Challenges Face New IVCF President

INTERVIEW

Stephen Hayner, vice-president for student affairs at Seattle Pacific University, has been chosen to serve as the next president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of the U.S.A., an interdenominational college ministry that serves nearly 25,000 students on 750 campuses. Hayner will begin his duties as president on August 1.

After the June 1987 resignation of Gordon MacDonald, following public revelations of an extramarital affair, InterVarsity’s board of trustees began a comprehensive search for a new president. “We looked at more than 100 people,” says InterVarsity board chairman James Kay, stressing the thoroughness of the search process.

Hayner calls himself “both a pastor and an academic.” He believes his education (including graduate degrees from Harvard Divinity School, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and the University of Saint Andrews in Scotland) and his work experience (university pastor, teacher, and university administrator) combine to give him an understanding of both the calling and the context of IVCF.

Please describe your vision for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

I am concerned that we consistently work toward building leadership of character for the kingdom and focusing on the needs, concerns, and struggles of American college students.

How do you see InterVarsity’s place in campus ministry changing?

Students on college campuses are getting older and more diverse. And we have to deal with the importance of working with the multiple ethnic groups. We are also dealing with more and more students coming from dysfunctional families, as well as students who are dealing with the cultural baggage they carry—the individualism, relativism, and materialism of our culture—struggling with relational difficulties, problems with relationships, sexual confusion, and so forth.

In light of InterVarsity’s recent history, and recent calls for accountability structures for Christian leaders, how do you plan to protect yourself from pressures and temptations?

I rejoice that I am partnered with a wife who is deeply supportive and has really been a part of my ministry ever since I started in college ministry. She has had a deep sense that this is our ministry, not just mine.

In addition, the InterVarsity board and others at InterVarsity have really committed to walking with us to make sure that my schedule doesn’t get out of hand. And for the last 20 years, I have had a small group of people who consistently know what is happening in my life. I don’t know that I could function in the Christian life without that kind of fellowship.

Among evangelical institutions, InterVarsity has perhaps one of the broader statements on the nature of Scripture. How do you plan to apply doctrinal standards, and particularly the issue of the inerrancy of Scripture, to the selection of campus staff?

I believe strongly that the Bible is the Word of God and that it is the absolute authority for my life. I intend to continue to hold Scripture as the guide for what we do and how we practice our organizational life—as well as make it the standard for the personal lives of the staff. I’m very concerned that we continue to walk forward in a strong, biblical tradition.

At the same time, it’s important that we make sure the subtleties of how people define their view of Scripture don’t end up becoming the thing that divides us. While some would make them the issues of the church, those are not the issues that Scripture makes key to our understanding of what it means to be Christians.

How do you feel about InterVarsity Press publishing controversial books? Does that fit in with a campus ministry perspective?

InterVarsity always needs to be careful that parts of the overall ministry do not do things that will jeopardize the campus ministry. On the other hand, InterVarsity Press has always had a reputation for being one of those publishers that was willing to publish books of conscience. And I hope that it always will. I think that’s a vital ministry to the cause of Christ on college campuses.

One of the biggest opportunities for changing student lives is through the triennial Urbana missions convention. With a change in presidents and IVCF mission directors, what is the future of Urbana?

Urbana has a very positive future. This last Urbana was probably one of the finest that has ever been held. And apart from InterVarsity, there is a resurgence in the university world of interest in missions, concerns about questions of vocation, and learning about what it means to be a world Christian. InterVarsity is already strategizing about Urbana 1990, which will be our fiftieth anniversary. It should be an exciting time.

By David Neff.

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