“Everyone is talking about InterVarsity!”: New Ministry at Salem Community College

Earlier this year, the president of Salem Community College (SCC) in New Jersey held a meeting of the campus department chairs.

"Everyone is talking about InterVarsity on campus!" one of the chairs said.

That alone is an incredible testament to God’s faithfulness, but just a year ago, Salem had no known ministry on campus.

How it All Started

In September 2024, Christine, an InterVarsity Area Director in New Jersey, was on her way to prayer walk Salem Community College. She wanted to make a quick stop to grab coffee and walked into a cafe that happened to be playing worship music inside.  Christine struck up a conversation with the café owner about SCC and confirmed that there was no ministry there. 

“But I think that there should be a ministry like InterVarsity at every campus in the country!” the cafe owner said. 

Afterward, God led Christine to the Student Services desk on campus, where both people working echoed the café owner’s sentiment: “We need a campus ministry like InterVarsity here!” they told her.

One of them, a Christian woman named Faith who also coached the softball team, asked how faculty could get involved and was confident student athletes would be interested. A couple weeks later, Faith contacted Christine and told her the whole softball team was excited about having a Christian ministry on campus. 

All of this felt like clear confirmation that God was up to something. So, on her second visit to campus, Christine set up a table on campus that said, “Interested in a Bible study?”

“There was a 100% interest rate for everyone who came to the table. When we went roving, it was about 90-95%,” Christine said. “Some of them were like ‘Train me in leading a Bible study!’” 

Harvest Workers Eager to Serve

Christine realized that if they were going to plant a chapter at Salem, she would need help. 

“We didn’t really have a key student or person that could help lead the ministry. I’m 60 to 90 minutes away…We need[ed] someone who’s on the ground.

 ”When Christine returned to Salem in December of 2024, she ran into Faith again, who introduced her to another faculty member named Irma.

“I want to start a Bible study, but I don’t know what to do,” Irma said. “I know God has called me to Salem.” After talking, Irma and Christine agreed that they were meant to partner with each other. 

While helping equip Irma, Christine met two student athletes eager to reach their corner of campus. One of them already had a team Bible study going and was looking for resources, and another, Dani, started leading prayer walks, inviting fellow student athletes.

“We’re seeing God answer our prayers!” Christine said. “We found these people who need to be affirmed, and they’re looking for coaching, and they’re looking for resources. That’s what I had! It was the Lord’s beautiful timing.”

Every Campus Needs Christian Community

In the spring 2025 semester, things were slowly beginning to pick up with establishing a ministry at SCC. With some small Bible studies and monthly prayer walks, around seven people were involved.

However, by the fall, Irma was ready to officially launch a small group and eighteen people came to the first meeting! Now, 15 to 20 students and faculty attend. On a campus of only 1,000, this is nearly 2% of the campus community! 

“I never expected that students would be this interested!” Irma said.

This new community has already celebrated one first-time decision to faith, another member’s adult decision to follow Jesus, and many students committing to be missional and evangelistic!

Irma and others are training student leaders and are looking for more. While it once had no campus ministry at all, Salem now has a growing community of students and faculty passionate about following Jesus!

“I love this kind of small, faithful obedience that bears fruit in the lives, not just of individual students and faculty, but in the life of the whole institution!” Jon Hietbrink, InterVarsity’s Vice President of Field Ministries, said. “Praise God for his faithfulness!”

College students are hungry for Christian community, and what God has done at Salem is just a glimpse of what he can do on every campus nationwide. Will you pray for God to send harvest workers to campuses with no Christian community? Will you partner with us to give students everywhere the chance to know him?