When Amy and Mac Smith graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), they moved to Reno to begin their careers in Christian ministry. Amy worked on the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), campus with InterVarsity. Mac worked at a local church as a youth pastor and planned to enroll in a seminary in a few years.
Mac resisted the idea of going on staff with InterVarsity. Having to raise his support and Amy’s financial support presented a big hurdle, as it is for many couples who are in ministry with InterVarsity.
When Amy and Mac Smith graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), they moved to Reno to begin their careers in Christian ministry. Amy worked on the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), campus with InterVarsity. Mac worked at a local church as a youth pastor and planned to enroll in a seminary in a few years.
Mac resisted the idea of going on staff with InterVarsity. Having to raise his support and Amy’s financial support presented a big hurdle, as it is for many couples who are in ministry with InterVarsity. But as he worked with Amy on campus as a volunteer Bible study leader, he found it harder and harder to resist the call to campus ministry. Two years later he joined InterVarsity full-time and hasn’t looked back since.
UNR was a challenging environment. The level of spiritual interest was very low. But as Mac and Amy worked together with teammates Shawn Young and Sarah Burke, God blessed their ministry. The fellowship grew to 200 students. After nine years at Reno, they were ready for a new challenge and picked Weber State University in Ogden, Utah.
Looking for the open doors
Amy was most excited about the move. She had grown up in Ogden, attending services in a local evangelical church with her family. “We wanted to go where there was a great need. Utah has a great need. Even though it’s a very moral and religious culture, there’s a very small population of evangelical Christians.”
Mac said that they found Weber State to be quite different from UNR. “There wasn’t much spiritual activity happening on campus here. There were a lot of open doors for ministry.”
A once-thriving chapter at Weber State had dwindled to only a handful of students. But today, as Amy and Mac begin their third year, there are 75 students attending the weekly large group meeting and various smaller Bible studies. Mac said that focusing on building up the small group Bible studies had been a key element to the chapter’s growth.
Because of the huge Mormon population on campus, conversations about spiritual topics come easy. But Mac and Amy have found that in working with students, no matter what their background, creating a loving and accepting community of seekers is one of the most important priorities.
Transformational Bible Study
At the end of the last school year, half of the students at Weber State attended chapter camp at Campus by the Sea and dug into the Mark’s Gospel manuscript study. “I think the Mark Bible study has been a gift to InterVarsity,” Mac said, citing its influence in the conversion of Gene Thomas, a pioneer in the Rocky Mountain region, and also in the life of Paul Byer, who developed the Mark manuscript study. “God has been using Mark’s Gospel to transform students here at Weber State. That week at Chapter Camp was a highlight week for our year in ministry.”
Amy now works part-time as associate area director. She credits Shawn Young for teaching her and Mac a lot about campus ministry, as their staff worker at UNLV and then staff partner at UNR. Shawn in turn says that Mac and Amy are gifted chapter planters.
“Amy’s genius is that she is able to look at all the people, structures, and resources within a fellowship or team and arrange them so that they accomplish their mission on campus,” he said. “Mac, on the other hand, is one of the best examples of a natural born gatherer I’ve ever seen. I’ll never forget our first NSO event at UNR. He single handedly brought 60 people—about half of the total turnout.”
Mac and Amy are training students to take God seriously, and to stay sensitive to God’s work in their lives and in the world around them.
“I want our students to have a mindset of looking for where God is at work around them, and then asking, ‘How does he want me to be a part of what he’s doing here?’” Amy said.
You can make a direct financial donation to support InterVarsity’s work at Weber State by following this link.
