International Fellowship of Evangelical Students

International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES)
Founded 1947
Type Christian interdenominational student association
Headquarters Oxford, United Kingdom
Area served
180 countries
General Secretary
 Tim Adams, since 2021
Website ifesworld.org

The International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) is an interdenominational association of 180 evangelical Christian student movements worldwide, encouraging evangelism, discipleship and mission among students. The headquarters is in Oxford, England.

History

In United Kingdom, the Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union, founded in 1879, was a founding member of the Student Christian Movement of Great Britain (SCM) in 1892. Then in 1928, students left SCM due to differences over liberal positions and founded the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. This movement was established in Canada in 1928 and in the United States in 1941.

In 1947, the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students was founded. Representatives from Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Netherlands, Norway, France, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United States came together in Boston (USA) to strengthen evangelism, discipleship and world mission among students all over the world.

It was present in 180 countries in 2023.

Programs

Group meetings are held each week to discuss the Bible in universities. These groups are Evangelical, but not attached to any particular confession.

Organization

Representatives of all the member movements gather once every four years at the "World Assembly", where the General Committee meets to conduct official business of the fellowship. IFES's General Secretaries have included:

  • Stacey Woods (1947–1972)
  • Chua Wee Hian (1972–1991)
  • Lindsay Brown (1991–2007)
  • Daniel Bourdanné (2007–2019)
  • Jamil (acting, 2019–2020)
  • Tim Adams (2021–present)

Publishing houses

Christian literature distribution is also a feature of this ministry. InterVarsity Press (USA), Inter-Varsity Press (UK), Presses Bibliques Africaines (Francophone Africa), Harmat (Hungary), Andamio (Spain), and Ediciones Certeza (Latin America) are examples of regional publishing houses.

See also