Leadership

Terumi Echols Named President and Publisher of IVP

AD-2503 — Mon, 16 Aug 2021 19:02:47 +0000

Terumi Echols Named President and Publisher of IVP

WESTMONT, IL—��ñ��/USA has named Terumi Echols as president and publisher of ��ñ�� Press (IVP). Echols succeeds Jeff Crosby who recently became president and chief executive officer of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA), the trade association of Christian publishing. Before coming to IVP, Echols worked for nearly two decades at Christianity Today International, with roles including chief publishing officer and publisher of Christianity Today.

“Terumi Echols was a key contributor and visionary to many, if not most, of the advances ��ñ�� Press made during my time as its publisher,” Crosby said. “As IVP’s new president and publisher, she brings vision, a passion for sustained growth, and a deep understanding of the Press’s mission to the university, the church, and the world. I believe very bright days are ahead for IVP under Echols’s leadership.”

“By selecting someone with Terumi’s business savvy, we are making a clear statement: ��ñ�� Press intends to invest in growth,” said DeeDee Wilson, ��ñ��/USA’s chief financial officer. “While she was at Christianity Today, Terumi championed new product lines, diversified the list of contributors, and increased revenue. We expect her to lead with that same entrepreneurial vision. We want more authors to reach more readers and more bookselling partners to serve more customers.”

Echols, who currently serves as IVP’s director of finance and fulfillment operations, assumes the role with five initiatives launching: the new IVP Kids imprint; Every Voice Now, which supports and amplifies voices of color within publishing; the Disruptors podcast, hosted by IVP author Esau McCaulley (Reading While Black) and coproduced with Christianity Today; the Seminary Now digital learning platform; and the IVP Signature Collection, which provides refreshed bestselling backlist titles from across ��ñ�� Press’s seventy-five year history.

“��ñ�� Press invites the church to be more biblically rooted and culturally engaged,” said Tom Lin, president for ��ñ��/USA, who chaired the selection process supported by CarterBaldwin Executive Search. “It respects the church’s heritage and points to the church’s future, which will be more global and more multiethnic. Terumi’s life, as a woman of color and publishing veteran, reflects those values.”

“For nearly seventy-five years, ��ñ�� Press has changed the way the church thinks and believes,” said Greg Jao, ��ñ��/USA’s chief communications officer, who served on the search team along with Wilson and Lin. “It introduced Americans to British leaders like John Stott and J. I. Packer and to cultural critics like Francis Schaeffer and Os Guinness. It trained millions to study Scripture inductively through LifeGuide^® Bible Studies, to distill biblical scholarship through the IVP Bible Dictionary Series project, and to mine the church’s history through the Ancient Christian Commentary series. More recently it invited people into spiritual formation with authors such as Suzanne Stabile, Sharon Garlough Brown, and Ruth Haley Barton, and it elevated diverse voices such as Esau McCaulley, Soong-Chan Rah, and Sheila Wise Rowe. Terumi has the experience and insight to build on this legacy so that the gospel reaches more deeply and more broadly.”

Echols said, “I am humbled by the opportunity that this role creates and for what it represents in the world of Christian publishing. The church is painfully divided and spiritually hurting in this season. ��ñ�� Press, with strengths in spiritual formation, justice, cultural analysis, and academic and multiethnic publishing, has a vital contribution to make in a disillusioned world. It is my desire to strengthen our commitment to these foundational areas while developing additional pathways for IVP. J. I. Packer once said, ‘Other publishers tell you what to believe. IVP helps you to believe.’ I intend to invest so that a more globally, generationally, and ethnically diverse group of readers are helped to believe.”

News Keywords

IVP

Leadership

Faith Challenging Partnership in Uganda

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 18:18:02 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

Faith Challenging Partnership in Uganda

��ñ�� is partnering with a growing number of organizations in order to better reach every corner of every US college and university campus. But partnering works in many ways. This past summer an Athletes ��ñ�� group went to Uganda to serve in a refugee camp in partnership with the nonprofit organization ChildVoice and learn about ChildVoice’s anti-poverty programs.

