Serving God’s Kingdom efficiently: The Chicago Agreement

In early 2010, an e-mail inviting AACF to join other campus ministry leaders in revisiting a document, called the Trail West Agreement arrived in the inbox of Melanie Mar Chow, Campus Minister/Leadership Team. Her familiarity with this agreement (how campus ministries co-exist on the college and university campuses) came from a training session as a new campus minister from her then director, a former InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) staffworker. Because the invitation list included familiar names from networking conferences, the dates of October 24-25, 2010, almost six months later were calendared.

A follow-up confirmation e-mail came in August listing the location as InterVarsity Press in a Chicago suburb, for two days from 5 pm Sunday and finishing at 9 pm on Monday under the leadership of representatives of three national organizations: Campus Crusade for Christ, IVCF and The Navigators. Aware of the economic climate, she invited along Evelyn Fan, another female AACF campus minister to share her hotel room. The result from the spirit-led 18 hours became The Chicago Agreement. All who participated agreed the time was truly guided by the work of the Holy Spirit as 17 organizations were represented, 16 present at the gathering that dialogued, prayed and affirmed a stream-lined document, still affirming the spirit of the original document.

The organizations who participated in the production of the agreement encourage their ministries and any others interested to review and practice this agreement. Both links to the agreement and an interview with one of the participants, http://www.mnnonline.org/article/15410 are available simply by clicking on the above blued titles.