Last Friday, March 27, 2020, thousands joined InterVarsity Live!, the ministry’s first national online large group.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and campus closures across the nation, InterVarsity organized this virtual large group in less than two weeks. Through the event, more than 50 viewers recommitted their lives to Christ, two made first time decisions, several students shared that their school had no InterVarsity ministry and wanted to get connected, and nearly 570 responded to a call to consecration and praying for revival.
“I am amazed at how God was able to take such crazy circumstances and still have his glory shine through,” said Eliza, a junior at California State University, Fullerton who attended the virtual event.
Alison Smith, Associate Director of Greek InterVarsity, served as the event’s emcee, welcoming undergraduate students, InterVarsity alumni, campus ministers, and donors from across the country and world. InterVarsity President Tom Lin then spoke briefly, followed by a welcome and prayer from Native InterVarsity and worship led by members of the Urbana 18 Worship Team.
The bulk of the program was a message from InterVarsity’s Vice President of Strategy and Innovation Rev. Dr. James Choung. Referring to the book of Habakkuk, he encouraged students to bring all their emotions before God, to confess how they have contributed to the world’s brokenness, even in small ways, and to look for how the Lord might be moving in this season.
“What was most significant about this gathering was the very real and much needed experience of God’s presence among thousands of his people literally dispersed around the world yet together in Spirit,” said Andy Kim, InterVarsity’s Multiethnic Resource Director and one of the event’s organizers. “Like most of our world, we have no idea what the future holds. But after InterVarsity Live! we, as an InterVarsity/USA family, are even more convinced that God is in control and at work. And we’re following him every step of the way.”
InterVarsity Live! will take place again this Friday, April 3, at 7:00 p.m. CT, featuring Sarah Breuel, the Director of Revive Europe and an Urbana 18 speaker. Along with her husband, René, she has helped plant a church in Rome. Register now to be part of the next InterVarsity Live!.
If you would like to support future InterVarsity Live! events and other online ministry resources during COVID-19, please consider giving to the COVID-19 Ministry Response Fund by clicking here.
