Reframing SFC
Students for Christ is an organization with one focus but many facets. The
focus being university students, the facets being the many faces which it wears
depending on the nation, the university, the national church, and the nature of
the local leadership. The juxtaposition of unity of focus and diversity of
expression produces both simplification and complication at the same time. Add
to this the dynamic changes in the organization because of the natural ebb and
flow of student life cycles, and one realizes the challenge and excitement that
requires nerves of steel and a steady center of gravity in Jesus Christ from those
who would rise to the challenge of this work.
Students for Christ in Europe has its roots in the Assemblies of God
church of the United States. SFC has been founded and directed by missionaries
from the AG church and has as background the AG student ministry called Chi
Alpha, since this is the model that the founding missionaries were familiar with.
University ministry was first planted on European soil by missionary Jerry
Sandidge in 1974 in Leuven, Belgium
1974 University Action in Leuven, Belgium began by Jerry Sandidge
primarily among Dutch speaking Belge
1980 Jerry Sandidge began to carry the role of European director for Student
ministry
1980 John and Error! Contact not defined. arrived in Munich Germany
Student ministry began in 1981
1981 Jerry Sandidge diagnosed with cancer—left the field in 1982
1981 Bob Marks arrived in Nice, France,
began in Teen Challenge, but shifted to student ministry early on.
1982 Bob Smith arrived in Belgium to do student ministry under Jerry
Sandidge
worked in Leuvain la Neuve among French speaking Belgians
1982 Jim Bradford came to teach on discipleship—students in Munich decided
to ‘be a group’ and called themselves ‘Christians in Action’ after Jim’s
group in Minneapolis, Minnesota
the group began to take on form, adapting Chi Alpha philosophy to meet
its needs
1984 Bob Smith diagnosed with brain tumor and left the field
1984 John Koeshall assigned role of European director for Student Ministry
1985 George and Daphne Norwood* arrived to begin work with Koeshall’s.
Trained for 3 months and then sent on to Freiburg, Germany to begin the
work there.
Amy Anderson* began the ministry in Köln, Germany along with
Randy Kaech*
1986 Hershel and Lucy Rosser arrived in 1984 and worked alongside Koeshalls
in Munich Germany. Pastored the group as it grew to its peak of about 100
students.
1986 Name changed in Germany to Students for Christ due to the misleading
initials (CIA) of Christians in Action. However, France continued to use
the name Christians in Action, initials in French were CEA.
1986 Steve and Karen Pecota came to Hamburg Germany to begin a group.
1990 Steve and Karen given responsibility of Student Ministry in Germany
1991 Koeshall moved to Brussels, Belgium to begin College of Student Ministry
Continued role of director of Student Ministry for Europe
Established College of Student Ministry (CSM), an eight week summer
leadership training
1992 Herchel and Lucy Rosser left for family reasons
Bob and Paul Marks left for family reasons. The loss of these two couples
as well as Bob Smith and Jerry Sandidge left a leadership vacuum. Filled
by European students and volunteers.
1993 George Norwood given responsibility for Germany—Steve and Karen
moved on to Church Planting and Marriage Encounter, however are still
part of the board directors for SFC Germany
1995
Suzanne Spolarich arrived in France
Miguel and Patricia Perry came to Spain
1998 David and Karmi Buckley arrived in Hungary
2000 Steve and Deanne Turley and Dina and Blaire Bonin arrived in Brussels,
Belgium
2000 Joe and Heidi Barrale arrive in Vienna, Austria
* Short term missionaries, who however stayed a long time (9-15 years) and who
had and are continuing to have profitable ministry in Europe.
Critical Decisions and Assumptions of Founders:
1. Assumptions of US AG
2. Assumptions of Missionary
History
Jerry Sandidge first came to Europe after working in the US AG office of Chi
Alpha because of the acute awareness of the dearth of evangelical witness to the
campuses of Europe.
The Assemblies of God mission imperative in Europe is to work with and
strengthen the local Pentecostal churches, and not to start another denomination
or movement.
