Happy new year! Three weeks after NC2017 and our hearts remember how God made His presence felt powerfully as we received His word to us individually, regionally and as a movement. Like the disciples on the way to Emmaus, we look back and ask: “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us … while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:32). Identifying and naming our “ruins” we spent time in corporate repentance; each age group confessing the sin/s of their generation, and gave and received forgiveness from one another. It was a holy time. Indeed our hearts continue to burn with renewed vision and passion to rebuild IVCF, part of His “temple, so that [He] will be pleased with it and be glorified.” Repent. Renew. Rebuild. May He continue to speak to us, and His message reverberate and ripple to the different regions and to the whole movement.
Total Registered Attendees: 404
| Students | 139 | |
| Graduates | 175 | |
| Seniors Citizens | 35 | |
| Staff | 39 | |
| IFES | 2 | |
| Children | 14 |
Expositions on Haggai
Repentance is a way that leads us to a greater hope [and] the next step. …we cannot talk about repentance without talking first about the hope we have in God, Who is ready to rescue us, He is ready to take us again with Him so that He can journey with us…
Daniel Bourdanné
IFES General Secretary
State of our Nation
Does anyone think that my being Chief Justice adds one bit to my spiritual nurturing or to my happiness? Does power [and wealth] add one bit to a person’s spiritual enrichment? No. Both power and wealth are only useful when offered daily to the Lord for Him to use it…
Maria Lourdes Sereno
Chief Justice of the Philippines
The Filipino Church in Nation-building
God is preparing the Philippines and Filipinos for the great harvest as Evangelist and Missionary to the unreached in Asia and the world.
Bishop Noel Pantoja
National Director
Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches
State of World Evangelization
The generalized conception of doing mission has changed because the reality of the world is different. We need to revise our conception of the world to understand how to fulfill the mission of the Church in this context.
Bishop Efraim Tendero
Secretary-General
World Evangelical Alliance
The Movement & Missions Mobilization
We come from people who crossed cultures. Missions or crossing cultures for the sake of Jesus is in our DNA! Let’s show it and live up to it.
Lisa Chinn
Former National Director
IVCF USA International Student Ministry
Corporate Repentance
Facilitated by Annette Arulrajah, IFES Regional Secretary for East Asia.
See the summary video for this session here.A student speaks…
Students are at the heart of IVCF’s ministry. Praise God for the present generation of students who see their part in sharing the love of Christ to their fellow students in and out of campus. Liane Angeli Rabuya, a 3rd-year BS Electronics Engineering student from the University of San Carlos, Cebu City shares her thoughts at NC2017 as a representative response from students and her generation.
There is an IVCF slogan I’m sure we’re all familiar with: “You are not a student who happens to be a Christian, but a Christian who happens to be a student.” As I share a little bit about our challenges as a movement and about our role in the rebuilding of our movement, I hope that we can keep this quote in mind. We do not take part in this rebuilding just because we are a student, or a graduate, or a pioneer, or members of an organization. No, we do it because we are Christians first and foremost: Christians working for the building of God’s kingdom.
I don’t think I can really say anything new about our present difficulties. We have all heard from various sessions about the problems in our nation, the challenges in missions, the struggles in our own movement. We also see what is happening in our own churches, in our campus chapters, and in our workplaces. We students have shared with each other in the assembly yesterday about the challenges we face in our chapters and in our regions. Some of us are struggling with passing on the leadership in our chapters. Some are just starting their chapters. Some feel pressured and daunted [because] their chapter was big and established before [but is now] back to pioneering. Let’s not let these problems cripple us. [It was also mentioned] during the student assembly: we students are the frontliners of IVCF. This is our ministry. If we don’t pass on the leadership of our chapter, if [there are no new] leaders in the student ministry, [who will be the new] leaders of the graduate ministry in the future? If we don’t grow in our chapters (grow in character as well as grow in number), what will IVCF look like years from now? If we live in the past glory of our chapter and of our movement, [who will act] now? These tasks fall on us students for the most part.
We have a very unique ministry in our schools and campuses. Speaking generally, which group of people are always updated in the latest happenings of the world? Students. From whom do you often hear the lines: “finding my purpose in life, finding my place in this world”? Students. Who are the ones active and vocal about current issues? Students. You and me. Our friends and classmates, some of whom do not know the Lord. Students who see the brokenness of this world because we know the latest events. Students who seek something greater to live for. Students who aren’t afraid to speak their mind, especially on social media. Imagine what a generation of God-fearing, Bible-literate, missions-minded students – students of integrity, students of strong character, students who regularly practice spiritual disciplines, students with a strong relationship with God – can do. Imagine what we can do. While we are still students, this is the best time to develop servant leadership. This is the best time even to start giving to IVCF financially. This is our generation; this is our ministry.
This is important because sometimes we rely a little too much on our Ates (‘older sister’) and Kuyas (‘older brother’), our graduates and staff. Yes, they have a very, very important role in our movement, but sometimes we forget that they are not the only leaders of IVCF. We students are also leaders of IVCF. Who better to spread the Gospel to students, who better to be an example of true holistic Christianity to students, than other students? Not because we are students who happen to be Christians, but because this is how we, as student Christians, can take part in the building of God’s kingdom and in the rebuilding of our movement.
