Christian clubs on campus

Different views, same loyalty

By Aaron Epp
Christian Week (Winnipeg, MB)
Friday, December 18, 2009

WINNIPEG, MB—In his first year at the University of Manitoba Tim Bock started looking for an on-campus extracurricular activity. He wanted something that would relate to his Christian faith.

“I figured if I was going to get involved in one thing, it might as well be a prayer group,” says Bock, now in his second year studying physical education. “If I’m going to be at university every day, I might as well be praying.”

Eventually, the 22-year-old found an on-campus group to pray with. He also attends Bible studies organized by the Navigators of Canada, an evangelical non-profit organization that ministers in communities and on campuses across the country.

But the Navigators don’t have a monopoly on campus Christianity, Bock says. There are other groups, like Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF), Student Christian Movement (SCM), Campus for Christ and chaplains from a variety of denominations including Mennonite, Lutheran, Pentecostal, Anglican and Roman Catholic.

Dave Birrell, an IVCF staff member, has been working at the University of Winnipeg’s downtown campus for 12 years.

Started in 1929, IVCF spans more than 60 university and college campuses across the country. Staff members work with student leaders, organize Bible studies, prayer meetings, worship services and other social events.

The goal, Birrell says, is to be a witnessing community.

“Our desire is to be a welcoming, inclusive and engaging community while showing others that God is authentic,” he says. “We are learning how to invite widely and call deeply our friends and classmates. It is from this vision that we run the weekly events.”

Students and leaders involved with SCM have a slightly different focus. Also started in the 1920s, the movement is strongly committed to social justice—bringing good news to marginalized and oppressed people, seeing Jesus as an anti-poverty and anti-oppression activist.

“We’re very action-focused,” says David Ball, SCM’s general secretary, who used to co-ordinate the SCM branch in Winnipeg. “Right now we’re working on some things connecting faith with climate issues—speaking out as Christians about climate change as one of the big issues of our time.”

Although action is important, Bock believes that it needs to start with prayer.

To that end, he’s organizing a week of prayer at the U of M for later this month. He hopes for unity amongst Christian believers on campus, as well as a renewal of their commitment to love and serve others.

“That would be the best thing—if God really changed our hearts to be more open with each other and other students,” he says. “We could all use a change of heart.”

Bock is working with all of the Christian groups on campus to organize the week of prayer. Working together like that is important, says Jason Miles, the IVCF staff person for the U of M and Brandon University. “We’re not in competition with each other,” he says. "We just want to see Jesus on campus. We want people to recognize how incredible and how amazing He is.

“It’s the Kingdom of God we’re building, not the Kingdom of IVCF or the Kingdom of the Navigators.”