Jerry had a much broader interdenominational focus of ministry. His
concern was for the “fragmented Christian witness, especially among the nonCatholics, creating confusion, misunderstanding and difficulties.” (Sandidge:
1979) As a result he not only established ministry and eventually a church which
was part of the Assemblée de Dieu of Belgium, but he worked closely with the
other established ministries in Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve. Jerry hired as the
pastor of the community which was developed in Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve
a young man who was a pastor with the Assemblées de Dieu of Belgique, but
who was open to and had good relationships with Catholic charismatic circles
and the new-Pentecostal movement within the United Protestant Church of
Belgium. The community of believers would not be pressured to join the AD of
Belgium, nor would adult believers be baptized without first considering his
previous church life. Sandidge saw the goal of the community to be much larger
than denominationalism, but rather to “declare the glory of God to the nations and
the necessity for person to bow to the Lordship of Christ in life, conduct and confession.”
(Ibid)
A close relationship with the state church (Catholic) as well as the
Protestant parish opened many doors for Sandidge. They shared facilities and
through these men had permission to work on the campuses. Together the
leaders of these movements met monthly for the purpose of sharing, fellowship
and advice, in order to “reinforce the desire that every participant in the internal
and external program of center agape understand that he is a vital part of the
team.”
Although the goal was not to force the establishment of AG churches,
from the University Action ministry three churches were in fact born, in
Louvain-La-Neuve, in Leuven, another in Tienen due to the numerous
conversions among students.
The goals of the ministry in Belgium were:
1) to bring the message of the gospel to the university students
2) to help students with their spiritual needs, making disciples of Jesus
Christ, introducing them to the work of the Holy Spirit
3) to encourage the students to engage in the service of God, through
witnessing and to become responsible members of a local church
4) to aid international students in their return to their home countries
with information and teaching so that they will be able to establish and
develop ministry in their own lands.
After the death of the two missionaries, Sandidge and Smith, the
ministries which flourished during their time, struggled for approximately ten
years and eventually died. The AG brought in two other missionaries from
Africa for health reasons, and in order to give them a ‘job’ assigned them to
University Action. However, university ministry is complicated and not for a
person without a calling. As a result, they left within a term (four years) to go on
to other ministry. The national workers who were partnering with Sandidge
were also paid by Sandidge. When he left, they had to move on and find jobs.
During this same time there were changes taking place within the
structure of the Assembly of God Missionary family in Europe. In the 1970’s and
early 1980’s, Charles Greenaway was the Regional director for Europe. Of all the
Regional Directors, Greenaway did not divide the continent by geographic
regions, rather they were divided by ministries, with a head of each ministry
sitting on an advisory board for Europe. Teen Challenge, Military, Eastern block
countries, University Ministry, were all represented. Jerry Sandidge was part of
this board, until cancer forced him into retirement. At that time, Koeshall in
Germany, Marks in France and Smith in Beglium were all very young on the
field, so University Ministry was placed under Teen Challenge since they both
worked with youth.
In XXXX Greenaway retired and was replaced by a more traditional leader
who followed the pattern of the rest of the world regions, establishing
geographical areas and disbanding the existing ministry advisory board. This
took away from the influence of those who were at the head of the ministries,
although these titles were maintained. The missionaries who worked in a
particular ministry such as Teen Challenge in essence worked under two
authorities: area directors, who had administrative and financial leadership and
ministry heads, who had oversight of a particular type of ministry. The area
director could be described as ‘the boss’ as he had authority to grant or deny
permission to spend money or travel, whereas the ministry head was seen more
as an advisor, a visionary, one who collected the troops to see a job done.
In spite of the sudden vacuum of leadership among student ministries,
John Koeshall, Bob Marks and Bob Smith continued to work on their universities
following the call that God had put on their lives. Bob Marks developed
ministries in Nice, France, Toulouse, Aix-en-Province, and XXXXXX, Bob Smith
carried on with the work in Belgium until XXXXX when a brain tumor took his
life. John Koeshall began in Munich, Germany evangelizing on the Luwigs
Maximillian Univerisität. Through a divinely appointed meeting with one young
man, the group grew to become a “group of Christians who meet on campus.”
