John G. Turner
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807831854
- eISBN:
- 9781469604756
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807889107_turner.6
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This chapter describes how Bill Bright wrote potential supporters to outline his vision, which fused spiritual and political concerns and objectives. After founding the Campus Crusade for Christ, he ...
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This chapter describes how Bill Bright wrote potential supporters to outline his vision, which fused spiritual and political concerns and objectives. After founding the Campus Crusade for Christ, he asserted that “the average collegian is spiritually illiterate” and “estimated that less than five percent of the college students of America are actively engaged in the church of today.” After noting that virtually all American colleges and universities “were founded as Christian institutions,” Bright lamented that “many of our state universities and colleges and other institutions deny the deity of Christ, the Bible as the Word of God, and offer not so much as one Christian course in their curriculum.”Less
This chapter describes how Bill Bright wrote potential supporters to outline his vision, which fused spiritual and political concerns and objectives. After founding the Campus Crusade for Christ, he asserted that “the average collegian is spiritually illiterate” and “estimated that less than five percent of the college students of America are actively engaged in the church of today.” After noting that virtually all American colleges and universities “were founded as Christian institutions,” Bright lamented that “many of our state universities and colleges and other institutions deny the deity of Christ, the Bible as the Word of God, and offer not so much as one Christian course in their curriculum.”
John G. Turner
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807831854
- eISBN:
- 9781469604756
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807889107_turner
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
Founded as a local college ministry in 1951, Campus Crusade for Christ has become one of the world's largest evangelical organizations, today boasting an annual budget of more than $500 million. ...
More
Founded as a local college ministry in 1951, Campus Crusade for Christ has become one of the world's largest evangelical organizations, today boasting an annual budget of more than $500 million. Nondenominational organizations such as Campus Crusade account for much of modern evangelicalism's dynamism and adaptation to mainstream American culture. Despite the importance of these “parachurch” organizations, states this book, historians have largely ignored them. The book offers a history of Campus Crusade and its founder, Bill Bright, whose marketing and fund-raising acumen transformed the organization into an international evangelical empire. Drawing on archival materials and more than one hundred interviews, it challenges the dominant narrative of the secularization of higher education, demonstrating how Campus Crusade helped reestablish evangelical Christianity as a visible subculture on American campuses. Beyond the campus, Bright expanded evangelicalism's influence in the worlds of business and politics. As the book demonstrates, the story of Campus Crusade reflects the halting movement of evangelicalism into mainstream American society: its awkward marriage with conservative politics, its hesitancy over gender roles and sexuality, and its growing affluence.Less
Founded as a local college ministry in 1951, Campus Crusade for Christ has become one of the world's largest evangelical organizations, today boasting an annual budget of more than $500 million. Nondenominational organizations such as Campus Crusade account for much of modern evangelicalism's dynamism and adaptation to mainstream American culture. Despite the importance of these “parachurch” organizations, states this book, historians have largely ignored them. The book offers a history of Campus Crusade and its founder, Bill Bright, whose marketing and fund-raising acumen transformed the organization into an international evangelical empire. Drawing on archival materials and more than one hundred interviews, it challenges the dominant narrative of the secularization of higher education, demonstrating how Campus Crusade helped reestablish evangelical Christianity as a visible subculture on American campuses. Beyond the campus, Bright expanded evangelicalism's influence in the worlds of business and politics. As the book demonstrates, the story of Campus Crusade reflects the halting movement of evangelicalism into mainstream American society: its awkward marriage with conservative politics, its hesitancy over gender roles and sexuality, and its growing affluence.
John G. Turner
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807831854
- eISBN:
- 9781469604756
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807889107_turner.8
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This chapter shows how the Campus Crusade grew quickly in the early 1960s despite its conflicts with Bob Jones University and the emerging charismatic movement. In fact, by 1963, the organization had ...
More
This chapter shows how the Campus Crusade grew quickly in the early 1960s despite its conflicts with Bob Jones University and the emerging charismatic movement. In fact, by 1963, the organization had tripled in size to nearly 300 staff on 108 campuses. The ministry maintained its small office in Los Angeles and the summer training grounds on Lake Minnetonka in Mound, Minnesota. Bill Bright remained an evangelical entrepreneur, launching ministries in Asia and Latin America, beginning an evangelistic ministry to American laypeople, and experimenting with evangelism through various forms of media, including records and radio. As Crusade grew, Bright and his top assistants further standardized their evangelistic approach and adopted more formal means of staff training. The growth in staff and the organization's overseas expansion also caused Crusade to move away from an older evangelical tradition of “faith missions” toward the embrace of modern fund-raising and marketing tools.Less
This chapter shows how the Campus Crusade grew quickly in the early 1960s despite its conflicts with Bob Jones University and the emerging charismatic movement. In fact, by 1963, the organization had tripled in size to nearly 300 staff on 108 campuses. The ministry maintained its small office in Los Angeles and the summer training grounds on Lake Minnetonka in Mound, Minnesota. Bill Bright remained an evangelical entrepreneur, launching ministries in Asia and Latin America, beginning an evangelistic ministry to American laypeople, and experimenting with evangelism through various forms of media, including records and radio. As Crusade grew, Bright and his top assistants further standardized their evangelistic approach and adopted more formal means of staff training. The growth in staff and the organization's overseas expansion also caused Crusade to move away from an older evangelical tradition of “faith missions” toward the embrace of modern fund-raising and marketing tools.