Athletes ��ñ�� National Director Maghan Perez had dreamed of taking a team to Uganda after her first visit 10 years ago introduced her to the needs of young women who had been traumatized by years of conflict in Uganda and South Sudan. Now, as a Board member of ChildVoice, she saw an opportunity to help athletes develop leadership skills through their participation in the work ChildVoice is doing to address global issues such as racism, tribalism, and the refugee crisis.

Her 20-member team was made up of athletes from Temple University in Philadelphia and Ugandan college students, as well as Maghan’s husband and twin three-year old sons. Much of their time was spent at the ChildVoice Center in the small village of Lukodi, in northern Uganda, where vocational skills are taught to young women in a holistic program that focuses on their relationship with God and with their community.

The college athletes learned that poverty is not merely a lack of resources. “Our definition of poverty was expanded to understand that roots of poverty exist because of the broken relationships between God, between others, within us, and with creation,” Maghan reported. “We wrestled with our own poverty. We learned how much the vulnerable and poor have to teach us.”

The team also traveled further north to the Imvepi Refugee Resettlement Camp, filled with refugees from South Sudan, primarily women and children. The team distributed donated sports equipment and helped launch a sports and movement program designed to complement the educational programs.

“At Imvepi, we watched as people who have lost everything were still able to worship and praise God in the midst of so much pain,” Maghan reported. “This challenged us to the core, realizing our own spiritual poverty, because much of our faith and worship in the US depends on our circumstances. We also saw a pure joy in playing. No matter what the age, if you have a ball, jump rope, or Frisbee, there was something universal about the joy of playing that allows for healing and laughter, no matter what your surroundings, if only for a moment.”

��ñ��’s summer Global Programs offer students the opportunity to put their faith into practice. The student athletes who went to Uganda saw their faith challenged, stretched, and strengthened through the experience.

News Keywords

Bringing New Life to Every Corner of Every Campus

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 13:22:12 +0000

Press Room

Bringing New Life to Every Corner of Every Campus

(Madison, WI) -- ��ñ��’s ministry vision includes not only transformation for students and faculty but renewal for the college campus.

“Universities bring life-changing wisdom, insight, and discovery to the world,” said Tom Lin, president of ��ñ��. “We long for Christian faculty and students to contribute their God-given gifts to these efforts. As this past weekend at University of Virginia demonstrates, universities also serve as the backdrop for ideas and idols that deface and destroy life. We believe the Gospel calls us to confront and denounce sins like white supremacy. We also want to offer the transforming hope of repentance and new life to the people who propagate these ideologies.”

With a new six-member Executive Leadership Team and 10 new vice presidents assembled over the past year, ��ñ�� has reaffirmed our commitment to our vision of transformation and renewal. “We are longing to see God bring new life in new ways on campuses across the country, and to catalyze movements that call every corner of every campus to follow Jesus,” Lin said, as he reflected on his first year as president. “We want to see systems and structures, ideas and idols change. These leaders will help us steward our values even more closely, respond to God’s invitations more nimbly, and lead God’s mission on campus more joyfully,”

To meet the challenge of reaching every campus, ��ñ�� also has a record number of staff serving a record number of colleges, with 1341 staff ministering on 687 campuses. At the same time, the number of people coming to faith through ��ñ��’s campus ministry is at its highest ever in ��ñ��’s 76-year history—up 12 percent from one year ago, up 130 percent from 10 years ago.

To reach more campuses, ��ñ�� is pursuing new partnerships: “How can we best partner in reaching the approximately 2,600 campuses currently unreached by any major campus ministry?” Lin asked. “Could we empower more churches and other ministries to work alongside us to reach the campus? Beyond U.S. partnerships, what could God do if we more intentionally sought out best thinking and practices from our sister movements in the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students?”

