The Organization
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA (InterVarsity) is a campus ministry that plants and grows witnessing communities of students and faculty on college and university campuses across the United States. There are 1200 InterVarsity staff serving over 48,000 students and faculty on over 700 campuses nationwide, as well as at the National Service Center in Madison, WI, and at InterVarsity Press in Lisle, IL. Fifty-six percent (56%) of InterVarsity’s participants are students of color, which matches the demographics of the university world. InterVarsity’s commitment to diversity shapes its missiology, its Board of Trustees (majority people of color), and its executive team (43% people of color.) With a $100+ million budget, InterVarsity is focused on its 2030 Calling, an initiative to catalyze Christian fellowships on all major college campuses in the United States.
Every three years InterVarsity hosts the Urbana Student Missions Conference, its flagship event, which aims to mobilize every student generation to participate in God’s global mission. Since its inception in 1946, the Urbana conference has challenged more than 300,000 students from across North America to hear God’s call to become whole-life, whole-world disciples that use their gifts and passion in His global mission. With a $6 million budget, Urbana reflects InterVarsity’s commitments to ethnic diversity, cross-cultural partnership, and Scripture engagement.
The Opportunity
InterVarsity is seeking an Executive Director to lead the Urbana Student Missions Conference into the future and to increase its engagement of future generations of students. The ideal candidate is passionate to mobilize today’s students into God’s global mission. The candidate will be aware of current trends in global mission and missions mobilization, experienced in cross-cultural settings, and comfortable with multiple diversities (e.g., ethnic, gender, denominational, etc.) Reporting to the Senior Assistant to the President of InterVarsity, they will be responsible for managing Urbana’s $6 million budget and directing a leadership team to produce Urbana 2025. InterVarsity President Tom Lin says, “Urbana is an amazing conference because while the world changes rapidly and each student generation changes, the sweet spot and purpose of Urbana has stayed constant since 1946. Urbana has always been focused on missions mobilization to the ends of the earth as well as to our own backyards in North America.”
Find out more about InterVarsity
THEIR STORY
Founded by C. Stacey Woods in 1941, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA traces its roots to Christian student groups in England and Canada. In 1947 it became a founding member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, a relationship which continues to shape and to inform InterVarsity’s global engagement. In that same year, the ministry expanded through the establishment of InterVarsity Press, a leading publisher of thoughtful Christian books. Through the years InterVarsity has mobilized over 300,000 students for God’s global mission through Urbana Student Missions Conferences and sent over a million InterVarsity alumni out from campus to live lives of hope and faith. Prayer, manuscript Bible study, missions, and multiethnicity have been important parts of its DNA from the beginning. InterVarsity affirms women as leaders and teachers at every level and in every context of its ministry.
WHAT THEY DO
Since 1946, InterVarsity has been privileged to host the Urbana Student Missions Conference for the North American church and is committed to presenting the call to cross-cultural missions to each generation of college students. It is a space for whole-life, whole-world discipleship where students discover how God is calling them to use their gifts and passions in his global mission.
Urbana is a unique part of InterVarsity’s calling as a campus mission. InterVarsity held its first missions conference in Toronto in 1946. For the next five decades it was held every three years at the University of Illinois campus at Urbana-Champaign and became known as Urbana. The conference has since been hosted in St. Louis and in Indianapolis.
Urbana is one of the longest running conferences of the evangelical church of North America. With its combination of honest cultural engagement and ongoing commitment to world evangelization, Urbana has engaged students with a range of global missions issues such as multi-ethnic worship, business as mission, Bible translation, human trafficking, contextualized witness to the Muslim world, majority world partnership, urban poverty, and more. Over the course of 24 triennial conferences, more than 300,000 alumni have heard God’s call to world evangelization. Billy Graham called Urbana “one of the most powerful, stimulating forces in missions. Over half of all missionaries in the world can trace their calling to Urbana.”
URBANA CONFERENCE ETHOS
SCRIPTURE: We believe that we encounter the living, missionary God through Scripture and are transformed by the Holy Spirit as we read, study, teach, and obey his Word.
PRAYER: Prayer is our fuel and inspiration in missions. We effectively discern God’s will and express our love and dependence on God through lives of prayer and worship.
EVANGELISM & JUSTICE: We seek the spread of the gospel by both proclamation and demonstration of the good news of God’s kingdom. We believe God’s desire to see women and men of all nations gathered into the body of Christ, as well as the redemption of systems and structures in our fallen world, is an integral part of the kingdom.
INTERDEPENDENCY AND COLLABORATION: We affirm that we cannot accomplish our vision alone. We seek to collaborate as people with diverse skills, backgrounds, and perspectives, both within Urbana and InterVarsity and with the wider church and missions communities. We treat one another as people created in God’s image, valuing each person’s contribution, role, calling, and gifting.
ETHNIC AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY: We are committed to the mobilization of all peoples of North America, and we strive for contextual and multiethnic programming.
