Bible Study

“Ridiculous” and “Scary”: Bob Grahmann’s 40 Years of Ministry With ��ñ��

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 13:40:18 +0000

Gordon Govier

“Ridiculous” and “Scary”: Bob Grahmann’s 40 Years of Ministry With ��ñ��

The train stopped at the border between Hungary and Romania. Bob Grahmann was sitting in the last row of seats. He saw the glaring searchlights, the dogs, and the barbed wire outside. He watched as guards boarded the train with their machine guns and methodically rifled through the passengers’ luggage.

It was 1983, at the height of the Cold War. Bob was an ��ñ�� Area Director in New Jersey with four years of campus ministry experience preceded by four years as a local church pastor. A friend working in Eastern Europe had invited Bob to teach church history to Romanian pastors for three weeks during the summer. When they met in Vienna, the friend told Bob that his wife was sick and Bob would have to travel on his own.

As the Romanian border guards moved down the aisle, getting closer and closer, Bob didn’t like what he saw. “I have a whole suitcase full of Christian books,” he thought. “This is going to be really bad.” Bob knew that many people were praying for his trip. And strangely, as the guards got nearer and nearer, he felt at peace with whatever was going to happen.

“They got to the person in front of me and the train started to lurch a little bit,” he recalled. “They said to each other, ‘That’s it.’ They came over to me, shook my hand, and said in English, ‘Have a nice time in Romania.’ Then they jumped off the train. I was the only one on that train whose luggage they did not check.”

With that trip Bob was hooked on international ministry. “I thought, this was the hardest thing I have ever done. This was ridiculous. This was scary. And I want to do this the rest of my life.”

Within a couple years Bob and his wife Patricia moved their family to Vienna. They were invited by ��ñ��’s Missions Director at the time, John Kyle, to begin a Global Project in Eastern Europe. ��ñ�� students from the US came to Eastern European countries to assist evangelistic summer camps organized by the Slavic Gospel Association.

Soon they were also working with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES). Student Christian movements were expanding as communism began to lose its grip on Eastern Europe—something Bob witnessed first hand. “I was there when the walls came down,” he said, referring to the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989.

In 1990 he returned to the US to succeed Barbara Boyd as director of the Bible and Life discipleship training. But he couldn’t stay away from Eastern Europe because the new student movements needed Bible training.

“They were coming out of seventy years of Communism and all of a sudden it disappeared,” he said. “I returned three or four times a year through the 1990s. I started Bible and Life in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Georgia.”

In August of 1991, Bob was in Vienna and took a phone call from ��ñ��’s then Missions Director Dan Harrison, asking him to go to Albania and set up a Global Project. Until that time Albania had been the most atheistic country in the world, and closed to most visitors. Within hours Bob was able to get a visa and a seat on the once-weekly flight between Vienna and Tirana.

He landed in the middle of the night and providentially met a recent graduate of the University of Tirana English Department, who had been led to Christ by a previous visitor two weeks earlier. He told Bob the English faculty at the university was meeting the next morning but advised Bob to watch out for the department chair, who also happened to be the chair of the Communist Party at the university.

Bob presented ��ñ��’s plan for the cultural exchange project at the meeting, including the fact that they would be studying the Bible. “The chairman looked at me and she said, ‘We have been without God for 50 years in this country, and we really need that. Where do I sign?” The next summer there was a Global Project in Albania.

At a conference in 1999 Bob was told by the leaders of the IFES movements in Eastern Europe that they felt they were suffering from lack of proper training. "We'd like you to come and start a training institute for us, for national staff in Eurasia, to train us in theology, Bible, skills of the ministry, and engaging the cultural and spiritual formation," they told him.

In 2002, Bob and his wife Patricia moved overseas again, this time to Kyiv, Ukraine to start what he called The Barbara Boyd Institute for Staff Development and Training in Eurasia. The program was funded for the first 12 years by an entrepreneur who had been mentored by a college professor who, in turn, had been mentored in Bible study by Barbara Boyd.

In 2010 Bob and Patricia returned to the US so Bob could become director of Link, ��ñ��’s program which sends staff volunteers overseas to partner with IFES movements in other countries. He directed Link for seven years and is now Senior Missions Ambassador, splitting his time between recruiting for missions, Bible study training, and Bible training overseas with IFES.

He also continues to work with the leaders of five IFES movement whom he first started mentoring when they were students. “Mentoring is one of my favorite activities,” he said. “When I was a freshman, an older student discipled me, really invested in me. Not a staff, not a pastor, not a missionary, but a student who taught me everything he knew about Jesus and really helped me. And that's a model I use.”

After becoming a Christian in college, Bob went to seminary and started pastoring a small church in New Jersey. But he was impatient and began to wonder if there wasn’t another way to change the world for Jesus. He attended Urbana 76 to investigate missions and sat in on a session with then ��ñ�� president John Alexander. Many of the questions had to do with what career people choose after they leave ��ñ�� staff. Some, of course, become pastors.