In his travels during his first year as president, Lin said that he has heard regularly from people he meets about how ��ñ�� staff and ��ñ�� Press books have changed their lives. But he stressed that student-driven ministry is the heart of ��ñ��’s mission. “Our chapter planting leadership team has done an amazing job creating a planting culture in ��ñ��,” he said. “Not just staff but student leaders are catching the vision and reaching out to neighboring campuses. These students are not simply sheep to be gathered, but seed to be scattered.”

��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 160 countries. ��ñ�� is also a charter member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

News Keywords

University of Virginia

renew

vision

transformation

��ñ�� Seeks New President

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Tue, 03 Nov 2015 16:12:13 +0000

Press Room

��ñ�� Seeks New President

For Immediate Release

(Madison, WI) -- ��ñ�� is seeking a leader to advance what God is doing through ��ñ�� on college and university campuses in the United States.

An Opportunity Profile has been assembled by the Board of ��ñ�� which details the story of God’s provision of missional, relational, spiritual, and financial growth for our ministry. ��ñ�� seeks a leader who can build upon this momentum and will expand the mission in the face of the great spiritual opportunities in our culture today.

In May of 2015, ��ñ�� president Alec Hill announced he was stepping down from the office in order to seek treatment for bone marrow cancer. Jim Lundgren, a 42-year veteran staff member, was appointed interim president by ��ñ��’s board in June. An ��ñ�� board task force is currently in the process of identifying candidates for the role of president.

��ñ�� Christian Fellowship is a campus ministry employing more than 1,100 field staff who work with more than 40,000 students and faculty on 649 U.S. college and university campuses. ��ñ��’s national office is in Madison, Wisconsin. ��ñ�� Press, our publishing arm, is located in Westmont, Illinois. We also run retreat and training centers in California, Michigan, and New Hampshire.

View the full profile for this opportunity here.

News Keywords

transition

Presidential Search

Leadership

Trustees Join Student Outreach in NYC

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 15:13:04 +0000

News

Alec Hill, President of ��ñ��

Trustees Join Student Outreach in NYC

One of the keys to the vitality of ��ñ��’s ministry is our board of trustees. Faithful spiritual leaders from all walks of life—academics, lawyers, clergy, business leaders, missionaries—have provided direction for our ministry over the past 72 years.

I love our board. Last month, the board met in New York City to coincide with the Price of Life Invitational. Trustees were trained to use Proxe Station evangelistic displays and spent an afternoon at City College of New York interacting with students (photo).

In 2014, five new trustees will join our board. Since we only have a total of 18 trustee spots, these five will have a strong impact for years to come.

KATHERINE LEARY ALSDORF

Katherine is past Director of the Center for Faith & Work at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. With Tim Keller, she is co-author of Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work with God's Work.

Prior to her tenure at Redeemer, Katherine worked for two decades in the high tech industry serving as CEO of three companies: (1) Pensare, an online management education company, (2) One Touch Systems, a hardware/software products company, and (3) Private Satellite Network, a satellite services company.

Katherine became a Christian mid-career through the ministries of Redeemer. Her brother, Paul, served on ��ñ�� staff. She lives in New York City with her husband, John. She has an MBA from the University of Virginia and a BA in Psychology and Education from Wittenberg University.

JANE LIN

Jane is a Senior Manager of Financial Services Risk Management at Ernst & Young in New York City. She leads teams that provide credit risk advisory services to leading financial services clients, including top commercial banks.

An ��ñ�� alumna and past speaker at Urbana's Business as Mission track, she has lived and traveled extensively in a wide variety of countries including Taiwan, South Africa, and the Caribbean. She is fluent in Mandarin.

Jane has a doctorate in Economics from Columbia University and a bachelor's in Economics from the University of Massachusetts. She has served as an adjunct instructor at Columbia and the King's College. Volunteer activities include serving as co-leader of the Financial Services Ministry at Redeemer Presbyterian Church's Center for Faith & Work.