Watch the Urbana 22 Highlights
POSITION DESCRIPTION
Title: Urbana Executive Director
Classification: Exempt
Reports to: Greg Jao, Senior Assistant to the President
Travel: Domestic and International Travel expected -- up to 90 days/year
Location: Madison, WI (relocation expected at least 9 months prior to conference start)
Position Summary: To advance the purpose of InterVarsity, this position will provide leadership to influence and mobilize an entire generation of North American students to participate in God’s global mission through the Urbana conference. The Executive Director’s leadership, mentorship, and vision will equip and empower the Urbana team as it prepares for the next conference in 2025. Their love for the Gospel, conviction about God’s global mission, and passion for an inclusive, multi-ethnic church will inspire students, InterVarsity staff, church leaders, and mission partners toward greater engagement in the Missio Dei.
Direct Reports:
Urbana Operations DirectorUrbana Program Director
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
Key duties and responsibilities would include:
Personal
Be a maturing disciple of Jesus Christ: growing in love for God, God’s Word, God’s people of every ethnicity and culture, and God’s purposes in the world• Be a lifelong learner who prizes the discipleship of the mind
Leadership
Articulate clearly – in partnership with the Senior Assistant to the President and the President – the vision and biblical basis of missions, taking into account the future of missions while staying current with missiology, missions opportunities, and global events.
Articulate clearly the vision of Urbana to various constituencies—volunteers, Board members, donors, staff, students, Christian colleges, churches, mission agencies, and other organizational partners.
Drive conference recruitment to meet attendance and revenue goals through internal and external strategies.
Oversee program development, communications, and operations so that conference content and experience align with InterVarsity’s Doctrinal Basis, Purpose Statement, and Core Commitments.
Build and supervise a diverse leadership team that represents primary functional areas of Urbana (program, recruitment/communications, operations).
Partner closely with the Field Leadership Team and the Executive Leadership Team.
Serve the entire movement with wisdom as “Leader of the whole” on the National Leadership Team (NLT).
Build a strong relationship with IFES and other global missions organizations.
Effectively manage diverse theological and missiological perspectives.
Be supportive of InterVarsity’s beliefs about women in leadership and diversity.
Effectively lead via envisioning, planning, supervising, and evaluating.
Supervision
Recruit, hire, train, develop, supervise and retain qualified staff.
Build an effective leadership team by facilitating strong collaboration, championing understanding of organizational interdependencies, and fostering strategic decision making throughout the organization.
Organize structures, roles, processes, and accountability loops to optimize resources and achieve goals, expecting direct reports to focus on organizational efficiencies.
Resolve disputes via proactive initiatives, trouble-shooting and mediation.
Provide pastoral care for Urbana Leadership Team and foster their professional development.
Communicate regularly with Urbana Leadership Team, including oversight of their ministry partnership development responsibilities.
Administration
Build and implement an effective assessment system for Urbana.
Develop and manage budgets in accordance with InterVarsity policies and procedures.
Recommend new or revised systems, methods, programs, and procedures to improved efficiency and effectiveness.
Serve as Risk Manager for the Urbana Missions Conferences and staff.
Become knowledgeable of and in coordination with Legal department, apply appropriate laws, regulations, and administrative policies to situations that expose the Fellowship to risk (legal, financial, ministry, morale or reputational).
Employ risk management strategies to minimize unacceptable levels of risk, while managing the tension between ministry risk and legal and financial risk.
Notify Legal department of areas of unacceptable risk, and partner with Team as needed to remedy situations.
Ensure compliance with all InterVarsity policies and procedures.
Carry out management responsibilities as assigned by the Senior Assistant to the President.
Fund Development and Public Relations
Raise an agreed-upon amount of prayer and financial support.
Partner with Development to raise funds for Urbana.
Network and encourage alliances with churches, parachurch ministries and agencies in order to advance InterVarsity’s and Urbana’s purposes.
Represent InterVarsity and Urbana externally via select speaking engagements and media engagements.
Accept appropriate speaking engagements, both internal and external.
Qualifications
Education & Experience
Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree in cross-cultural studies, theology, or missiology strongly preferred.
A minimum of 10 years of cross-cultural ministry experience internationally and domestically, including at least five years of senior management experience (or equivalent).
Character
Be a maturing disciple of Jesus Christ: growing in love for God, God’s Word. Annually affirm InterVarsity’s Statement of Faith. Abide by InterVarsity’s Code of Conduct.
Thorough knowledge of or the ability to learn, the purpose, vision, ministries and policies of InterVarsity.
Significant theological acuity and spiritual maturity.
Competence
Demonstrated experience as a senior leader in managing and implementing successful, comprehensive ministry programs to achieve goals.
Ability to formulate and cast a vision for the field ministries in a manner that inspires and rallies individuals and teams to achieve the mission and vision.
Leadership skills, including negotiation, problem solving, decision making, and delegation.
Demonstrated ability to raise funds for staff and programs.
