July, 1942
253
THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NE S S
A ngell Hall; University of Michigan
Bringing Christ To Our Campuses
By NEIL NELLIS East Lansing, Michigan
ivory Photo
C OME WITH ME to a men’s dor mitory near the campus of the University of Michigan. It is 8 p. m., and Pete, a medical student, is studying hard for some ap proaching examinations. There comes a knock. “Just another interruption,” he says to himself. Going to the door, he finds it is E------ from across the hall—but there is something different about him tonight. He is more serious than usual. “Sit down,” says Pete as he shoves aside his books, “What’s on your mind?” “What is this religion of yours any way?” answers E------. “I want to know about it.” Pete gasps for breath at such an opportunity. He recalls that he has not talked very much with E------be fore, but he tells him simply what Christ means to him and shows him the Scriptures. Repeatedly E------says, “Does it really say that—let me see— I didn’t know that was in the Bible.” After nearly two hours, E------ kneels with Pete in prayer—so began a new life for Christ Pete’s consistent, victorious living had shown, his friend the need for Pete’s Saviour and Lord. In the days that followed, Pete was glad to bring IMr. Nellis is staff member of the Inter- Varsity Christian Fellowship on the campuses of Michigan. In the summer and fall after his graduation from the University of Washing ton, where he had majored in Zoology, he came in contact with the evangelical Christian message^ a doctrine then entirely new to him, and accepted Christ as his Saviour. Declining a science teaching fellowship at the Univer sity of Hawaii, he enrolled at the Bible Insti tute of Los Angeles, where he wds graduated in the class of Í94Í» — E ditor .]
have an office headquarters in the United States and eight staff members on the field reaching some ninety col leges and universities in all parts of this country. The purpose of Inter-Varsity is two fold: first, to provide for fellowship and spiritual growth' of Christian stu dents already on college and univer sity campuses, and second, to stimu late them in an active witness—indi vidually and as a group — to their classmates. Inter-Varsity staff members have the unusual opportunity of getting into the student dormitories, lounges, and grills to talk with individuals and groups. Here the average minister is as welcome as a hornet at a lawn party. But the staff member is a re cent university graduate. He talks the language of the students, understands their problems. We praise God for all that He is doing through and for this work. Though the movement has no endow ment, God has never opened a door but that He has supplied the worker, prayer, and the material support that is needed. The Philosophy of the Unevangelized As we look upon the some seven hundred universities and colleges of this country with their million and a half students,, we realize that these young people are getting excellent training and have a better than aver age chance of becoming leaders to morrow in government, business, and
him to the Michigan Christian Fel lowship where he could have fellow ship with other Christian students and c o u l d find opportunity to grow in g r a c e and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. But E------is only one of the many students who have met with Christ in a way such as this through the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship this school year. Meanwhile, this student movement'has ministered to other col lege s t u d e n t s in still other ways. F------is one of dozens who have said, “ I find the Inter-Varsity daily prayer meeting a stabilizer for the day.” An other has said, “It is the daily meet ing with o t h e r Christians' and our united prayer to our heavenly Father which make one’s faith vital and liv ing in the midst of a busy university life.” A Tested Plan What is this Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship? It is an interdenomina tional movement which had Its origin at Cambridge University, England, in 1877. From Cambridge it spread through out Great Britain and most of the British Empire, coming to Canada in 1927. Concern for the spiritual welfare of students in the United States as well as in Canada brought the first Inter-Varsity staff member «irom Can ada to the University of Michigan. There God began to do a real work in the lives of men and women of the university. That' was 1938. Now the Lord has enabled Inter-Varsity to
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