Cedar Campus

Remembering Barbara Boyd

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

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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Remembering Keith Hunt

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 13:30:55 +0000

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Remembering Keith Hunt

Keith Hunt, a key staff leader who served many roles in ��ñ��'s history, passed on to his eternal home on Monday, June 30, 2014. He was reunited with his wife Gladys "Rusty," who died on July 4, 2010.

Keith served as Director of Development in the early sixties, Regional Director for up to one third of the country in the mid-late sixties, and assistant to the president through much of the seventies. He also developed and directed Cedar Campus, among other duties. ��ñ�� is indebted to Keith and Gladys for researching and writing FOR CHRIST AND THE UNIVERSITY - The Story of ��ñ�� Christian Fellowship of the U.S.A./1940-1990.

Please pray for Mark (son of Keith and Gladys) and Marian Hunt as they make plans for celebrating Keith’s life and they say “Goodbye” to a wonderful father, grandfather, and great grandfather.

One Incredible Week

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:14:38 +0000

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Gordon Govier

One Incredible Week

Final exams are not the last event of the school year for ��ñ�� students. Many spend one additional week together sharpening their spiritual vision for the coming school year.

Traditionally this week has been called Chapter Camp. The Chapter Camp schedule begins in April and continues through May and into June at locations from Campus by the Sea on Catalina Island, California, to Toah Nipi in New Hampshire, and many places in between. (A small number of chapters have Chapter Camp in August, just before the start of the school year.)

Visiting Cedar Campus

I spent May 4-10 at Cedar Campus, on Lake Huron’s Prentiss Bay, near Cedarville, Michigan. ��ñ�� students have been coming to Cedar since 1951. I shared the camp with about 500 ��ñ�� students and staff from big schools like Michigan State and Ohio State, and smaller schools such as Washtenaw Community College and Grand Rapids Community College.

Bradon, who had just spent a semester at Grand Rapids Community College after dropping out of another school and hitchhiking around Europe for a year, told me that coming to Cedar Campus was re-energizing, after an exhausting exam week. “It's an amazing place with amazing people, and a good opportunity to grow in relationship to God," he said.

Marc Papai, ��ñ��’s Divisional Director for the Ohio Valley Division, called his first week at Cedar Campus in 1974 one of the most significant weeks of his life. “I remember realizing during that week that Christianity was not something I was adding to my life; it was going to be my life,” he said.

Chapter Focus Week

Marc served as the Overall Program Director at Cedar Campus for the week I was there. "Chapter Focus Week [as it’s called at Cedar Campus] is a time for us to invest in six days of training our students in ways that have benefits out of proportion with that amount of time,” he said. “Our experience has been when we send students here we often know how strong the ministry will be in the succeeding year because the leadership development that happens here, the vision that's cast, the shared community experiences that chapters have, all are great predictors of the quality of the chapters' ministry the following year."

Students spent many hours in tracks being trained in Bible study, leadership, prayer, and evangelism; and learning about apologetics, cross-cultural outreach, and justice issues. They were challenged to commit themselves to follow Jesus more faithfully.

"We're bold in our expectations for what happens here,” Marc said. “We expect God to do life-changing kinds of things and in the testimonies shared by many students that has been true. It can be anything from conversions to faith in Christ as non-Christians who are part of our chapters join us, to commitments to life-long service, to some kind of risk-taking on campus. All sorts of things are woven into the tracks and the general Scripture exposition we do here."

A Legacy of Prayer

The beauty of the natural setting, far from the demands of day-to-day life, encourages students to reflect. So also do the prayers of those who know the kind of impact Chapter Focus Week can have. Marc notes that 60 years of prayers have been focused on Cedar Campus. “That's an astonishing gift to our movement and to students,” he said. “They enter into something that is already happening here.”

During the week I was at Cedar Campus six students committed to new faith in Jesus Christ, and 60 students recommitted their lives to follow Christ. More than 100 students made a commitment to challenge themselves and take a risk as a Christian on campus, such as leading an evangelistic Bible study.

On Thursday evening, the last night of Chapter Focus Week, I walked out to Whitefish Point, where the Michigan Tech chapter was gathered around a bonfire. The students were openly sharing how God had been at work in their lives that week, and the previous semester. They shared about the risks they had taken, struggles they had endured, and decisions they had made. Someone prayed for each person after they had shared.

"People have referred to certain places on earth as 'thin places,' where the distance between heaven and earth seems shorter,” Marc said. “Without being too sentimental, or strange about it, I think that Cedar Campus is one of the thinnest.”