LIBBY LITTLE

Libby spent over 30 years in Afghanistan, working with her late husband, Dr. Tom Little, to improve the lives of the Afghan people, especially their eyesight.

Deeply impacted by their experience at Urbana 67, they helped establish the Noor Eye Hospital in Kabul and related ministries all over the country, while Libby also served as an English teacher.

Tom and Libby raised their three daughters in the war-torn country, persevering through several regime changes, and became known to the locals as "the ones who stayed," all out of love for God and the Afghan people.

Dr. Tom Little and his medical aid team were murdered in 2010 while traveling to a rural clinic. Libby accepted the Medal of Freedom (America's highest civilian honor) on Tom's behalf at a White House ceremony. She speaks frequently, and spoke at the Lausanne Congress in South Africa and Urbana 12.

BARRY ROWAN

Barry Rowan is the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Cool Planet Energy Systems, a green company that produces energy from biofuels.

I have known Barry for more than three decades. He inspires me with his pursuit of spiritual formation and careful listening to the Lord. A regular speaker at ��ñ�� chapters, he has a long connection with Agros International, a nonprofit that helps families build self-sustaining communities in Central America and Mexico.

Barry has served as CFO for Vonage, a $900 million Internet communications company, and for Nextel Partners, a Fortune 1000 company. Other employers include Hewlett-Packard, Comlinear, and Fluke.

He earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and his BS in Business Administration and Chemical Biology from The College of Idaho. Barry lives in the Denver area with his wife, Linda. They have two adult sons.

GREG SMITH

As an undergraduate, Greg was deeply involved with our chapter at Fresno State University and attended Urbana 87.

Post-college, Greg joined the family business—manufacturing brake actuators for commercial vehicles—and held a number of positions: new product development, export manager, vice president of operations, and president. He also completed his MBA at Fresno State.

A few years ago, the family business was sold to Berkshire Hathaway. Since then, he has started Seeds On Earth, a business focused on making investments in new ventures for God's glory. He also runs a property management firm (commercial sites).

Greg sits on the boards of Mission Aviation Fellowship and Hume Lake Christian Camp. He and his wife, Amanda, live in Fresno and have three beautiful children—Grant (14), Luke (12), and Hope (9)—with whom I recently enjoyed a rousing game of Frisbee golf.

News Keywords

Leadership

board

Asking the Right Questions

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 16:49:52 +0000

News

Amy Hauptman

Asking the Right Questions

“Before college, I was really involved with my church. I was a leader in my youth group and was part of the worship team,” said Jorel Antilano. “But that didn’t mean a whole lot, as I was just going through the motions of being a ‘good’ Christian.”

Even though Jorel had grown up in the church, by the time he got to high school he was following people rather than God. He began partying and drinking, wanting to be like everyone else. And soon he was doubting if he was a real Christian.

Am I Thirsty?

“Coming to college really shook my faith. I was on the verge of walking away from my Christianity, when an ��ñ�� staff worker asked me if I was thirsty,” stated Jorel. “I thought it was some party invitation, but to my surprise, it was an ��ñ�� gathering—they were doing an evangelistic outreach using the What are you thirsty for? interactive art station.”

So Jorel joined ��ñ�� at University of California, Merced, and he began to take responsibility for his faith. As the academic and social challenges of college life became more difficult for Jorel, he gave his life more to God and found that his relationship with God was growing.

After a year of growing spiritually, Jorel joined ��ñ��'s leadership team. He helped lead worship for ��ñ��’s weekly gatherings and also helped lead a LaFe Bible study, which specifically reaches out to Latino students.

Am I a Leader?

“At first leading a LaFe Bible study seemed like a daunting task, but what I have learned was that God works within culture and diversity,” said Jorel. “And it sparked a desire to start a Filipino small group on our campus and focus on reaching out to my Filipino brothers and sisters.”

