Student Leadership for GFM Chapters

As InterVarsity GFM staff, we have the privilege of planting and growing witnessing communities on the campuses we serve. We provide key leadership to these chapters, but they are primarily led by student leadership teams. Student leaders live among their peers and are uniquely positioned to lead them in growing communities of spiritual formation, integration, outreach, and service. So identifying, recruiting, training, coaching, and celebrating student leaders then becomes an essential and joyful part of our work. This document provides guidelines and suggestions for us as campus ministers as we work with student leaders in GFM.

Identifying Leaders

Finding new leaders for a fellowship is one of the most important tasks for a leadership team. Intentionality in recruiting new leaders is vital for the ongoing flourishing of the fellowship. Below are a few recommendations:

• Start identifying potential new leaders at the beginning of the fall term. While invitations to consider leadership probably get discussed later, it's good to be watching for folks with spiritual gifts and experience that fit with leading a fellowship.
• Some fellowships appoint first-year students as leaders over certain areas in formal positions even in the course of the fall semester; other fellowships make one-off asks of first-years to help with specific events or projects.
• Some fellowships invite first-years to propose whatever new initiatives they would like to pursue and then get behind them with support.
• Eventually, creating a written list of potential new leaders is advisable for tracking and assigning follow-up conversations by current leaders or staff.
• Don't exclude first-years who have not attended many events in the fall. Sometimes some of the best fellowship leaders were not that committed at first and an invitation into leadership strengthens their commitment.
• For students in two-year programs, they will basically have one year where they can serve in leadership. For students in programs that last 3-6 years, pay attention to the rhythms of their programs and identify the times when they may have the most time available to lead the fellowship.
• Some of the qualities to look for when deciding who to pursue are:
  • Students who often bring new people
  • Students who get extra excited when vision is being cast in the group
  • Students who are committed and come regularly
  • Students who have influence–meaning others in the group naturally seem to follow them

Recruiting New Leaders

If you have a more established ministry (assuming that leadership transitions happen in the spring semester), the plan for the semester for the fellowship should include the timeline for leadership—announcing the opportunities, inviting specific people that current leaders think would be good future leaders, time for Q&A with current leaders, application/interest deadline, follow up conversations, announcing the new team, registering new leaders with the school (if chartered with the school), leadership transition time, new team retreat, etc.

If you are planting or do not yet have a well-established chapter, you’ll want to make sure you cast the net wide at a meeting and let everyone know you want to build a student leadership team. Give vision for why and invite them to consider applying. You will also want to have one-on-one conversations with those you would like to see in leadership where you affirm the gifts you see in them and let them know you would love to see them apply.

We suggest using a leadership application. This communicates that being in leadership is important and requires an official commitment. It also allows you to get to know the student and their heart for the ministry better. It provides space to communicate vision and invite new leaders into that vision. It allows new leaders space to write out their thoughts, experiences, interests, and areas of gifting and skill.

Having at least 2 months in the spring for gelling the new team and receiving staff coaching is very important. Count back from graduation by 2-3 months, and that's when you should begin to hand off the reins to new leaders. A month before that is when the selection process should be underway.

Selection of New Leaders

• Pick leaders based not only on leadership ability but also on their spiritual maturity.
• Don't just pick the best individual candidates; pick the best team. A new team of all visionaries and no one who can handle details will soon flop! Diversity on the team (gender, ethnicity/culture, program, area of study, social circles) can help a lot with attracting new members from different circles.
• Consider the selection process not only for screening candidates but also for setting up the next team for success. This is a ripe opportunity to communicate expectations. Setting a higher bar, rather than giving the impression that we're desperate, is best.

