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Our Story:
Our movement began with students at the University of Cambridge,
England in 1877. There, a group of Christian students began to meet
together, in spite of the disapproval of some University officials, to
pray, to study the Bible and to witness to fellow students. Soon,
similar groups sprung up on other campuses. Eventually, they formed the
British Inter-Varsity. (Hence our name, inter - meaning between,
varsity - the British term for college level students.) From the very
beginning they had a strong concern to take the gospel to those all
over the world who had never heard it - a concern that continues in
InterVarsity today.
In response to a plea for help, British InterVarsity sent Howard
Guinness, a medical school graduate and vice-chairman of the British
movement, to Canada in1928. Students helped raise the money to provide
one-way passage to Canada. Between bouts of seasickness, Guinness led
his cabin mate to Christ during the crossing, As God supplied the
funds, he slowly worked his way across Canada, starting up and
assisting evangelical student groups.
By 1937 the Canadians began to hear requests for help from students in
the United States as independent evangelical student groups began
springing up. In 1938 Stacey Woods, the Canadian InterVarsity director,
met with students on the University of Michigan campus. As an immediate
result of that visit, students formed the first InterVarsity chapter in
the United States.
By May of 1941 InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA was an official
organization, with three staff on loan from Canada and Stacey Woods at
the helm as Secretary General. In 1947 InterVarsity USA became a
founding member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical
Students, a federation of national Christian student movements. The
other charter members are Australia, Britain, Canada, China, France,
Holland, New Zealand, Norway, and Switzerland. (To see which 143
countries are currently members of IFES go to www.ifesworld.org)
By 1950 there were 35 staff serving students in 499 InterVarsity
chapters across the country. InterVarsity Press had been started to
supply quality literature suitable for the campus. And the Urbana
student missions convention had begun the tradition of calling every
student generation to consider global missions. By the early seventies
there were more than 200 staff.
Today, there are more than 1000 InterVarsity staff serving more than
34,000 students and faculty nationwide. In addition we produce training
materials, camps, books, and media tools which serve both the Church
and campus. Our work touches every kind of student including graduate
students and faculty. We are seeking to build witnessing communities on
the campus which are bold, broad and ethnically diverse.
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