Employment FAQs

What Is InterVarsity?

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship is an evangelical, parachurch, interdenominational campus mission working with more than 32,000 students and faculty on approximately 600 college and universities. We believe in the strategic nature of campus ministry because university students today will be world-changers tomorrow. Further information can be found at www.intervarsity.org.
What matters to InterVarsity? Check out the video below.
 

Why Join InterVarsity Staff?

Because you can help change the world! Check out what current InterVarsity staff think about their ministry in this video:

 

What Do InterVarsity Staff Do?

InterVarsity campus staff are responsible for planting and building witnessing communities on one or more assigned campuses. To do that, a staff will typically play the following roles:

  • Missionary. Just as missionaries take the gospel to a new culture, so too campus staff take the gospel to the university. Campus staff learn the culture of their specific campus and through prayer and experimentation, discern the best strategy for sharing the gospel and establishing a witnessing community there.

  • Recruiter. Campus staff are constantly recruiting and inviting students and faculty to conversations and events. They are growth-biased and want to see every corner of campus reached for Christ.

  • Evangelist. Campus staff share the gospel with students and faculty and invite them to respond to the gospel. Whether through long-term relationships or in random encounters, the gospel goes forward to each sector of campus.

  • Leader. Campus staff lead a chapter forward into pursuing God's vision on campus. They raise up student leaders to join them in the mission on campus. And they lead these teams of students in building and developing the InterVarsity chapter.

  • Community Developer. Campus staff grow their communities into places of welcome and deep relationships. They help students and faculty connect vulnerably and lovingly with each other and turn the community into an attractive Christ-centered fellowship.

  • Teacher/Trainer. Campus staff continually teach and train students and faculty, for their personal, emotional, spiritual and leadership development. Whether leading bible studies or training students to share the gospel, they consciously grow the next generation of leaders for the campus and beyond.

  • Pastor. Campus staff care for the students and faculty in their chapters. They comfort, encourage and challenge their chapters to follow Jesus more fully in their lives.

  • Fundraiser. Campus staff raise their own support. They communicate regularly with their supporters and ask for their fervent prayers for the campus. They have a community of supporters who cheer them on in the ministry.

 

How Does Fundraising Work?

If you find the idea of raising your own support intimidating or scary, you are not alone. InterVarsity has a proven, comprehensive fundraising process that is built around relationships, not random cold calls. Fundraising begins immediately after someone is hired onto InterVarsity staff, and we provide all the training, support and resources that you would need. Below is a brief outline of how fundraising works:
  1. Draft list of potential donors. These include family, friends, churches, church friends, family friends, co-workers, businesses and so on. A good prospect list will include at least 150-200 names for full-time staff. Think about it this way. If 80 people give $50/month in support (an average typical amount), that will be enough support for a new staff. That means that if half your prospect list decided to give the average amount, you will have finished your support-raising!
  2. Send an initial letter to 10-20 prospects, sharing why you believe God has led you to this ministry and to your campus. This prepares the prospects for the phone call that will be coming.
  3. A week later, call each of the 10-20 prospects and ask if they would be willing to meet with you to talk about the possibility of joining your support team. Most people who say YES will ultimately give...if they don't want to, they will likely say no to the meeting. In other words, very rarely will you be inviting someone to give at a meeting who really does not want to give.
  4. Meet with the prospects who agreed to a meeting. Invite them to partner with you by sharing your vision for the campus. Ask them what they would like to commit to in support this year.
  5. Repeat Steps 2-4. Along the way, your supervisor will coach and walk with you through this process. You are not alone!
A typical budget for a new full-time staff is about $50,000/year. A typical budget for a ministry intern ranges from $10,000-30,000/year, depending on the level of stipend desired.
 

How about Salary/Benefits?

InterVarsity tries to keep its salary levels for full-time staff commensurate with a high-school teacher's salary. Assuming a full budget is raised, the starting salary is approximately $26,000/year. Ministry interns are paid a stipend of $500-1,500/month, depending on amount of money raised.

InterVarsity offers a full range of benefits for full-time staff, including health/dental insurance, life insurance, retirement plan, etc. Ministry Interns are not eligible for benefits.

InterVarsity has a ramp-up policy with relation to full-time staff salaries. We begin paying full-time staff a partial salary when they have reached a certain percentage of their budget (generally 50-75%). In addition, we allow staff to begin partial ministry on-campus when they have reached about 70% of their budget.

 

How Does an Internship Differ from Full-Time Staff?

For more on this, download this document (pdf).

 

What Is the Application Process?

If you are interested in applying for an InterVarsity position, here are the next steps:
1. Fill out the online basic application form. Be sure to indicate the type of position you are interested in.
2. Once we receive your basic application, we will contact you to schedule a brief phone interview to answer any questions you may have.
3. If we both choose to continue the application process, we will send you the formal application and references. The application and references will likely take 2-3 weeks to complete.
4. Once the entire application package has been received, we will schedule an interview and/or campus visits as appropriate.
5. We will make a decision on whether to extend a job offer. You will have a time frame within which to accept/decline a job offer.
 

Who Do I Contact?

If you have questions or would like more information, please contact:
Timothy Lin, Kansas Area Director
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