Onboarding New Leaders

• Provide space and time for old and new leadership teams to jointly celebrate the past year and look forward to the upcoming one. Consider doing a 'commissioning' service for the new team. This helps people understand that the roles they are taking on really do matter in the Kingdom.
• Have the current leadership team maintain a knowledge base of some sort, which they add to each year (events they have done, notes on the university’s calendar and timing of fellowship activities, challenges and opportunities they have encountered, potential speakers, groups to co-sponsor with, etc.).
• It helps greatly if the staff can get the new team to have a retreat to help them bond as a team, come to a shared vision, and plan for events. Getting off-campus overnight is great for this.
• Encourage the new team to start praying for each other, for the team, for the fellowship, and for the school. Include prayer times during leadership meetings.
• The new team, perhaps on the retreat, should talk about team expectations. An excellent model for effective teams is Patrick Lencioni's 5 Dysfunctions of a Team. Dealing with conflict in a healthy way is an important discussion to have early on.
• Finally, exiting leaders shouldn’t abandon ship! Ideally, they will keep attending and keep asking the new leaders how they can be most helpful.

Spring (or Pre-Fall) Leaders’ Retreat Sample Outline

(Use in April/May or August)

The three major goals of a leaders' retreat for a new leadership team are team-building, event planning, and shared vision-casting and buy-in. If you can get away for a couple of days as a team, here’s an idea for how you could use the time:

Friday – Team-building

• Sharing our Personal Stories
• Overview of 5 Dysfunctions of a Team
• Discussion of Team Expectations:
  • Participation, communication response rate, etc.
• Creating a Team Profile:
  • How we can operate together based on who is in the room
  • Make a big chart that is saved for everyone's future reference
• Potential tools:
  • MBTI
  • Decision-making Styles
  • Conflict Styles
  • Spiritual Gifts
  • Love Languages
  • Teamwork pet peeves
  • Personal and professional growth areas that we can help each other with
  • Other appropriate inventories or topics that help the group work well together and clarify expectations
• Dedicated time for a fun activity that helps the team bond

Saturday – Shared Vision-casting

• Praying over the year and listening for God’s leading in scripture and prayer
• Historical perspective on the fellowship (from staff or previous leaders)
• Do a debrief of the past year using these four categories:
  • What were the wins?
  • What needs to be tweaked or ended?
  • What was missing?
  • What was confusing?
• Spend time setting goals for the fellowship making sure they are SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound)
• Make sure to develop specific strategies for NSO (new student outreach) and pursuing the four commitments
• Make sure all tasks get assigned to someone specific
• Spend time praying over the goals
• End with a fun activity

Resources for Orienting a Grad Chapter Leadership Team

Below are several resources that could be used in a team retreat setting like the one outlined above. Feel free to pick and choose what feels most helpful as you plan your leadership times together.

InterVarsity’s Purpose Statement and Graduate & Faculty Ministry Vision

In response to God’s love, grace, and truth:

The Purpose of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA
is to establish and advance
at colleges and universities
witnessing communities of students and faculty
who follow Jesus as Savior and Lord:
growing in love for God,
God’s Word,
God’s people of every ethnicity and culture,
and God’s purposes in the world.

What will it look like to embody this purpose as a fellowship in the coming year?

InterVarsity’s Graduate & Faculty Ministries (GFM) encourage and equip graduate students and faculty to follow Christ together as they seek to be a redeeming influence among the people, ideas, and structures of the university and professions.

How can our fellowship and the students it supports be a redeeming influence on campus?

Briefly Explaining Our Vision

How would you explain why our fellowship exists and how a new student can get involved in 30 seconds or less? Make sure to emphasize our purpose and vision before our specific events. Offer a good solid example. Then have students write out what they would say. Have students share their vision statement with the group so ideas can be shared. Often students will hear a phrase or idea they had not thought about that they want to incorporate into theirs.

Setting Team Standards

What commitments do you as a team want to make to God, each other and the fellowship? How will we handle conflict as it arises?

Making a Year-Long Plan for Ministry Using the GFM Four Commitments

What do you want to see happen in our fellowship next year, and what planning does that involve?

• What deadlines and checkpoints do you need to set in order to be ready with a well-developed plan and a well-organized outreach to students?
• Listening Prayer: As we linger in prayer and listen for God’s voice, how are our plans deepening, shifting, expanding, simplifying? Read a passage and then ask students to listen for God to speak. Share anything that is heard.

GFM’s Four Commitments

Community: We gather as communities of graduate students and faculty to learn and worship, to challenge and care for each other, and to serve as a welcoming place for believers and seekers alike. We pursue ethnic reconciliation by practicing grace and truth and by promoting personal and systemic justice. We also encourage students and faculty to be active members in their local congregations.

