This January 5-9, all InterVarsity staff from across the nation joined together in St. Louis to celebrate, learn, and seek God together. The theme of the conference was Campuses Renewed. As many of you know, the vision of InterVarsity is “Lives Transformed, Campuses Renewed, World Changers Developed”. Seeing ‘campuses renewed’ can be a little unclear sometimes, so this week was inspiring to all of us as we dug deeper into this important aspect of what we hope to see on campus.
This is part of a statement that was developed to explain what we mean by seeing campuses renewed:
“Our sovereign God is actively influencing people and events on every campus. Right now. Everywhere. He is at work impacting leaders who hold key positions — both believers and non-believers. Via common grace, He brings good to all.
In this light, we do well to remember the words of the great Dutch theologian and politician, Abraham Kuyper: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’”
We do not join those who scorn or fear the secular university. While not being naïve about many less-than-positive aspects of today’s campus culture, we regard ourselves as insiders who care deeply about the well-being of the entire academic community.
Campus renewal is developed through a variety of means. It is our vision to see the culture, climate, curriculum, research, and policies of each institution renewed by the Gospel.
We long to see revival on campus. When the Holy Spirit moves, not only do people change, but institutions do as well”
Throughout the week, I reflected on ways we’ve seen God begin a work of renewing Georgia State:
-being invited to a discussion with decision makers in the community on making GSU more sustainable
-partnering with Greek Life, bringing together all Greek councils, to talk about racial reconciliation in the Greek system
-being invited by University Housing to train all RAs on how to have spiritual conversations with their residents
God is at work at Georgia State to renew all aspects of campus. I can only imagine what He has in store. Will you join me in praying for the professors on campus, the administration, the ideas being ingrained in students minds, the hiring process and treatment of employees, the acceptance standards for students, etc. so that Georgia State might more fully reflect the values of God’s Kingdom. May His Kingdom Come and His will be done at GSU as it is in Heaven.
View a meditation on our theme: http://vimeo.com/18035035
