intervarsity

By Timothy Goropevsek – Christian Daily International – For nearly eight decades, Urbana has stood as one of the most influential missions gatherings in North American evangelicalism, inspiring generations of young Christians to consider their role in taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. (Urbana is sponsored by Madison-based InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.) But as Christianity’s center of gravity continues shifting toward the Global South, the triennial event grappled with the question: what does mission look like in a world where leadership is no longer primarily Western? That challenge was central to Urbana 25, the most recent gathering held…

Christian communities active on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus were recognized in a short ceremony at Upper House on Wednesday, January 22, 2025. It came at the end of a presentation by UW Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Lori Reesor, on the importance of religion at public universities. The audience of 50 or so was made up of men and women from 13 different ministries involved in campus ministry on the Madison campus. Those present who had spent 20 years or more in that mission were invited forward to receive gifts in recognition of their service (pictured above). Many more…

Madison, Wisconsin, is home to one of the three international offices of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES). (The others are in Oxford, England and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.) The work of IFES is featured in an article by Amy Lewis in the November 18 issue of World magazine. Zelalem Abebe took a circuitous route to the meeting of campus ministers he had traveled hundreds of miles to encourage. First stop, a hotel. But ­partway there, he switched cars. He had to make sure he wasn’t being followed. From the hotel, he drove to the meeting in a house. He…

Madison Christian Giving Fund invites Ministry Partners and Liaisons of Past, Present and Future to a special workshop titled “Developing and Writing Grant Proposals that Get Funded” The Madison Christian Giving Fund will be holding a capacity building workshop on Developing Winning Grant Proposals on July 17th from 1:00 to 4:00 PM.  We are grateful that the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship has graciously offered their second-floor conference room to hold this event.  Their offices are located at 635 Science Dr, Madison, WI 53711. It is offered free of charge to past, present and future MCGF Ministry Partners. You may have up to three people attend…

The WHAT NEXT conference celebrates a small event that had major consequences, since it turned out to be the beginning of the North American foreign missions movement. We are calling together students and church people from the upper mid-west region to recall what God has done in the past, examine the state of the Church, and tune our hearts and thoughts to hear from God what He wants to do in our generation. We are gathering to ask God, "What’s next?"

Sisters, I’m going to periodically send out requests for prayer.URBANA. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship runs an international missions conference for college students every4 years ( I think it’s four….may be wrong). Anyway. Thousands of young men and women attend this conference. many missionaries, campus workers, pastors, and general servants of the Most High God can point to an Urbana conference as a tipping point in their journey with Jesus and their calling in God’s kingdom work.The Urbana conference is scheduled for this December. Already, prayer and intercession teams are forming to cover this powerful, important outreach to students. God has used…

Summer means that school is out, but for InterVarsity June was the month of staff training and orientation. Staff arrived in Madison from around the country for orientation and training. Read more.

At a small service in a local church, the leaders of InterVarsity Link this month commissioned seven new Link staff members to overseas duty with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. “We’re going to pray for you to be like Jesus in the places where He’s sending you,” said Link director Becky Stephen. Read more.

Like a lot of new InterVarsity staff members who arrived in Madison on June 19th for Orientation of New Staff (ONS), Amy Schoepf was fresh from her college graduation. Unlike most, though, Amy had been a speaker at her graduation at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. In fact, she was the only student on the graduation platform, sitting among school officials and other dignitaries. Read more.

“The God who is at work in the world today is a God of history,” says missions expert Paul Borthwick. This year, 2006 – an Urbana year – uniquely highlights some important anniversaries in the history of missions and student involvement in missions.