Why Are We Moving?
The International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) is a global Christian student movement. The Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF: The Christian Unions) is the British member movement of IFES.
The IFES international service centre is currently located in Oxford serving IFES student movements around the world. It is the base of the IFES General Secretary and plays a key role in co-ordinating and resourcing the work of the fellowship and informing supporters of how God is working amongst students.
UCCF wants to move its current base in Leicester to a Centre of Excellence in central Oxford. To minimise future outgoings and unlock exciting synergies, an appeal is to be launched to purchase a building for IFES and UCCF to occupy together. The building should be located close to the centre of Oxford, and should be accessible to students, academics and international visitors as well as supporters. Facilities will include a media centre and a flexible, multi purpose meeting space for large groups.
Life in this UCCF-IFES centre of excellence will offer opportunities to interact with people involved in student ministry in Great Britain and around the world – sharing ideas, expanding the vision, finding resources and undergoing training. Staff, students and supporters will be inspired by the vision of student ministry they see in Oxford.
By working side-by-side in one building in the same city, cross-fertilisation of ideas and the resulting materials and projects will benefit student ministry in Britain and around the world. This will include new initiatives and will build on current examples, such as:
- mentoring young evangelists across Europe
- partnership in planning world mission events
- IFES visitors and global prayer news encouraging British student leaders to commit to God’s work overseas
- UCCF staff and graduates learning from and investing in other IFES movements, for example the recent partnerships with TSCF New Zealand
- copies of UCCF’s resources, such as the recent ‘free’ Gospel of Mark, being made available to other English-speaking IFES movements with IFES
- IFES-focussed content on UCCF DVDs giving British students a global perspective
- the European Leadership Forum
- International input to the development of world-class websites such as bethinking.org and theologynetwork.org