As I share my testimony at church conferences like the one this weekend, I think what strikes them the most is that I don’t look like the missionaries we saw growing up. (I have an Asian face!) In fact, the majority of missionaries in the world today don’t look White. At the 2009 Urbana Student Missions Conference, over 25% of the participants were Asian American. There is a changing face of missions today.
Here are 5 reflections that I shared about how the face of missions has changed and is changing in this 21st century:
1. Prominence of the Global South Church. There are more cross-cultural, long-term missionaries being SENT from Asia+Africa+Latin America (and paid for by them) than there are total from Europe + N. America. Besides the U.S., the most come from India, Brazil, and Korea. Philip Jenkins writes, “Over the past century, however, the center of gravity in the Christian world has shifted inexorably southward to Africa, Asia, and Latin America… . Christianity should enjoy a worldwide boom in the new century, but the vast majority of believers will be neither white nor European, nor Euro-American.”
2. Growth in ISLAM. Islam is #1 religion in London and Paris. Nearly 1 out of every 4 people is Muslim – Pew Research says 1.57 bil muslims in world – more than 60% in Asia, 20% in Middle East and North Africa (Indonesia, Egypt, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh are the top 5 in order).
3. Christian decline in the West / Re-evangelization of the West. Church attendance is in drastic decline: Denmark has less than 5%, Canada 4%, and Australia 2%, who say they attend church at least once per month. Fuller professor Eddie Gibbs writes that “Only 1% of people under 35 years old in England attend church.” The next generation in the U.S. doesn’t fare any better: Gallop Polls and Barna research confirm that between 60-80% of Christians leave their faith sometime between the start of college and 30-years old. And the percentage of people under 35 years old who identify with the Atheist/Non-Religious category is at an all-time high — 33%. This reality certainly reminds me of how important ministries like InterVarsity Christian Fellowship are in focusing on American students today!
4. Acceleration of the BIBLE TRANSLATION and Orality movement. About 340 million people still don’t have the Bible in their own language, with over 2200 languages still needing translation work done. But several organizations working on translation work have committed themselves to see every language community have a translation project started by 2025, and Wycliffe Bible Translators USA launched the Last Languages Campaign to invest in this acceleration. Moreover, oral forms of communicating the translated Scriptures are increasing. Non-Readers are also on the rise, with 50-60% of the world’s population illiterate, leading many in the missions community to call this the largest unreached group – the 4 billion who are illiterate.
5. Justice as an expression of the Church’s mission. There is an increasing understanding of the importance of the “practice of mission” (how our lives are lived out in communities) in addition to the “message of mission”. There is a growing focus on AIDS, Women and Children At-Risk. For instance, at a meeting with World Vision leaders earlier this week, I was reminded of the huge challenge of human trafficking (27 million in modern day slavery, 17,000 into in USA in 2007), which is now the 2nd largest criminal activity in the world after drug trade. AIDS ministry also continues to fare prominently in many parts of the world, esp. in Sub-saharan Africa where 90% of children with AIDS live.
Hope this gives you at least a small taste of the changing face of missions!
A great article on our Harris-Stowe State University Chapter plant just came online at InterVarsity.org… check it out! In addition, here’s a bonus story involving prayer, marajuana, and God’s providence during a day on campus this past month:
After a great prayer meeting, IV staff Ashley met up with Margaret, a student who had expressed interest in ministry. As they walked outside praying, another student stopped them and said, “I’m agnostic, but the sincerity of your prayers drew me over. I had actually come over here to smoke my blunt [marajuana] and do my calculus homework before class, but as I listened to you pray, I got convicted and couldn’t do it.”
Margaret and Ashley went on to share the gospel on the spot… Their new friend wants to believe that it’s true, and is eager to learn more. She’ll be joining them for their next prayer meeting!
One of the great privileges in my role as Central U.S. Regional Director is the opportunity to hear stories of what God is doing in our 27 chapters, 13 of which have just been planted in the past 2 years. Below are 4 stories of great impact from this past February and March!
Story #1 from staff at U of Missouri-St. Louis (new plant):
“God’s blowing us away at UMSL. I’ll try and keep it short for you :) Mark started the “InterVarsity Intramurals” volleyball team hoping to be a witness to the campus through the team. Monday night was the first game and there was a girl there, E, that didn’t have a team. They invited her over to play on theirs. I got there after this, and we went to McDonald’s after. It was a cool moment to see them being so invitational and welcoming into the group and E is African-American, so I’ve also seen them grow so much in inviting cross culturally (a lot of our students are white from VERY sheltered places).