“I went up to him afterwards and I said, ‘Have you ever had a pastor come on staff instead of a staff go to be a pastor?’ He said, ‘It’s very unusual. But we’ll check with your church. If they’re really mad that you’re leaving, we want you.’”

The church was not happy to lose its pastor. But the lives of generations of students in the US and abroad have been changed because of Bob’s decision.

Following is the video that was prepared to celebrate Bob's first 40 years with ��ñ��. (Yes, he's not ready to retire yet.)

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Bible and Life

International Fellowship Evangelical Students

Something Clicked at Chapter Focus Week

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 14:29:36 +0000

Gordon Govier

Something Clicked at Chapter Focus Week

Chapter Focus Week completely changed Parker’s mind about ��ñ��. As a freshman, he was ambivalent about the small ��ñ�� chapter that he was invited to attend at Franklin & Marshall College (F&M) in Pennsylvania.

“I was definitely ready to get involved in a Christian community in college,” Parker said. He had grown up in a Christian home and attended a Christian high school. But nothing clicked until after his freshman finals were over, and he spent a week away at Chapter Camp with ��ñ�� students from other area schools, studying the Bible, receiving leadership training, and learning about ��ñ��’s vision for campus ministry.

He was hesitant at first. Chapter Camp would take time away from his summer job without bringing in any income. “I prayed about it, talked with people, and finally decided to go,” he said. “It was huge for me in becoming a part of the ��ñ�� community.” Parker made some solid, long-lasting friendships and learned the joy of inductive Bible study. And he was even more excited about joining his chapter’s leadership team for his sophomore year.

Parker took advantage of every training opportunity that was offered after that. At Fall Conference his sophomore year, he met Sam, who became one of his best friends. In the spring, he participated in the Washington DC Urban Plunge. That was where God really began to work on him, as he learned to put his faith into action in an unfamiliar, cross-cultural setting.

Parker admitted that he has a tendency to “jump at stuff.” He was studying abroad the fall semester of his junior year when his ��ñ�� staff minister invited him to attend ��ñ��’s 2018 Ambition conference. “I didn’t know what my ambition was at the time,” he said. “But I wanted to see God’s kingdom grow, so I decided to go ahead.”

At Ambition, Parker and two other students from F&M were challenged to creatively reach out with the gospel message to fellow students. And that’s how they came up with the idea of Reverb, a night of worship and music.

“We wanted it to be something where we could invite people from campuses that don’t usually go to ��ñ��, but also to invite different campuses around the area,” Parker said. His experience with ��ñ�� has shown him that musical worship can have a lasting impact on people’s lives.

Almost a dozen different campuses were represented that spring at the first Reverb. They repeated it in the fall, and this past spring the neighboring ��ñ�� chapter at Penn State Harrisburg took over sponsorship. Parker thought Reverb invigorated the campuses of F&M and Penn State Harrisburg with a deeper, more passionate spirit of worship. Christian students at a number of local campuses became better connected with one another.

Parker’s passion for music and language also led him in another direction: writing and scoring a German opera focused on the execution of the Apostle Peter as an independent study project. The opera was performed on campus in April, but Parker says he’s still polishing it.

“Studying Peter and seeing how God’s grace came even in the last moments of his life, that was powerful for me, working on it,” he said. “It’s been cool to see how God can use music and poetry in that setting, both things which I really care about.”

As Parker has observed the Holy Spirit at work on campus through ministry, he’s felt a growing desire to see the same thing happen in business and hopes to use his degree in business to that end. Working on his chapter’s leadership team with people from all kinds of different backgrounds—religious, cultural, and ethnic—gave him a passion for the strength of diversity. “One of the biggest things I have learned from ��ñ�� is how to work purposefully with Christians from different backgrounds,” he said.

One of Parker’s memories from that first Chapter Camp was when the seniors in the group left early in order to get back to campus for graduation. He returned to Chapter Camp each of the following three years. “Every year just got better and better,” he said. This year he was one of those seniors who left early.

“Chapter Camp was the first time that I felt I was invested and could understand why people from ��ñ�� invested in me,” he said. The investment paid off. Parker is now preparing to invest what he has learned through ��ñ�� in his new career in business.

Find a Chapter

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Franklin & Marshall College

Good Gifts: Emily’s Story

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Mon, 10 Jun 2019 22:23:45 +0000

Emily Baez

Good Gifts: Emily’s Story

I sat down at a table in the dining hall and texted an old friend from high school. “Are you at orientation?” it read. Waiting for a response, I looked around the room to see groups of people sitting together and joking about their dorms, majors, and what they did last summer. I wondered how they connected so quickly. Was there a team-building exercise I missed? Did everyone coordinate with their childhood pals to go to the same college? Lunch ended, and I decided my goal that weekend would be to make a few lasting friendships, people who could accompany me on smoothie runs or free movie viewings on campus. But I left orientation with that goal unfulfilled.

