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Collegiate Day of Prayer Unites Prayer for Revival on Campus

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

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

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International Student Ministry Opportunities Continue to Grow

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 20:20:02 +0000

Press Room

International Student Ministry Opportunities Continue to Grow

For Immediate Release

(Madison, WI) --- The 1,095,299 international students studying in the US during the 2018-2019 academic year set a new record. Last year was the fourth consecutive year that this group of students surpassed one million, according to the 2019 Open Doors report of the Institute of International Education.

“��ñ�� has been promoting friendships with international students as a part of our ministry since we began, 78 years ago,” said Marc Papai, Director of International Student Ministry (ISM). In the mid-1950s, staff were inviting international students to International Houseparties, a chance to get away from campus during holiday vacations. Houseparties were held at many different locations, particularly at ��ñ�� camps, like Cedar Campus. And the tradition still continues.

In 1959, ��ñ�� published a Guide to International Friendships by then ISM director Paul Little. It reported that the US international student population at the time was 90,000. Today’s Friendships with International Students booklet carries on this legacy of encouraging and equipping students and volunteers to connect across cultures.

“Today ��ñ��’s 2030 Calling is focused on calling ‘every corner of every campus to follow Jesus,’” Papai said. “That includes international students, who are now a part of the student body at the majority of US campuses.”

At some campuses, ISM is the only ��ñ�� presence. “Part of our ministry is to help US students gain a deeper appreciation for God’s people of every international ethnicity and for God’s purposes in the world,” he said.

During the 2018-2019 school year, 3,846 international students were regularly involved in 499 ��ñ�� undergraduate and graduate fellowships. Sixty of those fellowships were specifically for international students.

The IIE Open Doors report also announced that the number of US students studying abroad continues to increase. During the 2017-2018 academic year numbers were up 2.7 percent over the previous year.

��ñ��’s Study Abroad ministry, now in its seventh year, helps students get involved with Christian community in other countries, connecting them to local campus ministry, discipling them through video conferencing, and challenging them through short pilgrimage experiences. Study Abroad also offers semester-long justice-focused programs in Rwanda and Ecuador. Last year 620 students participated in ��ñ�� Study Abroad, and another 125 engaged with Study Abroad resources.

Another long-standing ��ñ�� tradition encourages local community members to invite international students into their home for Thanksgiving Dinner. Students get to learn about and experience a traditional American holiday, making new family connections while they are a long way from home.

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World Assembly 2019–What’s It All About?

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Tue, 06 Aug 2019 16:57:49 +0000

News

Steph Schmaltz

World Assembly 2019–What’s It All About?

Eleven hundred participants made up of college students and campus staff ministers from 170 countries. Seventy seminars. Twenty-two meals together. Thirteen new student movements. And one message of hope to take back to universities across the globe. July 3–11, 2019, this is what 50 staff from across ��ñ��/USA experienced as they participated in a special event that only occurs once every four years: IFES World Assembly.

World Assembly, put on by the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, focused its delegates on being messengers of hope to the world around them. It provided a unique place for our movements to break bread, listen to front-line perspectives, learn from exposition on portions of Luke and Acts, form new friendships through daily cross-national small groups, lament, rejoice, and pray with our brothers and sisters across the globe. In addition, affiliated IFES members voted on resolutions, welcomed 13 new movements, and had vibrant discussions on issues facing today’s global church. With no shortage of content, World Assembly delegates went home with much to process.

It’s tempting to let this be a standalone event for those of us privileged enough to attend, but what if we instead catalyzed our experience to improve our own movement and better love our IFES brothers and sisters?

As the USA delegation returns to our roles, here are some points to contemplate and implement across our movement.

Learning from IFES movements to further the 2030 Calling: While innovation and ideas are coming from within our movement, we can also learn from IFES movements who have already faced similar challenges. For example, UESI in India empowers alumni to plant chapters, EvaSUE Ethiopia reaches 45,000 students with less than 50 full-time staff, and movements in Europe are finding new ways to reach students in an increasingly post-Christian society. We have a great deal to learn from our IFES brothers and sisters.

Developing world changers: Not only do we long to see lives transformed and campuses renewed, but we also long to see world changers developed. To do that well, we need to educate our students on global issues and help them form healthy cross-cultural relationships. While we can do some of that on our campuses, what would it look like for chapters or areas to regularly connect with another IFES movement? Students could pray for each other on World Student Day (October 18, 2019), share ideas to reach their friends, visit one another (a possible Global Program), and dream of new ways to support and encourage one another.

Establishing and deepening relationships with IFES movements: As a founding member of IFES in 1947, ��ñ�� committed to seeing a Christian witness not just on every corner and every campus of the US, but also in every country! While each IFES movement is independently led, what are ways we can serve and support our global fellowship? Could areas or regions establish and deepen relationships with other movements by praying with, taking offerings for, or even hosting students and staff? ��ñ�� Link currently has 200+ staffing requests from across the IFES fellowship. Could God be calling some of us to go and serve as staff in another movement?

World Assembly brought forth major topics that will require careful thought and consideration at personal, chapter, regional, and national levels. However, we don’t want these topics to paralyze us or stop us from taking a step in the direction the Lord is leading. We pray that World Assembly will instead be an Ebenezer of remembrance for how the Lord moved us.

To watch talks, hear delegate reflections, and get a better picture of World Assembly, watch videos on the IFES World YouTube channel by clicking below.

Watch World Assembly Videos

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International Fellowship Evangelical Students

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

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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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