The very next day, E saw me sitting at our table and sat down. We small talked, then I asked her what her spiritual background was. She said Christian, but currently not following Jesus. She said she’s not in relationship with God anymore. She sat at our table throughout the day as I made appointments with core team people when I saw them. She asked, “why do you take the time to meet with all of them?” I said to check in, see how they’re doing, and to equip them to live out their faith on campus the best way possible for who God made them. She was fascinated by how committed our group was to God and to each other. As we continued to broach the subject of spirituality, my core students were listening and participating until they had to leave for class.
The lunch hour passed and it was just me, Hannah and her. I asked her if Jesus was sitting right here with us and you could ask Him one question, what would it be? She said “would I go to heaven?”. Wow. Now that a couple hours passed she felt comfortable sharing with us. She said since she’s come to college, she had not been herself. She started sleeping around when she got to UMSL, and the crowd she rolls with treats her like garbage. She started crying and I started sharing some truth to her about her value in God’s eyes. Hannah caught onto what was happening and started sharing scripture and truth as well.
The funny thing was I had asked E earlier in the day if she wanted to follow Jesus again, and she said no, she wasn’t ready. But by the end of the day, God has really broken her down to see her need. As she was crying, I told her about God waiting for her to come back to Him without shaming or condemning her. But to love, protect and forgive her of her sins. Hannah is one of my core. She’s a gifted evangelist and she shared the beautiful story of Hosea. After lots of truth speaking, I finally asked her again if she wanted to commit her life to following Jesus again and making Him the Lord of her life and heart and she said yes. We prayed with her, and she prayed out loud with her head down, lots of tears and shaking as we held her on both sides agreeing with her prayer.
After that, lots of people came up and asked what was up and we had E tell them what had happened. “I just committed my life back to following Christ”. Hannah told me she gave her testimony at Women’s Bible Study the next morning. She also called her mom and told her. Her mom was thrilled and had been praying for her. She went back to church for the first time in months on Wednesday night. She came to our meeting on Thursday and we talked and prayed after about reaching the black community at UMSL. She has been SO warmly welcomed by all of our students and I’m so proud of them.
She came in contact with our group and less that 16 hours later she was following Jesus again. It happened about a week after Kristin. Our vision statement is that we’re bringing Jesus’ Revolution of Renewal to UMSL. Humbling much? I see it happening-God’s really good.”
Story #2 from staff at U of Northern Iowa:
“Last week Thursday, I asked you all to pray for a gathering at UNI where our staff, Rachel, was going to make an invitation to start following Jesus, and God answered!
• 10 students checked the box indicating they wanted to have a conversation about following Jesus
• 40 students committed to living for God’s mission on campus
• 28 students checked that they wanted to explore overseas missions
• 57 students committed to being a part of localized prayer groups across campus
We are in the process of following up with each of these folks personally to help them understand and follow through with the decisions they’ve made, but it’s safe to say that God was profoundly at work through your prayers, thank you!”
Story #3 from staff at University of Kansas
“Hi - a fun story from here at KU. “H” is a new Chinese undergrad who became a Christian with us last semester. He is full of enthusiasm and this semester wanted to begin a bible study in his dorm. Last week as he sat in the cafeteria waiting for others, he decided to ask theAmerican girl sitting a short way from him if she would like to stay for the study. She said yes —- and then she decided to follow Jesus during the Bible Study!”
Story #4 from staff at Forest Park Community College (new IV plant):
”’So Allison…is it okay for me to just go and talk to people about Jesus? I know I don’t HAVE to. I know I have the freedom to not do it. I know I could go home and play video games but … I WANT to. It’s crazy. I just want to tell others about Jesus,’ said a Forest Park student. I replied with an enthusiastic “YES!” God does this marvelous thing of inviting people into his Kingdom work. It is a privilege to see God transform a comfortable and introverted person into someone that can’t help but share the Good News with his classmates.
’Allison…when I am walking next to people, I think about their lives and have the urge to tell them about Jesus.’ As we see God more clearly, he begins to redefine the important things in our lives. He starts to give us desires and cares that we never imagined. Later that week this student took some friends around campus and started conversations with people, inviting them to an InterVarsity Bible study to look deeper at the life of Christ. A Buddhist friend joined Bible study that night. God is truly at work transforming lives and preparing a team of Forest Park CC students to love and reach out to their campus.”
I recently re-connected with generations of Harvard IV Asian American Staff (see pic), and continue to celebrate what God is doing at Harvard, though it no longer falls under my direct responsibility. One recent amazing story is about Jeremy Lin, an IV student who happens to be one of the best point guards in the country! Jeremy is both the Harvard basketball team co-captain and committed member of his IV chapter. Read what Jeremy has to say about basketball, faith and HRAACF in this recent interview. You can also read about him in Time Magazine and Sports Illustrated.
