Our Story
InterVarsity has a long and rich history in the greater Las Vegas area.
In 1978 and again in 1980, evangelist Billy Graham held city-wide meetings in Las Vegas. As Graham and his people were following up with the people who responded to the gospel message, they realized that the students at UNLV had no one to support them in their Christian walk and to help them present the gospel on campus. 
In response, InterVarsity and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association partnered to start an InterVarsity chapter at UNLV. They started with a student, Randy Mattson, who began a small group prayer meeting in the music department. Next, InterVarsity and the Graham Association worked together to invite Hollis Kim, InterVarsity staff in Hawaii (pictured right), to relocate to Las Vegas to grow the campus ministry. 
During the following decades, a series of InterVarsity staff and students faithfully reached the campus at UNLV. In one three-year stretch, the chapter doubled in size each year. In 1991, staff raised $5000 to help a student move into the dorms to start ministry there. Students graduated and moved into full-time ministry both at home and abroad. And InterVarsity at UNLV has always championed a Biblical vision for racial reconciliation and justice. 
In 2008, InterVarsity launched a ministry to international students at UNLV. Today, the International Christian Fellowship group offers a home for students from all over the world as they come to Las Vegas to study. 
In 2016, InterVarsity planted a chapter at Nevada State College. As the campus has grown, so has our ministry. Today, we have grown to have regular dedicated student leaders and a full-time staff at Nevada State College that lead and minister to an ethnically and giftedly diverse chapter. 
Even as we work to build our InterVarsity chapters at UNLV and Nevada State College, we pray and look for opportunities to plant new witnessing communities at College of Southern Nevada, Roseman University of Health Sciences and Touro University Nevada. All in all, we celebrate over 40 years of faithful witness in the greater Las Vegas area. God has been good to us! Students have seen their lives transformed, their campuses renewed, and they have been developed into world changers.
We are eager to see where God leads us in the years to come. Please join us in our work on campus! |