A week later, someone stopped me before entering the student center. She asked if I heard about ��ñ��—which I had because my brother was a part of it—and handed me a list of small groups. “Thanks,” I said, but no thanks, I thought. I didn’t come to college to go to church. Plus, growing up in church meant I already knew Jesus. Why would joining some group further establish that? I left her with an “I’ll try to make it,” but knew it wasn’t going anywhere near my calendar.

Instead I spent the next two years joining and quitting student clubs, dodging invitations from my brother to come to Bible study, and applying to transfer to another university because I thought it had “better student life.” It became apparent that nothing was fulfilling me. Instead, I envied those who were having the coveted college experience, the years that were supposed to be the best of my life. They weren’t—they were boring and lonely.

When I moved into a student apartment my junior year, I thought I found the remedy. But then, a toxic sense of pride and independence started to consume me. I was convinced I didn’t need anyone else to be content and that happiness was as easy as living closer to campus and going to parties.

But when the novelty of all that wore off, I couldn’t ignore the fact that something was still missing. I couldn’t admit it, but I wanted to connect—to others, to something or someone greater than me.

Making New Discoveries

It was in that place of desperation and failure that I finally gave in to going to an ��ñ�� conference (called “Sonburst” at the time). Even though I didn’t want to go—considering how uncomfortable it would be to hang out with a bunch of strangers for a weekend—I pressed that register button and felt a strange mix of urgency and confusion. Isn’t this what I wanted? Friendship? People to grab smoothies with? But I didn’t want it in a faith-based context. I know about Jesus and don’t need this, I thought. I really did think I knew him—even without prayer, without being challenged or studying who he is and why it matters. But at Sonburst, for the first time, I realized how wrong I was.

That weekend, I discovered a community I never knew I needed: a group of people that genuinely cared for me and wanted to understand who I was. We gathered in small groups one morning and someone made a confession with complete vulnerability. The way others responded made me realize I could be honest and vulnerable too. I didn’t need to hide any part of me. For the first time since starting college, I was connecting in a way that surpassed small talk and group projects.

I also discovered a new knowledge of who Jesus is. I realized that the gospel was this radical, redemptive truth, and I was excited about it. I wanted to find out what it meant to be “missional.” I wanted to dig into scripture and learn as much as I could. I wanted to know Jesus and to have the closest of bonds with him. Because as it turned out, there was more to Jesus than what I thought I knew—more that needed to replace whatever I settled for before.

Saying Yes

On the last day of the conference, a feeling of peace and belonging overwhelmed me as we met in campus groups to make “I will…” statements. In that moment, I was ready to erase the boundaries I spent years drawing between myself and others. I was ready to surrender my overzealous need for independence. I was ready to accept the love I was experiencing and reject the notion that a superficial relationship with my maker, and with everyone else, was somehow enough.

When it was my turn, the words “I will commit to Bible study and embrace this new group of friends” spilled out. The room cheered. I was saying yes to community. More importantly, I was saying yes to Jesus.

Committing

The commitment I made four years ago meant I had to adjust my schedule to go to small groups. But sometimes, committing to Jesus meant living in places or cities outside my comfort zone. Other times, it meant staying put when I really wanted to go or leading a small group when I didn’t feel equipped. Last year, it meant volunteering to lead another chapter in my hometown. It’s meant and continues to mean trusting Jesus in every decision and every step I take post-college.

Now, I’m reminded constantly that we have a good Father who wants to give us good gifts. The gifts of understanding, community, and a promise between a Savior and his people, were offered to me time and again. For too long, I said no to those gifts. Finally accepting them meant finding what I was missing. It meant I wasn’t alone.

There are many students just like me who enter college thinking they know who Jesus is but pursue other things over him. But ��ñ�� wants every college student to have the opportunity to experience God's good gifts of community and a deep walk with him. Find an ��ñ�� chapter near you by clicking the button below.

Find an ��ñ�� Chapter

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��ñ�� Camps in Transition

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Tue, 26 Mar 2019 14:18:45 +0000

Press Room

��ñ�� Camps in Transition

For Immediate Release

(Madison, WI) – We are focused on reaching every corner of every campus in the U.S. by the year 2030. And we want those chapters to be communities that study Scripture and experience deep discipleship. ��ñ�� believes that getting off campus for special experiences like retreats, leadership training camps, and Global and Urban Programs are critical for students.

Over the past three years, ��ñ�� chapters brought students to 105 camps across the country. We believe we can increase the number of students who go to camps by removing barriers like long travel times and allowing chapters to use camps proximate to their campus.

As a result, over the next several years ��ñ�� will transition ownership of our three retreat and training centers: Cedar Campus in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Toah Nipi in New Hampshire, and Campus by the Sea on Catalina Island off the coast of California.