63 lives changed… As 50 of my staff gathered for our annual Regional Staff Conference in December, we celebrated stories of some of the 63 students who made 1st time decisions for Christ in the Region. I enjoyed re-casting vision and training on chapter planting (see pic above). And as 2010 has begun, the momentum has continued. Here are 2 stories of conversion during January, the first from our International Student Ministries staff at Drake:
“Alice” was a student who came to Drake at the beginning of the year. She asked the director of the International Student office if there was anyone who could teach her about the Bible. I know the director, so she connected the two of us. Alice and I met up once and it looked a like a great opportunity to do a GIG, so we started to meet more regularly. As time went on it became more clear that Alice was more interested in the Bible as a way to learn about western culture and so the spiritual components I was trying to hit weren’t as appealing to her. We kept in contact throughout the semester, but I was a little disappointed to say the least.
I ran into Alice at the second semester Activities Fair and she came rushing up to me, gave me a huge hug and said she wanted to get together because she had some things she needed to tell me. I obviously agreed to meet up with her and so we did just yesterday. I went to Alice’s apartment and she began to tell me that she has been going to church for the past month and about a conversation she had a with a former Drake student who is a Christian. She then mentioned how along with our Bible studies first semester and the things that had been going on her life lately, she realized that God was not just something that influenced western culture. She said that she doesn’t want to be the center of her life, but wants God to be the center of her life and she wants to follow Him and only Him!
At this point I began to tear up. First semester I was so hopeful for Alice to know Jesus, but was really disappointed when it felt like our GIG went no where. But there in her apartment, Alice thanked me for beginning to open her eyes to the spiritual components of the Bible because that is when she said she first started to wonder if there was something more to Christianity. She said her life feels different now and she has a peace she has never experienced before. She said, “I can’t explain it logically, but my life I know is changed forever.” Sunday afternoons Alice and I are going to meet to study scripture and learn more about what it means to be a Christian.”
And a story from Brian, an IV intern at the University of Iowa:
“My first bible study occurred this thursday— I’m leading a bible study in the Asian Pacific American Cultural center, and it has been slow… As in, never getting more than 2 people there slow. However, I started sensing some change in momentum this semester, and students started to say yes. In particular, one senior student named Amber had been talking about inviting her room mate, a seeker student from Asia. Amber had been consistently inviting her roommate the entire past semester with no success, and I had been praying for the past semester that God would bring conversion in her life.
When I heard that 3 of the students who had expressed interest in my bible study (including one of the two regulars from last semester) were not coming to bible study, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But… when I arrived at Bible study last night, I was surprised to see 4 students, and the first thing Amber said to me was: “Brian, we have good news!” Her room mate had just recently committed her life to Christ. She participated in the bible study, and had some of the more insightful comments of the group (not surprisingly).
Amazing that God works to bring transformation to people as we pray, even before we meet some of our students. Praise God that He is starting a student movement at Iowa, and that students are taking initiative and ownership of the movement.”
One of the joys of my work is being part of the national collegiate ministries leadership, and celebrating what God is doing across the country. Check out InterVarsity’s annual report to read more! The other joy I have is speaking outside of IV. A sample advertisement for an upcoming engagement at a St. Louis church on Nov. 14th is above… Please drop by if you can!
I’ve never seen anything quite like this in less than 30 days time: 27 students decided to follow Jesus for the 1st time in Iowa alone, and 15 students responded to a call to faith at the first large IV event at Harris-Stowe State - a new IV chapter plant! Staff Ashley Smith blogs about the Harris-Stowe event online. I’ve also included below the latest story from Drake, where 2 students said “yes” to Jesus for the 1st time last week at an IV gathering… From Amy Schoepf, IV staff at Drake:
jon came last week and finished up our series on the kingdom—speaking on the pearl of great price and hidden treasure. after his talk, half the room stood up to exchange more of their “stuff” whatever that may be, for more of the kingdom. SWEET! i’ll hold them to it! :) and… TWO STUDENTS STOOD TO SAY YES TO JESUS AND HIS KINGDOM FOR THE FIRST TIME! woooohoooo!! right?? now do a little dance or something.
the first student who said yes is sam. she emailed me 3 weeks ago and said “i’m a freshman. i’m missing God in my life. can you help me find him?” hahahahahahahhaha.
