Category: Encourage Service (Page 9 of 10)

Usually new part-time employees do not press you as an organization, but this past weekend I was blessed to train a group of interns who have done this for the Central Region.

They have started new work among Persian students, Native Americans, refugees, multi-campus Black student collaborations, art students, Greeks, and new campuses. They have been pressing us in prayer, growing as a family, and empowering students.

Please pray that the path they have set for our interns would start a wave of intern classes pressing us to every corner of the campus.

Today is the launch of the first Empower Leadership Academy. The Empower Leadership Academy is a 1-year student leadership cohort for InterVarsity/USA students in Iowa and Nebraska, with an aim to develop empowered Black/African American leaders of leaders from the college campus. We have an initial class of eight student leaders.

The program will combine prophetic leadership development, mission to the world, service on the campus, and vision to harness the incredible momentum we are experiencing in Black Campus Ministries (BCM).

Empower will bring some of the best we offer in leadership development in InterVarsity to a targeted group of leaders who will then be a significant voice in our area and region as visionary planners for the launch of a Regional BCM Student Conference in Spring 2017.

Please join me in praying for this initiative and for its director Tony Gatewood.

Tony Gatewood, Empower Leadership Academy Director & Assistant Regional Director – Central U.S.

Throughout American history God has pressed the church to acknowledge and address the systemic brokenness of our society when it comes to race. We heard this call so clearly through Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as he called us to “Remain Awake” in the 1960’s.

Since the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, many have experienced the church being challenged to hear and respond to the story of systemic oppression of people of color that still besets our country.

A couple of weeks ago my friend Michelle Higgins brought the delegates at Urbana into this story. Her talk at Urbana15 challenges us to hear this story and invites us to say, “Tell me more” and “What shall we do?”.

What does a story from thousands of years ago in the book of Nehemiah have to do with our response to the stories we see from campuses in our region, like Mizzou, or attrocities from April at Garissa University or this past week in Paris?

When Nehemiah heard the news of the suffering of his people and the destruction of his city, he wept for some days. It was not until after prayer, taking risks, and asking for resources did he actually examine the state of the walls of Jerusalem.

As a White American man there are a few typical immediate responses I have when I hear about oppression of people in my campus, city, or world – numbness, questioning, or seeking to fix.

What if like Nehemiah when we read these stories we sat and wept first before thinking what is next?