“Many of us on staff with ��ñ�� have stories about how God met us and grew our faith while at camp, so this is a difficult decision,” said ��ñ�� President Tom Lin. “But our value for camping ministry is as high as ever. We know the Lord uses time away at camp to powerfully transform students and whole chapters.”

Ninety-five percent of ��ñ�� chapters who do camping ministry currently use camps that are not owned by ��ñ��, choosing camps that are more accessible to their campuses. For the chapters that have continued to use our camps, high travel times and costs have meant many students are simply unable to go, which has led to significant attendance declines in recent years at our camps.

��ñ�� has begun a process of seeking ministries willing to take over ownership of each camp, starting with Cedar Campus. Programming at all three camps will continue as scheduled for all of 2019. More information on the transition is posted in this Q&A.

Questions? Contact us.

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Camps

Retreat and Training Centers

Bible Study

Discipleship

Bennett's Story

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Thu, 09 Aug 2018 17:16:15 +0000

Gordon Govier

Bennett's Story

When the Dickinson College ��ñ�� chapter solicited questions about God, in exchange for a grilled cheese sandwich, freshman Bennett Briante was curious.

“Doesn’t your religion depend on where you were born?” He thought.

Bennett got the sandwich and an answer to his question. He signed up to get more information about ��ñ��, but every time Campus Staff Minister Andrew Berg invited him to the chapter’s activities, Bennett was no longer interested.

What Bennett was interested in was the party scene at Dickinson. He spent his time partying and hanging out with his baseball teammate Chris.

Then, on Halloween, Chris got in trouble. He had his ROTC scholarship revoked and dropped out.

A Friend that Changed His Life

The next April, Chris came back to visit the campus, and Bennett was surprised at how much he had changed.

“The last time I had seen him he had been in a very low place,” Bennett recalled. “Six months later, seeing him in the most incredible, peaceful, happy state, I said, ‘Chris, what happened?’ and he explained to me about God and Jesus. And I said, ‘I want that.’”

That summer Bennett stayed with Chris for a month. His time with him confirmed that he wanted to follow Jesus himself.

When Bennett arrived back on campus to start his sophomore year, he knew he had to make some changes, but he wasn’t sure how. Then he discovered that he still had Andrew’s number on his phone.

Bennett gave Andrew a call and started going to Bible study.

This time, Bennett responded to Andrew’s invitations and plugged into ��ñ��, and by his junior year, he was a member of the leadership team. He led prayer events, shared his faith with his friends, and also, ironically, led the grilled cheese outreach that first introduced him to ��ñ��.

Changing Someone Else's Life

In his senior year Bennett signed up to go to Fall Conference for the first time, after avoiding it for two years.

“This fall, I really felt the Holy Spirit say, ‘You should go to this one.’ I did, and by God’s grace this amazing thing happened.”

Bennett found himself in a small group at Fall Conference that included a student from Penn State Mont Alto named Carlos, who wasn’t a believer. Reminded of where he was himself a couple of years earlier, Bennett invited Carlos on a hike where he made his own decision to follw Jesus.

The New Bennett

Bennett looks back to where he was two-and-a-half years ago. People that knew him back then even refer to when he was the "Old Bennett" verses now as the "New Bennett".

“��ñ�� created a friendly environment, allowing me to meet Christians and have friendships with them for the first time," Bennett said. "It’s so incredible what has transpired over the past three years and how rapidly my faith has grown, and how rapidly my life has changed. The things that I used to do I don’t do any longer. It’s been a total 180. Everything has changed.”

��ñ�� wants to see more students, like Bennett, hear about the good new of Jesus and experience his love for them. But more than half of the college campuses in our country don't have a witnessing community of Christians. That's why God has given us the 2030 Calling, to reach every corner of every campus. You can be a part of it by giving a generous gift to ��ñ��. Click the button below for more information.

Give to the 2030 Calling

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Remembering Barbara Boyd

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Fri, 03 Aug 2018 16:48:29 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

Remembering Barbara Boyd

Bible study has always been a hallmark of ��ñ��’s ministry, and for much of ��ñ��’s history, Barbara Boyd was a key leader, as the creator of ��ñ��’s popular Bible and Life program. Barbara went to her heavenly reward on August 2, 2018. She was 94 years old.

Barbara was introduced to inductive Bible study as a student leader by Jane Hollingsworth in 1945 at Campus-in-the-Woods in Canada. She taught elementary school for a few years after college but left to attend seminary and then joined ��ñ�� staff in 1950. After working with Paul Byer on California college campuses for 10 years, she returned to her native New Jersey in 1960.

Traveling to a promotional dinner one day with ��ñ�� leader Charles Troutman, Barbara was asked what she liked best about campus ministry. She said, “Bible study.” After being encouraged to find a way to help students improve their Bible study skills, she worked with her Regional Director to put together a weekend of Bible study training for students. Launched in 1964, it became known as Bible and Life.