Spiritual formation: We cultivate intimacy with God and growth in Christ-like character through personal and corporate disciplines, including the rigorous study of Scripture and regular prayer that expresses our faith, love, and dependence on God.

Service and evangelism: We demonstrate and proclaim the gospel within the university and professions with love and boldness, calling all to repentance, faith, and new life in Jesus Christ. We join with God's people to serve in our communities and to extend his kingdom cross-culturally on campus and around the world.

Integration of faith and work: We engage in learning and biblical reflection in every area of life and seek a unity of knowledge and practice, because the God whom we worship is Creator of all. We labor to form leaders in every field who honor God's gifts and calling. We believe that the integrity of these pursuits will be a witness of his kingdom to the academic and professional worlds.

What stands out to you as particularly important for us as a fellowship in the coming year?

• Where are we already moving in step with these commitments? Where can we grow?
• How can we shape our life together in specific ways to embody these commitments?

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s Doctrinal Basis

We believe in:

• The only true God, the almighty Creator of all things, existing eternally in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit full of love and glory.
• The unique divine inspiration, entire trustworthiness, and authority of the Bible.
• The value and dignity of all people: created in God’s image to live in love and holiness, but alienated from God and each other because of our sin and guilt, and justly subject to God’s wrath.
• Jesus Christ, fully human and fully divine, who lived as a perfect example, who assumed the judgment due sinners by dying in our place, and who was bodily raised from the dead and ascended as Savior and Lord.
• Justification by God’s grace to all who repent and put their faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation.
• The indwelling presence and transforming power of the Holy Spirit, who gives to all believers a new life and a new calling to obedient service.
• The unity of all believers in Jesus Christ, manifest in worshiping and witnessing churches making disciples throughout the world.
• The victorious reign and future personal return of Jesus Christ, who will judge all people with justice and mercy, giving over the unrepentant to eternal condemnation but receiving the redeemed into eternal life.

Why is it important for us as a team to embrace these beliefs? Which seem particularly important in our context? What questions do you have?

Spring Semester Leadership Team Planning Time

Evaluating the Fall or Spring Semester

• What were the wins?
• What was confusing?
• What was missing?
• What needs to be tweaked or done away with?

Planning for the Spring Semester

Read aloud the four commitments for InterVarsity graduate student fellowships to refresh the team’s connection to InterVarsity’s vision.

Community: We gather as communities of graduate students and faculty to learn and worship, to challenge and care for each other, and to serve as a welcoming place for believers and seekers alike. We pursue ethnic reconciliation by practicing grace and truth and by promoting personal and systemic justice. We also encourage students and faculty to be active members in their local congregations.

Spiritual formation: We cultivate intimacy with God and growth in Christ-like character through personal and corporate disciplines, including the rigorous study of Scripture and regular prayer that expresses our faith, love, and dependence on God.

Service and evangelism: We demonstrate and proclaim the gospel within the university and professions with love and boldness, calling all to repentance, faith, and new life in Jesus Christ. We join with God's people to serve in our communities and to extend his kingdom cross-culturally on campus and around the world.

Integration of faith and work: We engage in learning and biblical reflection in every area of life and seek a unity of knowledge and practice, because the God whom we worship is Creator of all. We labor to form leaders in every field who honor God's gifts and calling. We believe that the integrity of these pursuits will be a witness of his kingdom to the academic and professional worlds.

What would you love to see happen in the fellowship this spring? Think big picture. What would you love to see God do?

• Everyone take a stab at creating a goal under each of the four core commitments. Try to make the goals smart goals (specific, manageable, achievable, relevant, time-bound).
• As a group, discuss and decide which goals you want to commit to for the Spring.
• What commitments do you as a team want to make to God, each other and the fellowship for each category? What planning needs to be done now? What deadlines or checkpoints do you need to put in place?
• What potential leaders do you see for next year?
• How could you see them serving the fellowship next year? How could you help them develop as a potential leader so they would be excited and ready to step into this role?