Intervarsity Christian Fellowship/USA

Summary

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USAź is an evangelical campus mission serving more than 35,000 students and faculty on more than 560 college and university campuses nationwide. Incorporated in 1941, InterVarsity has a rich tradition of campus witness, thoughtful discipleship, and a concern for world missions.

Intervarsity Christian Fellowship/USA is a nonprofit organization and contributions to it are fully tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. In addition, it is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).

Contact Information: [ Back to top ]

Organization Details [ Back to top ]

Purpose [ Back to top ]

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USAź is an evangelical campus mission serving more than 35,000 students and faculty on more than 560 college and university campuses nationwide. Incorporated in 1941, InterVarsity has a rich tradition of campus witness, thoughtful discipleship, and a concern for world missions.

Intervarsity Christian Fellowship/USA is a nonprofit organization and contributions to it are fully tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. In addition, it is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).

Mission Statement [ Back to top ]

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship communicates its Purpose Statement as the following:

In response to God's love, grace and truth:

The Purpose of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA is to establish and advance at colleges and universities witnessing communities of students and faculty who follow Jesus as Savior and Lord: growing in love for God, God's Word, God's people of every ethnicity and culture and God's purposes in the world.

Program Accomplishments [ Back to top ]

Need Program Accomoplishments info

Statement of Faith [ Back to top ]

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's uses the following to express its Statement of Fath:

We believe in:

• The only true God, the almighty Creator of all things,existing eternally in three persons– Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–full of love and glory.
• The unique divine inspiration, entire trustworthiness and authority of the Bible.
• The value and dignity of all people: created in God's image to live in love and holiness,but alienated from God and each other because of our sin and guilt,and justly subject to God’s wrath.
• Jesus Christ, fully human and fully divine,who lived as a perfect example, who assumed the judgment due sinners by dying in our place,and who was bodily raised from the dead and ascended as Savior and Lord.
• Justification by God's grace to all who repent and put their faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation.
• The indwelling presence and transforming power of the Holy Spirit, who gives to all believers a new life and a new calling to obedient service.
• The unity of all believers in Jesus Christ, manifest in worshiping and witnessing churches making disciples throughout the world.
• The victorious reign and future personal return of Jesus Christ, who will judge all people with justice and mercy, giving over the unrepentant to eternal condemnation but receiving the redeemed into eternal life.

History [ Back to top ]

InterVarsity communicates its history as the following:

Our movement began with students at the University of Cambridge, England in 1877. There, a group of Christian students began to meet together, in spite of the disapproval of some University officials, to pray, to study the Bible and to witness to fellow students. Soon, similar groups sprung up on other campuses. Eventually, they formed the British Inter-Varsity. (Hence our name, inter - meaning between, varsity - the British term for college level students.) From the very beginning they had a strong concern to take the gospel to those all over the world who had never heard it - a concern that continues in InterVarsity today.

In response to a plea for help, British InterVarsity sent Howard Guinness, a medical school graduate and vice-chairman of the British movement, to Canada in1928. Students helped raise the money to provide one-way passage to Canada. Between bouts of seasickness, Guinness led his cabin mate to Christ during the crossing, As God supplied the funds, he slowly worked his way across Canada, starting up and assisting evangelical student groups.

By 1937 the Canadians began to hear requests for help from students in the United States as independent evangelical student groups began springing up. In 1938 Stacey Woods, the Canadian InterVarsity director, met with students on the University of Michigan campus. As an immediate result of that visit, students formed the first InterVarsity chapter in the United States.

By May of 1941 InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA was an official organization, with three staff on loan from Canada and Stacey Woods at the helm as Secretary General. In 1947 InterVarsity USA became a founding member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, a federation of national Christian student movements. The other charter members are Australia, Britain, Canada, China, France, Holland, New Zealand, Norway, and Switzerland. (To see which 143 countries are currently members of IFES go to www.ifesworld.org).

By 1950 there were 35 staff serving students in 499 InterVarsity chapters across the country. InterVarsity Press had been started to supply quality literature suitable for the campus. And the Urbana student missions convention had begun the tradition of calling every student generation to consider global missions. By the early seventies there were more than 200 staff.

Today, there are more than 1000 InterVarsity staff serving more than 34,000 students and faculty nationwide. In addition we produce training materials, camps, books, and media tools which serve both the Church and campus. Our work touches every kind of student including graduate students and faculty. We are seeking to build witnessing communities on the campus which are bold, broad and ethnically diverse.

Ministry Needs [ Back to top ]

This organization has not offered MinistryWatch.com with specific needs to be posted on the profile. At such a time that MinistryWatch.com receives a response from the ministry, it will be posted immediately.

Research Analysis

Transparency Grade [ Back to top ]

MinistryWatch.com 5 Star Financial Efficiency Ratings [ Back to top ]

Ranking Category	Rating	Overall Rank	Fellowship Evangelism Sector
Overall Efficiency Rating		223 of 348	14 of 19
Fund Acquisition Decision		223 of 348	14 of 19
Resource Allocation Decision		of 348	5 of 19
Asset Utilization Decision		of 348	5 of 19