��Ƶ

��Ƶ Remembers David Howard

drew.larson@intervarsity.org — Tue, 10 May 2022 20:10:25 +0000

May 10, 2022

Drew Larson

��Ƶ Remembers David Howard

With David Howard’s passing yesterday, ��Ƶ remembers his lasting impact mobilizing students and campuses for God’s global mission. As Director of multiple Urbana conferences, President of Latin American Mission, and International Director of the World Evangelical Alliance, David’s humble and servant-hearted leadership in missions spanned nearly six decades.

“��Ƶ owes a great debt to Dave and to his leadership in missions,” said ��Ƶ President and CEO Tom Lin. “[He kept] us focused globally and on the importance of mobilizing students to share the gospel around the world. His legacy includes hundreds of thousands of college students who had their lives transformed and received God’s calling to global missions through an Urbana Student Missions Conference. ��Ƶ is forever grateful.”

A Legacy of Global Missions Begins

David attended the very first Urbana in 1946 with his good friend, Wheaton College roommate, and future brother-in-law, the missionary/martyr Jim Elliot. David attended, spoke at, or directed nearly every Urbana for the next five decades. For his entire life, he kept his signed World Evangelism Decision card from Urbana 46. (Urbana participants use these cards to mark their commitment to God’s global mission.)

After graduating from Wheaton College in 1949, C. Stacey Woods (��Ƶ’s first president) recruited David to ��Ƶ staff for a year as an appointed ‘missionary staff member,’ visiting 120 campuses across the U.S. and Canada to challenge students to give their lives to missions. He then served Northwestern University as a part-time campus minister while attending graduate school at Wheaton and preparing for the mission field.

“My years with ��Ƶ were a very significant part of my life,” he said in a 2006 interview with ��Ƶ. “They were a time when God taught me many things and gave me many opportunities. I didn’t know much about missions in those days, except what I’d learned second or thirdhand. But I learned to trust God, and not myself, for any results.”

After 15 years as a missionary in Colombia, God stirred David’s heart again about calling and equipping college students to give their lives to God’s global mission. The stirring, David remembered, was gradual — John Alexander, ��Ƶ’s President at the time, offered him the job of Missions Director three times before David accepted!

During his tenure as Urbana Director (Urbana 73 and 76; he also served as Assistant Director of Urbana 51 and 70) attendance grew from 12,000 to 18,000 students, and commitments to missions grew from 8 percent to nearly 50 percent. He also helped design a summer follow-up program for those commitments that eventually grew into the Perspectives Program, which is a cornerstone of missions training in churches, seminaries, and ��Ƶ chapters to this day.

David also helped steer Urbana through the turbulent 1970s, a time when social unrest, campus violence, and the Vietnam War all pushed national anxiety to the brink. Leighton Ford, a leader in both the Lausanne Movement and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association — as well as a lifelong friend of David’s — remembered David’s example at Urbana 70. Leighton had been asked to deliver the keynote evangelistic message at a time when those tensions at the conference were especially high.

“That message was one of the most difficult of my life. I labored in prayer and heart searching as I prepared … [and] I felt little peace as I spoke,” he said. “But I knew that David was nearby, praying, standing by me, encouraging me.

“His fortitude, his steady calm in a testing time, left a lasting impression of Christlike grace and strength. His ability to listen and discern, his concern for helping others to flourish, his ongoing passion to know Christ and make him known — these traits always come to mind when I think of David Howard. I am grateful to have known and served with him.”

In that same 2006 interview, David reflected on the impact of Urbana for global missions: “I’ve been to probably 80 countries, and almost everywhere I go, invariably I run into people who tell me they’re serving today on the mission field because God used Urbana to call them.”

“David’s friendship was such a blessing to me,” said Tom Lin. “When I began as Urbana Director, he told me, ‘I will be praying for you every day.’ And that’s exactly what he did. Over those five years, in the most difficult days of leadership, I was always encouraged to know that each day David was praying for me.

“I’m deeply saddened and grieving Dave’s passing. Many throughout the missions world will miss Dave and celebrate him — in many ways he was a ‘giant’ in global missions. But I, most of all, will miss his smile, his joy, and his passion for students and for Christ.”

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Collaborative Effort Sees Almost EveryCampus in US Prayer Walked

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 18:47:07 +0000

Press Room

January 27, 2020

Collaborative Effort Sees Almost EveryCampus in US Prayer Walked

For Immediate Release

(Madison, WI) – ��Ƶ Christian Fellowship partnered with a host of other ministries, churches, and individuals during 2019, in an ambitious attempt to prayer walk every US college campus, all 4,948 of them. The EveryCampus collaboration was initiated, “seeking God for revival by making gospel communities on every campus a possibility” with prayer laying the foundation as the first step.

At the end of 2019, about 3,650 of the 4,948 US campuses had registered at least one prayer walk. “Our hope is that people start to experience what we in campus ministries see every day, that Jesus is alive and well on every single campus in the country already,” ��Ƶ Vice President Jon Hietbrink said. ”We don’t bring God to those campuses. God is already at work in those places, we’re just joining Him.”

More than 50 ministries have joined the EveryCampus coalition initiated by ��Ƶ and Cru campus ministry in 2017. Leaders of 30 of those ministries joined almost 1,500 ��Ƶ staff and volunteers gathered in Orlando, Florida, at the beginning of 2020 for ��Ƶ’s triennial National Staff Conference, to pray together under the theme of the conference, Longing for Revival. (Photo above)

Coalition partners together with ��Ƶ staff are focusing on preparing for the next steps that will lead to transformational campus ministry at more US colleges and universities. One of those steps includes new Adopt-a-Campus resources that ��Ƶ staff, students, and ministry partners can use to plant new chapters.

Many of those who have prayer walked campuses this year have unique stories to tell. ��Ƶ’s North Texas Area Director, Benzi George, worked with a local church to plant a Bible study on a community college campus. When the effort started to falter, Benzi and several volunteers from the church prayer walked the campus. As they gathered in a circle for final prayers, they were surprised to find themselves joined by the college president, who encouraged them to continue their efforts.

Montana Area Director Kristin Wright took a 3,290-mile road trip to prayer walk 12 campuses in Montana last June, along with local volunteers at each location. She is excited that the EveryCampus initiative is part of ��Ƶ’s 2030 Calling, to catalyze Christian community on every US college campus by the year 2030. “I don’t want to miss out on being a part of something only God can do,” she said.

��Ƶ Christian Fellowship has 1,119 student and faculty chapters on 772 campuses across the US, from the Ivy League to community colleges. ��Ƶ is a founding member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students and a charter member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

For more information:
Gordon Govier
608/443-3688

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Dallas Willard’s ��Ƶ Ministry Roots

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 13:45:24 +0000

Alumni Profile

September 24, 2019

Gordon Govier

Dallas Willard’s ��Ƶ Ministry Roots

��Ƶ’s Graduate and Faculty Ministries marked its 30-year anniversary at the GFM annual staff conference this year but the story of Dallas Willard shows that ministry to graduate students and faculty is buried much more deeply in the DNA of ��Ƶ. This was celebrated earlier in the year during a meeting of the faculty fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW). As the faculty members and administrators gathered at the University Club, they were regaled with memories of the days when Dallas was a UW graduate student.

Dallas received his Ph.D. in philosophy at the UW, living and studying in Madison from 1959 to 1965. He was hired at the University of Southern California (USC) in 1965 and taught philosophy there for the next 47 years, until just before his death in 2013. Along the way, Dallas also became a leading evangelical writer and speaker, influencing many thousands through books like The Divine Conspiracy.

Gary Moon’s biography, Becoming Dallas Willard (��Ƶ Press), describes the five years spent in Madison as a graduate student and lecturer as a critical time for Dallas. Despite having previously attended three Christian colleges, being ordained in a Baptist Church in 1956, and pastoring at two churches, Dallas still looked for a transformational faith. “I was almost terminally ignorant about God and soul,” he said later.

