IFES
At Chapter Focus Week, and other InterVarsity training event in the Great Lakes region, we partner with the IFES. The story of the relationship between InterVarsity/USA® and the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) begins before either of the organizations officially existed. On the eve of World War II, the Fourth Conference of Evangelical Students was held in Cambridge, England. Here students from 33 countries, including the United States, met for fellowship and to plan for the advancement of the gospel within the university community. The War interrupted many of those plans. However, British students did send Howard Guinness and Stacey Woods to offer the gospel to their fellow students across the Atlantic. Colleges and university students in the United States responded to the message, and InterVarsity/USA was established in 1940.
In 1947, the British student leaders invited the participants of the Cambridge Conference who had survived the War to meet together. Delegates from national student Christian movements from Australia, Britain, Canada, China, France, Holland, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, and the United States agreed to form a federation of national Christian student movements. The International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) came into being in August of 1947.
Today, The International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) is a networking community of nationally-led student movements, committed to being partners in global student witness. We exist to reach students in every nation with the gospel and to send them into the world to bear witness to Christ and his teaching.
We share three goals:
Evangelism – proclaiming Jesus Christ as Saviour, Lord and God to students in every country in the world where there are universities, and leading students to personal faith in Christ.- Formación* – promoting a life of discipleship and a growing maturity among students associated with our movements and equipping them for a lifetime of service in the family, church and society. (*Formación: growing deeper in understanding and practice of the Lordship of Christ in all areas of life)
World mission – equipping and encouraging students to take the good news of Christ to every nation on earth and to be part of the Church’s witness of the good news, in order to become witnessing communities of salt and light in every area of society and culture.
