The bio on Mindy Meier of Champaign reads as follows:  52 years old; 4 grown children; off the chart
extrovert; visionary; spunky; 1972 UI alumna (member of Alpha Chi Omega Sorority); meets with UI
Greek students at Green Street coffeehouse; drinks steamed skim milk with almond flavoring; feels a call
from God to pour her energy into party animals who have leadership ability.

Since 1992, Meier has been an InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) staff member on the UI campus.
In 1991 Meier moved from Ann Arbor, Mich., to Champaign with her husband and four children.  For 12
years Bill Meier has been the senior pastor at Twin City Bible Church in Urbana.

The Meier’s both have long-time connections with IVCF. Bill was a campus minister with IVCF in Ohio 25
years ago.

Shortly after moving to Champaign-Urbana, Mindy started the InterVarsity Greek ministry she now heads.
She said at that time almost no Christian group was concentrating on reaching out to the Greeks on
campus.  In fact, the UI has the largest Greek system in the country.  More than 50 fraternity houses and
more than 30 sorority houses surround the campus.  Their membership numbers more than 7,500 students.

Meier now combines her efforts with co-workers Amy Bell and Brian Mann, who are alumni of Meier’s UI
Greek ministry.  Bell and Mann are alumni of Meier’s UI Greek ministry.  Bell, a member of Pi Beta Phi
Sorority, and Mann, a member of Delta Upsilon Fraternity, both graduated from the UI in the spring of
2002.

With Meier turning 53 this Spring, she is twice the age of most of the two dozen InterVarsity Greek staff
workers involved in ministry to Greeks on university campuses throughout the country.

Mann, who is 23, sees Meier’s youthful zeal and said he rarely thinks about her age.  “One of the things that
helps Mindy stay relevant is that she has raised four children,” he said.  “Her two daughters were very
involved in campus sororities, and she knew what was going on.”

To some students, Meier is a mother.  To others she’s a friend.  “One of the things that speaks well of
Mindy is that young women still ask her to mentor them,” says Mann, who calls Meier “a great
communicator.”

Meier began sharpening her communication skills during her days in the Alpha Chi Omega Sorority back in
the late 1960s.  But she also enjoyed the party scene, especially during her freshman year.  In her
sophomore year in 1969, however, she experienced “a tipping point at Kams.”

Drinking at the campus bar with some friends, she looked around and said to herself, “This is the pinnacle of
my life.  This is it.  Is there anything else worth living for?”

About then, someone invited Meier to a Christian meeting near Kams.  “I thought I’d go to the meeting and
then go back to Kams and have a beer,” she said.  “At the meeting, someone told me I could have a
personal relationship with Christ.  I’d never heard that before. I thought Jesus’ death was merely a tragedy.”

Meier said, “That night I received Christ.”  In less than a year, the spunky girl from the northern suburbs
with a desire to make lots of money and change the world was committing herself to a life of Christian
ministry.

Before graduating with a business degree in 1972, Meier was leading a Bible study in her Alpha Chi Omega
sorority.  She went on to get a graduate degree in counseling from Trinity Seminary outside of Chicago.

Meier says it would be difficult for someone who hasn’t been a Greek to be as comfortable within the
system as she is.  “I enjoy working with people within the Greek system,” she said.  “I love working with
people I see as leaders.  Statistics show that many Greeks are tomorrow’s leaders.”

Ten years ago Meier started an InterVarsity national Greek conference.  A thousand students from across
the country attended the Indianapolis-based conference in early February.  This year 90 students from
Meier’s group joined nearly 1,000 Greeks for the weekend conference.

More than 50 students made decisions to become followers of Jesus.  Greeks at the conference asked
about God, sex and how their decisions in life really do matter.

Greeks may appear snobbish or mere partiers.  Meier says people in other Christian fellowships can be
suspicious of the Christian Greeks and that people in their fraternity or sorority are suspicious of their
Christian friends.

“Underneath this veneer, many are asking deep questions about God and the purpose for their lives,” she
said.

Don Follis is an Urbana pastor and member of Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Urbana, Ill.  His column
appears on Fridays.  Copyright © 2003 by the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette.