About GCF

Who Are We?

The Johns Hopkins University Graduate Christian Fellowship (GCF) is a community of Christians from a variety of denominational backgrounds seeking to serve Christ to the best of our abilities within our academic fields. We are a chapter of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF), a national, inter-denominational organization created to build Christian fellowship and outreach in the academic world. We exist to complement (not replace) the purposes of our members' local churches.

If you wish to learn more about the history of our organization, follow this link.

Who Can Participate?

Although our group is primarily focused on serving Christian graduate students and post docs at JHU, our activities are certainly not restricted in any way. We hope that grad students, undergrads, and non-students will feel equally welcome at our meetings. We also want to be a place where persons of all beliefs and backgrounds can freely come to learn about God and the Bible or to participate in any of our activities.

There is no official “membership” in GCF and no list of requirements for participation.

If you are an undergrad looking for a group specializing in college-age students, consider Hopkins Christian Fellowship, our sister organization for undergrads at JHU. If you are an international student, consider International Student Ministries, our international student branch on Homewood campus. But you are by all means welcome to participate in our group regardless.

Our Vision

The vision of GCF (taken from 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12) is

...that [our] God may count [us] worthy of [our] calling and that by His power He may fulfill every good purpose of [ours] and every act prompted by [our] faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in [us], and [we] in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Purpose

The efforts of our group are intended to work toward the following four purposes:

To worship and glorify God by being faithful to Him and obeying His commands.
To provide fellowship primarily, but not exclusively, for graduate students and post docs.
To equip the members of the fellowship through God's Word to better integrate our faith with our academic fields, to develop our God-given gifts and talents, and to discern God's will for our future endeavors.
To seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10) among grad students, faculty, and others in the Hopkins community.

What Do We Believe?

Although no one must agree with the following doctrinal statements to participate in any of our activities, we as a group subscribe to the basic truths of Biblical Christianity in order to fulfill the purposes stated above. In agreement with IVCF, these include:

The unique, divine inspiration, entire trustworthiness, and authority of the Bible.
The deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The necessity and efficacy of the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ for the redemption of the world, and the historic fact of his bodily resurrection.
The presence and power of the Holy Spirit in the work of regeneration.
The expectation of the personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You may also wish to view our answers to some frequently asked questions about Christianity.

What Do We Do?

GCF's primary activity has traditionally been our Wednesday evening meeting. The entire group would meet for fellowship, worship, prayer, and Bible discussion.

On occasion, our weekly discussion groups were replaced by a guest speaker from outside the group.

This year (2010/2011), we are experimenting with a small group model, with several smaller groups meeting at various times throughout the week.

In addition to small groups we...

...hold yearly retreats;
...have monthly prayer meetings;
...have biweekly lunches on campus;
...meet informally with each other to build friendships;
...hold open discussion meetings occasionally to discuss aspects of Christianity of interest to participants; and
...enjoy group social activities at least monthly.

When and Where?

To see when and where our small groups are meeting, click here.

Prayer and other meeting times and places are announced via e-mail. Or for more information please feel free to contact us.

Updated: 2011.03.07:13:41