Christian Week October 15, 2009 Frank Stirk
For 10 years a B.C.-based ministry known as Campusfire has put together "Reshape," an annual weekend conference and webcast aimed at equipping Christian high school and university students across the country to begin a campus ministry to their peers.
This year's conference will originate from Christian Life Assembly in Langley on November 6 and 7. But while its format will be similar to past years, it will be the first to be held in partnership with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association of Canada (BGEAC).
"This has always been a dream to continue to grow it nationally and to put down deep roots," said Campusfire founder and director Darian Kovacs. "And so when we joined the Billy Graham family last July [2008], it enabled us to strengthen ourselves, both administratively and organizationally, and to continue to let people know that we're in it for the long haul."
Kovacs was still a teenager when he started Campusfire at his high school in Tswassen, a community near the Canada-U.S. border. It spread quickly to other schools across the country, even after he moved on to the University of Victoria and later became the youth pastor at Peace Portal Alliance Church in Surrey.
"We certainly saw in Darian the excitement and passion that he had for high school ministry," said BGEAC youth ministries manager Dion Collins, who helped bring the two ministries together. "He's a person who has lived out that evangelism in his life."
Collins said the relationship grew out of having partnered on several youth evangelism projects-and realizing they shared many of the same goals. The association also saw in Campusfire a chance to present Billy Graham and his ministry to a new generation.
"The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Canada is much more than big arena-style evangelism," said Collins. "We are doing things that we haven't done in the past. We want to move forward and see new things happen."
Kovacs said the goals of Reshape are to be a catalyst for students seeking to start campus ministries and to support existing ministries.
"It's also a chance to connect young dreamers, revivalists, people that hope to see transformation all across the country, to say, 'You are not alone. There are other people out there across the country who think and pray and hope like you do,'" he said.
The conference's climax is a commissioning service at which students receive an assignment to go back to their campuses and start sharing their faith.
"It's great accountability," said Kovacs, "because they realize they have a mission in that school. It's not just a place to get educated. It's a call to be there."
About 500 students are expected to attend Reshape in Langley, and organizers hope to see 30 sites set up across Canada where hundreds more can come and watch it live.