For more on Chapter Focus Week:

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Chapter Focus Week

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Cedar Campus

John Stott 1921-2011

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 19:34:24 +0000

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Gordon Govier

John Stott 1921-2011

��ñ�� staff, students, and alumni, are saddened to hear of the passing of John R. W. Stott, Rector Emeritus of All Souls Church in London and Urbana conference expositor from 1964 to 1979.

According to the All Souls Church website, “John Stott died in his retirement home at St. Barnabas College at 3:15pm on Wednesday July 27th. He was surrounded by Frances Whitehead, and a number of good friends. They were reading the Scriptures and listening to Handel’s Messiah when he peacefully went to be with his Lord and Saviour.”

John Stott had a long association with ��ñ�� in the U.S., and with the other affiliates of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. He made his first visit to North America in 1956-57, speaking at campus meetings arranged by ��ñ�� students at the University of Michigan, Harvard, Yale, and the University of Illinois. The title of the lecture series was, “What Think Ye of Christ?”

In 1950 ��ñ�� Press published Becoming a Christian by John Stott. After that, ��ñ�� Press became the major U.S. publisher of Stott’s books, including the classic Basic Christianity. In a statement on the IVP website, publisher Bob Fryling said, “John Stott was not only revered; he was loved. He had a humble mind and a gracious spirit. He was a pastor-teacher whose books and preaching not only became the gold standard for expository teaching, but his Christian character was a model of truth and godliness.”

Stott was invited back to the U.S. to be the Bible Expositor at ��ñ��’s Urbana Student Missions Conference. Thousands heard him at the Urbana conferences on the campus of the University of Illinois in 1964, 1967, 1970, 1973, 1976, and 1979.

John Kyle, who directed several later Urbana conferences, remembered: “Dr. John Alexander, as president of ��ñ��, always encouraged the Urbana Planning Committee to consider having a Bible expositor from outside the USA so students could realize that not all excellent Bible teachers came from the USA. I recall John Stott as being a quiet, humble minister of the Gospel, who always brought a powerful message from the Bible to challenge all who listened. He did humbly, yet effectively ‘walk his talk’ on behalf of his Savior Jesus Christ.”

Stott spoke at ��ñ�� staff conferences immediately after Urbana on many occasions, and also at ��ñ��’s 50^th Anniversary celebration in 1991. He also visited and spoke at ��ñ��’s Cedar Campus Camp and Retreat Center.

Stott was scheduled to return to Urbana 03 to speak on the topic Radical Christianity but health problems prevented his appearance. Instead Joshua Wathanga, Associate General Secretary & Chief Administrative Officer of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, read Stott’s prepared remarks.

“I personally was impacted by John Stott through meeting him as a Harvard student in 1993,” said Tom Lin, ��ñ��’s Vice President for Missions and Director of Urbana. “During a busy trip to Boston, I was amazed that John invited me and a few other students for a luncheon at the Harvard Faculty Club. He listened to us and encouraged us in our campus ministry. His encouragement was one thing God used to call me to God’s global mission.”

Tom learned of the death of John Stott while attending the quadrennial World Assembly of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) in Krakow, Poland. “John loved two things that ��ñ�� and IFES continue to be passionate about – students and God’s global mission. He challenged students and inspired students to become God’s missionary people and to live for God’s purposes.”

��ñ��’s audio resources page has a talk by John Stott from Urbana 73 on Jesus Christ and the Authority of the Word of God, plus several short excerpts.

Additional information about John Stott is available from ��ñ�� Press, The Langham Partnership, Christianity Today, more reaction from Christianity Today, the Associated Press, the New York Times (Brooks) , the New York Times (Kristof), and other sources. There is also a John Stott memorial website. Several memorial services are planned in the USA, details here.

(Photo: John Stott speaking at Urbana. Twentyonehundred Productions)

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The Walls Are Shattered

AD-16225 — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 20:05:07 +0000

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Abi Christian

The Walls Are Shattered

Six months ago, Felicia, a sophomore at Alvernia University, found herself at a weekend conference, surrounded by ��ñ�� students praising God. Though not a Christian, Felicia had recognized God’s presence in the lives of those around her.

“I remember thinking to myself, ‘What am I doing here?’” Felicia wrote later. She had attended the ��ñ�� chapter’s winter conference after meeting students who sparked her curiosity in God. For her, going to church seemed a chore; she often wondered whether God existed at all. But these students were different, and she had a nagging doubt that maybe she didn’t belong with them.

No Fear
Felicia had met ��ñ�� staff worker Gretchen Greenawalt during freshmen orientation. As an ice-breaker, they jokingly did a few dance moves and chatted for awhile. Because of that initial connection, Felicia stayed in touch. In the following two years, she joined ��ñ�� students for meals, social events, and their 2010 winter conference.