“We trained them in the lordship of Christ, in how to have a healthy Quiet Time, how to be a real friend with a non-Christian, and how to lead a few friends in a Bible study, to lead them to Christ,” she recalled. “We called it Level One.”

After being introduced to the basics of Bible study, students wanted more. Level Two was developed, which taught the principles and joy of inductive Bible study. Later, Level Three was added, to teach students how to help younger Christians grow in their faith. “The program was based on the conviction that the Word of God does the work of God,” Barbara said. In 1969 she worked with Keith Hunt to plan a more advanced curriculum called The School of Discipleship Training, which was offered at Regional Training Centers.

Barbara developed the training over a period of time, field testing along the way and preparing the course materials on her own mimeograph duplicating machine until 1970, when ��ñ�� Press took over the printing. A poster on the wall near her desk said, “��ñ�� is students moving with God on campus. Bible and Life is a 3-level course designed to train students to become God’s initiators and leaders—spiritual athletes who will run the race that lies before them with strength, discipline, and Christlike character.”

Bible and Life was one of the elements that contributed to the great growth that ��ñ�� experienced during the 1970s. More than 80,000 students participated in one of the three levels of training between 1970 and 1990, when Barbara retired. She also trained generations of ��ñ�� staff and her influence beyond those she touched directly is incalculable. Tim Keller, Pastor Emeritus of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, said, "As a Christian teacher Barbara had an enormous impact on me. More than anyone else—in person or through books—she taught me how to study the Bible. Her Bible and Life Conferences were deeply formative for me, both intellectually and spiritually Since I’ve spent my life expounding the Bible, you could say she gave me the tools of my trade. I owe her more than I could express."

Barbara never married, though in the summer of 1953 it looked like marriage was in her future. She received a marriage proposal by letter from Ralph Willoughby, a man she had met in California while he was studying at Fuller Theological Seminary and employed part time by ��ñ��. That summer he was working at a Pioneer Camp in Canada and she was at Campus by the Sea.

Ralph had been part of the ��ñ�� chapter at the University of Michigan, and Stacey Woods had asked him to develop the property in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that had been offered to ��ñ�� for Cedar Campus.

But then Barbara received word that Ralph had died suddenly after contracting a rare form of polio. She left Campus by the Sea in shock and flew to Ann Arbor for the funeral. Later she said that her ministry with ��ñ�� was part of his legacy, and she acknowledged that she would not have been able to serve ��ñ�� so fully had she been married. Willoughby Lodge at Cedar Campus is named for Ralph.

“Barbara’s Bible and Life program influenced over 100,000 students in the USA and Canada from 1964 to 1997,” said Bob Grahmann, ��ñ�� Missions Senior Ambassador. “And it’s still influencing thousands of students overseas because it’s still ongoing, and growing, in the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students programs in Europe, Eurasia, the Caribbean, and Africa.” Barbara's legacy also continues through a series of inductive Bible study resources that are found on our new Bible study site called howto.Bible and the Lifeguide Bible studies published by ��ñ�� Press.

A memorial service was held Thursday, August 9, 2018, at Calvary Homes Chapel, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, followed by a burial service at Westminster Presbyterian Church, in Lancaster.

Debord Snyder Funeral Home Obituary

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Giving Up the American Dream

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 18:35:31 +0000

Jennifer Anderson

Giving Up the American Dream

Lauren had a perfect course charted as she entered Grand Valley State University (GVSU).

“I’d study accounting, apply and get into the FBI, make lots of money, live the American Dream,” she recounted.

Lauren grew up in Metro Detroit with a good foundation. Her relationships with family and friends were strong, she was active in high school sports, and church was part of her life.

“I kind of knew who Christ was,” Lauren reflected, “but that was it.”

A few hours west of Detroit, Grand Valley, like most colleges, offers a plethora of lifestyle options. The only thing Lauren knew was that the party scene wasn't for her, but besides that, she didn't know what she wanted.

So, Lauren went through her freshman year somewhat adrift. Then, something changed unexpectedly through her close friend Sam, who at the time didn't know Jesus or the gospel.

A Surprising Turn

Early second semester, Sam sat in a dorm lounge when ��ñ�� students walked in.

"Hey, we use this room for a Bible study. Do you want to join us?" the students asked.

Surprisingly, Sam stayed for the entire Bible study.

“When you’re away at school, don’t know anybody, and meet a nice group of people who are welcoming—well, that’s rare. Sam clung to that,” Lauren said.

But Sam did have a few misgivings. She condfided to Lauren that though the students were nice, she didn't "understand the faith thing.”

Wanting Sam to feel comfortable, Lauren decided to go with her to the Bible study. This was just what Sam needed, and, ultimately, what Lauren needed too.

From that first Bible study and beyond, Lauren’s life became anchored with prayer, Bible study, spiritual disciplines, and mentoring from ��ñ�� GVSU Campus Staff Minister Betsy Hoisington.

