the past year.

At both schools, the chapters have received an encouraging amount of support from Resident Assistants on campus. Over at Rensselaer, RAs were so moved by the drive, they started advertising it to their dorms. And at Russell Sage, though the cookie drive had a seemingly rocky start, an RA remains one of their biggest fans. She confronted the group one day as they were spreading the news about their drive near a freshman dorm. At first, the group worried they were in trouble. But they were instead met with enthusiasm. The RA told them that because Russell Sage is such a small school, it’s hard to get students excited about anything. She asked them to keep it up and is grateful that their outreach is bringing some liveliness to that part of campus.

Commitment

The students running the cookie drive collect names and addresses, sometimes help bake cookies, and deliver them. If they deliver cookies to a dorm and the recipient isn’t there, they’ll leave the cookies and ask any roommates if they’d like the free treats next time. The opportunities to expand not only their reach, but also their workload, never end.

Their committed efforts mean they’ve become a well-known group on campus. Even professors and graduate students have asked the group to deliver cookies to them.

It’s a lot of responsibility, but they know it’s worth it. They rotate groups throughout the school year and even have students handling it during the summer. And yes, they do this every week without missing a beat—often, more than once a week.

The Power of Cookies

Everyone loves cookies. In fact, students came out in droves to bake alongside ��ñ�� when they organized a cookie delivery during finals week. This gathering gave students of different beliefs and backgrounds a shared space to not only work together on something they can all agree on—cookies and the happiness they bring—but to also begin conversations about faith. They invited students to Large Group, and some came. But those who didn’t left knowing that ��ñ�� exists, and it’s a place on campus where they’re always welcome.

Recently, the chapter tried something a little different and put on a cupcake decorating event. A student approached them and said, “I knew you were the Christian group.” He continued to explain how their presence was a comfort to him. If he ever felt stressed or faced a time of crisis, he knew there was a group of people on campus who cared, and he wouldn’t hesitate to reach out.

So yes, fresh, warm cookies (or the occasional cupcake) are a blessing. Few would deny that. But it’s not just the cookies that make this such a successful outreach. People are moved by generosity. These students and those partnered with the chapter sacrifice time, resources, and labor to provide this service. And while reactions range from excitement to curiosity to skepticism, all can agree that the free cookie drive isn’t ordinary. That’s why it’s so effective.

The Result

Niki says that since starting this outreach, her students are less timid to “out” themselves as Christians. They know that in certain contexts that label can carry some uncomfortable weight. Not every Christian regularly reveals the nature of Christ. But students and faculty on both campuses are witnessing that nature now from these ��ñ�� chapters. Jesus came to serve and to be a light in the lives of those around him. ��ñ�� students at Rensselaer and Russell Sage have become that light to others. As a result, they’ve dispelled many of the stigmas surrounding religious organizations on campus.

While it may initially seem like these two groups in New York are just running a mobile bakery, they’re really accomplishing so much more. In the process, they’re meeting people they otherwise wouldn’t, having meaningful conversations, and becoming a constant, friendly presence in the lives of their peers. Although this method of outreach still isn’t easy (because outreach will probably never be easy), it’s happening . . . and it’s changing the culture of the campus as it does.

***

As ��ñ�� seeks to see every corner of every campus reached with the real hope of Jesus by 2030, we know we can't do it alone. That's why we're engaging partners–alumni, other organizations, and churches, like the ones who bake cookies for Russell Sage College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, to join us. Find out more about our 2030 Calling by clicking the button below.

Read about the 2030 Calling

News Keywords

#good4campus

Russell Sage College

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

outreach

New York

��ñ�� Prepares to Reach 2,500 Campuses by Year 2030

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 18:04:14 +0000

Press Room

��ñ�� Prepares to Reach 2,500 Campuses by Year 2030

For Release: August 20, 2018

(Madison, WI) – ��ñ�� announces today that the campus ministry will focus on establishing Christian fellowships on 2,500 college campuses in the next 12 years.

As more than 1,500 ��ñ�� campus staff ministers, along with student and faculty leaders, return to campuses this fall, their focus is on the 2030 Calling, which states: Longing for revival, we catalyze movements that call every corner of every campus to follow Jesus.

“We want to see a witnessing community on all 2,500 US campuses with 1,000 students or more by the year 2030,” says ��ñ�� President Tom Lin. “Right now, 53 percent of those 2,500 campuses do not have any known Christian ministry. We have seen that college students are still looking for hope and significance for their lives. In fact, the last 10 years have been among the most fruitful in ��ñ��’s 77-year history.”

