Greek Cafe Encourages Brothers and Sisters
Greek InterVarsity, our ministry to fraternities and sororities, is holding its annual Greek Conferences in Indianapolis and Charlotte this month. They are InterVarsity’s largest student conferences outside of Urbana. Greek ministry was profiled in this article from Urbana Today.
The Greek Café is equipping Christians in one of the most harshly stereotyped groups in America: college fraternities and sororities.
“It’s almost like an unreached people group,” said Matt Kammerait, Delta Epsilon member from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It’s a place where you have to strategize completely differently than you would for any other group of people because they do have their own culture and their own values.”
The Greek Café provides students and staff with a place to hang out, ask questions and talk to fellow Greeks about how to apply the lessons learned at Urbana 06 to life in a sorority or fraternity. The hosts of the café are Greek InterVarsity staff workers David Shepley and Dusty Harrison.
Shepley said that the Greek ministry reaches out to members of the Greek system who are interested in exploring Christian faith, but have a hard time integrating into Christian culture due to negative stereotypes. The Greek InterVarsity ministry, he said, builds bridges that allow the Greek system and Christian community work together.
“We’re not here to save people from the Greek system, like go in, rescue them, and get them out,” Kammerait said. “We want to still be in the Greek system and embrace the good parts of the Greek system and yet be working for Christ at the same time.”
Shepley said he hopes that Urbana 06 will inspire students in fraternities and sororities to mobilize their chapters to impact the world by serving in their cities or supporting an international movement.
“The cool thing about the Greek system is, because so many Greek students are natural leaders plugged in with community outside of InterVarsity, they have this huge potential to impact a campus for missions instead of just a local chapter,” Shepley said.
Reaching out to the Greek community means reaching out to the future leaders of the world at a time when they are exploring their faith, said Karen Hartline, Greek Intervarsity administrative assistant. According to a Greek InterVarsity brochure, 30 percent of Fortune 500 executives and members of the U.S Congress have been involved in the Greek system.
Georgia Tech student Daniel Baily, a member of the Theta Xi fraternity, learned about Greek ministry at this year’s conference and hopes to start one at his own university. He said he wants to find ways to unify and strengthen existing Greek Bible studies at Georgia Tech University and provide training to small group leaders.
Aaron Wippold, Greek InterVarsity staff member from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who ministers in the Greek Cafe, said he wants to provide encouragement to Christian students within the Greek system that are frustrated by the stereotypes. Wippold became involved in Greek ministry after learning about it at the Urbana 03 convention.
Several Greek ministries were started as a result of Urbana 03, including those at Michigan Tech University and the College of William and Mary. Around 150 people attended Thursday’s seminar “Jesus Meets Fraternity Row,” in which Greek InterVarsity director Andy Dalton gave ideas on how to mobilize Greeks to be intentional in the faith and equip them for ministry in their fraternities and sororities.
Joshua Winata graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in December.