The Story of Olivet’s InterVarsity Chapter
As a new student of Olivet, when you think to yourself, “Why did I choose this school?” what answers usually come to mind? Was it a scholarship? An academic program? Did your family attend? Were you pressured into enrolling? Did you feel a spiritual calling? Regardless of your answer, students like you have found their own answers to that question after attending Intervarsity Bible Study and a few of them were willing to share their testimonies.
Intervarsity is a Christian organization with Bible study chapters in schools all over the country. They cultivate discipleship, evangelism, multi-ethnicity and justice through spiritual connection. One of the staff leaders of ONU, Martin Smith elaborated on these goals:
We think of ourselves as a mission on campus so it would be to grow ourselves but also to reach out and witness to people and grow in our ability to…engage evangelistically with people… Students are maturing and turning some of that into witness to others.
Martin Smith, InterVarsity Staff Leader
According to Francis Beckwith’s research in InterVarsity World Press, Bible studies not only bring individuals together in the midst of busy college semesters but are also useful in the persistent spiritual warfare of any campus: “by strengthening the faith of believers and removing obstacles to the nascent faith of others.” InterVarsity has proved time and again, as seen in the testimonies of Olivet students, that God is present in the community growth of college campuses.
InterVarsity Bible studies got started at ONU thanks to Hailey Neels, a sophomore who transferred in during Fall of 2019 and Intervarsity staff leader, Mackenzie Harmon. These two had met at Neel’s community college, Black Hawk, where Harmon planned to fundraise $1,000 in six months to start a chapter there. Neels says this is how she was first introduced to Intervarsity after her last semester at her community college:
God wanted a small group on that campus and her fundraising was completed in two weeks and she was on campus and I thought…if she can raise an entire year’s worth of salary in what was supposed to be six months…in two weeks…that had to be God. So we just started chatting with people and making really fulfilling relationships.
Hailey neels, student leader
When Neels did transfer to ONU, she found that there were no small groups on campus except for the dorm Bible studies. So she spoke with the ministry staff who responded with a grant to start a chapter of Intervarsity right away. She says, “These funds we were able to buy a cake and buy pizzas and just have fun and use that money to help people to go to conferences.”
Listen to Neels’ testimony
InterVarsity is a great place, not only to learn about God’s Word but to grow in spiritual leadership as well. Neels helped raise more leaders in ONU’s Intervarsity chapter by nudging people like Jennifer Herring, who first attended the Bible Study as a sophomore in 2020. Before she knew it, Herring found herself in a leadership position and was learning how to both use lessons from InterVarsity’s website and craft Bible studies of her own design:
I would get a little of help from created studies from Martin and the Intervarsity database but I was like creating them half the time… I’ve never seen what it takes to create them so it was really interesting.
Jennifer herring, student leader
With the help of Smith, Jennifer led most of the study sessions for the next two semesters and led incoming students to closer to Christ. It was not easy developing the plans, however, and it took some practice and most importantly, patience:
…it takes energy and I had to be good to myself to be able to want to be able to…want to fill other people’s cups…that was something that I didn’t think I was expecting. I thought, you know, I’ll just do it…it won’t change much of my life. but it did…You’re spending time with God so you feel the responsibility of it but you’re blessed by it… You have to continually choose to do it and I think that can be said for a lot of things in life.
Jennifer herring, Student leader
Listen to Herring’s testimony
Through the hardships and newfound independence and adulting of college life, Jessie Bazan details the 2017 nations study of campus Catholic ministries which pointed out “the severity of the struggles facing students today, particularly in the areas of mental health and pornography. Having a solid faith foundation means you will not have to suffer alone.” InterVarsity is a great reminder of this fact on Christian campuses and strives to build a community of followers that are willing to come together, listen, and lead.
No matter the reason you decided to attend ONU, joining a Bible study will be crucial in shaping your experience. InterVarsity is planning on coming back from its semester off, and it is her and Smith’s hope that the InterVarsity discipleship tradition will continue at Olivet and that students will continue to have fulfilling relationships and learn how to study the Bible for themselves.
Jesus wants us to come as we are and that is InterVarsity’s goal in their Bible studies—so that we can grow closer to Him and lead others to His love as we learn from His Word together.
If you want to learn more about getting involved at ONU and building community, check out this article on ONU Intramurals.
Check out ONU past InterVarsity highlights!
