Ambition

Can Culture Fit with Faith? One Graduate’s Story

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 19:10:39 +0000

Nathan Peterson

Can Culture Fit with Faith? One Graduate’s Story

“It completely blew me away.”

That’s how JD Mercado describes his first ��ñ�� large group at Northern Arizona University (NAU). They worshiped in Korean, Swahili, and Spanish—something he’d never experienced before. “I just felt a sense of peace, not fully understanding the significance of multiethnic worship at the time, but just an innate sense that something was right, something was being done the way it should be, and that God was at the center of that experience,” he said.

JD had just transferred to NAU during the spring of 2013, and he had only known about its ��ñ�� chapter for a few weeks. But this large group experience inspired him to apply to be a Worship Team leader, a role he served in all four years at NAU.

Later that same year, JD was invited to the Native ��ñ�� Would Jesus Eat Frybread? conference to explore his heritage as a member of the Piipaash and Quechan tribes of the southwestern US. He agreed to go but felt a little uncertain, as he remembered one pastor’s warning that culture couldn’t blend with faith.

The conference proved to be just as moving as his first large group, especially when a group of Native Hawaiians performed a hula. “I remember being invited into that moment,” JD said. “That was so memorable for me to see Indigenous people being gracious with their culture, that Jesus gives us an ability to offer an invitation, and that there’s a way to honorably engage with culture. That was something that I immediately began to want for myself, something that I’d never thought about before.”

JD’s four years with ��ñ�� continued to help him grow in his appreciation for multiethnic worship and explore the connection between his faith and Native heritage. He also had the opportunity to perform through spoken word and song at ��ñ��’s Ambition Conference in January 2018.

Preparing the Way

Upon graduation, JD decided to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing at the Institute of American Indian Arts, with hopes of becoming a published author and teacher. But he also began to experience what he later called “a dry season,” during which he felt like expressions of Christianity revolved too much around Sunday morning corporate worship and prayer and then were neglected the rest of the week.

He reached out to Native ��ñ�� Director Megan Krischke to discuss opportunities to continue serving with ��ñ��. This led to his decision to help plan the upcoming Would Jesus Eat Frybread? conference in November 2019. Struck also by John the Baptist’s example in Scripture, JD sought to prepare the way for a movement of the Spirit by prayer walking four campuses, including Coconino Community College. He plans to return to Coconino to continue building relationships with Native students.

“Volunteering has been really affirming that God is active in my life,” JD said. “In the midst of this dry season, I had this conversation with Megan. I just felt like God was hearing me, saying, ‘I want to use you, even though you’re feeling dry and burned out. Would you just come to me and be replenished and trust that I know what I’m doing with your life?’”

In many ways, JD’s volunteering experience has helped address his disappointment in not sensing the call to join ��ñ�� staff after college. “I think I needed to understand that whatever I was planning to do after college, God was going to be in that,” he said. “The world needs more writers, more teachers, who are not just Christians but who believe in the things God cares about. The fabric of our society is strengthened by the type of people that ��ñ�� impacts during their college experience.”

JD encourages fellow alumni, “God begins a work in us through ��ñ�� in college, and it doesn’t end when you graduate. In this longstanding partnership between chapters and alumni, there are only beneficial things that come from that.”

Like JD, do you long for a way to continue serving college campuses? Consider prayer walking a campus as part of our EveryCampus initiative, a partnership of multiple ministries to launch movements and communities of Christians sharing the real hope of Jesus on every campus in the country. Click below to find a campus to prayer walk near you!

Prayer Walk a Campus

News Keywords

Native American

Native American ministry

��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/

News Keywords

Reaching Every Corner of Every Campus

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 20:21:05 +0000

News

Alec Hill, president of ��ñ�� Christian Fellowship

Reaching Every Corner of Every Campus

What happens when nearly 400 students and 350 staff gather for four days to dream about “reaching every corner of every campus” via planting new witnessing communities? Amazing stuff! First, they get fired up. Then they get equipped to put legs to their vision.

��ñ��’s second Ambition Conference was hosted in Tampa last month. During worship on the first evening, I felt a tear involuntarily meander down my right cheek. Why? Because a decade ago, VP Jim Lundgren and I dreamed about a bolder and more missional Fellowship. But never in our wildest imaginations did we expect such energy and momentum, particularly amongst students.

The conference title comes from Romans 15. After planting in the eastern half of the Roman Empire, Paul declared his “ambition” to reach the other half - “to preach the gospel where Christ is not known.” His holy drive continues to inspire us today.

Highlights

Shawn Young (left), our National Director of Chapter Planting, kicked off the conference by emphasizing student initiative: “students are seeds to be scattered, not sheep to be tended.” He called students to (a) identify unreached affinity groups on their campuses and (b) establish witnessing communities on campuses near their own. Click on this link, and others in this story, and you can see videos from Shawn and others from the Ambition conference posted on ��ñ��'s twentyonehundred productions video channel.

Eric Rafferty then shared his story, a perfect illustration of Shawn’s vision. A few years ago, ��ñ�� had no work in the state of Nebraska. Nada. Serving on staff in Los Angeles, Eric and his wife, Stacy (standing on the left, with some students in this photo), began to sense the Lord’s call. After much prayer, they took the plunge and moved half- way across the country.