Of the 20 million students in college right now, nearly one-third have no religious affiliation or identify as atheist, agnostic, or of no religion. To reach more of these students, ��ñ�� plans to accelerate the planting of new chapters throughout the country, partnering with other campus ministries as well as churches, volunteers, and ��ñ�� alumni. In addition, ��ñ�� is uniquely positioned to reach faculty members because of the nearly 2,000 faculty on campuses across the country involved with ��ñ�� in the 2017–2018 academic year.

“The 2030 Calling represents a new shift in how ��ñ�� approaches campus ministry," Lin says. "More than ever before, ��ñ�� is inviting partners from every part of God’s kingdom to participate in his work among students and faculty. This is not about planting ��ñ��’s flag on every campus; it’s about declaring God’s glory on every campus.”

��ñ�� has chapters in all 50 states, on a total of 695 campuses. A recent highlight is the relocation of ��ñ�� staff from Los Angeles to revive campus ministry along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana.

“We believe the Lord can use us, in partnership with others, to bring a powerful movement of the Spirit among a new generation of students and faculty,” Lin says. “We truly are longing for revival on campus. And we believe that, in the next 12 years, that’s exactly what God will do through the 2030 Calling.”

Real Hope on Campus from ��ñ�� twentyonehundred on Vimeo.

��ñ�� is an interdenominational ministry to students and faculty on US college and university campuses, as well as the publisher of award-winning books on the Christian faith through ��ñ�� Press. ��ñ�� is a founding member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, advancing Christian student work in more than 160 countries. ��ñ�� is also a charter member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

For more information contact:

Gordon Govier
Media Relations
608/443-3688

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Ambition Is Shaping the Future of ��ñ��

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 19:32:47 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

Ambition Is Shaping the Future of ��ñ��

��ñ��’s 2018 Ambition conference was called to inspire, equip, and release students and faculty to plant witnessing communities in every corner of every campus. The conference drew 700 students and 300 staff, plus faculty members, church partners, and other guests, to the House of Blues in Anaheim, California, in mid-January.

Efrem Smith, pastor of Bayside Church in Sacramento, California, and former CEO of World Impact, an inner-city church planting movement, told the attendees that reaching out to new communities is not just about reaching more people. “Planting is a revolution,” he said, and challenged them to plant with revolutionary compassion, like Jesus, and with revolutionary authority.

On the final morning of the conference, longtime southern California staff members Beau and Kristina Crosetto announced that they were moving in 2018 to replant ��ñ�� chapters on campuses in Louisiana. They were followed by ��ñ�� Executive Vice President, Field Ministry, Jason Thomas and Mark Gauthier, Vice President and Executive Director of Campus Ministry for Cru, who talked about how God had led both organizations together to partner on a new website, http://everycampus.us/. The website’s goal is to create more partnerships in order to see that every U.S. college campus is reached with the gospel.

Ambition Director Shawn Young, ��ñ��’s National Director of Chapter Planting, invited ��ñ�� staff leaders to speak at Ambition, but also students. “Students are speaking to our movement in powerful ways; it's not just our staff trying to speak to the next generation of our students,” he said. “It’s not just that students have good stories to tell and that their testimonies are important. They actually have important challenges, exhortation, and encouraging words.”

Students came from across the country to attend Ambition, including three students from Pennsylvania, who said afterward:

I want to become a Resident Assistant and start a dorm ministry at York College.
I am excited to go back to Penn State Mont Alto and reach atheists.
God renewed my ambition to reach Black students, as well as start a prayer ministry at F&M College.

For another student, Ashley, Ambition was about setting higher goals. “Don’t underestimate what God wants to do for you,” she said. And Al-Nisa said, “I’m learning to hear God for myself and not have to hear from somebody else.”

The conference demonstrated that ��ñ�� is defining ourselves not by the number of campuses that we are on, but by the number of campuses that God is calling us to. He is inviting us to develop partnerships in ministry with more students, more churches, more alumni volunteers, and more like-minded organizations. Ambition is shaping our response to our 2030 Calling, to reach every corner of every campus by the year 2030.

Shawn said the conference has exceeded his hopes as it has steadily grown larger than each previous Ambition conference. “Everything we wanted to see in terms of empowering students and faculty to reach their campus and consider other campuses around the country is really coming true,” he said.

The seven general sessions of Ambition can be viewed at our YouTube channel. The Ambition conference is based on the words of the apostle Paul, “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation” (Romans 15:20).

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��ñ�� Students and Staff Plan to Reach More Campuses at Ambition Conference

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 16:51:54 +0000

Press Room

��ñ�� Students and Staff Plan to Reach More Campuses at Ambition Conference

(Madison, WI) -- ��ñ��’s Ambition conference, held in Anaheim, California, January 11-13, 2018, focuses on an ambitious goal. More than 700 college students, 300 ��ñ�� staff, and a number of college faculty are meeting to plan and strategize what is needed to plant witnessing communities on every U.S. campus.

