Student Ministry Not in Recession

“How faith is formed and reformed during young adult years is clearly a matter of importance for young adults. It is also of enormous importance for our society as a whole,” said Sharon Parks, who has been studying the spiritual development of college-aged people for the past thirty years. “Within a distracted, indifferent, or exploiting culture, however, young adulthood may be squandered on dreams too small to match the potential of the young adult soul, or simply may be at adrift in the unexamined currents of mere circumstances.”

For more than sixty-six years, InterVarsity has provided mentoring to students that cuts through unexamined currents and circumstances to produce significant, long term results. With our society facing huge economic and social challenges, it is important that the energy, passions, and futures of college students are not squandered on wrong dreams.

As we begin a new year and a new political administration, we also begin the second half of the 2008-2009 school year. We are delighted to report that God is at work through InterVarsity. While there have been many downturns in the world around us, the number of students actively involved in our witnessing communities on campus was up more than 1,800 in the first semester of 2008 compared with the same period last year.

• 31,796 students and faculty participated actively in groups this past fall
• 1,000 students made new decisions to follow Christ
• 750 InterVarsity student groups are now established on campuses across the U.S.

For the past several years, we have been studying how to successfully start new groups on campus. We have been working carefully with forty-four new groups, and we are excited that those groups now have more than 1,400 students involved. Remarkably, fifty-six new decisions to follow Christ came from those forty-four new groups.

Of course the real impact of our work is not in the numbers but is in the hearts and minds of students and faculty and the lives of alumni who will be living for Christ many years from now. We can neither report all those stories, nor can we guarantee what today’s students will do in the future, but here are a few snapshots from last semester and reports from past students who give us great hope.

Sara, a student at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY


 

Jessica, an InterVarsity chapter leader at the University of California San Diego

 

Guangyu, a student from China, studying at Texas Tech


 

Julie, an alumna of InterVarsity at Towson University, now living and singing in Nashville

 

Jimmy, an alumnus of Cornell University, working on Wall Street


 

We are thankful for all that God is doing and for the way our donors have partnered with us in ministry. We are committed to continuing our mission to the campus in the second half of the year.

Please pray for:

• Schools and staff in areas where the economic downturn is particularly severe
• Students who are seeking spirituality but have not come to know Jesus Christ