Revival

Changed Hearts & Prayerful Revival at UW-Whitewater

AD-18513 — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 13:09:05 +0000

Nathan Peterson

Changed Hearts & Prayerful Revival at UW-Whitewater

Luke Francis, the Campus Staff Minister at the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater (UW-Whitewater), knows what it means to long for something. As a student, he organized daily prayer meetings to intercede for campus. But usually, he prayed by himself.

Though he was disappointed, Luke reflected, “One of the things that the Lord was teaching me is that sometimes slow change is what lasts. It isn’t always about getting people to do things right away because it’s a heart change that has to happen.”

Today, 11 years later, Luke is finally seeing that heart change. “Students are willingly, eagerly meeting to pray every day,” he said. “And they’re praying for things they’ve never seen happen before on campus.”

Luke identified three common themes his students have been praying for: more people coming to faith in Jesus, the chapter growing in numbers, and their fellowship becoming more diverse.

God has answered those prayers. More hearts are changing. During the fall of 2019, 13 students committed their lives to Jesus in just one large group meeting. The chapter is growing in diversity, including a growing Black Campus Ministry (BCM), and students are catching a vision to reach new corners of campus they had never considered before.

“I believe that prayer leads to revival. First, it starts with personal revival,” Luke said. “But then it moves beyond that to where our heart for the campus grows, and we desire for other people to know Jesus in the way we know him.”

Watch the video below to hear more about God’s transforming work at UW-Whitewater.

News Keywords

Collegiate Day of Prayer Unites Prayer for Revival on Campus

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 24 Feb 2020 21:31:30 +0000

Press Room

Collegiate Day of Prayer Unites Prayer for Revival on Campus

For Immediate Release

(Madison, WI)— ��ñ�� Christian Fellowship partners with 30 other ministries to promote the annual Collegiate Day of Prayer (CDOP), Thursday, February 27, 2020, uniting prayer for students and faculty on 4,944 college and university campuses across the country.

We are inviting people to adopt a specific campus to pray for and to ask God for national revival and awakening.

Last year, in 2019, all 4,944 college campuses were adopted and prayed for on CDOP. As the year continued, many of those campuses were also prayer walked, as part of the EveryCampus initiative involving ��ñ�� and more than 50 other ministries, uniting behind the vision of seeing witnessing communities of believers established on every US campus.

��ñ��’s participation in CDOP and EveryCampus is part of our 2030 Calling, a longing for revival that encourages us to catalyze movements that call every corner of every campus to follow Jesus. We know that the goals that we have set are impossible without the work of the Holy Spirit in partnerships like CDOP and EveryCampus.

“A growing list of leaders, inside the church and outside, see our country in desperate need of revival,” said ��ñ�� president Tom Lin. “We should take every opportunity we can to unite our prayers, seeking God for this much-needed out-pouring of his Holy Spirit.”

A live CDOP simulcast will be hosted at Yale University at 8:00 p.m. EST, on February 27, as the day winds down. The simulcast provides another opportunity to come together before God to pray for God’s renewing work on campus, today as in years past. In the early nineteenth century, Concerts of Prayer for Colleges were regularly featured on many campuses, including Yale.

��ñ�� Christian Fellowship has 1,119 student and faculty chapters on 772 campuses across the US, from the Ivy League to community colleges. ��ñ�� is a founding member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students and a charter member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

For more information:
Gordon Govier
608/628-8609

News Keywords

Collaborative Effort Sees Almost EveryCampus in US Prayer Walked

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 18:47:07 +0000

Press Room

Collaborative Effort Sees Almost EveryCampus in US Prayer Walked

For Immediate Release

(Madison, WI) – ��ñ�� Christian Fellowship partnered with a host of other ministries, churches, and individuals during 2019, in an ambitious attempt to prayer walk every US college campus, all 4,948 of them. The EveryCampus collaboration was initiated, “seeking God for revival by making gospel communities on every campus a possibility” with prayer laying the foundation as the first step.

At the end of 2019, about 3,650 of the 4,948 US campuses had registered at least one prayer walk. “Our hope is that people start to experience what we in campus ministries see every day, that Jesus is alive and well on every single campus in the country already,” ��ñ�� Vice President Jon Hietbrink said. ”We don’t bring God to those campuses. God is already at work in those places, we’re just joining Him.”

More than 50 ministries have joined the EveryCampus coalition initiated by ��ñ�� and Cru campus ministry in 2017. Leaders of 30 of those ministries joined almost 1,500 ��ñ�� staff and volunteers gathered in Orlando, Florida, at the beginning of 2020 for ��ñ��’s triennial National Staff Conference, to pray together under the theme of the conference, Longing for Revival. (Photo above)

Coalition partners together with ��ñ�� staff are focusing on preparing for the next steps that will lead to transformational campus ministry at more US colleges and universities. One of those steps includes new Adopt-a-Campus resources that ��ñ�� staff, students, and ministry partners can use to plant new chapters.

