News

Few freshmen arriving on campus for the start of a new academic year realize how important their first 72 hours will be. The outcome of their entire collegiate career hangs in the balance. That may sound extreme, but John Decker, an InterVarsity volunteer at Syracuse University, has seen it over and over again.

In Charlotte, San Diego and in Madison, churches are learning that one of the keys to impacting a community is to serve the community, rather than wait for people to come through the doors of the church:

A dearth of archaeological remains in Jerusalem, traceable to the time of David and Solomon, has raised questions about the importance of these Biblical kings. But a Mississippi State University archaeologist says those critics who base their arguments on the absence of evidence sometimes jump too quickly to their conclusions.Speaking to the Madison Biblical Archaeology Society meeting at Edgewood College on Sunday afternoon, professor James Hardin said, "I would be very hesitant to say that because of things we haven’t found in Jerusalem that the kingdom of David and Solomon didn’t exist."

Lutherans who have left or are pondering their exit from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have put a name to the alternate church body they plan to form – North American Lutheran Church.

A funny thing happened to the Oakland Athletics’ hot prospect on the way to the majors: He decided to become a priest.In its nearly 50 years, St. Michael’s Abbey in south Orange County has welcomed scores of men who believe they were called to the priesthood. Most often they are young men who’ve prepared for this much of their academic lives. Occasionally, they are professionals who’ve chosen St. Michael’s path that leads away from the world — what adherents call "the hidden life" — over the pleasure and glamour of their own lives."There have been lawyers and academics," said St.…

Later this spring the nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court are expected to hear arguments in the case of Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. InterVarsity is among 18 organizations filing an amicus (friend of the court) brief in this case. The justices’ decision will have a major impact on campus ministry.

The murder of two young street preachers in Florida by a teenager whom they shared the Gospel with is “alarming,” said a spokesperson for a religious freedom watchdog group.Eighteen-year-old Jeriah Woody, whose street name is “Plug,” is charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Woody allegedly shot and killed Tite Sufra, 24, and Stephen Ocean, 23, on Jan. 30 after they shared about Christ with him during the 15 minutes they talked.

After his history-making performance in the 1980 Olympics, Mark Johnson spent 11 years in the NHL with Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Hartford, St. Louis and New Jersey. It was during his time with the New Jersey Devils in the mid-1980s when Johnson’s life took a new direction. He had been married for a few years by this point and had a couple of kids."I sort of came to the point in my life where I was looking for some answers and had some questions," Johnson said.

In the darkness of the quiet stone church on Ash Wednesday, I went forward to the front at the end of a long line and, when my turn came, knelt before the pastor. He prayed, "Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth: Grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence, that we may remember that it is only by your gracious gift that we are given everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen." Then he dipped his thumb in a small dish of ashes and, with…

On the evening of December 30th, as he delivered the call to commitment at the Urbana 09 student missions conference, Urbana director Jim Tebbe announced a commitment of his own. Next June he will be leaving InterVarsity and his home in Madison to return to a part of the world where he was born, grew up, and worked earlier in his life.