Ten Compelling Reasons
Why IVCF Chapters in Central California Weave Urban Transformation Systems into the Year-Round Fabric of Chapter Life
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Because, according to the Great Valley Center, at the present rate of growth, Fresno County is expected to grow from its current population of 811,000 to 1.2 million in the next nineteen years. The central San Joaquin Valley (eight counties including Fresno) will achieve a growth rate of 139%, the fastest in the state. This will press all urban infrastructures and educational systems beyond their limits. InterVarsity must position itself to deal with the influx of a diverse student population (both class and ethnicity) whose family context is one of challenge and uncertainty brought on by migration.
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Because only 14.4% of residents in the South San Joaquin Valley are college graduates (the lowest level of educational attainment in the state, and among the lowest nationwide). IV Chapters must not operate in a vacuum, removed from the issues of the community. This community needs the involvement of college students as models of academic perseverance and success. Correspondingly, and perhaps more significantly, a greater number of full-time students of either CSU campuses or Community College campuses are leaving the Valley than there are students coming to it. In order for InterVarsity alumni to make a strategic difference in the Valley’s poorest communities, they must gain the value of staying. This value is obtained as current students interact with alumni of urban programs who have chosen to stay, as well as by forming consistent relationships with churches and agencies that have a stake in the community, while students are still in college.
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Because a greater number of students from migrant and refugee families, in addition to students from inner-city contexts are making it to college. IFES theologian Vinoth Ramachandra maintains that InterVarsity chapters must be ready to deal with their issues on two levels: a) we must understand how the gospel speaks to specific issues of justice faced by those students who are poor (their housing, health-care, food insecurity, jurisprudence, etc.) and, b) pastoral care dictates we skillfully minister to those students facing crises in those areas.
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Because involvement in ministries of transformation in urban communities is a magnet for the gospel, attracting a multiethnic array of pre-Christians and non-Christians to communities of faith, seeing that type of involvement as an authentication of the gospel message. We introduce non-Christians to Jesus by having them do his works.
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Because theologically we must be diligent to represent the whole gospel, including James’ description that true religion is caring for orphans and widows (James 1:27), including Jesus’ self-described mission as preaching good news to the poor (any marginalized) and setting the captive free (Luke 4:18-19) and preaching to those in cities (Luke 4:43), and including the whole Bible’s emphasis on justice for the urban poor (representing more than 20 percent of the 400 verses on the poor in the Bible). We must not convey the idea that there is a time in life (i.e., the college years) where we are free to focus on only some of Jesus’ agendas, while ignoring/postponing others (i.e., the poor). And using an experiential, whole-gospel discipleship posture in the city can help our students see and apply the whole gospel to the marginalized on campus as well.
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Because our historical InterVarsity mentors tell us we should. Consider these words from John Stott on Justice: "Social responsibility becomes an aspect not of Christian mission only, but also of Christian conversion. It is impossible to be truly converted to God without being thereby converted to our neighbor." "It is never enough to have pity on the victims of injustice if we do nothing to change the unjust situation itself." “Christian social activity is a consequence of evangelism, since it is the evangelized who engage in it. Second, it is a bridge to evangelism, since it expresses God's love and so both overcomes prejudice and opens doors. Third, it is apartner of evangelism, so that they are like two blades of a pair of scissors or two wings of the bird."
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Because most InterVarsity (IFES) chapters outside of the U.S. practice year-round urban ministry. Chapter leaders in the Philippines, in Congo, in Kenya, in Eastern Europe, in the Caribbean, and many others, routinely involve their students in weekly opportunities to engage in transformational ministry in their cities. These include ministries that defend justice, deliver compassion and services, engage in political influence, provide health-care, develop housing, etc., both because the gospel demands it and because they have been found to be an effective tool for evangelism, leadership development, and discipleship. Why does it seem as the chapters in the U.S. are the only ones to debate the legitimacy of social urban ministry? We must learn from our sisters and brothers.
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Because a discipleship crafted and grown entirely in a campus setting has not had to practice the crucial integration of faith into the most pressing issues facing society. After graduation this discipleship will degenerate into a privatized, interior form of spirituality that is "privately engaging but socially irrelevant."
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Because the missiological principle of contextualization requires it. Contextualization dictates that ministry in a particular socio-cultural context must reflect the issues, realities and needs of that context. The Central San Joaquin Valley, CA, is known as the "Appalachia of the West," with a poverty rate exceeding that of Appalachia. For many, it is like living in the empty tip of the Horn of Plenty. Suffering from double digit unemployment, one in four Fresno residents depend on public (Federal) assistance for basic needs. Over 38% of children in Fresno live under the Federal poverty line. Fresno is the 5th poorest city in the nation and the number one city in the nation for concentrated poverty. There is a housing crisis. With resources and wealth all around them, many residents cannot partake in the Valley’s bounty. Contextualization means we must go beyond our natural giftedness in youth and student culture to address these realities, in which our campuses are located and from which our students come.
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Because today's students want to make a difference. They don't trust theological arguments, or the propaganda of words. They must experience something to know that it is true. Regular ministry in the city exposes them to transformed lives, to authentic leaders making a difference, to the model of churches engaged in their communities, and to a Jesus worth following. It proves that the words we speak on campus are authentic and true.
Great Central Valley Population programions, greatvalley.org
2 Public Policy Institute of California, The Central Valley at a Crossroads: Migration and its Implications, 2004, page 15.
Ibid, page 47
Ibid, page 48.
Statement at IFES World Assembly in the Netherlands, 2002
John Stott, Christian Mission in the Modern World
John Stott, The Cross of Christ
John Stott, Twenty Years After Lausanne: Personal Reflections
Os Guiness, The Gravedigger File, IVP.
U.S. Census 2000
Katrina’s Window, Report from the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program, 2005.