“I was missing the whole relationship aspect that there is in Jesus, that Jesus is so personal, and he wanted to be my friend. Ever since I understood that, everything changed in my heart!”

Lauren continued to develop that personal relationship with Jesus throughout the rest of her time in college. She acknowledges that ��ñ�� gave her the tools and the disciplines to go deeper in her faith than she had ever gone before.

“I joined a Christian fellowship because of a non-Christian...and my life was transformed!” Lauren laughed at the irony of her faith journey (Don't worry—Sam became a believer two years later!) "When I started going to [��ñ��] Bible study and large group, I saw my wants and desires start to change. Instead of chasing after this unrealistic American dream we've kind of put together based on TV...that's totally missing the point for me. I started realizing that the true thing I wanted to bring into the world was Jesus...by sharing the gospel."

Parallel Service

The relationship with Jesus Lauren built while in college was crucial when her mother was diagnosed with and later passed away from leukemia. During her mom’s hospital treatments, Lauren spent hours with her while God revealed more of his plan for her life.

Being from a military famly, each day, a chaplain came to Lauren's mother's hospital room. Lauren saw that, like ��ñ�� staff ministers and students she met, chaplains were serving people in need.

This made Lauren realize that she too wanted to serve our country and serve people who needed it through becoming a military chaplain, taking all that ��ñ�� taught her. She took the next step upon her 2015 graduation from Grand Valley and enrolled in a Master of Divinity in Chaplaincy program at Ashland Theological Seminary in Ohio to become a military chaplain candidate.

“As a chaplain I’ll get to be mobile, meaning I get to go outside church walls and minster to people exactly where they’re at,” Lauren said.

Looking back now, Lauren knows God charted her course. No longer seeking the American Dream, she can see how the tide has turned.

“Today, my heart’s desire is to serve and love God’s people. Through this collegiate ministry, ��ñ��, God sent staff and student leaders to me when I needed them. I can’t wait to do this by serving in the US Navy.”

Every day, students like Lauren graduate college to go out an. You can be a part of equipping them to use their lives to serve the God that wants a deep, personal relationship with us by giving to ��ñ��. Give so that more students like Lauren can experience and share the real hope of Jesus by clicking the button below.

Donate to Bring Real Hope to Campus

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American Dream

Grand Valley State University

Bible Studies Transforming Meredith College

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 19:39:19 +0000

Ashlye Vanderworp

Bible Studies Transforming Meredith College

Meredith College is a small, all women’s college in Raleigh, North Carolina. It’s a unique campus that functions much like a sorority, full of traditions that foster community and empower the women who attend.

Much like the campus itself, Meredith’s ��ñ�� chapter is also unique. It is the only Christian organization that actually meets on campus, while others only have chapters at North Carolina State University down the road. It is also the only organization on campus, religious or non-religious, that is majority non-White.

A Life Devoted to Bible Study

Robin Bolash serves as the ��ñ�� Campus Staff Minister at Meredith College. Having worked with ��ñ�� for over 20 years, Robin leads in ways that significantly shape the women in her chapter who are shaping the campus.

But when she was a college student herself, it was through ��ñ�� that Robin truly learned who Jesus was and what he had planned for her life.

“I grew up in church, and I was curious about the Bible, but I had no idea how to study it. When I got to college, we learned how to do the ��ñ�� Bible study method, and it was the best thing that happened to me. In that moment, I decided this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life—I want to help people unlock the Bible,” Robin said.

This is why Robin focuses all of her chapter’s activities on Bible study. She has seen firsthand how studying the Bible can change a student’s life and how many want to just, as she says, “have the keys.”

Robin also disciples many students in her chapter herself—students such as Tori and Indyah.

World Changers Developing World Changers

When Tori and Indyah were assigned to lead a Bible study together two years ago, they had never met. However, as they began to lead together, they became close friends.

They prepared for small group each week, studied Scripture together, and discussed the questions they had about the passage, helping them form a close bond. That bond then flowed into the rest of the group.

“The way we study the Bible with ��ñ�� impacted our small group because it really allowed everyone to state their opinion. . . . Everyone’s on the same page, like no one knows more than someone else. We’re all starting off at the same level,” Tori said.

So, Tori decided to share that with a Sunday school class for high school students she taught at her church back home.

“I printed off manuscripts for them, and they really enjoyed it just like I really enjoyed it!” she said.

The pastor of the church Tori taught at regularly checked on all of the Sunday school classes. She noticed, though, that when he came into her classroom, he stayed for a while, watching what she was doing.

“I would think to myself, Am I doing something wrong?” Tori said.

The next thing she knew, at a churchwide Bible study one Tuesday night, Tori’s pastor distributed printed manuscript passages to the congregation. He then began to lead the church in Bible study the way Tori led her class—the way ��ñ�� does Bible study.

“Now, my whole church is doing Bible studies how we do [in ��ñ��]. I have definitely seen a lot of growth in my Sunday school class, in my church, and in myself,” Tori said.

