International Fellowship of Evangelical Students


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

In United Kingdom, the Christian Union, founded in 1879, was a founding member of the Student Christian Movement of Great Britain in 1892. Then in 1928, CICCU students left the SCM because of its ecumenical beliefs and its approval of new methods of biblical exegesis, and founded the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. This movement was established in Canada in 1928, Australia in 1930, 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 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:

Publishing houses

Christian literature distribution is also a feature of this ministry. InterVarsity Press, Inter-Varsity Press, Presses Bibliques Africaines, Harmat, Andamio, and Ediciones Certeza are examples of regional publishing houses.

Partnerships

Tyndale is a Christian publishing house, publishing Christian fiction, nonfiction, children’s books amongst others. Tyndale has supported IFES since 1967, through Tyndale House Foundation and helps establish IFES-affiliated publishing programs in other countries including Pakistan, Malaysia, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Brazil, Uganda, India and the United States. These programs enable students to write and publish their own brochures, books and curriculums, and to serve their local campuses.