About 300 men and women who minister to college students gathered for the 10th annual Ivy Jungle College Ministry Conference in Dallas, November 17–19, 2005. The Ivy Jungle Network is a loose affiliation of para-church campus workers, like those of InterVarsity, as well as church-based college ministers, and college and university chaplains.
InterVarsity staff who participated in this year’s conference included Jimmy Long, Blue Ridge regional director, who taught several workshops based on his award-winning Emerging Culture Curriculum. Jimmy’s workshops were well attended and addressed the desire among church leadership to understand the shifts that our culture has undergone in the past half-century.
Leighton Chinn, president of the Association of Christians Ministering Among Internationals and husband of Lisa Espineli Chin, director InterVarsity’s International Students Ministry, led a workshop on ministering to international students. Shelley Soceka and Jeff Yourison of i>Student Leadership Journal attended to research current trends in campus ministry. The conference was co-sponsored by Urbana 06, which hosted a booth and premiered the Urbana 06 promotional video for the group.
Another participant was Naomi Schaeffer Riley, author of God on the Quad: How Religious Colleges are Changing America, who presented a paper describing the “explosive interest” in religious colleges and universities among students. She analyzed why enrollment at Christian colleges from 1992 to 2002 had jumped 67% and what this increased enrollment means for this generation of students. Most of these students at Christian colleges appear more conservative than their counterparts on secular college campuses, yet they are more progressive on social issues. One question relevant to InterVarsity that she raised, but did not answer, is whether or not this trend results in fewer Christian students now on secular campuses.
The Ivy Jungle Conference offered sessions on media and culture, ministering to college women, building a campus ministry that lasts, and helping students prepare for healthy marriages. Other plenary speakers included Dr. Tony Evans, pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas; Reagan Demas, who spoke about his work with International Justice Mission; and Matthew Rindge, who talked about the importance Scripture places on God’s people serving and caring for the poor.
