Templeton Proposal

We were part of a team of people who put together a proposal for our president, Dr. Bill Bright. He was up for the Templeton Prize, a prestigious award given each year to an individual who helps promote religion around the world. Members of the panel include Margaret Thatcher and former president George Bush. Dr. Bright won the award, which came with a prize of $1.1 million, which he donated back to the ministry. For more information about this prize go to click here. The following short articles are what I contributed to the proposal, as well as oversaw the writing of three other articles.

Campus Ministry

In 1951, Dr. Bill Bright walked on to the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) to start a creative outreach to college students. At the time, most evangelistic outreach was directed toward skid row and jails. From the beginning, the motto of Campus Crusade for Christ has been, "Win the Campus for Christ Today, Win the World for Christ Tomorrow." Dr. Bright saw the importance of reaching student leaders who would be the future's decision makers and influencers. The also had the social skills and intelligence needed to influence people to love God and seek to know Him.

An outbreak of spirituality spread across the UCLA campus as students understood for the first time that their love of God grew in their understanding of God. As an overflow of this love, students learned to share with other students how they could have a closer relationship with God.

Campus Crusade for Christ began as Dr. Bright gathered a team of students to make presentations of a Christian perspective on life on campus, beginning in the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. Of the 60 women present, more than half expressed an interest in knowing more about God. Over the next few months, meetings like this one continued in fraternities, sororities, and dormitories, and with student leaders. More than 250 students at UCLA--including the student body president, the editor of the student newspaper and a number of the top athletes--committed their lives to God. So great was the influence on the entire campus that the chimes played Christian hymns during the noon hours. This was the beginning of a movement that would eventually touch millions of lives to encourage true spirituality and devotion to God.

Internet Evangelism and Discipleship

What the Roman roads were to the mobility of first century Christianity, what the printing press was to putting the Bible into the hands of laymen, what radio and television have been to bringing the gospel and training into the living rooms of twentieth century Christians, computers and the Internet will be to the next generation of Christians in making Christianity and spiritual growth opportunities widely accessible.

The U.S. Campus Ministry and Christian Leadership Ministry, the faculty ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, are working together to use the Internet to help people understand and draw close to God worldwide. We have the resource of 13,000 Christian faculty who are writing biblical responses to issues raised in their academic discipline to put into the hands of every Christian student and faculty member. Our Canadian Ministry has set up a site on the Web that is a clearinghouse of information on ministries, materials and sermons.

As a result, people will have at their fingertips the ability to know how to love God better because they will understand Him more. We will be able to instantaneously communicate with 100,000 volunteers, making available pre-formatted poster, advertisements and evangelistic articles. These resources will make Christians more effective communicators of God's love.

For example, Scott, a freshman at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, while casually exploring the Internet last fall, noticed a message that was unusual and intriguing. Phoebe, a student involved with Campus Crusade at Wright State University, put in information regarding a conference Campus Crusade has for college students at Christmas in Indianapolis. As Scott and Phoebe developed a friendship over the Internet, Scott chose to attend the conference. Scott now has a greater desire to reach his fellow midshipmen with the love of God.

Somalian Refugee Camps

The recent history of Somalia has drawn the attention of the world. A year before United Nations peacekeeping forces landed in Mogadishu, Campus Crusade for Christ was reaching out to the Somalian people in refugee camps established by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) located in northeastern Kenya. Campus Crusade staff members and students worked in a camp housing 30,000 refugees where basic problems such as malnutrition, diarrhea, poor compliance with using latrines, and respiratory problems were widespread. The primary purpose for being in the camp was to teach Somali community health workers basic health principles so they could teach others in the camp.

Being in the camp provided a platform to share the hope of eternal life in a place where little hope could be found. Campus Crusade staff members showed the "JESUS" film many times and talked with people one-to-one about a God who understands their situation and cares about them.

During their time in the refugee camp, the Campus Crusade representatives helped give out 41 tons of wheat, immunized more than 250 children, trained 110 Somali health workers, and helped make chicken coops so the Somali people could be self-sustaining. During this time, the death rate in the camp fell from 6.3 per 10,000 to 1.3 per 10,000. One Campus Crusade staff member Dennis Iida made this observation: "Despite the suffering, we were so grateful for what the Lord did in and through us. In the marketplace, the Somalis would comment on how they knew we were not just social workers, but Christians who were good people for helping them. This was quite a breakthrough since Somalians are taught to hate Christians from the age of three." Campus Crusade was able to cross religious barriers to offer hope and help to suffering people.

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Dave Carlson is the owner of Green Chair Marketing Group, a boutique marketing firm specializing in developing comprehensive marketing plans focusing on Internet strategies to help businesses succeed. He can be reached at 720-922-3124. See his Web site at www.GreenChair.net.

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