Re-creating Campus Ministry

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Fri, 15 Aug 2014 19:00:07 +0000

Re-creating Campus Ministry

For Immediate Release

��ñ�� Christian Fellowship Forced to Find New Ways to Operate in California
After University System Ruling Requires Permitting Non-Christians to be Chapter Leaders

(Madison, WI) – The California State University (CSU) system has issued a nondiscrimination policy that requires ��ñ�� to allow non-Christians to be chapter leaders. ��ñ�� has always required chapter leaders to agree to our Doctrinal Basis, a summary of basic, historic Christian beliefs. While ��ñ�� invites and welcomes all students as participants, we believe a Christian group should have the right to expect and even require their leaders to be Christian—just as any student group, club or Greek organization should be able to require their leaders to be like-minded.

��ñ�� Christian Fellowship is now developing a new style of campus ministry on CSU campuses where we have been banned from participating in campus life as a recognized student organization. In order to maintain a ministry presence with 23 chapters on 19 CSU campuses, ��ñ�� is introducing creative new ways to connect with students and share the gospel message—though doing so as an “unrecognized” student group will prove considerably more costly.

Because we are no longer allowed to participate in campus organization fairs, ��ñ�� will make contact with students by deploying new tools such as mobile banner stands, interactive displays, social media, and other techniques that don’t rely on established campus structures.

“Our campus access challenges give this generation of students an opportunity to reinvent campus ministry,” said Greg Jao, ��ñ��’s National Field Director. “Even as we use new tools and techniques, we remind students that effective ministry is ultimately relational. It’s about students inviting other students to follow Jesus.”

Building on Success

On most of the 616 college campuses across the U.S where ��ñ�� has 949 chapters, our student ministry work will continue as it has for more than seven decades. Overall our annual reports from staff indicate that ��ñ�� is sharing the gospel message with more students and faculty than at any other time in our 73-year history.

During the 2013-2014 school year, 40,299 core students and faculty were actively involved with ��ñ�� across the country, our highest participation rate ever. People professing faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord for the first time numbered 3,517, almost double the same number from 10 years ago. Approximately 50 percent of students active in our chapters are members of ethnic minority groups, in California the number is closer to 70 percent.

Students from every conceivable background still come to college seeking answers to life's larger questions in order to find meaning and significance. And ��ñ�� is committed to sharing with them the message of the gospel, a message that has been revolutionizing lives for 2,000 years.

About ��ñ��

��ñ�� has been active on U.S. college and university campuses for more than 73 years. ��ñ�� is affiliated with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES), and is a charter member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).

For more information:
Gordon Govier
608/443-3688
ggovier@intervarsity.org

News Keywords

Campus Access

California State University system

The New York Times and Campus Culture

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 19:23:21 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

The New York Times and Campus Culture

The New York Times gave front page treatment to ��ñ�� and the campus culture in the June 10, 2014 article, Colleges and Evangelicals Collide on Bias Policy. The story gives what we view as an accurate and balanced report on how nondiscrimination policies unfairly and illogically discriminate against our chapters when they require that we avoid using Christian qualities to select our chapter leaders.

Most of the reaction from other media—including an editorial by the Denver Post and commentary from several self-identified atheists—was critical of the positions taken by college administrators:

Restricting Religious Freedom - Denver Post editorial; June 10, 2014
Don't Abet Academia's Crackdown on Religious Liberty - Seth Mandel, Commentary; June 10, 2014
The Idiocy of Bureaucrats Made Manifest - Rod Dreher, The American Conservative; June 10, 2014
Campus Groups Should Be Allowed to Remain Christian - Kevin Drum, Mother Jones; June 10, 2014
Colleges in Conflict Between Religious Freedom and Anti-discrimination Policies - ARISE TV network; June 10, 2014
Religious Clubs Discriminate, State University System Says - Dan Reidel, Chico Enterprise Record; June 11, 2014
What Does Non-Discrimination Mean for Campus Religious Groups? - AirTalk, KPCC; June 11, 2014
Do They Really Believe This Nonsense? - David French, National Review Online; June 11, 2014
Colleges Use 'Anti-Discrimination' Rules Against Christians - Molly Wharton, National Review Online; June 11, 2014
When Discrimination is Necessary for Diversity - Michael Brendan Dougherty, The Week; June 12, 2014
Christians at College - Gregory Pine O.P., First Things; June 12, 2014
Bowdoin College: Religious Freedom is 'Alive and Thriving' - Owen Strachan, Patheos; June 12, 2014
Evangelicals Not Welcome - John Turner, Patheos; June 12, 2014
The New College Thought Police - Jay Parini, CNN Opinion; June 13, 2014
Bowdoin College Says Gays Must Be Allowed to Join and Vie for Leadership in Christian Groups on Campus - Leonardo Blair, Christian Post; June 13, 2014
Intolerance on Campus in the Name of Tolerance - Monica Perez, Washington Examiner; June 17, 2014
Shame On You Bowdoin College - George Yancey, Patheos Blogs; June 18, 2014
Bowdoin: Is Religious Freedom Discriminatory? - John Leo, Minding the Campus; June 18, 2014
Discriminating Anti-Discrimination Policies - Eric Metaxas, Breakpoint; June 19, 2014
Bowdoin College Encourages Non-Christians to Lead Christian Groups - Nate Kellum, Christian Post; June 19, 2014
Targeted by Anti-Discrimination Policy, Christian Students Speak Out - Aaron Bandler, The College Fix; June 25, 2014
The American Civil Liberties Union Responds - Joshua Block, Jurist; June 25, 2014
Bowdoin College Makes Headlines for Institutional Arrogance - M.D. Harmon, Portland Press Herald; June 26, 2014
Maine's Bowdoin College Ousts Christian Group for Discrimination - Dave Bohon, The New American; June 26, 2014
Bowdoin Told Us to Go - Rob Gregory, First Things; June 26, 2014
Owen Strachan Discusses Bowdoin on Fox TV's Huckabee - July 5, 2014

The New York Times article comes in the midst of a growing concern about the climate for religious viewpoints and intellectual diversity on college campuses. ��ñ�� President Alec Hill took note of that climate in his June column, "Academic Justice."

Dr. James Wellman, a professor of American Religion at the University of Washington, has written a popular blog post which concludes: “Shouldn’t a university in this day and age be a place where all religious views can be expressed? A domain where these freedoms should be fiercely protected? I think so. But the truth is that they are not and it is one of the last acceptable prejudices on many US college campuses.”

��ñ�� supports the value of nondiscrimination policies. But we believe they should be applied logically, in a way which values the contribution that religious groups offer to the campus culture by remaining faithful to their inherent values.

News Keywords

Vanderbilt University

Campus Access

California State University system

Bowdoin College

California State University system

Re-creating Campus Ministry

Re-creating Campus Ministry

��ñ���� Christian Fellowship Forced to Find New Ways to Operate in California After University System Ruling Requires Permitting Non-Christians to be Chapter Leaders

Building on Success

About ��ñ����

The New York Times and Campus Culture

The New York Times and Campus Culture

��ñ�� Christian Fellowship Forced to Find New Ways to Operate in California
After University System Ruling Requires Permitting Non-Christians to be Chapter Leaders

About ��ñ��