Discovering Spiritual Disciplines

At UW, Dallas discovered a new dimension of faith through the practice of spiritual disciplines. “What I had thought were merely the discarded practices of futile religion were actually things that, if rightly used, would help people change,” he observed.

One of the spiritual disciplines that Dallas practiced was the regular Sunday night fellowship with a handful of other graduate students in the home of UW Geography professor John Alexander, who was the ��Ƶ undergraduate chapter faculty sponsor, and soon to become ��Ƶ president.

"He (Alexander) felt that there was a need for something for the grads; he opened his home on Prospect Drive for us,” recalled Mary Daniel, emeritus professor in the UW Department of Spanish and Portuguese. “At Dr. A’s house nothing was off limits. You could ask anything.”

In the foreword to the study guide for The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas attributed many of the basic teachings from the book to this formative period. “Part of the first chapter comes from graduate school days when I was active in ��Ƶ Christian Fellowship,” he wrote.

What Dallas appreciated about ��Ƶ, he said at another time, “was that capacity to be biblically serious, to hold to the central teachings of what Lewis called ‘Mere Christianity,’ and yet to be open enough to be willing to discuss anything.”

The Dilemma

Dallas faced a hard choice as his time at UW came to a close. He received his Ph.D. in 1965, and during the previous year he had not only been a UW lecturer, but he also pastored the Arena Congregational Church in a small town outside of Madison. Would he return to the pulpit as a full-time pastor or follow philosophy into the academy? What would it be, the pulpit or the classroom?

Finally, the answer came. “The Lord said to me, ‘If you stay in the churches the university will be closed to you. But, if you stay in the university, the churches will be open to you.’ I knew the Lord said it to me because I sure didn't have enough sense to understand what it meant at the time,” he concluded.

So Dallas accepted the invitation from USC to move to California. He became a fixture in the philosophy department, chairman from 1982-1985, and recipient of the USC Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1977.

Joe Thackwell, ��Ƶ’s Director of University Partnerships, got to know Dallas and his wife Jane as he planted a graduate student and faculty chapter at USC. He learned that Dallas would write his phone number on the board and tell students they could call anytime, “although if it was dinner time he may not answer.” Joe noted, “The call to pastor through his professorship was a family call that implicated his whole life in the way that missionary and pastor’s families often experience.”

Dallas spent hours and hours listening to students in his office and made a habit of long lunches with students and faculty, engaging them deeply. “He also made himself available to the whole Christian community at USC,” Joe said. “When he taught at the Trojan Christian Faculty and Staff Fellowship the numbers swelled.”

Working with former students and current USC staff, Joe established a memorial plaque that now hangs in Mudd Hall, the home of the USC Philosophy Department. The plaque lists four worldview questions that Dallas used in his lectures and listed in his book, Knowing Christ Today. Joe believes that it is the only such memorial to a professor on the USC campus.

Dallas almost never said no to an invitation to speak. Through his counseling, books, and lectures about Christian living he was able to disciple as many people as a professor as he could have as a pastor, maybe more. And the formative fellowship he attended during his UW days illustrates the importance of graduate student ministry.

Donate to Support Graduate and Faculty Ministry

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University of Wisconsin

USC

University of Southern California

Good Gifts: Emily’s Story

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

June 10, 2019

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 ��Ƶ—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 ��Ƶ 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 ��Ƶ wants every college student to have the opportunity to experience God's good gifts of community and a deep walk with him. Find an ��Ƶ chapter near you by clicking the button below.

Find an ��Ƶ Chapter

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��Ƶ Link: God Prepares the Way in Costa Rica

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Tue, 21 May 2019 14:34:34 +0000

May 21, 2019

Gordon Govier

��Ƶ Link: God Prepares the Way in Costa Rica

When Joel and Rachel Watters first visited the campus of La Universidad Nacional Pérez Zeledón (la UNA) in southern Costa Rica a year ago, they sensed that God was already at work, preparing the way to plant ministry there. Rachel and Joel are Link staff serving with IFES sister movement Estudiantes Cristianos Unidos (ECU) in Costa Rica.

