International Fellowship of Evangelical Students

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The International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) is a worldwide association of about 160 evangelical Christian student movements worldwide, encouraging evangelism among students. The goal of the organisation is to establish local autonomous student movements in every country where there is tertiary education. The member movements cooperate to pioneer new work and the strengthen existing groups.

The organizational centre of IFES is in Oxford, England. Lindsay Brown is the current General Secretary and Las Newman the Associate General Secretary.

Contents

1 History
2 Activities
3 Member movement
4 Bibliography
5 External link

History

In 1947, the initiative was taken to establish an umbrella organisation of christian students. Representatives from Australia, The Netherlands, Great-Britain, 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 30 countries where there is no recognized student witness. Most of them are Muslim countries.

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. The last World Assembly occurred in July 2003 in Dalfsen, Netherlands and was the most widely represented student ministry event in history. The next World Assembly is in July 2007 in Toronto, Canada.

For students, regional conferences are organised once in a few years. In Europe and Eurasia, there is the European Student Evangelism Conference. This conference was held in 2004 in the Hungarian city Győr. In 2000 it was held in the German city of Aschaffenburg. The last East Asia Regional Conference was held in Jakarta, Indonesia in May 2005. This event attracted around five hundred students from all over East Asia, including Jasmine Foo and Cheery Orozco. Jasmine and Genesis (Cheery's brother) have recently visited Hong Kong in June 2006.

IFES also offers Summer- and Year-teams [(www.ifesinteraction.org)], which are comprised 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.

Member movement

According to the philosophy of unity among all christians, IFES allows only one christian movement per country. Member movements include:

Europe

Austrian student mission (ÖSM Österreichische Studentenmission) (Austria)
[Groupes Bibliques Universitaires et des Ecoles Supérieures] (Belgium)
[Evangelische Studentengroepen Vlaanderen] (Beligum)
[Studentski evanđeoski pokret] (Croatia)
Kristeligt Forbund for Studerende (Denmark)
[Studentenmission Deutschland] [(german Wikipediasite)] (Germany)
[Gruppi Biblici Universitari] (Italy)
[IFES Nederland] (The Netherlands)
Norges Kristelige student- og skoleungdomslag (Norway)
[Federación de Grupos Bíblicos Universitarios de España] (Spain)
[Credo] (Sweden)
[Groupes Bibliques des Écoles et Universités] (Switzerland)
[Vereinigten Bibelgruppen] (Switzerland)
UCCF (Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship) (United Kingdom)

Francophone Africa

Groupes Bibliques des Elèves et Etudiants du Cameroon (Cameroon)

North America

Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship of Canada (Canada)
[Groupes Bibliques Universitaires et Collegiaux] (Quebec)
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (USA)

East Asia

[Fellowship of Evangelical Students](Hong Kong)
Japan
South Korea
Taiwan
Thailand
Malaysia
Singapore
Indonesia
Philippines

Others

Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (Australia)
[Union of Evangelical Students of India] (India)
[Perkantas] (Indonesia)
[Tertiary Students Christian Fellowship] (TSCF) (New Zealand)
[Campus Evangelical Fellowship] (Taiwan)

Around the world, more than 100 movements are connected to IFES.

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 085110794X.
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.

External link

[IFES website]

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