Not only has Jorel matured in his leadership abilities through leading Bible studies, he has also grown in his relationship with God through participating in one of ��ñ��’s two-week missions projects, the Sacramento Urban Plunge (SUP). The project invites students to learn about God’s heart for the poor through Scripture as well as inner-city issues, poverty, and how we as Christians can respond to systemic injustices specific to the inner city.

“Participating in SUP opened my eyes to how God was working in the inner city of Sacramento,” noted Jorel. “Also God transformed my heart to see homeless people as more than just homeless people, but to see them as God’s children—they have stories and a life worth sharing.”

“Because of my experience in SUP, I now see others as people who have been intentionally and wonderfully made by God,” stated Jorel. “This is an amazing perspective to have, and it has encouraged me to to become more outgoing and invest in people of all different backgrounds.”

What Is My Future?

As Jorel continues his education and looks for ways to share the love of Jesus with others, he also continues to look for opportunities to grow as a follower of Jesus and as a leader in society. At Urbana 12, he attended the Student Leaders Track to discern where God might lead him after college.

“��ñ�� has definitely grown me as a leader,” said Jorel. “The missionality of ��ñ�� has definitely shown me God’s heart for the world locally and internationally, and that I too can lead with that kind of focus.”

News Keywords

University of California-Merced

Leadership

Equipped to Lead

AD-16225 — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 21:13:38 +0000

News

Christina Grajewski

Equipped to Lead

Who would have thought that what I learned at Texas Tech through ��ñ�� would have such impact on my life today? Things like my firm belief in who God is, His sovereignty, and our need to trust Him with everything started at Texas Tech.

Throughout my time there, I was challenged and stretched beyond my comfort zone. The ��ñ�� staff took a vested interest in me as an eighteen year old freshman. Robin Bolash (the staff worker at the time) met with me every week for an entire year. I had many leadership positions with ��ñ�� and had the amazing opportunity to attend Urbana. It was there that I felt the Lord calling me to inner city ministry.

After graduating from Tech, God called me to the East Coast. It was a hard adjustment leaving Texas and moving to Boston. It was here that I finally understood why God placed me in ��ñ��. I had received invaluable training on starting a Bible study, guiding others to Christ, leading fellow Christians, fostering community, and thriving in the midst of adversity.

My current job is Director of Development at Boston Urban Youth Foundation. Because this is a grassroots Christian based organization, my job title does not fully encompass all I do. Until this job, I never truly understood what dependence on the Lord meant.

The staff and I have seen tremendous obstacles this year. Our founder left the organization making me the new leader. The recession left us struggling financially. And on Memorial Day weekend one of our young people was tragically murdered, an event that left us bewildered and broken.

Through all this adversity, I never questioned God’s plan for me or the organization. We have seen blessing in all this – at least three of our young people became Christians!

My job is chaotic; however, it is the very definition of how ministry should be. I am on my knees daily, praying to God for strength and wisdom. Often I feel ill-equipped to lead an organization but because of the teaching and love I received in ��ñ�� I know that God does not call the strong. He calls the weak.

News Keywords

Leadership

��ñ�� alumni

Leadership

Terumi Echols Named President and Publisher of IVP

Terumi Echols Named President and Publisher of IVP

Faith Challenging Partnership in Uganda

Faith Challenging Partnership in Uganda

Bringing New Life to Every Corner of Every Campus

Bringing New Life to Every Corner of Every Campus

��ñ���� Seeks New President

��ñ���� Seeks New President

Trustees Join Student Outreach in NYC

Trustees Join Student Outreach in NYC

Asking the Right Questions

Asking the Right Questions

Am I Thirsty?

Am I a Leader?

What Is My Future?

Equipped to Lead

Equipped to Lead

��ñ�� Seeks New President

��ñ�� Seeks New President