One of the first students they met was Mariela who immediately started inviting her friends to get involved. She quickly became a local leader. “When you’re planting you’re always praying for a person of peace that the Holy Spirit brings, and Mariela has been that for us on this campus,” Joel said.

They also met a faculty member who showed them a meeting schedule on his phone. “Three weeks ago, three other professors and I began praying for a Christian group to come to our campus,” he told them, with tears in his eyes. “We feel like you guys are an answer to that prayer.”

Joel and Rachel spent three days on the campus, joined by a group of ��Ƶ students from the US Midwest participating in a Global Program. They did outreach with Proxe stations, coordinated several Bible studies, and told the students that they would return when the new year of classes started in February.

In 40 years of campus ministry in Costa Rica, ECU had never been able to expand out of the central valley and reach the southern part of the country. Now in their second year with ECU, Joel and Rachel have planted a chapter at the main public university in the southern region and are starting to turn their attention to almost a half dozen other area campuses.

Joel and Rachel spent their first year in Costa Rica in San Jose, brushing up on their Spanish language skills and working with ECU on campuses there. Now they lead Bible studies in Spanish but also meet with students who want to practice their English, since Costa Rica is a major Latin American tourism destination and many jobs require English proficieny.

“I love learning about Costa Rican culture, and I think people are interested in learning about our US culture too,” Joel said. “There’s a connection there, an interest in learning from one another, that opens doors and opportunities.”

Joel and Rachel met in a young adult group at a church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 2009. Joel had taken a year off from college and was living at home with his parents. Rachel had been on staff for five years and was working with the ��Ƶ chapter at Coe College.

After they married, Joel pursued a physical therapy degree at Creighton University, and Rachel worked with Eric and Stacy Rafferty to plant the first ��Ƶ chapters in the state of Nebraska. Joel volunteered to help lead Bible studies and, together with Rachel, helped lead students on Global Program trips to Ethiopia and then China.

“��Ƶ has always been a part of our marriage and our life,” Joel said. “As I got more involved I felt like God invited me to be open to staff work, and especially going overseas as a family and serving with Link.”

Each short-term ministry trip helped nurture their desire to live and do ministry overseas. “As we have taken our students overseas and experienced God in a different culture and context, we have seen their faith grow,” he said.

When they joined Link in 2017 they discovered their planting skills from Nebraska matched the needs of ECU in Costa Rica. Now, as they are enjoying starting something new they are also facing new challenges. When they arrived at the beginning of the school year and began talking with school administrators, they realized that la UNA had never had formal organizations such as ECU on campus.

However, as they built relationship with the administration and staff, and met and shared the vision of the ministry, they were given formal permission to be on campus. Even in this process, Joel and Rachel could see the hand of God working and opening doors through these relationships.

They also discovered that students at la UNA do not live on campus; instead, they ride the bus to class. It’s a major sacrifice to stay late or come early.

While they are working on finding the best times for meetings, they are still having life-changing conversations with students. One student, a self-proclaimed skeptic, has come to every single Bible study so far. “It’s so fun to watch his eyes and his heart be opened as we study the life of Jesus in the book of John,” Joel said.

Recently, as Joel met with Mariela for another Bible study, they felt the Holy Spirit lead them to sit by one particular student who they did not know. Her ears perked up as she heard them talking about Nicodemus in John 3. “My pastor just spoke on Nicodemus yesterday,” she told them. “I’m really interested in being a part of this group.”

The Watters are confident that they made the right decision to join Link staff. “We have hard days and challenging days,” Joel said, “but also days where you see the Lord has been going ahead and preparing the way.”

Find out more about how you can help Link staff like Joel and Rachel as they serve IFES movements in other countries.