The conference is directed by Shawn Young, ��ñ��’s National Director of Chapter Planting, and features the Rev. Efrem Smith, founding pastor of The Sanctuary Covenant Church and CEO of World Impact, an organization that helps train leaders in urban ministry and plant churches in the inner city.

Ambition will also hear from a leader of another organization which shares ��ñ��’s ambitious vision. Mark Gauthier, Executive Director of U.S. Campus Ministry for Cru, will be speaking at Ambition’s Saturday morning session. Mark, and Jason Thomas, ��ñ��’s Executive Vice President of Field Ministries, also appeared together at Cru’s national staff conference last July.

Moved by the Lord to ask, “What can we accomplish together that we cannot apart?” ��ñ�� and Cru leadership have committed to collaborate on campus in order to see more students and faculty become followers of Jesus Christ. They are jointly sponsoring a new website inviting other individuals, churches, and ministries to partner together in order to see a Christian witness on all U.S. campuses. The website is at everycampus.us.

The Ambition Live Stream can be accessed at: /ambition/. Sessions are held between 7:00p.m. and 9:00p.m. (PST) and 9:30a.m. – 12:30p.m., beginning Thursday evening and ending Saturday evening. The name for ��ñ��’s Ambition conference is taken from the words of the Apostle Paul: "It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation.” [Romans 15:20]

��ñ�� is an interdenominational ministry to students and faculty on U.S. college and university campuses, working with more than 41,000 core students and faculty on 687 campuses nationwide. ��ñ�� is a founding member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, advancing Christian student work in more than 160 countries. ��ñ�� is also a charter member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

Follow along with the Ambition conference and ��ñ�� at:

https://www.instagram.com/intervarsityusa/

https://twitter.com/INTERVARSITYusa

https://www.facebook.com/intervarsityusa/

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Bringing New Life to Every Corner of Every Campus

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 13:22:12 +0000

Press Room

Bringing New Life to Every Corner of Every Campus

(Madison, WI) -- ��ñ��’s ministry vision includes not only transformation for students and faculty but renewal for the college campus.

“Universities bring life-changing wisdom, insight, and discovery to the world,” said Tom Lin, president of ��ñ��. “We long for Christian faculty and students to contribute their God-given gifts to these efforts. As this past weekend at University of Virginia demonstrates, universities also serve as the backdrop for ideas and idols that deface and destroy life. We believe the Gospel calls us to confront and denounce sins like white supremacy. We also want to offer the transforming hope of repentance and new life to the people who propagate these ideologies.”

With a new six-member Executive Leadership Team and 10 new vice presidents assembled over the past year, ��ñ�� has reaffirmed our commitment to our vision of transformation and renewal. “We are longing to see God bring new life in new ways on campuses across the country, and to catalyze movements that call every corner of every campus to follow Jesus,” Lin said, as he reflected on his first year as president. “We want to see systems and structures, ideas and idols change. These leaders will help us steward our values even more closely, respond to God’s invitations more nimbly, and lead God’s mission on campus more joyfully,”

To meet the challenge of reaching every campus, ��ñ�� also has a record number of staff serving a record number of colleges, with 1341 staff ministering on 687 campuses. At the same time, the number of people coming to faith through ��ñ��’s campus ministry is at its highest ever in ��ñ��’s 76-year history—up 12 percent from one year ago, up 130 percent from 10 years ago.

To reach more campuses, ��ñ�� is pursuing new partnerships: “How can we best partner in reaching the approximately 2,600 campuses currently unreached by any major campus ministry?” Lin asked. “Could we empower more churches and other ministries to work alongside us to reach the campus? Beyond U.S. partnerships, what could God do if we more intentionally sought out best thinking and practices from our sister movements in the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students?”

In his travels during his first year as president, Lin said that he has heard regularly from people he meets about how ��ñ�� staff and ��ñ�� Press books have changed their lives. But he stressed that student-driven ministry is the heart of ��ñ��’s mission. “Our chapter planting leadership team has done an amazing job creating a planting culture in ��ñ��,” he said. “Not just staff but student leaders are catching the vision and reaching out to neighboring campuses. These students are not simply sheep to be gathered, but seed to be scattered.”

��ñ�� is an interdenominational ministry to students and faculty on U.S. college and university campuses, working with more than 41,000 core students and faculty on 687 campuses nationwide. ��ñ�� is a founding member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, advancing Christian student work in 160 countries. ��ñ�� is also a charter member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

News Keywords

University of Virginia

renew

vision