Carrie Reinhardt

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship

Contact Information

Carrie Reinhardt: Carrie_Reinhardt@ivstaff.org
InterVarsity Website: www.intervarsity.org

Ministry Description

In response to God’s love, grace and truth: The Purpose of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA is to establish and advance at colleges and universities witnessing communities of students and faculty who follow Jesus as Savior and Lord: growing in love for God, God’s Word, God’s people of every ethnicity and culture and God’s purposes in the world. InterVarsity at Davidson College includes intentional discipleship to encourage deeper dependence on and relationship with Christ, Scripture-focused small groups, and Crossroads gatherings. These gatherings include speakers sharing how they have been Transformed by Christ, prayer/worship, and service/celebration. We have been in a season of vision seeking, and feel that God is calling our Crossroads gatherings to change next year to focus more on reaching out to the Davidson campus community. We envision this happening by sharing about Jesus through relevant campus-wide speakers in collaboration with other Christian ministries, living as Jesus would by serving others, and intentionally rejuvenating through Sabbath together.

Carrie’s Story

My parents joined the Methodist church they still attend when my mother was pregnant with me. I grew up in that church family in Cincinnati with an understanding of God the Father, commitment to the church, and ability to recite the Gospel – however, I lacked a personal relationship with Jesus. I started to understand Jesus’ desire to be in a personal, life encompassing, and transforming relationship with me when I went on a Chrysalis weekend experience during my freshman year in college. Through that small opening in my heart, Jesus started working on drawing me closer to Him. When I left college without the graduate school acceptance that I had expected, Jesus continued to call me closer into dependence on Him. As I spent a year back at home in Cincinnati, I began journeying with youth at my home church who were also trying to figure out their relationship with Jesus. When I finally began graduate school in Pennsylvania, God drew me into deep involvement in campus ministry, fertile ground for furthering my faith. This growth came to a climax when I felt God calling me to do something different with my life. While I had continued to pursue my long-term desire to become a child psychologist and asked God to bless it, He had something different in mind. Gradually I realized that I hadn’t asked Him what He desired. What was His plan for me? Through a season of prayer and seeking the Lord’s guidance, I was led into work with college students in higher education administration. I served in Residential Life and Career Services positions in Ohio until marrying my college friend, Dave, and moving to Charlotte in 2004. Having previously been involved as a volunteer with InterVarsity in Ohio, I felt a call to continue to volunteer with InterVarsity in my new surroundings. This led to the opportunity to come on campus ministry staff at Davidson in the fall of 2005. I love working with students who are further along their journey with Christ than I was in college, encouraging them to grow in their relationship with Him as well as introducing Jesus to students who don’t know Him yet.

Special Needs

Encourage Davidson students you know to deepen their journey with Christ – ask them good questions about their faith and encourage them to be the light of Christ to their peers on campus. Due to Davidson College regulations, I am limited in my ability to contact students until they contact me. Encourage students to be in touch with me about InterVarsity, or tell me about students that you know on campus – I promise that I will invite them to sit down one-on-one, to find out more about them and tell them more about campus ministry opportunities with InterVarsity. I gather with community members in Davidson and Charlotte about once a month who desire to pray for God’s work on Davidson’s campus. If you’re interested in being part of our community prayer gathering, please contact me to receive notification of our next time together. We sometimes need places to gather in the Davidson area for events. Please contact me if you are willing to host a gathering! Do you have connections that might be helpful to us? We are always looking for speakers who are relevant to a college student audience & service opportunities in the area. While we may not be able to do everything that is suggested, we appreciate you sharing your thoughts. Looking to spread some tangible love? Students always love to receive care packages or other reminders of God’s love and care for them. Would you like to help college students attend Christ-focused conferences, retreats, or camp experiences? Let me know if you know students that would be interested in attending these types of events, or contact me if you are interested in funding one-time scholarships to financially assist students. Interested in volunteer ministry with college students? Contact me to talk further about possibilities.

Prayer Requests

We would seek the Lord’s guidance in how best to shine His light and share His love and truth on Davidson’s campus. God would be preparing all of InterVarsity’s leaders (students and me) to serve Him next year and developing us to be more like Him. We would have patience to rest in and wait upon the Lord, be shaped by Him, and follow Him – challenging in a leadership and production-oriented environment like Davidson. That we would find joy in allowing the Lord to work through us and not be exhausted by trying to do it ourselves.