World Student Christian Federation

Uniting forty autonomous Christian student groups, the Federation was founded in Sweden in 1895. Student leaders from Scandinavia, Europe, Great Britain, the United States, and nations receiving missionaries met under the leadership of John R. Mott,* then student secretary of the International Committee of the YMCA. For Mott and many others this was the culmination of a movement which had been drawing together such organizations for some years. Mott and others had been active in missionary-recruitment conferences previously, and growing enthusiasm in these endeavors was channeled in 1888 into a permanent organization, the Student Volunteer Movement,* which adopted as its motto “The evangelization of the world in this generation.” The Federation reflected this evangelistic thrust in its stated purpose, “to lead students to accept the Christian faith in God-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-according to the Scriptures, and to live together as true disciples of Jesus Christ.” It is active today in organizing international conferences and projects in many areas, and in publishing.