Evangelicalism: a bright future?
In 1951 Bill Bright and his wife, Vonette, made a simple sort of 'contract' with Jesus. They pledged all their resources to the spread of the gospel. Then they sold their food business and later an Oklahoma oil drilling company. And they used the finances thereby gained to help found Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC). Today CCC is perhaps the largest Christian para-church organisation in the world. It works in 191 countries, has a full-time staff of 26,000 as well as more than 225,000 trained volunteers.
On July 19 Dr. Bill Bright died. He may not be the last famous post-war evangelical pioneer to die in the next year or so. While wishing to avoid all reference to Mark Twain's famous quip about his prematurely reported passing ('Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated'), both John Stott and Billy Graham are, after all, in their 80s.
