InterVarsity Christian Fellowship is a student Christian movement that was started by students in England in the late 19th century. Back then in England universities were called "varsities." Groups of Christian students at Cambridge and Oxford had started meeting together for prayer independently of one another. At some point they heard about each other and decided to form an "inter-varsity" (or between universities) Christian fellowship.

From England students were sent to Canada to start InterVarsity groups there, and from there it spread to the United States in the late 1930s. InterVarsity is the oldest existing campus ministry in the United States, having been on campus serving students for 66 years.

InterVarsity is known nationally for its excellent leadership development of students, developing "inductive" ways of studying the Bible, making small group Bible studies mainstream structures in churches, training in relational approaches to evangelism, and leading the way in integrating social justice and racial reconciliation into the Christian life.

InterVarsity has been on campus at UCSD for about 40 years since the campus opened in the mid 1960s. For the first 20 years of its life, the InterVarsity chapter at UCSD was a group of about 50 students. The chapter reached a critical turning point in the late 1980s. At that time, the group had declined and was made up almost solely of juniors and seniors. These leaders realized that the chapter would soon die unless new students began to join.

So they began praying that God would raise up a new class of Christian leaders on campus. That next year the chapter doubled in size because of the amount of new students that joined the group. Then it doubled again the following year, and nearly doubled again the year after that. Since that dramatic growth in the late 1980s, InterVarsity has been the largest student organization on campus.

We now have over 400 students involved seeking God's transformation in their lives and the lives of their friends. Our chapter today is the legacy of generations of faithful students who have gone before us.

Scripture: There is a verse in the bible that says "The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword..." (Hebrews 4:12) We encounter the living God through scripture and are transformed by the Holy Spirit as we read, study, teach and obey His Word.

Prayer: We believe that God wants to communicate with His people, and the principle means for doing that is prayer. We are a community that values and believes in the power of God accessed and expressed through lives of prayer.

Community: More than a building, a name, or a weekly gathering, InterVarsity is a community of people. We are living together the adventure for which God created us: pursuing Christ, being changed by Him, and going forth together to impact and bring healing to the world. At InterVarsity, "community" is about connection and relationship built on shared purpose and passion. It happens at weekly Large Groups; community and frosh groups during the week; social justice and service teams, special interest groups, prayer teams and much more.

Evangelism: God doesn't want us to stay the same. In fact, He tells us to "be transformed through the renewing of our minds." When we encounter God, we don't leave the same, we are radically transformed by His truth and His love. We believe that God wants to be known by all and we value creating spaces for people to come and explore and experience God.

Multi-Ethnicity: We pursue ethnic reconciliation by practicing mutual empowerment, grace and truth. We believe that God created each of us with our unique cultural experiences and has written Himself into our various multi-ethnic heritages.