As Tori led her class at church, her and Indyah’s ��ñ�� small group continued to grow closer and fall more in love with Scripture. This past school year, every new leader of the ��ñ�� chapter at Meredith came out of Tori and Indyah’s small group.

“I think most of it came from them seeing how community actually works and seeing how comfortable it can be,” Indyah said.

One of those new leaders was Essence, a member of Meredith’s track team.

Essence

When Essence began school at Meredith as a freshman, she had never experienced Bible study before. She joined Indyah and Tori’s small group and was soon invited to Beach Retreat, an annual event for the chapter.

As the students read the story of the Samaritan woman, Essence saw herself in the story and realized she was pursuing stagnant, stale water, rather than Jesus’ living water. In that moment, she decided to give her life fully to Jesus.

“I had never studied Scripture like that before,” Essence said. “I was able to write on the text, ask questions and observe, you know, interpret what the text means and how to apply it to my life. . . . Everything started making sense at that point.”

Today, Essence leads a Bible study for her track and field teammates. Though she’s faced difficulties with many members leaving the Bible study—because many athletes and minority students leave Meredith College after only their first year—she is committed to sharing with her team what she experienced.

“Bible study is amazing. You build so many relationships, so much love for people, so much love for God. It’s something that changed my life for the better.”

Bible Study Fostering Community in Corners of Campus

��ñ�� at Meredith believes the best way to reach the students on campus is through Bible studies where they feel like they belong and can be themselves, making them more open to Christ.

“These women are with each other, and they’re just having conversations. They’re doing observations together, then they’re asking all their questions together, and then they’re talking about applications together. And so, you’re getting to know each other while exploring the Scriptures together. You’re beginning to identify yourself in the story while sharing yourself with people. There is something very communal about this method,” Robin said.

Though their chapter is small, that communal environment centered around Scripture is what the women of ��ñ�� at Meredith spread to many parts of campus, from athletes, to freshmen, to art majors. Their Bible studies are multiplying because these women jump in when Robin encourages them to lead where they already are involved on campus, where they are already influencing, with the people they are already praying for.

“I’m looking at what Meredith needs and where there are gaps. I want to see where the Lord wants small groups to be, who are the students he’s bringing into this tiny, little fellowship, and how far can we reach—how far to the corners can we go,” Robin said.

To hear more about what the students at Meredith College have to say about Bible study, watch the video below.

Do you have a desire to reach people on your campus or in your life with the love of Jesus? Consider starting and leading a Bible study. For more information on how to lead a Bible study, click the button below to visit Howto.Bible, a new project from ��ñ��.

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Basketball and Bible Study

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 19:54:35 +0000

Ashlye Vanderworp

Basketball and Bible Study

Gabby was a college basketball star who went to church “maybe once a year.” She believed in God—mostly because she was afraid of what would happen otherwise.

“I couldn’t understand when people would say Jesus died for me. In my head, he didn’t even know me,” Gabby said. “I used to question God all the time, and I didn’t understand the Bible and its meaning.”

“God, like the real God, spoke to you?”

On a road trip in 2015, Gabby’s best friend and fellow basketball player on another campus talked about Rec Week, an annual ��ñ�� conference. Gabby’s friend shared how at Rec Week she grew in her love for Jesus and engaged in listening prayer.

Gabby was shocked, “God, like the real God, spoke to you? How?” Her curiosity was sparked, so she agreed to study the Bible with her friend over the summer.

The next semester, Gabby transferred with a basketball scholarship to Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU) in San Antonio, Texas, her best friend’s school. Excited to join the same life-changing ��ñ�� chapter as her friend, Gabby regularly attended a Bible study led by Patrick Farris, an ��ñ�� staff minister.

Patrick convinced Gabby, along with her teammates, to go to Rec Week, the same conference her friend attended a year earlier. A call to faith was made. Gabby said yes and decided to follow Jesus.

“Jesus does know me! I know that now. I don’t have it all together, and I need him.”

“��ñ�� changed my life.”

The following year, after co-leading a Bible study for basketball players at OLLU, Gabby and her team attended Rec Week for the second time. There, they prayed for campuses with no ��ñ�� presence, including Sul Ross State University—the same campus where Gabby already accepted a role as Graduate Assistant Coach of the women’s basketball team.

“That,” Gabby said, “presented a great opportunity to start a chapter!”

Today, Gabby leads Wednesday night Bible studies for the Sul Ross women’s basketball team when they’re not on the road. Just like Gabby’s team at OLLU, God is transforming the lives of the players at Sul Ross. They’ve become more open and are reaching friends outside of the team. Plus, this May, three years since her best friend told her about the conference, four of the women agreed to attend Rec Week with Gabby—the first time for Sul Ross students.