Strong analytical and strategic skills
Strong financial acumen. Experience preparing and managing department and project budgets.
Strong verbal and written communication skills.
Excellent relationship builder and team player who can collaborate effectively with all levels of staff, management, and members of the community.
Expertise in strategic analysis and organizational planning.
Conflict resolution and mediation skills.
Understands complexities of leading large-scale events
Willing to travel extensively, including international travel.
Chemistry with the Culture
Be a lifelong learner who prizes the discipleship of the mind; particularly staying current on issues of missiology, reconciliation, justice, church, and culture.
Possess a high capacity for managing complexity, an appreciation for nuance and flexible thinking.
Thrives in cross-cultural situations… and have an ever-growing love of God’s people of every ethnicity and culture, and God’s purposes in the world. Ability to integrate vision and direction into the decision making and process culture of an organization.
Environment/Physical Requirements:
A designated office at the NSC or home office
Required travel includes, but is not limited to: fundraising meetings, InterVarsity-sponsored training sessions, meetings, and conferences.
Regularly required to communicate with others, and routinely use standard office equipment such as computers, phones, printers, filing cabinets, etc.
Compensation Package:
A competitive compensation package will be discussed in personal interviews.
Benefits Package:
403(b) matching contributions
Dental insurance
Employee assistance program
Employee discounts
Flexible work schedule
Flexible spending accounts
Health insurance
Health savings account
Life insurance
Paid time off
Parental leave
Professional development assistance
Vision insurance
OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
Opportunities
1. Legacy of Impact - With over 300,000 attendees since its inception in 1946, Urbana is the pre-eminent student missions conference targeting college and graduate students. There is no more strategic opportunity to motivate the next generation to respond to God’s call to the nations.
2. Strategic Hires - The next Executive Director will have opportunity to make strategic hires for their core team. This will give opportunity to rebuild the conference leadership team while tapping into the deep institutional knowledge within IV of an event ongoing since 1946.
3. Campus Staff - The ED will have strategic access to hundreds of staff and volunteers nationwide to leverage for recruitment and service at the conference.
4. Partnerships - Urbana attracts significant number of partner organizations (including many global missions organizations) that attend, exhibit, and serve. Aligning with their strategic needs will result in powerful partnerships and synergies at the conference. Additionally, further collaboration with Christian colleges, denominations, church networks, and other campus ministries in and through the EveryCampus coalition may positively affect recruitment.
Challenges
1. Core Team Staffing-Working with experienced Urbana core team members and evaluating key vacancies in marketing and operations will be a challenge structurally to get the right capacity in place to direct the conference.
2. Recruitment - Reverse the trend of decreasing attendance over the past three events: 16,000 (2015), 10,000 (2018) and 5,500 participants (in 2022). Likely this will require achieving attendance targets of 7,000 to meet budgetary targets.
3. Financial Management- Careful financial management will be needed to insure stewardship of budget and resources for the conference.
4. Campus Staff Priorities - Access to hundreds of support-raised Intervarsity field staff may be difficult due to their dedication to field work.
5. Context – The context for missions mobilization in North America faces a number of challenges. Church participation is declining, the landscape for live events is shifting, involvement in vocational global missions is decreasing, and global missions is rapidly changing. Overall, new paradigms of partnership, strategies of empowerment and postures of humility are being required from the North American church in its relationship toward the global church.
ABOUT MADISON, WI
Madison, Wisconsin is the state capital and second largest city in the state after Milwaukee. With a population of nearly 300,000 in 2020, this medium-sized city has the opportunities of an urban area with the charm of a small town. Because of its unique location on an isthmus, the city is surrounded by five lakes providing beautiful waterfront views. It features impressive architecture like the lakefront convention center designed by the famed Frank Lloyd Wright.
Madison is home to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the domed State Capitol building. For family entertainment and enrichment, visit the Overture Center for the Arts or Henry Vitas Zoo. For outdoor lovers, Madison also boasts the most parks and playgrounds per capita of any of the 100 largest cities in the US, with safe bike paths to traverse throughout the city. And if you’re a fan of cheese, you’re in luck; Madison is renowned for their cheese curds, a Wisconsin delicacy. Notably, Madison is also the fastest growing city in the state, with a booming technology sector and steady tourism.
The cost of living in Madison is about on par with the national average, with decently priced groceries and restaurant dining, as well as affordable social activities and shopping. The cost of a 3-bedroom home in Madison averages between $365,000-$390,000. To rent a three-bedroom apartment or home, you will likely spend between $1720-$1950 a month.
If, after prayerfully reviewing this information, you believe this role fits you well, or if you know someone you would like to recommend, please contact:
Dr. Rich Kidd
Partner
MISSION:LEADERSHIP
mobile :: (757) 642–0622
email :: rich@missionleadership.org
Yale Kim
Search Consultant
MISSION:LEADERSHIP
mobile :: (816) 810–2545
company main :: (615) 422–0884
email :: yale@missionleadership.org
web :: www.missionleadership.org