Have you been to the corner of Jesus Street and Sorority/Fraternity Row? 42 students from 6 campuses in our region are joining 500 others at Greek Conference to experience this intersection and receive training to lead communities like this back on campus. Please pray for the growth of our work on this corner.
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.
How can we overcome the network inequality that many of our ethnic minority staff encounter when raising funds for InterVarsity’s work? My work joins many others working on new models for fundraising that makes roles like InterVarsity staff accessible for all.
Why does this matter?
Approximately 36% of the college population, not counting internationals, identify themselves as ethnic minorities. Of the 40,219 active InterVarsity students, 15,060, or 38%, identify themselves as ethnic minority or multiracial students. (website)
We desire to effectively minister in every corner of this diverse student population and increasingly our staff team is representing this diversity. This necessitates us growing in the area of the funding of our staff.
Join us in praying for a new season for our movement and let me know if you would like to help me think through next steps.
Five dollars can go a long way to helping to establish and advance a student movement in Cambodia.
This spring we are joining our partners in Sonoko by inviting students to give $5/month to the work in Cambodia. If we reach 200 partners at this level we can support five Cambodian staff for the year.
Do you remember the impact on you of the first time you read the Bible? For me it was experiencing the peace of God reading Revelation 21 as a child up late because of fear of death.
This month our students and staff in Missouri are inviting students into Bible studies we call Groups Investigating God (GIG). We have found GIG’s as a great way to help people meet Jesus, including those from other countries. Additionally I read a story of one of our former staff starting a GIG with her coffee shop coworkers.
As you pray for this GIG launch ask God if there are people around you to invite into your own GIG.
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?”.
“Are you willing to follow Jesus into the storms?”
More than Urbana’s in recent memory, Urbana15 came back over and over again to the costly call of following Jesus.
Patrick Fung, Director of OMF International, preaching out of Matthew shared the question above, but as well through worship, drama, Bible study, and active response we were brought into the reality of following a Jesus who found a place to “lay his head” at the cross.
One striking moment was interceding for the persecuted church through the resources of Open Doors while we sang “I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.” After listening to testimonies of solitary confinement and those losing their lives for Jesus, singing the song became real in a new way for me.
The question that I left Urbana with – Where is God inviting this generation of students to?
Praise God with us for this taste of what God was doing at Urbana15!
Last week 16,000 participants at Urbana were challenged to think about the story their lives would tell. There were great examples during the conference of story through song in Ferguson, Mexico, and the Pacific Islands.
Please pray with me for these 16,000 participants as they begin the next chapter in their communities and on campus. Additionally spend time reflecting on the question, “What story will you tell?”.
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