A letter to parents from the IVCF@W&M website

Dear parents:

We’re excited that your son or daughter is considering William and Mary as they move into the next phase of their life. If you’re anything like our parents, or our staff worker Marty and his wife Carolyn, you’re probably approaching this transition with a potent mixture of pride, excitement, trepidation, and outright fear. Carolyn likes to tell the story of taking her first son to college, and her unshakeable fear that if she didn’t make his bed for him that first day, it would never get made. From there, he wouldn’t get enough sleep, he wouldn’t eat enough, his grades would suffer, and he wouldn’t make any friends. Needless to say, she made sure that the bed was made.

Unfortunately, we all know that ensuring the spiritual well-being of your soon-to-be college student isn’t nearly that easy. Nobody rousts freshmen out of bed for church on Sunday mornings, or schedules them in for middle of the week fellowship with Christian peers. Late-night WaWa runs and serious mid-afternoon naps don’t seem to be a conducive environment to a disciplined life of spiritual contemplation.

However, here at William and Mary, we believe that InterVarsity Christian Fellowship offers a unique opportunity for students to pursue God, God’s purposes, and fellowship with His people. We believe that this extends not only across the 4 (or more) years of college, but across the following 40 years of vocation, whether that’s in the home, academia, government, the marketplace, or in full-time professional ministry. IVCF has been at W&M since 1964, when a group of students asked a biology and chemistry professor to help them build a chapter that would reach the campus with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Since then, thousands of students have been ministered to through weekly large group meetings, small group Bible studies, prayer meetings, service opportunities, and outreach to the campus.

From the first moment they arrive on campus, IV members will be there to help incoming freshmen move into the dorms and get acclimated to college life. Each dorm has a small group Bible study led by two upperclassmen who have been preparing and praying since their week-long training the previous spring. Cookouts, Frisbee games, beach days, and plain old hanging out characterizes the first few weeks of the school year (you know, when we’re not studying our eyeballs out. Seriously.) Every Friday, the chapter gathers together for worship, prayer, and teaching from God’s Word.

Yet IV isn’t just a community to get "plugged in" with that keeps students from making poor choices. Ultimately, our task is to move students closer to the life of Christ here on earth, one marked by inward devotion to knowing God and the outward practice of being His hands and feet to the campus and to the world. To that end, IV is constantly striving to equip its members to be friends to those who want nothing to do with the church. We’re always seeking to proclaim and demonstrate the Gospel in ways that will cause our friends to stop and consider taking Jesus’ invitation to take a step with Him on life’s journey, whether that’s through serving them pancakes on the last day of classes or inviting them to learn about Christ at the Alpha course (http://www.alphausa.org/).

Furthermore, as a ministry at the best small state institution in the United States, we have a unique opportunity to produce true world-changers, men and women who will impact every aspect of business, government, academics, art, science, and the church for the Gospel. We seek to learn, do, and pursue justice through events like 30 Hour Famine or the Williamsburg homeless reality tour. Every spring break, students have the chance to serve the inner cities of Camden, NJ and Wilmington, DE through our service trips supporting the ministry of Urban Promise (http://www.urbanpromiseusa.org/).

A little bit more at peace about your son or daughter’s future at William and Mary? We sure hope so. We just celebrated our 45th anniversary as a chapter here, and we’re looking forward to 45 more years of seeing God impact lives and bring glory to His own name. Of course, if you have any more comments, questions, or concerns (and as a parent, you probably do) then you can shoot a quick e-mail over to our staff worker Marty Purks (mepurk@wm.edu), or the new student coordinators that are listed here. They’d love to talk to you more about IV, William and Mary, and probably just about anything else you wanna know about. Thank you, and God bless.