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Faith Challenging Partnership in Uganda

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

News

March 11, 2019

Gordon Govier

Faith Challenging Partnership in Uganda

��Ƶ 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 ��Ƶ 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 ��Ƶ 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.”

��Ƶ’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.

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Generations of Faithful Witness—All Saints Day & Urbana 18

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 13:31:35 +0000

Press Room

October 30, 2018

Generations of Faithful Witness—All Saints Day & Urbana 18

For Immediate Release

The Christian holiday All Saints’ Day, November 1, commemorates God’s faithful witnesses and saints of past generations. This year, Urbana 18—��Ƶ’s 25th Student Missions Conference—will seek to catalyze today’s students to carry on this legacy of faithfulness. Urbana will invite them to join God’s global mission and more deeply consider what it means to be a Faithful Witness, the conference’s theme.

“For Urbana 18, we have chosen to challenge this generation of college students with the story of faithful witness in the New Testament book of Revelation,” said Úna Lucey-Lee, Urbana Program Director. “We are eager for God to use this biblical vision to compel Urbana 18 participants into deeper trust, wholehearted discipleship, and enthusiastic involvement in global missions.”

During daily inductive Bible studies and general sessions featuring Urbana 18 expositor René Breuel and a number of other global voices, students, faculty, pastors, and other Urbana participants will be challenged through the book of Revelation to live as faithful witnesses in several tangible ways:

committing to say yes to Jesus for the first time (for those who have not done so already)
serving short-term or long-term in cross-cultural missions
testifying about Jesus in daily life wherever he calls them

The rest of the conference will focus on helping participants receive and engage Revelation’s hopeful, challenging message and also gain a better sense of God’s global presence as they discern how they are being called to a life of faithful witness. Of the many unique opportunities Urbana 18 provides, some include:

200 seminars—presented by distinguished thought leaders, experts in the corporate world, and veteran missionaries—to provide students with practical guidance about joining God’s global mission through their vocations
an exhibit hall with over 200 missions agencies and seminaries looking to support participants in determining their next steps in their journeys of obedience
rich, multiethnic worship with thousands, praising the King of kings and celebrating the diversity of his people from every nation, tribe, and tongue
#Hack4Missions, a hackathon that invites 150 software developers, graphic designers, program managers, and other technologists to support missions organizations in their real-world challenges and opportunities to further Christ’s kingdom work across the world

“We are praying that God will give this generation fresh eyes to see the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb who was slain, in all his power and glory,” Úna said.

For more information on Urbana 18, taking place December 27–31 in St. Louis, Missouri, go to urbana.org and register by November 15 for the early bird cost of registration, saving you $100.

Media Contact:
Gordon Govier
ggovier@intervarsity.org
608/443-3688

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��Ƶ Prepares to Reach 2,500 Campuses by Year 2030

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 18:04:14 +0000

Press Room

August 20, 2018

��Ƶ Prepares to Reach 2,500 Campuses by Year 2030

For Release: August 20, 2018

(Madison, WI) – ��Ƶ announces today that the campus ministry will focus on establishing Christian fellowships on 2,500 college campuses in the next 12 years.

As more than 1,500 ��Ƶ campus staff ministers, along with student and faculty leaders, return to campuses this fall, their focus is on the 2030 Calling, which states: Longing for revival, we catalyze movements that call every corner of every campus to follow Jesus.

“We want to see a witnessing community on all 2,500 US campuses with 1,000 students or more by the year 2030,” says ��Ƶ President Tom Lin. “Right now, 53 percent of those 2,500 campuses do not have any known Christian ministry. We have seen that college students are still looking for hope and significance for their lives. In fact, the last 10 years have been among the most fruitful in ��Ƶ’s 77-year history.”

