Tertiary Students Christian Fellowship

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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. [1]

New Zealand Constitutional monarchy in Oceania

New Zealand is a sovereign island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, and the South Island —and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, and plant life. The country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland.

Evangelicalism movement within Protestant Christianity

Evangelicalism, evangelical Christianity, or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, transdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity which maintains the belief that the essence of the Gospel consists of the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ's atonement. Evangelicals believe in the centrality of the conversion or "born again" experience in receiving salvation, in the authority of the Bible as God's revelation to humanity, and in spreading the Christian message. The movement has had a long presence in the Anglosphere before spreading further afield in the 19th, 20th and early 21st centuries.

Christianity is a Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as described in the New Testament. Its adherents, known as Christians, believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and savior of all people, whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Most Christians get baptized, celebrate the Lord's Supper, pray the Lord's Prayer and other prayers, have clergy, and attend group worship services.

Contents

History

Student Christian Movement

From 1895 World Student Christian Federation General Secretary John Mott travelled the world to inspire and establish the formation of university groups with a vision of ‘The evangelisation of the world in this generation’. One of the groups established was the Australasian Student Christian Union (ASCU), which, was formed at a conference held at Ormond College, Melbourne University, on 6 June 1896. The ASCU covered both Australia and New Zealand until a New Zealand Student Christian Movement was established in 1921, and had branches in numerous universities and colleges throughout the country. [2]

The World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) is a federation of autonomous national Student Christian Movements (SCM) forming the youth and student arm of the global ecumenical movement. The Federation includes Orthodox, Protestant, Catholic, and Anglican students.

John Mott American Methodist and founder of the YMCA

John Raleigh Mott was an evangelist and long-serving leader of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) and the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF). He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946 for his work in establishing and strengthening international Protestant Christian student organizations that worked to promote peace. He shared the prize with Emily Balch. From 1895 until 1920 Mott was the General Secretary of the WSCF. Intimately involved in the formation of the World Council of Churches in 1948, that body elected him as a lifelong honorary President. His best-known book, The Evangelization of the World in this Generation, became a missionary slogan in the early 20th century.

Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy

The Student Christian Movement had evangelical roots, in the work and examples of early pioneers such as Dwight L. Moody, Hudson Taylor, Sholto Douglas, Handley Moule, the “Cambridge Seven”, Robert Wilder, and its close connection with the Keswick Convention. However, as the Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy began to gain profile in the late 1890s and early 1900s tensions began to arise. English General Secretary Tissington Tatlow was sympathetic to the ideal of an inclusive student movement, and this put him and the movement increasingly at odds with evangelical members, particularly at the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union (CICCU). In 1909 CICCU withdrew from the movement, and was subsequently followed by a number of other university groups. [3]

Dwight L. Moody American evangelist and publisher

Dwight Lyman Moody, also known as D. L. Moody, was an American evangelist and publisher connected with the Holiness Movement, who founded the Moody Church, Northfield School and Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts, Moody Bible Institute and Moody Publishers.

Hudson Taylor Missionary in China

James Hudson Taylor was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission. Taylor spent 51 years in China. The society that he began was responsible for bringing over 800 missionaries to the country who began 125 schools and directly resulted in 18,000 Christian conversions, as well as the establishment of more than 300 stations of work with more than 500 local helpers in all eighteen provinces.

Handley Moule British bishop

Handley Carr Glyn Moule was an evangelical Anglican theologian, writer, poet, and Bishop of Durham from 1901–1920.

These same tensions were manifest in the New Zealand movement, with a number of members concerned by the advancement of the modernist cause. One such member was William H. Pettit (1885-1985). Pettit came into contact with the movement while attending Nelson College, and subsequently the University of Otago from 1904-1908. The preaching of Mott inspired him and his wife to serve as medical missionaries to Bangladesh for five years. Upon returning he continued his involvement with SCM, but in 1927 established a separate Bible study group which became known as the Auckland College Student Bible League. New Zealand historian Peter Lineham suggests links between Pettit’s ‘Bible League’ and the ‘League of Students’ formed by American fundamentalist leader John Gresham Machen. [2]

William Haddow Pettit was a Christian missionary to Bangladesh with the New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society from 1910–1915, and a leader of the fundamentalist/evangelical movement in New Zealand in the 1920s and 1930s. He founded the Crusader Union of New Zealand in 1930 after hosting IVF preacher Howard Guinness, and played a leading role in the formation of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Evangelical Unions (NZ) in 1936. He later joined the Open Brethren.

