THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 18, 1996 TAG: 9605170082
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY APRIL WITT, KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
LENGTH: Long : 121 lines
BILL BRIGHT, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, last week received nearly $1.1 million and the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion during a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London.
The honor - which carries a purse larger than any other award, including the Nobel Prize - is bestowed each year upon someone who has shown great originality in advancing humankind's understanding of God or spirituality. Bright's contribution - building Campus Crusade for Christ into the largest evangelical organization in the United States.
Bright, who makes his world headquarters in Orlando, Fla., travels 300 days a year spreading the Gospel.
``I'm just a puny termite somewhere out in space,'' Bright, 74, said recently. ``Forty-five years ago I became a slave of Jesus. Now here I am the recipient of the most-prized award anyone could receive for any pursuit. That's kind of humorous, isn't it? That a slave would be so honored.''
Previous recipients of the Templeton, begun by global investor Sir John Templeton in 1972, include Mother Teresa, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, journalist Michael Novak and a college professor named Thomas Torrance, who was honored for attempting to establish evidence of God through scientific reasoning. Bright was selected by an international panel of nine judges, including George Bush.
In 1951, Bright and his wife, Vonette, gave up a successful gourmet food company, gave away their possessions and committed their lives to serving God. They founded Campus Crusade for Christ at University of California at Los Angeles.
Bright is still best known for evangelizing college students. Campus Crusade has staff members assigned to 650 university campuses in the United States and more than 400 overseas.
In Virginia, Campus Crusade has full-time staff members at three campuses - James Madison University, the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech.
In the last year, it has also started groups at 15 other schools, including Old Dominion, Christopher Newport and Hampton universities. About 10 students are involved in Christopher Newport, 15 at ODU and 50 at Hampton, according to the Crusade.
Students have changed dramatically since Bright began sharing the Gospel with them. He said taking public prayers and the Bible out of classrooms and legalizing abortion have caused a moral decline in America.
``Today, immorality is just like taking a drink of water,'' Bright said. ``Having sex is not that big a deal anymore. The average student has no norm. What is right, what is wrong. . . . People don't know what God's word says about it.''
Campus Crusade has changed, too. The organization now has an annual budget exceeding $250 million, 13,000 full-time employees and 101,000 trained volunteers worldwide.
Its goal is nothing less than to preach Christianity to every person on Earth by the year 2000.
To that end, Campus Crusade has spawned dozens of additional ministries, targeting everyone from prisoners to the military.
Roy Gerardi, catalytic ministry director for Virginia, said the agenda is three-pronged.
First, to win students over to Christ. That could include ministering in dormitories or at large-scale events. At ODU, he said, about 200 students attended a talk on love and relationships last winter.
Second is ``building Christianity in students' lives,'' through Bible-study groups.
Third is sending them overseas to spread the word. One ODU student, Marcia Rouse, will travel to Africa this summer to preach to college students there, he said.
``College students are spiritually curious,'' Gerardi said. ``They're really open to hearing about spiritual things, but a little bit slower to commit to any one belief system. . . .
``Our desire is to show them the truthfulness of Jesus Christ and his claims.''
All Campus Crusade employees, including Bright and his wife - who live in a donated condominium and jointly earn about $43,000 - must raise enough money in donations to cover their own salaries.
Bright plans to donate his million-dollar-plus award to his latest project, encouraging Christians worldwide to fast and pray.
``Vonette and I love the Lord with all our hearts,'' Bright said. ``She, like myself, would be scared to take one penny for ourselves.''
While some other prominent ministries have been rocked by scandals, in 1993 Money magazine named Campus Crusade America's most efficient religious organization because the vast majority of contributions actually reach ministry programs.
Bright's approach to winning converts for Christ is simple and direct: Tell the Gospel story and build personal relationships.
Although Jesus' first followers included social outcasts, Bright has always targeted the best and the brightest on the theory that they'll go on to successfully evangelize many others.
Darryl Burgess, 29, grew up in Liberty City and won a college football scholarship to a West Virginia school, where he was born again through Campus Crusade during his senior year, he said.
He now works for the organization, ministering to University of Miami athletes, who listen to him because he's faced the same pressures they have. He holds Bible studies and breakfasts for students, and tries to become a regular presence in their lives.
``I'm constantly working out with some of the guys,'' Burgess said. ``Guys are calling me up to get together to have lunch to talk about spiritual issues. We meet before or after practice to try to encourage them all through the week. When someone is injured, they've blown out their knee and are having surgery, we go to the hospital and let them know we're praying for them.'' MEMO: Staff writer Phil Walzer contributed to this story.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
FRANK RIVERA/The Orlando Sentinel
Bill Bright, 74, founder of the Orlando-based Campus Crusade for
Christ, evangelizes to college students on spring break recently in
Daytona Beach, Fla.
Photos
Previous recipients of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion
have included Mother Teresa and Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
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