Chapter Leaders' Handbook

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In 1959, Charles Hummel, then national secretary of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in the U.S., published Campus Christian Witness. A synthesis of insights into campus ministry and strategy, the book stood for many years as the major resource for staff and students.

Then in the early 1970's, a collaboration of students and staff produced the Student Leadership Handbook. This handbook was an attempt to provide a contemporary sequel to Dr. Hummel's book with specific insights into building and leading strong InterVarsity chapters.

In the mid 1980's, the first Chapter Leaders' Handbook was written to continue our effort to assist students in building their chapters. We who contributed to this revised 1990 edition of the Chapter Leaders' Handbook are building on the shoulders of our predecessors. We have learned from their discoveries and principles.

The purpose of this handbook is to provide foundational material which will be helpful to almost every InterVarsity chapter leadership team. We certainly work among a wide diversity of students and campuses across this nation.

For all that diversity, there are certain unifying principles in each InterVarsity chapter. We are all concerned about God's vision for our campus, development of student leadership, building effective InterVarsity chapters, campus penetration, and the proper functioning of the Exec. This handbook is an attempt to outline these unifying principles.

Since each campus is different, it will be up to you as chapter leaders, with the help of your staff worker, to personalize these principles to your campus situation.

Feel free to add your own resource material at the conclusion of the handbook. This section provides practical suggestions on topics such as international student outreach, daily prayer meetings, community action projects, etc. If you would like to suggest topics for this section, please send your suggestions to Judy Johnson, InterVarsity Director of Training, P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895.

We were assisted in our task by Debra Hagstrom and Judy Johnson. It is the prayer of all of us involved in this project that God will use this material to inspire you and help you build effective chapters who witness to the Lord Jesus Christ as God Incarnate on their campus.

Jimmy Long
Chapel Hill, NC