Chapter Planting with Greeks in the Southeast

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This document is part of a larger cluster of articles about InterVarsity
chapter planting at https://www.intervarsity.org/mx/page/chapterplanting

The Campus

As the Regional Greek Coordinator for InterVarsity, I work at a variety of
campuses, from large state campuses to small private campuses. On most of
these campuses one-third or more of the student population is Greek. The
information below reflects a variety of campuses.

The Challenges

The greatest challenge to ministry is constant and overwhelming busyness
among the Greek students. Greeks often have fuller schedules than many
other students due to the demands of Greek life (social activities,
philanthropy activities, Greek meetings, etc.). Almost every Greek is
involved in numerous organizations on campus. Whether it is a large, party
campus, or a more studious, small private campus, it’s rare to find
“slackers” among Greek students. Asking them to be part of yet another
activity on campus may excite them initially and draw them in quickly, but
I often find that their time commitment diminishes over the long-term.

Much of planting Greek ministry on other campuses has been a process of
“casting the nets wide” and chasing some rabbit trails. I follow leads and
try to discern where the Lord is at work and which students are catching
the vision and are willing to give some time to developing ministry on
their campus. Because I am working largely on campuses where I am the only
staff support, there is a need for high student ownership and initiative.

Campus Contacts

Most contacts on new campuses are students. We also work through the Greek
alumni associations. Greeks are often involved as advisers in their
undergrad sorority/fraternity and they provide us with connections. I have
networked and found some Christian Greek alumni who have then connected me
with Christian undergrads that they know.

I have knocked on the doors of the Greek houses and invited them to Bible
studies. Because we often meet inside a fraternity or sorority, we have
drawn people who happen to be living in or hanging out the house that
evening.

The Greek system is usually a very tight network on campus. If you’re a
Christian in the Greek system, you often know many of the other Christians.
This works to our advantage in establishing a ministry. This is most often
the way I establish contacts.

Many Greek houses also have a “chaplain” position as a part of their
leadership team. I often get their names from the sorority/fraternity
website and they become key contacts since they are often the nominally
spiritual Greek students.

What We’re Doing

I am in regular contact with the students who seem to have a vision for
Greek ministry on the numerous campuses. They are working to gather others
and cast the vision while at the same time trying to start GIGs in their
Greek houses. The students are engaged in witnessing and developing the
witnessing community simultaneously.

The Vision

My initial goal for each campus is to cast vision for ministry and
establish regular contact with a Greek student who is on board with the
vision of Greek InterVarsity. Then I invite this student to cast this
vision among other Greeks and begin establishing a Greek witnessing
community. This is often a weekly time of prayer, bible study, and
equipping for Greek ministry.

Simultaneously, I invite this student, or the group of students, with the
ministry vision to start GIGs in their houses. Witnessing communities in
every house is the goal. From the start, we cast a vision and expectation
that we are trying to be Greek students in mission and that it will be the
foundation for our times together.

It excites me to think about the potential of Greeks to transform the
campus and become world-changers . . . they’ve got the power, wealth,
influence, skills, intellect, etc., to do so. It gives me hope when I see a
Greek student actually begin to steward all that privilege for the Kingdom.

God is Working

A few years ago there was a campus that had no InterVarsity chapter or
Greek ministry, and the closest staff was an hour and a half away. Yet God
was at work, and there was a bursting initial growth in ministry. Once
again, it was through the Greek network. A Greek student attended church
with someone who was a supporter of InterVarsity and told her about the
Greek ministry. Then word got to me that there was a student at this campus
interested in Greek ministry. I went and met with her, cast some initial
vision, and gave her some resources.

This energetic student decided to start a GIG/Bible study in her sorority.
The first time she announced this GIG, 80 women arrived, all from just her
sorority! This continued for half the semester and then the numbers
decreased to about 30-40. She then began to gather other Christian Greeks
and share what was happening in her house. Within a semester, there were
about six or seven in-house Greek ministries with at least twenty Greeks in
attendance at most of them. As a result, there were about 200 students
involved in the ministry within a year. Not all of them attended any large-
group events, but they were involved in the in-house ministries.

Unfortunately, the ministry at this school has dwindled much in the past
three years. The key student leaders graduated and did not replace
themselves. Most students involved in the ministry were nominal or non-
believers so they didn’t carry the ministry forward. Also, at that point,
we did not have the staff available to encourage and equip these students
regularly so we lost favor with many of them.

My staff position has changed and I will be freed up to try to re-plant
this work again. This campus now has an InterVarsity chapter and staff
there, so I can use this as a springboard for the Greek ministry and a
regular connection for the students.

God uses the already established community of Greeks to quickly grow a
ministry. This makes me continue to think about how we as an InterVarsity
ministry can seek to be Kingdom communities at work redeeming existing
communities. My vision for Greek students, and the campus in general, is to
take an already established campus community and just infiltrate it with a
witnessing community, not drawing people out of the already existing campus
structures and communities but redeeming what’s already there.

Help Needed

I often find I need help in deciding how much time/effort to put into the
many “rabbit trails” of student contacts and other leads on a campus. Also,
caring for students long-distance on a campus without staff is proving to
hinder the potential that seems to be there. I need to continue to be
creative in how to maintain and grow the initial plantings of ministry.

Chapter_Planting_Greeks_In_The_Southeast.doc