Frequently Asked Questions:
How was Chi Alpha started?
The beginnings of Chi Alpha run back to the late 1940s when J. Robert Ashcroft, the father of Senator John Ashcroft, began encouraging the General Council of the Assemblies of God to start a ministry that would reach beyond the church walls to students on secular college campuses.
Students at Southwest Missouri State University who were already meeting informally put the idea into practice and the first official Chi Alpha chapter was established in 1953 at that campus. Since then Chi Alpha has grown to over 200 groups here in the U.S. and has a close association with hundreds of other groups around the world.
The name Chi Alpha was developed around the fraternity/sorority Greek system and honor societies of the 1950s. It was first used at Southwest Missouri State University in 1953. Chi Alpha takes its name from the first two letters of the Greek words, "Christou Apostoloi"-Christ's Ambassadors or Christ's Sent Ones.
What makes Chi Alpha different?
We are focused on transforming our world, locally and around the globe. We experience the supernatural. We work hard to learn from and join with international students. We strive to be multicultural. We see that faith and thinking are related.
What is important to Chi Alpha?
--Asking God for help (like during your Organic Chemistry final). We call this prayer.
--Doing what Jesus would do (for instance, actually attending Organic Chemistry once in a while). We call this discipleship.
--Helping each other (think study partner for Organic Chemistry). We call this fellowship.
--Telling God thank you (especially after passing Organic Chemistry). We call this worship.
--Transforming the world (using Organic Chemistry to alleviate diseases that afflict impoverished countries). We call this witness.
What events does Chi Alpha offer each week?
Each Chi Alpha group will naturally have different events. Most offer the same type of events, though, so these will be somewhat similar to those of any religious group.
How do you make a living?
As Chi Alpha campus missionaries, we are appointed through the Assemblies of God church. In most other denominations, each church organization is required to send money, along with any donations from individual members, to the Missions Board, which is then distributed to the missionaries. In the Assemblies of God church, each church organization is not required to send money to a "Missions Board." Many of the churches do, but it is not a requirement. Instead, the Assemblies of God church allows the individual members to support individual missionaries. Depending on where a missionary is located (as well as several other factors), a Maximum Disbursement is set for him/her by the Assemblies of God home office. Each missionary is then responsible for raising his/her support. It generally takes about 1-2 months of solid support-raising to get a $2,000.00 budget raised 100%. Support can come from anyone who wants to be a part of this ministry. Churches, church members, family, friends, even strangers can all join with us to reach the college campus with the message of Christ.
If you are interested in joining with us, please check out our how to give page.
How does your financial support system work?
In order for us to work full-time on campus, we MUST have our budget fully raised. The system of support is actually quite simple; let me explain how it works.
We find people (maybe like you) who have a heart for college students and who are willing (and able) to contribute money to see God move on our secular college campuses. Those people fill out a faith promise form and mail it to us along with their contribution. There is a space on our pledge form to indicate what type and the amount of the contribution. We will make copies and then send it to The U.S. Missions Office who will then process it and send the giver a receipt for tax purposes. (***Yes, all donations are tax deductible***) If the donation is in the form of a monthly pledge, the giver then keeps a portion of the receipt to send with the next month's donation. And that's all there is to it.
If you have a minute, please take a look at our pledge form. It will help to understand how the process works. If you have any questions, please give us a call or send an email.
Are there any ways to support you other than monthly partnership?
Yes! There are several different ways to support this ministry financially.
1. Annual Pledge: There is a minimum amount required for annual pledges. The total annual contribution must total $500 or more. If you break this down to a per month amount, it's $41.66 per month (for a $500 annual pledge). The U.S. Missions Office will take your $500.00 and give us $41.66 per month for one year. This type of contribution does count towards our budget. There is only one type of pledge that does not count towards our budget and that is a special gift.
2. Special Gift: For this type, there are no restrictions on the amount of the gift; however, unlike the pledged contributions, the special gift does not count towards our budget.
Are you going to seminary?
Yes and no. We will not be physically going to a seminary. During our internship program, we take seminary or Bible courses through correspondence classes. A few of the required classes included Old and New Testament Surveys, The Life of Christ, Introduction to Theology, and many others. As of the end of our internship program, Rachel and I will both be certified ministers. We will continue taking these courses in the future to advance in our biblical education and credentials as ministers.
How do I fill out the automatic credit/debit transaction form?
Missionary Name- Joshua and Rachel Harvey
Missionary ID#- 276320
Class: 00- If giving monthly.
Class: 09- If giving special offering.
How are the funds I donate used?
Technically, all funds given to our ministry are actually given to the Assemblies of God, the denomination with which I am a minister and which sponsors Chi Alpha Campus Ministries. The Assemblies of God promises to disburse gifts in accordance with the wishes of the donor and in accordance with Assemblies of God policies.
So what relevant policies does the Assemblies of God have?
- Missionaries are assigned an amount of money that they must raise. This is commonly known as a missionary budget.
- This budget has two components: the personal budget and the work budget.
- The personal budget covers salaries and benefits (insurance and retirement). For US missions, the Assemblies of God categorizes ministry assignments into one of three cost-of-living indexes. Personal budgets are monitored very closely and are adjusted only under extreme circumstances.
- The work budget covers everything else: things like outreach materials, Bibles, office supplies, meeting space expenses (decorations and rental fees, for example), music equipment, retreat expenses, and ministry-related travel expenses. Really anything that helps us achieve our mission of ministering to students, faculty, and staff.
- By Assemblies of God policy, until missionaries fully raise their assigned budget they are not allowed to launch their ministry. This is because the Assemblies wants missionaries to succeed, and as a denomination we’ve learned through experience that one of the best ways to guarantee long-term success is by requiring full funding up front.
- Also by Assemblies of God policy, the money that comes in goes first to support the missionary financially and then to support the missionary’s work. In other words, if only 75% of funds come in one month then it’s the work budget that gets shortchanged instead of the personal budget. This is according to the theory that a mission can survive without office supplies for a month, but if the missionary gets evicted because they can’t pay rent the mission will suffer much more lasting harm.
- Once a month missionaries are issued a check from the Assemblies of God. That check contains only what has been given that month up to the amount of the assigned personal budget. There is a 5% administration fee taken off the top. Incidentally, that’s an incredibly low administration fee: other missions organizations have rates as high as 20%!
- The work budget and any excess funds sit in designated accounts. When the missionary has a work expense (say we mail an evangelistic CD-ROM to every student on campus), we pay it out of our own pocket and submit that expense to the Assemblies of God for reimbursement. We are reimbursed if and only if there are sufficient funds available. That reimbursement is tacked onto next month’s check alongside the personal budget.
- Here’s the bit to remember: the personal budget acts like a cap whereas the work budget acts like a springboard. We cannot receive more than our assigned salary, but we can receive a theoretically unlimited amount for ministry expenses (as much as people are willing to give). We are responsible to document each ministry expense and demonstrate to the Assemblies of God that it was a legitimate use of God’s money.
So here’s the bottom line: money given is used to pay the minister first and any excess is used to pay for ministry expenses.
