International Fellowship of Evangelical Students

International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES)

Founded	1947
Type	Christian Interdenominational student association
Location	Oxford, England
Area served	160 Countries
General Secretary	Daniel Bourdanné, since 2007
Website	ifesworld.org

The International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) is an association of over 160 evangelical Christian student movements worldwide, encouraging evangelism, discipleship and mission among students. IFES is the world's largest Christian campus movement whose goal is to establish local autonomous student movements in every country where there is tertiary education. The member movements cooperate to pioneer new work and to strengthen existing groups. In addition, there is work in countries where student ministry is not yet affiliated.

IFES has three International Service Centres: Oxford, England; Platteville, USA; and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Dr Daniel Bourdanné is the current General Secretary, assisted by Tim Adams (Associate General Secretary for Operations) and Martin Haizmann (Associate General Secretary for International Ministries). Bourdanné was appointed as General Secretary at the IFES World Assembly on 17 July 2007. Previously he served as Regional Secretary for Francophone Africa. Previous General Secretaries have been Australian C. Stacey Woods (1947–1972), Singaporean Chua Wee Hian (1972–1991) and Welshman Lindsay Brown (1991–2007). At the heart of the movement are the thousands of students, volunteers and staff who faithfully and sacrificially contribute in their local settings.

History

In 1947, the initiative was taken to establish international fellowship of Christian students. Representatives from Australia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, France, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and the United States came together in Boston (USA) to strengthen evangelism, discipleship and world mission among students all over the world.

At the end of the 20th century, IFES had already grown to an organisation consisting of movements in 140 countries. Currently there are about 20 countries with tertiary education where there is no IFES-related student witness. A unique feature of IFES is that it is a federation of autonomous and indigenous movements. The international board of IFES includes representatives from all around the world, emphasizing the fact that it is truly a global movement that models international partnership and collaboration.

A firm commitment to evangelism amongst students, the authority of the Bible and collaborative cross-cultural mission are historic features of this ministry. As the fellowship has grown, representatives from many Christian traditions and denominations have been added, but IFES has sustained an orthodox evangelical expression of Christianity.

Activities

Representatives of all the member movements gather once every four years at the "World Assembly", where the General Committee meets to conduct official business of the fellowship. World Assemblies have been held in Mexico (2015), Poland (2011), Canada (2007), Netherlands (2003), Korea (1999), Kenya (1995), United States of America (1991). The last World Assembly occurred in July 2015 in Oaxtepec, Mexico and was hosted by the Mexican member movement Compa. The next World Assembly will be held in Durban South Africa in 2019.

For students, regional conferences are organised every few years. In Europe and Eurasia, there is the European Student Evangelism Conference. In 2000 it was held in Aschaffenburg, Germany, in Győr, Hungary in 2004 and 2012 and in Linz, Austria in 2008. Previous East Asia Regional Conferences were held at Port Dickson, Malaysia in 2014, in Singapore in 2011, in Tokyo, Japan in 2008 and in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2005.

IFES also offers Summer- and Year-teams, which are composed of students and recent graduates who use their holidays or an academic year to help establish student movements in Europe and Eurasia by pioneering new work or assisting established movements.

Christian literature distribution is also a feature of this ministry. InterVarsity Press (USA), Inter-Varsity Press (UK), Presses Bibliques Africaines (Francophone Africa), Harmat (Hungary), Andamio (Spain), and Ediciones Certeza (Latin America) are examples of regional publishing houses.

Student missions conferences occur frequently in the fellowship. Examples of this are Urbana (North America), Mission Korea (South Korea) and "Whom Shall I Send?" (Sudan). Plans for future conferences are developing, and at present there are such events planned in India, Rwanda, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria. There is to be Eurasia’s first-ever missions conference in Ukraine, and others in South Korea, Taiwan, Jamaica, Mexico, and probably also Bolivia and Guatemala in Latin America.

Member Movements

Recognizing the importance of Christian unity, IFES generally affiliates only one member organisation from any country, although some exceptions have been made for specific linguistic or geographical reasons. For example, there are two movements representing different language groups in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland).

Around the world, more than 160 movements are connected to IFES.

Bibliography

• Douglas Johnson, A Brief History of the International Fellowship Of Evangelical Students, Lausanne, Switzerland, IFES, 1964.
• Pete Lowman, The Day of His Power, Leicester, Inter-Varsity, 1988. ISBN 0-85110-794-X
• Alice Poynor, From the Campus to the World: Stories from the First Fifty Years of Student Foreign Missions Fellowship, InterVarsity Press, 1986. ISBN 0-87784-947-1
• David M. Howard, Student Power in World Missions, 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.)
• C. Stacey Woods, The Growth of a Work of God, InterVarsity Press, 1978. ISBN 0-87784-741-X (Early history of InterVarsity/USA)
• Keith & Gladys Hunt, For Christ and the University: The Story of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of the U.S.A./ 1940-1990, InterVarsity Press, 1991. ISBN 0-8308-4996-3
• Lindsay Brown, Shining Like Stars - the Power of the Gospel in the World’s Universities, Inter-Varsity Press, 2006. ISBN 1-84474-167-2 (Spanish translation: Brillando Como Estrellas, Andamio. ISBN 84-96551-28-8, ISBN 978-84-96551-28-2
• A. Donald Macleod, C. Stacey Woods and the Evangelical Rediscovery of the University, InterVarsity Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-8308-3432-7

See also

• Cru Christian campus ministry
• Passion Conferences Founded by Louie Giglio to provide annual gathering of Christian students
• World Student Christian Federation

External links

• Official website
• Preview of "Brillando Como Estrellas", an introduction and history of IFES by Lindsay Brown (in Spanish)