Nelson College is the oldest state secondary school in New Zealand. It is a boys-only school in the City of Nelson that teaches from years 9 to 13. In addition, it runs a private Preparatory School for year 7 and 8 boys. The school also has places for boarders, who live in two boarding houses adjacent to the main school buildings on the same campus.

University of Otago university in New Zealand

The University of Otago is a collegiate university located in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. It scores highly for average research quality, and in 2006 was second in New Zealand only to the University of Auckland in the number of A-rated academic researchers it employs. In the past it has topped the New Zealand Performance Based Research Fund evaluation.

Inter-Varsity Fellowship

During the 1920s CICCU came under the leadership of Howard Mowll, who developed the network of the union with of other evangelical student groups, and formalized this as the Inter-Varsity Fellowship (IVF) in 1928. WEC General Secretary Norman Grubb challenged Mowll and his team to help other evangelical student groups across the globe, with the aim of establishing an evangelical witness in every university. Howard Guinness was sent out for this task, visiting Australia in 1929 and 1930. His second visit resulted in the establishment of evangelical unions in Melbourne, Brisbane and Hobart. [2]

Howard Mowll Australian bishop

Howard West Kilvinton Mowll (1890–1958) was the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney from 1933 until his death in 1958.

WEC International (WEC) is an interdenominational mission agency of evangelical tradition which focuses on evangelism, discipleship and church planting, through music and the arts, serving addicts and vulnerable children, through Christian education, missionary and church leadership training, medical and development work, Bible translation, literacy and media production, in order to help local Christians share the gospel cross-culturally. WEC emphasises the importance of shared life in a local church as a vital expression of Christian life. WEC prioritises the planting of churches among indigenous people groups and unreached people groups, who have little or no access to the gospel of Jesus Christ

Norman Grubb British missionary

Norman Percy Grubb MC was a British Christian missionary and Evangelist, writer, and theological teacher.

At the invitation of Pettit, Guinness arrived in New Zealand on 22 September 1930. He visited schools and all four University centres (Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin), and his visit resulted in the formation of the Crusader Union of New Zealand. Pettit was the founding chairman of this union, and Auckland Baptist Tabernacle minister Joseph Kemp was Vice-President. The crusader movement set in motion a burgeoning evangelical student ministry in New Zealand, and created the momentum that in 1936 resulted in the formation of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Evangelical Unions (NZ). [4]

Auckland Metropolitan area in North Island, New Zealand

Auckland is a city in the North Island of New Zealand. Auckland is the largest urban area in the country, with an urban population of around 1,628,900. It is located in the Auckland Region—the area governed by Auckland Council—which includes outlying rural areas and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, resulting in a total population of 1,695,900. A diverse and multicultural city, Auckland is home to the largest Polynesian population in the world. The Māori-language name for Auckland is Tāmaki or Tāmaki-makau-rau, meaning "Tāmaki with a hundred lovers", in reference to the desirability of its fertile land at the hub of waterways in all directions.

Wellington Capital city in New Zealand

Wellington is the capital city and second most populous urban area of New Zealand, with 418,500 residents. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the major population centre of the southern North Island, and is the administrative centre of the Wellington Region, which also includes the Kapiti Coast and Wairarapa. Its latitude is 41°17′S, making it the world's southernmost capital of a sovereign state. Wellington features a temperate maritime climate, and is the world's windiest city by average wind speed.

Christchurch Metropolitan area in South Island, New Zealand

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. The Christchurch urban area lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula. It is home to 404,500 residents, making it New Zealand's third-most populous city behind Auckland and Wellington.

The Fellowship

In 1947 IVF New Zealand joined with ten other national movements to form the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. [5] In 1965 Overseas Christian Fellowship (OCF) began at the University of Otago, and the OCF movement quickly spread to the other New Zealand campuses. IVF changed its name to Tertiary Students Christian Fellowship in 1973. [6]

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Nigeria Fellowship of Evangelical Students

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.

References

  1. ↑ TSCF website, accessed 27 May 2010
  2. 1 2 3 Duke, Nick (2005), The origins of evangelical university work in Australia and New Zealand with special reference to Howard Guinness Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine ..
  3. ↑ Atkinson, Basil F. C. (1932), Old Paths in Perilous Times.
  4. ↑ Dictionary of New Zealand Biography: William Haddow Pettit.
  5. ↑ Editorial, Canvas Magazine,
  6. ↑ TSCF website: Who is TSCF?, Issue 44, Autumn 2007
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