Of the 20 million students in college right now, nearly one-third have no religious affiliation or identify as atheist, agnostic, or of no religion. To reach more of these students, ��Ƶ plans to accelerate the planting of new chapters throughout the country, partnering with other campus ministries as well as churches, volunteers, and ��Ƶ alumni. In addition, ��Ƶ is uniquely positioned to reach faculty members because of the nearly 2,000 faculty on campuses across the country involved with ��Ƶ in the 2017–2018 academic year.

“The 2030 Calling represents a new shift in how ��Ƶ approaches campus ministry," Lin says. "More than ever before, ��Ƶ is inviting partners from every part of God’s kingdom to participate in his work among students and faculty. This is not about planting ��Ƶ’s flag on every campus; it’s about declaring God’s glory on every campus.”

��Ƶ has chapters in all 50 states, on a total of 695 campuses. A recent highlight is the relocation of ��Ƶ staff from Los Angeles to revive campus ministry along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana.

“We believe the Lord can use us, in partnership with others, to bring a powerful movement of the Spirit among a new generation of students and faculty,” Lin says. “We truly are longing for revival on campus. And we believe that, in the next 12 years, that’s exactly what God will do through the 2030 Calling.”

Real Hope on Campus from ��Ƶ twentyonehundred on Vimeo.

��Ƶ is an interdenominational ministry to students and faculty on US college and university campuses, as well as the publisher of award-winning books on the Christian faith through ��Ƶ Press. ��Ƶ is a founding member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, advancing Christian student work in more than 160 countries. ��Ƶ is also a charter member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

For more information contact:

Gordon Govier
Media Relations
608/443-3688

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��Ƶ Again Defending Religious Freedom at Wayne State

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 17:07:03 +0000

Press Room

June 6, 2018

��Ƶ Again Defending Religious Freedom at Wayne State

For Immediate Release: June 6, 2018

Media Contact: Melinda Skea | media@becketlaw.org | 202-349-7224

(Madison, WI) – For the second time in three months ��Ƶ Christian Fellowship is fighting for its right to continue serving at the same campus it has been on for over 75 years.

In ��Ƶ Christian Fellowship v. Wayne State University, the Wayne State ��Ƶ chapter is asking the court to protect its right to continue being a part of the Wayne State campus community. Michigan-based Wayne State claims ��Ƶ is breaking the rules by asking its leaders to share its faith, even though it lets more than 90 other student groups choose their own leaders. Now the University is asking a federal court to give it the power to kick the group off campus any time.

“Wayne State allows 90 student groups to make their own rules for leaders—everyone from fraternities to the Quidditch Club,” said Lori Windham, Senior Counsel at Becket, which represents the student group. “But Wayne State can’t wave a magic wand and make the Constitution disappear. Christian student groups have the same rights as everyone else.”

��Ƶ welcomes all students to join as members and only requires that its leaders agree with its faith. But in late 2017, Wayne State kicked the group off campus, canceled the group’s reserved meetings, and forced it to pay thousands of dollars to continue holding Bible studies on campus—all because it disagreed with ��Ƶ’s leadership requirement. After ��Ƶ filed a lawsuit, represented by Becket, the University let the group back on campus. But the University is still trying to force ��Ƶ off campus.

The University’s actions ignore the rich history of ��Ƶ’s student group at Wayne State, which is one of the oldest chapters in the country. ��Ƶ has held weekly Bible studies and organized service opportunities on campus for over 75 years, including repairing buildings in downtown Detroit and serving at the local food pantry. The student group is asking the court to permanently protect its ability to be a part of, and continue serving, the Wayne State community.

“Wayne State’s actions threaten not just ��Ƶ but all the religious groups who depend on student leaders who share their faith,” said Windham.

Becket filed two briefs seeking a permanent fix to the school’s discriminatory policy, which also highlights a list of more than 90 groups who are allowed to choose leaders who agree with them, while ��Ƶ is not.

For more information or to arrange an interview with a Becket attorney, contact Melinda Skea at media@becketlaw.org or 202-349-7224.