The young people were adamantly opposed to being organized more than that.
In XXXX Jim Bradford came as a leader of the University of Minnesota Chi Alpha
ministry called Christians in Action and one of the national leaders instrumental
in formulating the philosophy and strategy of Chi Alpha. Because of his clear
teaching on discipleship both in Munich and in Nice France, the student
ministries adopted much of the Chi Alpha philosophy.
The Philosophy is as follows:
“SFC is an organization of students of higher education who unite to
express the person and claims of Jesus Christ to their university communities
and call others into relationship with Him.
SFC is in the mainstream of Pentecostal (charismatic) thinking and is
under the direction of the Assemblies of God.
SFC exists to participate in the fulfillment on campus of Christ’s Great
Commission
SFC finds its identity and task in Paul’s words, “We are therefore Christ’s
ambassadors…We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” (2Cor
5:20) (P. 5 SFC CLN)
“As Ambassadors for Jesus Christ who have been given the ministry of
reconciliation, we seek to build a community of God’s university students. The
Biblically commanded activities on which we build our community are worship,
fellowship, discipleship, and witness*. We believe that gathered together we can
more visibly and effectively demonstrate the love of Christ rather than as
isolated individuals. We will use the term’ community’ to stress the importance
of our coming together, loving one another and working together in all of our
ministries.” *(later the 5th pillar, prayer was added.)
The beginnings of the ministry in both France and Germany were times of
learning the culture, the language and exploring methodology of student
ministry in the respective countries. It was also a time of building relationships
with the national church on a personal level. The Pentecostal churches of both
France and Germany were skeptical of student ministry—studying on the
university was still considered generally evil—so the reception by the churches
was relatively chilly and there was a wait-and-see, do-it-and-prove-it attitude. It
was soon clear that SFC had to function with the between the three following
mandates: 1) To work within the parameters of the AGWM, 2) To work with a
national Pentecostal church, and 3) To work in such a manner as to win the
secular university student.
This has continued to be a challenge throughout the history of student
ministry of Europe. During the time that student ministry was under Teen
challenge without representation, it struggled to have an identity within the
larger structure of DFM. National churches were negative or disinterested, so the
ministry on the campus was the central identity. There SFC was and is known as
an interconfessional student group. They described themselves to their fellow
students in their literature as follows:
“We, Students for Christ, are a ministry composed of students from many
churches who have come together to serve God on the universities where we
study. We have experienced the reality of God in our lives through a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ. We believe that the Holy Spirit ministers and
works in His church today just as He did in the early church.
It is our desire that every university student has the opportunity to know
God and Personally ask Him to forgive their sins through Jesus Christ and
receive him as his Savior and Lord.
We, student for Christ, have four basic principles that define our purpose
for being:
We come together to worship God and to discover what His word says to
us today.
We come together to find out what it means to be one of His disciples and
to practice His teaching in our daily lives.
We come together for fellowship to learn to love and serve each other.
We go to our universities with the desire to share the good news of the
love of God with those who don’t know Him.” (SFC evangelistic newspapers,
1985-1991)
As the local groups grew, the national churches took varied views of the
ministry. In France, as long as Bob Marks was there and in relationship with
important pastors, SFC was tolerated. The basic assumption of the pastors of
France is that only the pastor is to teach the word and pray for people, so they
have a great problem with the concept of discipleship and of having groups meet
without their presence on campus. After Bob left, the students in charge
struggled to maintain credibility, however because the student leaders were not
pastors, and would never become one due to the apprentice process and narrow
definition of possible pastor role, SFC in France has become all but extinct.
In XXXX, a new regional director, Greg Mundis began to lead Europe, and
part of his strategy is to target cities, campuses and children. This has given
credibility and influence to the ministries working in these areas, including
Students for Christ. Because of the new emphasis coming from the central office
on university ministry, more missionaries are joining the ministry in different
countries, the Area Directors are addressing the need for this ministry to national
church heads, and we are seeing an upsurge of interest and cooperation to reach
the universities for Jesus.