Today, there are five chapters on three Nebraskan campuses. Students have started ministry amongst their circles of friends – including baseball players, Burmese, African Americans, Greeks, basketball players, Latinos and international students. Rather than simply adding one student at a time, the Raffertys’ emphasize multiplication – each student is a minister to his/her network of friends.

Other staff speakers included Kathy Haug and James Choung. These two can really bring it! Like other participants, I was deeply inspired by their call to bolder and broader campus outreach. I confess to being convicted of my own relative cowardice and left Tampa more motivated to reach my pre-believing friends.

And, of course, it is impossible not to mention 2100’s fabulous videos. My two favorites feature Abner Ramos who heads LaFe’s chapter planting efforts and Chizu Shimizu who obeyed God’s call to get in her car one night and drive two hours to an unreached campus. She became the answer to students' prayers, and as a result of her submission, two new chapters were born.

Personal Note

I had a great time hanging out with ministry partners who came to Ambition as our guests. Here I am with students and staff from Salem State (Massachusetts). It was a joy to watch the event through their eyes. Values we sometimes take for granted – such as student initiative, racial reconciliation and the interconnected-ness of proclamation/justice – they experienced as remarkable demonstrations of the Kingdom.

I left Tampa thankful to our Father, proud of our staff and excited about our students. May the Lord continue to send all of us to new places on campus.

News Keywords

chapter planting

Ambition

The Culture of Chapter Planting

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 13:58:25 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

The Culture of Chapter Planting

What would happen if the creativity, vision, energy and passion of this generation was unleashed to reach the University?

In 2012, ��ñ�� held the first Ambition conference to inspire both staff and students by hearing from some of the world's leading thinkers on planting ministries, such as Alan Hirsch, a leader in the missional church community. "It was a powerful catalyst for our movement" said Shawn Young, who serves as National Director of Chapter Planting. "I'm still hearing from staff and students who tell me Ambition is where they were inspired to plant a new chapter, reach a new network on campus, join ��ñ�� staff or some other ministry."

Ambition Conference 2015 will be held in Tampa, Florida, January 15-18, 2015. ��ñ�� staff, students, and faculty will gather to learn new perspectives and new innovations in chapter planting.

Culture Revived

There’s no question that the culture of chapter planting, and along with it evangelism, has been revived in ��ñ��: the number of chapters grew by 40 in the past year, and new professions of faith were almost double what they were just ten years ago. "The first Ambition conference was significant because it galvanized us around a fresh new vision for planting," Shawn said. "But this time we're poised for something more--something historic. I really believe Ambition 2015 is going to be the turning point that gets us to 1000 campuses."

Alee George and Andi Schuerman were friends who attended the first Ambition in 2012. Both had been core members of the chapter plant at Creighton University. Alee was a volunteer, weighing whether or not to come on staff with ��ñ��. Andi was still a senior at Creighton.

“I wasn't sure if attending a planting conference would help clarify things – hah,” Alee said. Her vision for campus ministry was clarified and she felt empowered to become a leader in campus ministry.

“My favorite thing at Ambition was dreaming BIG with students and other staff about how God might use us to reach the campus. What would change if we took Alan Hirsch's words to heart and saw every student as a potential orchard, waiting to be planted? I came to Ambition uncertain of how God wanted to use my voice in His global mission and left with a vision for sharing the gospel in unreached corners of my campus.”

Campus Mission in a New Light

Andi saw mission in a completely new light after Ambition 2012. “Mission was no longer something I did because it was a good thing, mission was about who God is,” she said. “Ambition challenged me to pursue our missional God to the places his Spirit is moving and come alongside of the work he is already doing.”

Alee is now planting a Greek chapter at Creighton and Andi is planting an ISM chapter at a college in St. Louis. Both continue to draw on their Ambition experience to maintain their campus ministry. “I fell in love with the sacrificial/strategic/faithful/fun/apostolic picture of life spent as a radical world changer that the other students, staff, and Tampa Underground community painted beautifully all weekend,” Alee said. “It's a picture that I try to live out on a daily basis and one that I am continually aiming to model for my students. The teaching there shaped my ministry philosophy, but the community shaped my heart!”

Empowering Students

Andi added, “Being on staff and following God’s call onto campus is so much more than inviting students to the events I plan and the Bible studies I want to lead. It's about empowering students to lead others in their sphere of influence on the campus to release God's Spirit and start a movement that is much larger than anything I could do on my own.”

"We believe every Christian on campus has the potential to start something new that extends God's kingdom," Shawn said. "We don't think of students as sheep to be gathered; they're seeds to be scattered." For more information on the Ambition conference go to www.intervarsity.org/ambition.

News Keywords

Evangelism

chapter planting

Ambition

Ambition

Can Culture Fit with Faith? One Graduate’s Story

Can Culture Fit with Faith? One Graduate’s Story

Preparing the Way

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

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

Reaching Every Corner of Every Campus

Reaching Every Corner of Every Campus

Highlights

Personal Note

The Culture of Chapter Planting

The Culture of Chapter Planting

Culture Revived

Campus Mission in a New Light

Empowering Students

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

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