Additional Information:

Becket’s memo in response to Wayne State’s motion to dismiss (June 4, 2018)
Becket’s Filing 2reply in support of ��Ƶ’s motion for summary judgment (June 5, 2018)
Release: 48 hours later, Wayne State allows Christian student group back on campus temporarily
ABC News: Should campus religious groups be allowed to require leaders to follow their faith?
Detroit News Editorial: WSU errs in ousting Christian group
Becket’s Complaint in ��Ƶ Christian Fellowship v. Wayne State University
Case Page for ��Ƶ Christian Fellowship v. Wayne State University

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Becket is a non-profit, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions and has a 100% win-rate before the United States Supreme Court. For over 20 years, it has successfully defended clients of all faiths, including Buddhists, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Native Americans, Sikhs, and Zoroastrians (read more here).

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Restored for Restoration

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Tue, 08 May 2018 20:38:30 +0000

May 8, 2018

Katie Ziegler

Restored for Restoration

As a senior in high school, Adryahna desperately wanted to fit in. Many friends turned their backs on her, and others bullied her. The friends Adryahna did have made poor choices, including bringing alcohol to school to drink together every day.

Lost and hoping for a change, Adryahna left home in San Diego to attend California State University, Long Beach, where she met some students from ��Ƶ who helped her move into her dorm. She ended up attending a few of their large group meetings.

However, Adryahna continued to make choices that chipped away at her well-being. By the end of freshman year, she was depressed and diagnosed with anxiety.

“My main goal was to turn up,” she said. “I was pretty much just partying. It was really unfulfilling, and I got really tired really quickly.”

One night, while Adryahna and a friend were walking home from a party, someone drove by and threw a milkshake at them, calling them horrible names. That moment was devastating and pushed Adryahna to get to know Jesus a little better. She decided to read through the entire New Testament that summer.

A New Family and New Desire

On the first day back on campus as a sophomore, Adryahna ran into an ��Ƶ acquaintance who invited her to get involved with Black Campus Ministries (BCM).

“I went, and I loved everyone. They became like family,” she said.

From that moment on, Adryahna found not only the community she longed for, but the desire to put Jesus at the center of her decisions. Then, at her ��Ƶ chapter’s Spring Conference, Adryahna officially gave Jesus lordship over her life.

Now, Adryahna is finishing her last semester of school where she leads the BCM portion of ��Ƶ on campus. During her time in the chapter, she saw not only her own relationship with Jesus deepen, but also the chapter grow exponentially with those invested in seeing change on campus.

Seeing her campus transform as her own life transformed prompted Adryahna to serve as the student emcee at this year’s Ambition Conference, where she shared vulnerably from the stage, prayed for speakers, and encouraged other students to be bold in following Jesus by carrying his mission on campus.

An Unexpected Leap of Faith

In her commitment to follow where God leads, Adryahna recently made the decision to return home after graduation with no job and no clear career plan. This decision came at the expense of turning down other opportunities, including Teach for America and an internship with ��Ƶ.

But God gave Adryahna a vision of restoring relationships with her high school friends and inviting them to study the Bible with her.

“I’ve learned that we’re not supposed to have faith in our faith; we’re supposed to have faith in God,” Adryahna said. “I trust that God will sustain me and that there will be fruit and healing from this huge faith leap I’m taking.”

In the future though, Adryahna hopes doors will open to her ultimate goal—to help reform the prison system. Growing her relationship with God also grew in her a commitment to bring his justice and hope to our broken world.

“God used ��Ƶ to show me the truth of who he is—he is love. He used ��Ƶ to give me the confidence to use my voice and the discernment to know where to invest my time in the future,” Adryahna said.

While moving home feels scary for Adryahna, as though her future plans are on hold, she knows that serving God after college looks different for everyone, and that what she chose is just as important.

Are you graduating from college this year like Adryahna? Your involvement with ��Ƶ doesn’t have to end. Learn about the different ways to stay connected with ��Ƶ by clicking the button below!

Visit the ��Ƶ Alumni Page

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Black Campus Ministries