“��ñ�� changed my life,” Gabby said. “It not only strengthened my relationships with friends I already had, but also brought into my life people whose faith kept my faith growing even more. I thought I was good before, but when I gave my life to God and felt his love for me, I realized I was far from good. I actually lacked everything.”

Will you consider giving to ��ñ��, so more students like Gabby and her team can come to know the God who knows them already? Just like Gabby, ��ñ�� wants to see more future leaders developed on campuses across the nation. For more information and to give, click the button below.

Donate to Develop Future Leaders

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Accelerating Mission Through Video Coaching

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 19:46:11 +0000

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Gordon Govier

Accelerating Mission Through Video Coaching

In the early days of ��ñ��, field staff itinerated from campus to campus by train; they were assigned to regions, not campuses. In order to reach every corner of every campus, a goal to which ��ñ�� aspires, we may be returning to a semblance of those days with staff once again mentoring student leaders on a number of campuses.

In fact, it’s already starting. But instead of trains, staff use Zoom and Google Hangouts.

Zoom is a California-based company that offers remote video conferencing services. In the last few years ��ñ�� staff have been using Zoom more and more to hold virtual staff meetings with colleagues across the country. Arul Karunanidhi, an ��ñ�� Campus Staff Minister in Florida, wondered, “Why can’t it work with students?”

Arul discovered ��ñ�� as a sophomore at the University of Central Florida (UCF) and joined ��ñ�� staff at UCF upon graduation. Three years ago, he began to visit nearby campuses that didn’t have an ��ñ�� chapter. “That was a big part of my heart, to do ministry with students who don’t have a witnessing community or don’t have access to the gospel,” he said.

Working with his staff supervisor, he created the position of “itinerant planter.” His first-year goal was to work on three campuses in Orlando. But then God started opening doors not only in Orlando but also in nearby Lakeland. Arul was making connections through students who wanted ��ñ�� on campus, or an alumnus who knew a Christian student on a campus, or a Christian faculty member who had an ��ñ�� connection.

By the end of the year two chapters had been established and two more had active ministry. And Arul had a vision for planting 10 more chapters on 10 new campuses in three years. “God’s been opening doors and now I’m working on nine campuses; we planted ��ñ�� on seven of them,” he said.

Zoom was an experiment at first; it seemed like it might work with student leaders as well as ��ñ�� staff. But has turned out to be a critical component. Orlando is a big, spread-out city and Lakeland is a 90-minute drive away. “There was no way I could meet with people face to face and still have any other life,” he said. “But now I can do Scripture studies with them, I can do training, I can debrief events, all through Zoom.”

At one media-focused school, students changed schedules every month and finding a time for Christian students to all meet in person was nearly impossible. “Let’s try things over Zoom and see what happens,” Arul said. Now the students are doing video conference Bible studies together. “It feels completely natural for them,” he added. After all, the students are already used to a lot of screen time on their smart phones and through online courses.

NaKhia Grays, Black Campus Ministry (BCM) coordinator for the Mid-Atlantic Region, faced a similar dilemma. After becoming involved in ��ñ�� as a student at Bucknell University, she joined staff as a volunteer in 2001, and became a full-time staff member two years later. When she transitioned to part-time with the arrival of her baby, NaKhia wanted to keep mentoring students who were initiating BCM small groups in Maryland, D.C., Pennsylvania, and Delaware. So she began a monthly Google Hangout video conference. “I was trying to streamline my work and figure out the best way to influence the most student leaders with the least amount of time,” she said.

The first Hangouts were early in 2016. After maternity leave she resumed Hangouts again in February of 2017, following the Black Student Leadership Conference, RELEASE. Within another month, two of the students had started a BCM small group on their campus. “Who launches anything in March of the school year?” NaKhia laughed. “The students were either eager to create a space on their campus that hasn’t been there or they experienced something at the BCM conference that they wanted to replicate on their campus.”

The students share prayer requests and pray for each other during the call. NaKhia teaches about leadership and other relevant topics, fields questions, and then they close in prayer. “The students get to know each other pretty well,” she said. They are encouraged to be connecting with others like themselves on other campuses.

Arul found the same response. “We were creating a community across campuses,” he said. “It really felt like the original ��ñ��—a Christian fellowship between the universities.”*

Arul’s hope is that each campus represented on his calls will eventually have their own staff person—perhaps one of the students he’s now mentoring by video, so that a sustainable ministry can start at each school. “They just need vision, support, and coaching,” he said.

In the Mid-Atlantic region, NaKhia is hoping to see Black Campus Ministry continue to flourish through Bible studies and BCM chapters. Some of the students NaKhia has been coaching have become accountability partners to strengthen their faith. Long-term relationships are being built.

This year, Florida classes and scheduled events were thrown off schedule by Hurricane Irma, which moved through the state near the start of the semester. But Arul found that getting his students back on track was helped by the video conference connection.

It looks like video conference coaching will be keeping ��ñ�� on track for years to come.

*See how ��ñ�� got its name on our history page.

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