John G. Turner
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807831854
- eISBN:
- 9781469604756
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807889107_turner.4
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This book presents the history of Campus Crusade for Christ as a window into the world of American evangelicalism since 1945. Campus Crusade, founded by Bill Bright at the University of California at ...
More
This book presents the history of Campus Crusade for Christ as a window into the world of American evangelicalism since 1945. Campus Crusade, founded by Bill Bright at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1951, had, by the century's end, grown into a global evangelical empire. The ministry's staff talked about Jesus Christ at fraternity meetings, evangelized students from Daytona to Balboa on spring break trips, organized evangelistic advertising campaigns in American cities, brought a film about Jesus to remote overseas villages, and hosted conferences designed to “rekindle the fire” of Christian marriages. Alongside Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson, and Jerry Falwell, Bright was one of the most influential evangelical power brokers of the late twentieth century, able to mobilize large coalitions of conservative Christians for both evangelistic and partisan ends.Less
This book presents the history of Campus Crusade for Christ as a window into the world of American evangelicalism since 1945. Campus Crusade, founded by Bill Bright at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1951, had, by the century's end, grown into a global evangelical empire. The ministry's staff talked about Jesus Christ at fraternity meetings, evangelized students from Daytona to Balboa on spring break trips, organized evangelistic advertising campaigns in American cities, brought a film about Jesus to remote overseas villages, and hosted conferences designed to “rekindle the fire” of Christian marriages. Alongside Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson, and Jerry Falwell, Bright was one of the most influential evangelical power brokers of the late twentieth century, able to mobilize large coalitions of conservative Christians for both evangelistic and partisan ends.
Ogbu Kalu
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195340006
- eISBN:
- 9780199867073
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195340006.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This chapter begins with a description of charismatic flares in missionary churches from 1920 to 1960. It then considers the typology of classical Pentecostalism in African from 1901 to 1960, and ...
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This chapter begins with a description of charismatic flares in missionary churches from 1920 to 1960. It then considers the typology of classical Pentecostalism in African from 1901 to 1960, and early Pentecostalism in Southern Africa from 1908 to 1958. It argues that Pentecostalism emerged from an indigenous response of Africans to the missionary message; the missionary input from evangelical ministries such as Scripture Union and Campus Crusade; from the increasing missionary forays of Pentecostals from the holiness tradition and Pentecostal denominations from various countries who utilized the labors of African agents; and from interdenominational parachurches, bolstered by the educational institutions of many American Bible colleges and many evangelical evangelistic outreaches.Less
This chapter begins with a description of charismatic flares in missionary churches from 1920 to 1960. It then considers the typology of classical Pentecostalism in African from 1901 to 1960, and early Pentecostalism in Southern Africa from 1908 to 1958. It argues that Pentecostalism emerged from an indigenous response of Africans to the missionary message; the missionary input from evangelical ministries such as Scripture Union and Campus Crusade; from the increasing missionary forays of Pentecostals from the holiness tradition and Pentecostal denominations from various countries who utilized the labors of African agents; and from interdenominational parachurches, bolstered by the educational institutions of many American Bible colleges and many evangelical evangelistic outreaches.
D. Oliver Herbel
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199324958
- eISBN:
- 9780199353989
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199324958.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Chapter 4 argues that Peter Gillquist and the Evangelical Orthodox Church (EOC) viewed the EOC as the New Testament Church restored in all its purity. Because he and the EOC looked to Eastern ...
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Chapter 4 argues that Peter Gillquist and the Evangelical Orthodox Church (EOC) viewed the EOC as the New Testament Church restored in all its purity. Because he and the EOC looked to Eastern Christian sources as they “restored” this church, they developed an affinity for Eastern Orthodox and came to believe that the Orthodox Churches could legitimately claim to be the continuation of that same church (even if not with the same degree of purity and capabilities). Gillquist and the EOC saw themselves as uniting Evangelicalism and Orthodoxy. This led to dialogues with the Orthodox Churches. In the course of such dialogues and by way of rejections from the National Association of Evangelicals on the one hand and the Greek Orthodox Church and Orthodox Church in America on the other, the EOC was forced to cease change its self-perceptions and concluded that to be Orthodox, they needed to convert formally.Less
Chapter 4 argues that Peter Gillquist and the Evangelical Orthodox Church (EOC) viewed the EOC as the New Testament Church restored in all its purity. Because he and the EOC looked to Eastern Christian sources as they “restored” this church, they developed an affinity for Eastern Orthodox and came to believe that the Orthodox Churches could legitimately claim to be the continuation of that same church (even if not with the same degree of purity and capabilities). Gillquist and the EOC saw themselves as uniting Evangelicalism and Orthodoxy. This led to dialogues with the Orthodox Churches. In the course of such dialogues and by way of rejections from the National Association of Evangelicals on the one hand and the Greek Orthodox Church and Orthodox Church in America on the other, the EOC was forced to cease change its self-perceptions and concluded that to be Orthodox, they needed to convert formally.
