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| Founded | 1947 |
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| Type | Christian interdenominational student association |
| Headquarters | Oxford, United Kingdom |
Area served | 180 countries |
General Secretary | Tim Adams, since 2021 |
| Website | ifesworld.org |
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.
In United Kingdom, the Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union, founded in 1879, was a founding member of the Student Christian Movement of Great Britain (SCM) in 1892. [1] [2] Then in 1928, students left SCM due to differences over liberal positions and founded the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. [3] This movement was established in Canada in 1928 and in the United States in 1941. [4]
In 1947, the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students was founded. [5] Representatives from Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Netherlands, Norway, France, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United States came together in Boston (USA) to strengthen evangelism, discipleship and world mission among students all over the world. [6]
It was present in 180 countries in 2023. [7]
Group meetings are held each week to discuss the Bible in universities. [8] These groups are Evangelical, but not attached to any particular confession. [9]
Representatives of all the member movements gather once every four years at the "World Assembly", where the General Committee meets to conduct official business of the fellowship. [10] IFES's General Secretaries have included: [11]
Christian literature distribution is also a feature of this ministry. InterVarsity Press (USA), Inter-Varsity Press (UK), Presses Bibliques Africaines (Francophone Africa), Harmat (Hungary), Andamio (Spain), and Ediciones Certeza (Latin America) are examples of regional publishing houses.
In Christianity, evangelism or witnessing is the act of preaching the gospel with the intention of sharing the message and teachings of Jesus Christ.
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 inter-denominational, evangelical Christian campus ministry founded in 1941, working with students and faculty on U.S. college and university campuses. InterVarsity is a charter member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, a network of similar campus ministries around the world.
Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship of Canada, or InterVarsity, is a Christian organization which ministers to youth and university students. It has a variety of ministries, including Pioneer Camps of Canada, high school, college and university ministries. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA is the American branch of InterVarsity.
Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship is a UK-based charity that was founded in 1928 as the Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Evangelical Unions. UCCF's dual aims are:
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".
Christian unions (CUs) are evangelical Christian student groups. They exist in many countries and are often affiliated with either the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students or the Campus Crusade for Christ. Many Christian unions are one of the societies affiliated to their universities' students' union. As a broader term, Christian union may refer to any Christian student society, such as SCM and Fusion groups.
Founded in 1947, InterVarsity Press (IVP) is an American publisher of Christian books located in Westmont, Illinois. IVP focuses on publishing Christian books that discuss influential cultural moments, provide tools for mental growth through a Christian framework, and equip pastors, professors, and ministry leaders in their work. It is a subsidiary of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.
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 Austrian student mission is a group of students from various churches, who want to make Jesus known at the universities in Austria. Currently there are six groups in almost every major university in Austria. The organisation is the Austrian division of the worldwide umbrella organisation International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES), currently covering 160 evangelical Christian student movements in over 140 countries.
Donald George Bloesch (1928–2010) was an American evangelical theologian. For more than 40 years, he published scholarly yet accessible works that generally defend traditional Protestant beliefs and practices while seeking to remain in the mainstream of modern Protestant theological thought. His seven-volume Christian Foundations series has brought him recognition as an important American theologian.
David Howard Adeney was a British Protestant Christian missionary and university evangelist in Hunan, China and East Asia. He served with the China Inland Mission (CIM), InterVarsity Fellowship, and International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES). In 1968 he founded the Discipleship Training Centre (DTC) in Singapore.
Tertiary Students Christian Fellowship is a New Zealand evangelical Christian student movement with affiliate groups on most university campuses, as well as some polytechnics and other tertiary institutions. It is a founding 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.
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.
John White (1924–2002) was an evangelical Christian author and international speaker who worked with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students of Latin America and published many books through InterVarsity Press.
The Groupes Bibliques Universitaires (GBU) are student groups that meet at universities or nearby for in-depth Bible study. They were founded in the beginning of the 20th century and currently operate in an officially recognized way in more than 154 countries, with a presence in 168 countries.
C. René Padilla was an Ecuadorian evangelical theologian and missiologist known for coining the term integral mission in the 1970s to articulate Christianity's dual priority in evangelism and social activism. He popularized this term in Latin American evangelicalism through the Latin American Theological Fellowship and through the global evangelical Lausanne Conference of 1974.
The Nigeria Fellowship of Evangelical Students (NIFES) is an interdenominational Christian campus movement in Nigeria whose aims are to promote and encourage evangelism, discipleship and mission among students. The NIFES is the largest Christian Campus movement in Africa with secretariats in almost all Nigerian tertiary institutions. The movement which started on 31 August 1968 is the Nigerian division of the worldwide umbrella organisation the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES), which is the largest Christian campus movement in the world currently covering 160 evangelical Christian students movements in over 160 countries.
Chua Wee Hian is a Singaporean Evangelical, known for his longterm role as General Secretary of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students from 1972 to 1991.
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