anyway, she’s been coming to all of our stuff since then and getting connected. 3 weeks later, she stands at an invitation to follow Jesus for the first time. i got to follow up with her after, and asked courtney (brand new christian) to come with us. courtney shared with sam how incredible it is to say yes to Jesus and how she’ll never be the same and then she and i prayed with her to comitt her life to Jesus. also, she doesn’t know any christianese yet—so her prayer was so delighfully simple. courtney is right, sam’s life will never be the same. and courtney is ready to lead more people to jesus. :)
the second student is one who’s been coming all year so far. katie. she comes with her crew of friends and does the christian thing. to be honest, i didn’t really know where she stood and her friends just assumed she was a christian (let this be a lesson to you amy schoepf and friends!). but she stood to say yes to Jesus for the first time. she was followed up with her friends after and when i arrived home from our large group that night i had an email waiting in my inbox from her. she explained that after jon’s message she finally figured out “why” she’s been coming to intervarsity. she explained that she’d never comitted her life to Jesus and saying yes to Him was “the most powerful feeling i’ve ever felt.” and here’s the crazy part. that same morning she accepted a bid from a pharmacy fraternity on campus that meets every wednesday night at 9pm—beginning the very NEXT WEEK at 9. she’s also an RA so she can’t attend any small groups, etc. bc of scheduling. if jon had not been there that night, if he wouldn’t have given the invitation he did…if it had been just one week later…katie wouldn’t have even been in the room. in fact, she’ll never be back to intervarsity. wow…God’s timing in so incredible huh?
so, take a minute and tell Jesus how sweet He is.
ask Him if there are katie’s in your chapter who you assume are christians but simply need an invitation.
keep it coming Jesus. you’re amazing.
amy
I flew this past weekend to Iowa to visit their Fall Conference, with more than 130 students participating from campuses across the state. Here’s a story about 3 University of Northern Iowa students making 1st time decisions for Christ that weekend, as shared by IVCF staff Rachel Danley:
PRAYER REALLY DOES WORK!
In my ministry life, I’ve never seen God work in such crazy ways as this week.
Ethan became a Christian last Monday. This weekend at Fall Conference both of the students that you all prayed for, Jessy and Holly became believers. In addition to them, Genaro, Valandria and Jessica also decided to give their lives to fully following Jesus and invited him to become alive in a new way in their lives. Here are more of their stories…
ETHAN: Ethan devoted his life to Christ last Monday and since then God has already been transforming his life. I found out that he had a conflict that would prevent him from being able to come to Fall Conference, but I really wanted him to be able to go as a jump start to his new walk with God. As I was praying for students to be able to go…I prayed that if God wanted some of the students who couldn’t go to go that he would clear out their weekend so they could go. The evening registrations were due, Ethan got a call from his friends he had plans with that they wouldn’t be able to meet that weekend. Ana saw Ethan running down the hall saying, “I can go to Fall Conference!
Is it too late to register?” God had a purpose for Ethan being there as well…he was invited by one of the speakers to share his story of coming to faith before over 130 people on Sunday morning. This was just before the speaker invited students to respond by giving their lives to Christ. So Ethan and the two leaders who lead him to Christ told their stories. Ethan ended by calling all the students to give their lives to Christ and to Christians to ‘inspire’ others by sharing God’s word with those who don’t know God like his friends did. Over 20 students stood up to give their lives to Christ. Of these, 5 of the students who responded were from UNI!
JESSY: Jessy found herself surrounded by Christians when she came to college this fall, but she wasn’t yet a Christian. She ended up coming to Bible studies with her roommate and asking lots of questions. Ana and Joel, her leaders got to know her, heard about her past, shared their lives together and then ended up studying the gospel of John with just her (God Investigative Group). As they discussed things, she admitted
that she just didn’t know how to trust God. Then she started hearing stories of people who trusted God even though they had difficult things happen in their lives and that He was actually how they got through it. She was convinced she needed God, but she still didn’t know how to get there. She came to Fall Conference this past weekend and saw the Spirit of God in the believers around her. During her free time, Joel sat down with her and explained the gospel. She was honest with God and invited him into her life. On Sunday, she stood publicly to declare that she was receiving Christ into her life. This past Monday, she along with several others shared the story of how her life has changed and that she feels so different now that she has God in her life. Praise God!!!!
