Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship of Canada

Last updated

Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship of Canada, or InterVarsity is an evangelical Christian student movement with affiliate groups on university campuses in Canada. It is a member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students.

Contents

Nigel Pollock is the current president. Prior to taking this role he spent 18 years with the University and Colleges Christian Fellowship in Scotland and for the past 10 years, the Tertiary Student Christian Fellowship in New Zealand. The organizational center is in Mississauga, Ontario.

History

In 1928 Norman Grubb reported to the Inter-Varsity Fellowship (IVF) in Britain of the spiritual decay happening at Canadian universities. In response, IVF sent Dr. Howard Guinness to Canada to help start evangelical student work at the universities. For fourteen months Guinness traveled across Canada, meeting with students at the universities and providing them with a model of daily prayer meet ups and weekly Bible study. Guinness also promoted training leaders in high schools and camps.

InterVarsity was officially organized in late 1929. In 1934 Stacey Woods became the new general secretary of InterVarsity in Canada and in 1938 he helped establish the first InterVarsity chapters in the United States. [1]

Typically, InterVarsity meetings are composed of small groups of Christians meeting for weekly prayer and study. In the early 1990s, many groups experimented with additional large worship services in campus bars. This was the result of a large on campus evangelistic outreach that took place at McMaster university in 1991 featuring the British evangelist Michael Green and his team from Regent College in Vancouver. Originally the vision of Michael Hare who died in a car accident in January 1988, the mission featured a debate with the popular psychology professor Richard Day and a religious contemporary worship service in the campus bar, The Rat. Two more of these worship services were held under the leadership of Buff Cox, the InterVarsity staff worker, and Gregory Butler, the InterVarsity president at the time. In subsequent years, the worship services grew to attract hundreds of students at a time from all over Southern Ontario. The services moved to the larger bar, the Downstairs John, and became Church at the John. In subsequent years, the McMaster Chapter grew significantly and engaged in oversees missions, including a close connection to Lithuanian Christian University Students after the fall of the Iron Curtain. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesus movement</span> Former evangelical Christian movement

The Jesus movement was an evangelical Christian movement that began on the West Coast of the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s and primarily spread throughout North America, Europe, Central America, Australia and New Zealand, before it subsided in the late 1980s. Members of the movement were called Jesus people or Jesus freaks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Urbana (conference)</span> Christian conference

Urbana is a major Christian student missions conference sponsored by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. The event is designed to inform Christian students about global issues and issues around the world that missionaries face. The conference also encourages students to explore the biblical mandate for cross-cultural missions and encourages them to participate in missions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Bright</span> American evangelist

William R. Bright was an American evangelist. In 1951 at the University of California, Los Angeles, he founded Campus Crusade for Christ as a ministry for university students. In 1952 he wrote The Four Spiritual Laws. In 1979 he produced the film Jesus.

The International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) is an interdenominational association of 180 evangelical Christian student movements worldwide, encouraging evangelism, discipleship and mission among students. The headquarters is in Oxford, England.

Parachurch organizations are Christian faith-based organizations that work outside and across denominations to engage in social welfare and evangelism. Parachurch organizations seek to come alongside the church and specialize in things that individual churches may not be able to specialize in by themselves. They often cross denominational and national boundaries providing specialized services and training.

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA (IVCF) is an evangelical Christian student movement with affiliate groups on university campuses in U.S.. It is a member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship</span>

Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship is an evangelical Christian student movement with affiliate groups on university campuses in the United Kingdom. It is a member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. The UCCF endorses a conservative evangelical form of Christian theology.

The Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union, usually known as CICCU, is the University of Cambridge's most prominent student Christian organisation, and was the first university Christian Union to have been founded. It was formed in 1877, but can trace its origins back to the formation of the Jesus Lane Sunday School in 1827 and the Cambridge Prayer Union in 1848. CICCU's stated purpose is "to make Jesus Christ known to students in Cambridge".

The Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union, usually known as OICCU, is the world's second oldest university Christian Union and is the University of Oxford's most prominent student Christian organisation. It was formed in 1879.

The Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (AFES) is an evangelical Christian student movement with affiliate groups on university campuses in Australia. It is a member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students.

Mariano Di Gangi was a minister of the Presbyterian Church in Canada.

Tertiary Students Christian Fellowship is an evangelical Christian student movement with affiliate groups on university campuses in New Zealand. It is a member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. With a firm commitment to evangelism and mission, the four principles which guide the TSCF ethos are undivided life, deep thought, global reach and true witness. TSCF partners with approximately 2000 supporters, 1000 students and 27 staff members.

Quiet time, also stated as heart-to-heart time, or one-on-one time with the creator, is a regular individual session of Christian spiritual activities, such as prayer, private meditation, contemplation, worship of God or study of the Bible. The term "quiet time" or "sacred time" is used by 20th-century Protestants, mostly evangelical Christians. It is also called "personal Bible study" or "personal devotions". Rick Warren points out that it has also been called "morning watch" and "appointment with God".

Douglas Evans Coe was an American evangelist who served as the associate director of the Fellowship Foundation, a religious and political organization known for hosting the annual National Prayer Breakfast. Coe has been referred to as the "stealth Billy Graham". In 2005, Coe was named one of the 25 most-influential evangelicals in the United States by Time. Coe was an ordained ruling elder and lay minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inter-Varsity Press</span>

Inter-Varsity Press (IVP) was previously the publishing wing of Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship. It support the publishing or distribution of well over one million books each year to over 150 countries, including the translation of titles into over 90 different languages. Following a UCCF-wide strategic review in 2005, IVP was divested. It was intended that this would reduce the financial burden on UCCF. By 2015, IVP was nearly insolvent. The trustees transferred its assets and liabilities to religious publisher SPCK, with an agreement to use the imprint for evangelical Christian publishing.

Vivienne Stacey (1928–2010) was the Principal and overseer United Bible Training Centre (UBTC) in Gujranwala from 1957 to 1982, working as a missionary with the Bible and Medical Missionary Fellowiship. Stacey is the author of over 15 books and 60 articles on subjects such as women in Pakistan and the history of Christianity in Pakistan including several in the Urdu language. Vivienne Stacey pioneered in Christian missionary work to Muslim women living in Pakistan.

Christian study centers are American Christian organizations located close to universities and colleges. Beginning in 1968, they have been developed to encourage the life of the mind and a thoughtful approach to all academic disciplines from an orthodox Christian perspective. One long-term goal of many study centers is to maintain a physical presence close to a university campus, not unlike Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life. Many of these college religious organizations are affiliated with the Consortium of Christian Study Centers, which was founded in 2008.

Oliver Rainsford Barclay was a British academic and evangelical Christian. Originally a zoologist, he later turned his attentions to widening the influence of conservative evangelical Christianity within universities and theological colleges. He was General Secretary of the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship from 1964 to 1980, and also Chair of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students from 1971 to 1979. In 1989, he co-founded the journal Science and Christian Belief.

References

  1. ↑ For Christ and the University: The Story of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of the U.S.A./ 1940-1990 by Keith & Gladys Hunt, InterVarsity Press, 1991, ISBN   0-8308-4996-3, pp. 61–73.
  2. ↑ The Church on the World's Turf: An Evangelical Christian Group at a Secular University. by Paul A. Bramadat, Oxford University Press.2000.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.