Through these events, Felicia came to admire the freedom she saw in the way students worshipped God and the sincerity of their relationships with him. When the winter conference ended, she desired to know more about God. Over the next several months, she heard about the opportunity to spend a week in the summer studying the Gospel of Mark with ��ñ�� students from other schools.

With her parents’ encouragement, time off from work, and a gift of scholarship money, Felicia signed up for camp. There she learned about the brokenness of the world and its people, and about God’s plan for restoration of all of creation. Mid-way through the week, Felicia listened to a speaker explain how fear can hinder a relationship with God.

Felicia reflected on her own life. She was afraid of not belonging in the ��ñ�� community and felt guilty about her indifferent relationship with God. She could not worship freely the way her peers did because the sin and doubt in her life held her back.

As the speaker sat down, Felicia realized God could change her if she chose to let go of her fear and accept Jesus. When the worship band began playing, she cried aloud, “God, I’m ready!” and joyfully lifted up her hands in praise. “The wall was shattered,” Felicia wrote. “I knew I belonged there, and I had no fear!”

Jess’s Story
That evening Felicia excitedly told the other ��ñ�� students from Alvernia about her decision to follow Christ. “There were hugs and tears all around,” wrote Felicia. Students began to share what else God had been doing in their lives that week. Then Jess spoke up.

Jess had attended church most of her life, but when her dad passed away unexpectedly during her middle school years, she grew angry with God. Her family continued to go to church, but over the years, Jess felt distant and unresponsive towards God. In college, she met Gretchen and other ��ñ�� students when she co-led a humanitarian spring break trip to Ecuador. Gretchen invited her to join the chapter at a week-long retreat studying the Bible.

Throughout the week of the retreat, Jess examined Jesus’ life in the gospel of Mark. She saw the way students in the chapter actively responded to God. When she shared her doubt and pain with new friends, they listened and cared for her.

Now sitting next to Felicia, Jess explained that although she was not ready to follow Jesus, the community she experienced within the ��ñ�� chapter that week had nurtured her understanding of God’s love. When Jess finished talking, Felicia put her arm around her and prayed that Jess would learn to trust God with her entire life.

Taking the Plunge
The following day during their free time, Felicia, Jess, and their friends decided to try out the camp’s zip line. Jess climbed into the bulky harness, tightened her helmet, and stood at the edge of the platform. She was nervous of heights and battling second thoughts. But she was also determined. Gathering her courage and a taking deep breath, she jumped.

The ride was an exhilarating adventure down to the ground. For Jess, being able to risk leaving behind her fear of heights and taking the plunge represented her spiritual journey. She wanted to jump from her pain and distrust to living in a relationship with God, wherever that adventure might take her.

Since the retreat at Cedar Campus, Jess and Felicia have been warmly welcomed into the chapter’s community. The chapter is a recent plant, started three years ago, and staff worker Gretchen has seen students work harder this summer to stay connected and encourage each other after their week together. One student is participating in an intense urban program with ��ñ�� over the summer, and Jess has been organizing members to support and pray for her.

“These students are reaching out to one another, recognizing the need and excitement of having Christian community,” said Gretchen.

___

You can make a direct financial donation to support ��ñ��’s work at Alvernia University by following this link.

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Remembering Gladys Hunt

AD-16225 — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 21:08:56 +0000

Remembering Gladys Hunt

Gladys “Rusty” Hunt touched the lives of untold numbers of students and ��ñ�� staff through her writing and speaking, and through her leadership role at Cedar Campus, ��ñ��’s Great Lakes training and retreat center. Together with her husband Keith, Gladys hosted students, faculty, and staff, year after year, offering warm hospitality and foundational Christian training.

Gladys and Keith researched and wrote For Christ and the University, The Story of ��ñ�� Christian Fellowship of the U.S.A./1940-1990. In a footnote, Gladys described her first meeting with an ��ñ�� staffworker at Michigan State University in 1945, who suggested she invite fellow students to a Bible study in her room. “That was a mind-blowing suggestion, but doing it was a life-changing experience,” she wrote. “I found out how to let the gospel loose.”

Gladys authored more than 20 other books, including Honey for a Child’s Heart and Women of the Old Testament. She has also written a weblog in recent years, also under the title Honey for a Child’s Heart.

A notice on the Cedar Campus website reports: “On Feb. 22, 2010, Gladys underwent surgery to replace her aortic heart valve at the Meijer Heart Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan. What was hoped to be a quick recovery became a four month stay in the hospital, which came to a peaceful end on the fourth of July when early Sunday morning Gladys went Home to be with her Lord and Savior.” Gladys was 83.

Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, July 8, 2010, at the Thornapple Covenant Church, 6595 Cascade Road SE, Grand Rapids. Friends may make memorial contributions to ��ñ�� Christian Fellowship – Cedar Campus capital fund.

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