HOLLY: Kelley, one of our leaders, met Holly at the Jump Start (minority student orientation) activity fair. She ended up sharing her story of searching for God but not finding a place where she could connect. Kelley invited her to church and into her Bible study. As she was in Bible study with Kelley, she was amazed at who Jesus was and continued to come each week, hungry for more. A couple of weeks ago, she even invited her boyfriend who’s from the Congo but shes been living with to Bible study. She came to Fall Conference and God continued to work
deeply in her. Her and Kelley stayed in the prayer room and talked Saturday evening. Holly admitted that she had so much sin in her life and wondered how God could forgive her. She and Kelley prayed as she confessed her sin to God and asked for God to forgive her. On Sunday morning as the speaker invited those who wanted to become a house of God for the first time, she didn’t hesitate but stood up along with the other students from UNI. Woo hoo!
The Harvest is Plentiful…
God is on the move and there are so many I’m realizing that are ready to receive the good news of Jesus…and it really is good news to those who receive it! Along with these three students, Genaro, Valandria and Jessica grew up around the church, but had never really given their lives to Christ in a way that would transform their lives. Genaro told me, “I want to follow Christ. I wanted to have God alive inside me.”
In addition to these students, most of the Christians who came stood during Fall Conference and this past week to say that they want to join God’s mission, to be part of his story to redeem our broken world. Cassie is one of these… a freshman, who was asking God this past week how God wanted her to serve in his mission. She felt the call from God to begin a prayer movement across UNI. She says this in her facebook profile:
“Cassie Wenger…had an awesome time hearing wendy and lindsay give their testimony and about the other people who have experienced God in such a powerful and profound way on campus. Iowa is in!! Starting up the program at UNI and ready to show the whole state the power of Jesus Christ and how he can use college students to change the world around us by prayer and his healing power and love!!!” Check out her website she created yesterday here: http://reviveuni.yolasite.com/
- Pray for these students who are starting to follow Jesus that the Holy Spirit would teach them how to walk with Him in relationship.
- Pray for these conversions to continue God’s movement and bring more seekers around us to Himself.
- Pray for students who feel called to God’s mission to have direction and doors opened to pursue their purpose at UNI.
- Pray for refreshment and provision for our leaders who have been giving themselves fully to God’s work this past month.
Blessings,
Rachel
As college classes get underway, InterVarsity’s outreach to new students kicks into high gear. There’s lots of praises to share from last week’s ministry, including from our new IV plant at U of Iowa (photo above). Let me give you a taste from my Iowa Area Director, Jon Hietbrink, who writes:
“As many of you know, we are planting a new chapter at the University of Iowa, and the stories coming out so far have been unbelievable. In the first week…
- Our staff have networked with several “power players” in different groups on campus and have either been invited into relationship or are exploring leading bible studies for the African-American Greek Union, the Black Student Union, and the GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender) cultural center on campus. Unbelievable!
- Already, the staff have connected with a handful of multiethnic and mission-minded students who want to be a part of owning the chapter at Iowa, praise God! This is in addition to the hundreds of others who are interested, but who haven’t signed on just yet…
At Drake University, we are also off to a great start. The chapter has connected with almost 100 new students who are interested in joining the community’s mission, and our chapter plant at DMACC (Des Moines Area Community College) is officially underway!
Our chapter at the University of Northern Iowa has a blossoming ministry among ethnic minorities—there were about a dozen new Latino students at their first large group, and their multi-ethnic leadership team already making inroads among the black student population on campus!
Coe College decided to try a new outreach to international students by hosting a “Target run” for students who needed to stock their dorm rooms…to their shock, 25 international students showed up! They were literally calling in friends with cars to handle all the students!
Our chapters at William Penn University, Grinnell College, and Drake University International (chapter focused on international students) will have their first major gatherings this week, so they are hard at work connecting with new students and inviting them into their communities…more stories to come on these chapters later!
At Central College, we’ve been blessed to connect with almost 150 new students who are interested in joining our ministry. One of them “Will” was talking with one of our staff at our first worship service. Their interaction went something like this…
*IV Staff- “So, what’s your name? Where are you from?”
*Will- “I’m not religious.”
*IV Staff- “That’s totally fine, no problem.”
*Will- “I’m really curious about Christianity though, I’d like to learn more about it.”
It’s for students like Will and hundreds of others across the campuses of Iowa that we labor. Join us in thanking God for his faithfulness to us, and continuing to ask him for divine appointments with both mission-minded and seeking students over these next days!”
I recently returned from a trip to Nebraska, visiting Omaha and Lincoln, to meet with key pastors and university leaders in preparation for planting IVCF chapters in the coming years. We were warmly welcomed, meeting folks who had been praying for over 15 years for IV to come! Our first plant will begin this 2009-10 year at Creighton University in Omaha. We have a superb team moving there, and will represent IVCF’s first work in Omaha in almost 20 years! More details to come soon…