Many of those who have prayer walked campuses this year have unique stories to tell. ��ñ��’s North Texas Area Director, Benzi George, worked with a local church to plant a Bible study on a community college campus. When the effort started to falter, Benzi and several volunteers from the church prayer walked the campus. As they gathered in a circle for final prayers, they were surprised to find themselves joined by the college president, who encouraged them to continue their efforts.

Montana Area Director Kristin Wright took a 3,290-mile road trip to prayer walk 12 campuses in Montana last June, along with local volunteers at each location. She is excited that the EveryCampus initiative is part of ��ñ��’s 2030 Calling, to catalyze Christian community on every US college campus by the year 2030. “I don’t want to miss out on being a part of something only God can do,” she said.

For more information:
Gordon Govier
608/443-3688

News Keywords

Every Campus Needs Prayer

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 19:53:53 +0000

Press Room

Every Campus Needs Prayer

For Immediate Release

(Madison, WI) – ��ñ�� Christian Fellowship is mobilizing staff, faculty and students, and ministry partners to participate in the annual Collegiate Day of Prayer this Thursday, February 28, 2019.

Collegiate Day of Prayer is a united effort by a broad coalition of ministries to mobilize prayer for God’s work on almost 5,000 US college and university campuses. This united effort to encourage prayer complements the EveryCampus initiative that ��ñ�� is pursuing, in partnership with Cru and other organizations. Furthermore, it highlights a critical part of ��ñ��’s campus ministry.

“Many of our campus chapters have had the tradition of a daily prayer meeting, and campus ministry prayer requests are communicated with thousands of ministry partners on a monthly basis,” said ��ñ�� President Tom Lin. “Since the beginning of ��ñ��’s campus ministry, more than 75 years ago, united prayer has been fundamental, not supplemental, to our work on campus.”

Tracing its roots to 1823, the Collegiate Day of Prayer was designated as a day to appeal to God to pour out his Spirit on colleges and seminaries, on the last Thursday of every February. Revivals were reported on many campuses in succeeding years, and as the Collegiate Day of Prayer website reports, these repeated student awakenings radically transformed the culture and moral climate of many of our largest universities.

��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:
Gordon Govier
Media Relations
608-443-3688

News Keywords

The Beginning of the End

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Fri, 04 May 2018 14:44:54 +0000

News

York Moore

The Beginning of the End

��ñ�� loves faculty, students, and staff, but we love Jesus even more! That’s why the changes that are happening across America give us hope for even better years of ministry than the 77 years behind us.

One would have to go back to the late 1940s to find a time in American history where there have been this many new Christian organizations. There is a virtual explosion of new student movements, and while some are small or regional, several have catapulted to a size and influence on campus that is staggering.

Times are good for us in ��ñ�� too. We’ve never seen so many students come to Jesus in all our history. We continue to add new staff at an unprecedented rate. We are planting new chapters in new places like never before.

That’s good news but what’s even better is that we are not reaching students and faculty alone. We are living in what I believe are just the very first days of a mighty move of God on our campuses. I believe we could see a soul harvest in America in the coming days that will rival the Jesus Movement of the 1970’s. It is not business as usual.

As an additional sign of how the world of campus ministry is changing, Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) and ��ñ�� USA have entered into our very first nation-wide partnership. The partnership initiative, Every Campus, seeks to accelerate planting new ministries throughout the country on the 50% of college campuses that currently have no Christian witness! The hope is to mobilize churches, organizations, and networks to establish Christian communities where there are none. Every Campus is now becoming a coalition of multiple organizations committing with Cru and ��ñ�� to get to the unreached campuses of the U.S. in the coming years. God is definitely doing something in our time.

This is the end of college ministry as we know it, for at least five reasons, and that is a good thing.

