Groups Investigating God are Growing

Today among InterVarsity’s 2,960 small group Bible studies, 1,110 of these groups include non-Christians.

Non-Christian students are seldom familiar with how to interpret the Bible. And sometimes their misinterpretations can be humorously perceptive. John Teter, InterVarsity campus staff in Los Angeles, tells the story of a non-Christian student who desperately wanted to study one Bible verse in particular—John 3:16. This student was an avid football fan, and during televised football games he’d seen banners promoting John 3:16 draped over railings in the stadium. “So, what do you think John 3:16 means?” asked John Teter.

“Probably, stop watching football and go to church,” replied the young man.

An understandable mistake. But a mistake that illustrates the importance of why non-Christian students need an opportunity to investigate the Bible and get to know the biblical Jesus.

Groups Investigating God (GIGs) are small group Bible discussions designed for non-Christian college students.

Terry Erickson, InterVarsity’s Director of Evangelism, believes that using GIGs nationally will contribute to bringing many students to Christ. “Our movement has a rich history of effective small group Bible studies that introduce non-Christians to Jesus and build strong Christian Witnessing Communities,” said Terry. “So while we’ve always been a Bible believing fellowship, we’ve increasingly needed to find effective ways to bridge both a real and a perceived cultural gap between non-Christians and the Church. That’s why we intentionally share the message of the Bible in ways that are culturally relevant to this emerging generation. A Group Investigating God is a style of Bible discussion that’s proven attractive and relevant to non-Christians.”

Many InterVarsity campus chapters now use GIGs as their primary evangelistic method, resulting in more non-Christians—almost 7000 last year—participating in InterVarsity activities. Changing the lives of students from non-believers to sincere followers of Jesus Christ is our purpose for establishing GIGs on campuses.