Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship of Canada
Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship of Canada, or IVCF Canada, is a Christian organization which ministers to youth and university students through a variety of ministries, including Pioneer Camps of Canada, high school, college and university ministries such as Acadia Christian Fellowship or ACF. IVCF Canada is a member organization of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students.
Ms. Geri Rodman is the current president. The organizational centre is in Toronto.
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[edit] History
In 1928 Norman Grubb reported to the Inter-Varsity Fellowship (IVF) in Britain of the spiritual decay happening at Canadian universities. In response, IVF sent Dr. Howard Guinness to Canada to help start evangelical student work at the universities. For fourteen months Guinness traveled across Canada, meeting with students at the universities and providing them with a model of daily prayer meet ups and weekly Bible study. Guinness also promoted training leaders in high schools and camps.
IVCF Canada was officially organized in late 1929. In 1934 Stacey Woods became the new general secretary of IVCF Canada and in 1938 he helped establish the first IVCF chapters in the United States. [1]
[edit] Core Purpose
Being shaped by God’s word and led by the Holy Spirit, the purpose of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship of Canada is the transformation of youth, students and graduates, in all their ethnic diversity, into fully committed followers of Jesus Christ.
[edit] Core Values
Through witnessing communities, we:
- Develop Faithful Witness: To witness to the Lord Jesus Christ as God incarnate and to seek to lead others to a personal faith in Him.
- Cultivate Spiritual Growth: To deepen and strengthen the spiritual life and gifts of followers by the study of the Bible, fellowship, prayer, and worship.
- Demonstrate Christian Love: To encourage Christians empowered by the Holy Spirit to love our neighbours as ourselves.
- Seek All Truth in Jesus Christ: To assist Christians in exploring and asserting the relevance of the Christian faith to every aspect of private life and public concern.
- Shape Servant Leaders: To develop godly men and women to serve as leaders in God’s work in the world.
- Grow a Missional Commitment: To affirm God’s call that all Christians are called to serve Him through their lives and work and to participate in the global mission of the church by praying, giving, and serving.
[edit] Statement of Faith
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The only true God, the almighty Creator of all things, existing eternally in three persons Father, Son, and Holy Spirit full of love and glory. The unique divine inspiration, entire trustworthiness and authority of the Bible. The value and dignity of all people: created in God's image to live in love and holiness, but alienated from God and each other because of our sin and guilt, and justly subject to God's wrath. Jesus Christ, fully human and fully divine, who lived as a perfect example, who assumed the judgment due sinners by dying in our place, and who was bodily raised from the dead and ascended as Savior and Lord. Justification by God's grace to all who repent and put their faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. The indwelling presence and transforming power of the Holy Spirit, who gives to all believers a new life and a new calling to obedient service. The unity of all believers in Jesus Christ, manifest in worshiping and witnessing churches making disciples throughout the world. The victorious reign and future personal return of Jesus Christ, who will judge all people with justice and mercy, giving over the unrepentant to eternal condemnation but receiving the redeemed into eternal life. To God be glory forever. |
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[edit] Bibliography
- A Brief History Of The International Fellowship Of Evangelical Students by Douglas Johnson, Lausanne, Switz.: IFES, 1964.
- The Day of His Power by Pete Lowman, Leicester : Inter-Varsity, 1988, ISBN 0-85110-794-X.
- From the Campus to the World: Stories from the First Fifty Years of Student Foreign Missions Fellowship by Alice Poynor, InterVarsity Press, 1986, ISBN 0-87784-947-1.
- Student Power in World Missions by David M. Howard, InterVarsity Press, 1979, ISBN 0-87784-493-3. (Brief history of North American students in mission beginning with the Haystack Movement through the SVM to the SFMF.)
- The Growth of a Work of God by C. Stacey Woods, InterVarsity Press, 1978, ISBN 0-87784-741-X. (Early history of InterVarsity/USA)
- For Christ and the University: The Story of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of the U.S.A./ 1940-1990 by Keith & Gladys Hunt, InterVarsity Press, 1991, ISBN 0-8308-4996-3.
[edit] References
- '^ For Christ and the University: The Story of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of the U.S.A./ 1940-1990 by Keith & Gladys Hunt, InterVarsity Press, 1991, ISBN 0-8308-4996-3, p 61-73.
[edit] See also
- InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, a similar organization in the United States of America, which Inter-Varsity Canada gave birth to.
