At the Orlando Conference in 2022, a call was put out for revival amongst our campus ministries. We dream and pray to see thousands of new college students find Jesus and build the future, and present, of his church, to be healthy and glorifying to him. Our focus and goal as a committee is to inspire, train and unify our campus ministries towards that aim.
Each US Regional Family has appointed leadership on the team who work together to influence all of our collective ministries. We are truly blessed with a spirit of unity and shared faith on our team. We encourage one another and dream together – with the vision of each creating that same spirit and faith with the ministers and ministries in our respective regions.
After a time of many transitions, in 2023 we have established greater stability in our team along with two new couples who replaced their region’s former members. We welcomed Jacob and Jenelle Bartlow for Texas, along with Phil and Jill Perez for the Midwest. This past week (Feb 2024) we had our annual in-person meetings, which was an incredible time planning ICMC 2024, bonding and growing together. See full list of members here.
After the vision was cast for revival, we saw 2023 to be a year focused on building (Eph 4:11-16). In January we had an all-US Campus Ministers Zoom meeting with an inspiring lesson by Jeff Henderson to be “Missionaries on Campus.” It set the tone for all of our mostly young and new campus ministers across the country to begin building locally, knowing that they were building something bigger with hundreds of others across the country. We maintain a regularly active GroupMe with all campus ministers for encouragement, resource sharing, advice, requests and more. This keeps us nationally and globally connected to one another on a daily basis.
Our ICMC last year was in Norman, Oklahoma, outside Oklahoma City. Our theme was “Build,” with over 1300 gathered together. Main session sermons called to “Build on Jesus,” “Build Deep Convictions,” “Build Character,” “Build Your Church” and a close-out call to “Go and Build” by Shawn Wooten, followed by a stage-rushed singing of “Men Who Dream.” It was an unforgettable moment of hope and faith. The women also had a powerful session titled “Legacy of Faith” that included heart-moving monologues from the women in the lineage of Jesus. All content can be found on our Youtube Channel and at icmc.live website.
Equally encouraging at our ICMC was the Minister’s Track. This was a room of mostly new campus ministers, but the heart, faith and spirit of that group was incredibly refreshing and hopeful. They want to be used by God, to build and see something great happen for his glory. The minister’s track content focused on “Building Healthy, Biblical Ministries.” With lessons on “Recentering Pendulum Swings,” “Building a Biblical Church Culture,” “Being Built to Last” for longevity in ministry, “Building in a World of Progressive Theology,” “Building with Passion and Practicals” for how to lead your ministry to breakthroughs. It was a holistic, deep and very well received time together.
Saturday of the conference was a thematic day calling every disciple to build their part. We started with a message then broke into Workshops focused on equipping every student with how they can use their gifts, passion or career path to “Build God’s Kingdom.” Areas included social media, worship, service and healthcare fields, education, business and ministry. The day ended with a main session where dozens of students came on stage to state “I will build God’s church by…” and sharing their vision. This was greatly encouraging to see each person seeing they are needed and all the different ways they can help build the kingdom.
Our US campus ministries of 2228 disciples are growing. In 2023 we saw 564 people saved. More than in 2022 and fewer stopped attending as well. 2023 saw 15% growth (up from 5% in 2020, 8% in 2021 and 11% in 2022)! This is a very encouraging trajectory, with an average of one person becoming a Christian from every four disciples. Our total membership is going down, which we hope to see change this year, as twice as many people graduate out than transfer in.
To continue momentum and build unity, each regional family runs their own annual spring and/or fall retreats for their region. It is encouraged and often practiced to have each other (or other ministers from another regional family) come be the guest speakers. Some regional families (like New York and New England) even do their entire fall retreat combined. This helps tremendously with building unity. Along with that, each committee member coordinates their own regular times of connection with the ministers in their region.
All ICMC info, registrations, past content, committee members and more can be found at (www.icmc.live). Our instagram (www.instagram.com/icoccampus) is kept active, along with a youtube channel for posting lesson recordings and regular good news videos (ICOC Alpha Omega). We also have a new Linktr.ee and Google folder with shared Training Program information and Campus Building resources, which can be found through our IG.
For 2024, please be praying for and promoting our 2024 ICMC in Asheville, NC from Aug 1-4, with the theme “Glory,” to focus on God’s glory and glorifying him. We hope to see increased participation and momentum building. We moved ICMC to August moving forward to have greater impact starting the fall semester soon afterwards.
Along with ICMC, pray that we continue the trajectory of healthy growth we are seeing. Half of our campus ministries are under 10 members; pray that many of them will grow into stabilized 15-20 person ministries this next year. Other ICMCs are happening more regularly on other continents as well, pray for them and that we can start to establish greater connection across our fellowships global campus ministries as well. The heart and drive behind these efforts and dreams is to bring God glory, which he deserves eternally.
““You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” – Revelation 4:11
