With a colorful parade of national costumes, 700 delegates from over 150 nations opened the eighth International Fellowship of Evangelical Students’ (IFES) World Assembly on Wednesday evening, July 11, 2007. Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship of Canada is hosting the World Assembly at the Redeemer University College in Ancaster, Ontario. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA is one of the founding members of IFES.

This gathering brings together Christian leaders who are involved in ministry among students on university campuses. “It’s a joy to be together with brothers and sisters who are doing student ministry around the world,” said InterVarsity president Alec Hill. “I learn and glean so much from their experiences.” Speakers include Christian leaders from across the globe, including Peter Kuzmic (Croatia), Jacques Buchhold (France), Ziel Machado (Brazil), Ramez Attallah (Egypt), Geri Rodman (Canada), Lindsay Brown (Wales), Antoine Rutayisire (Rwanda), Stella Kasirye (Malawi), Sir John Houghton (Britain) and Rebecca Pippert (USA).

This year’s World Assembly marks the 60th anniversary of IFES and also features a leadership transition. Lindsay Brown, from Wales, is stepping down after serving as General Secretary for 16 years. The new General Secretary is Daniel Bourdanné, from Chad, who has served as the IFES Regional Secretary for Francophone Africa since 1995.

Speaking last December at InterVarsity’s Urbana 06 Student Missions Convention in St. Louis, Daniel Bourdanné said that “the greatest missionaries around the world are students. IFES exists to equip students to change universities around the world.”

All IFES national movements seek to present a culturally-relevant Christian witness, working in close partnership with the church in their countries, whenever possible. National movements all share three major objectives:

• Evangelism – proclaiming Jesus Christ as Savior, Lord and God to students in every country in the world, and leading students to personal faith in Christ.
• Formación – promoting a life of discipleship and a growing maturity among students associated with our movements, and equipping them for a lifetime of service in the family, church and society. (Formación is the Spanish word for nurture or discipleship-training.)
• World Mission – encouraging students to take the Good News of Jesus Christ to every nation on earth, and become witnessing communities of salt and light in every area of society and culture.

In addition to president Alec Hill, a number of other InterVarsity staff members are attending the World Assembly, including members of InterVarsity’s Link Department. (InterVarsity Link staff members work overseas with other IFES member organizations. An example of the key supporting roles that many Link staff perform was described by Link director Becky Stephen in a recent article at urbana.org.)

The IFES World Assembly continues through Wednesday evening July 18. The World Assembly theme is In Christ, into the World.