For starters, there are more churches and new organizations reaching more places than ever before. And we need every one of them, and many more. If you add up the campuses all eight of the largest, historic campus ministries are on, 50 percent of American colleges still have absolutely no Christian ministry.
We are entering a new era of trust and partnership. As the National Director of Catalytic Partnerships for ��ñ��, I’ve never before seen such a willingness to partner as I’m seeing now. Leaders all over are sensing a new, sweeping move of God, and there is a strong belief that God is calling all of us to partner together to see great things happen.
We don’t own the campus or campus ministry. This is a humbling and sobering fact but a fact nonetheless. The needs of the college campus in America far outstretch the resources of any ministry. ��ñ�� has staff, financial resources, training, conferences, camps, and great leaders but combined these are but five loaves of bread and a couple fish. In the hands of Jesus, however, the resources can be multiplied.
There is a confluence of vision and dreams for revival among leaders. Nearly across the board, campus ministry leaders are sensing God calling their organizations to partner and pray for a mighty revival in our time. Because of this, the old, normal way of just putting our best thoughts and practices in play for the campus isn’t good enough. We need a supernatural move of God!
Finally, it is the end of small things. Over the course of my preaching career, I’ve led over 16,000 people to Jesus. That’s pretty awesome and I’m humbled every time I think about that. I’m even more humbled, however, when I learn that many more college students are coming to Jesus each year through new, young ministries. At campus events, concerts, conferences, and in the streets, God has raised up a new and powerful generation of fire-eyed evangelists who are leading more to Christ in their first years than I’ve seen in over two decades! This gives my heart joy but I still believe this is just the beginning of something yet to come.

Prayer will be a critical part of our future ministry, just as it has been for the past 77 years. I invite you to join with us in regular prayer for our campus mission by signing up for our monthly Intercessor email. At this critical time, please be praying for our ��ñ�� leadership as they develop long-range plans for partnership and mission.

York Moore is a National Evangelist, and National Director of Catalytic Partnerships for ��ñ��.

News Keywords

Chapter Challenging Chapter

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 21:14:04 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

Chapter Challenging Chapter

Elizabeth Booher was near the beginning of her 2011 semester abroad at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, sitting in the first class of the day, when the building started shaking. The university was heavily damaged by the earthquake that struck and ended up being shut down for the semester. Amidst the destruction and casualties in the city, Elizabeth wasn’t sure what to do.

Officials from Smith College, her school back in Massachusetts, called every day, wanting to know if she was returning to the U.S. She decided she was not. A transfer was negotiated to the University of Otago in Dunedin.

Not long after arriving at Otago Elizabeth stumbled across two women having a Bible study in the student center and found out they were part of a campus Christian fellowship, like ��ñ��, affiliated with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES). As she got involved in the chapter, the inductive Bible studies felt very similar to what she was used to in her ��ñ�� chapter back at Smith.

While at Otago, Elizabeth had an honest and deep conversation with a former Campus Staff Minister and confronted the uncertainties and worry she was feeling about an invitation to join ��ñ�� staff after graduation. While she had “majored in ��ñ��” and been very active in the Smith Christian Fellowship (SCF), she was doubtful about her capacity for ministry. But the conversation was very clarifying and when she got back to Smith to begin her senior year, she was ready to start the application process for coming on staff with ��ñ��.

Also at Otago, Elizabeth deepened her appreciation of Christians from other cultures.

“I don’t think I realized how mono-cultural my life was—even though I had friends from so many different ethnic backgrounds and countries as a student at Smith—until I engaged in my faith with students from other cultural experiences,” she said. “It helped humble me and encourage me. It's hard to describe how encouraged I was, especially by my friends from Malaysia and the faith they had. I realized we were really missing those students in our fellowship back home.”

She began her senior year at Smith with a plan to start a Bible study for international students. “At every New Student Outreach event that fall I met at least one international student who was not a Christian who had been wanting to study Scripture,” she said. A local family who lived near campus opened up their home for the Bible study and each week students from a half dozen different countries participated.

Elizabeth is now in her sixth year on staff with ��ñ��. She was a full-time staff minister at Smith for three years but has been part-time there the last two years, as she also became the Area Director for the Five College and Greater Springfield areas of western Massachusetts, now known as the Pioneer Valley Team.

SCF is among the growing number of chapters that no longer have a large group meeting during the week. “It’s clear that at Smith the model of ministry that is working best is small intimate communities with people you already have trust with,” she said. Focusing on small group Bible studies has been a key component of SCF’s growth. But the proximity of vibrant ministry on other nearby campuses has also been key.

The student leaders from Smith and from the chapters at other consortium schools that Elizabeth oversees meet together monthly for training and to pray together. The students are used to taking classes at these nearby campuses, so there’s a lot of unity in the area. “Through the sharing of stories and testimonies, prayer movements have spread from campus to campus,” Elizabeth said. “Students have been encouraged to take risks, and they’ve visited each other’s campuses to learn from each other.”

The spiritual climate is different on each campus but the hunger to see God at work is growing. “There’s a lot of conviction being imparted from schools that are seeking God’s face more earnestly than others,” she added.

As she reflects on her study abroad experience as a student in New Zealand, Elizabeth is thankful for the opportunity to observe the world, and faith in a university context “down under.” She received a new perspective on campus ministry, and grew her appreciation for international student ministry and small group Bible study. It helped form the foundation of what she does today, and challenged her to grasp the scope of both God’s people and his desired work on the campuses of the Pioneer Valley area of western Massachusetts.

News Keywords