Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Mar/73

Contributor - John P. Drost

Title - Come Help Change The World

Topic - Outreach

The scene is a street in Welland, Ontario. A car stops, doors open and four women step on to the pavement. They huddle for a moment, studying their papers and pointing at homes. Then they part: two by two. We follow one couple and see how they walk up to a home and ring the bell. A moment of waiting the door opens. One of them addresses the lady of the house who has appeared in the door opening:"Hello, my name is Joan Vellinga and this is Francis Van Til. We are conducting a religious survey and wish to share some helpful information. Would you help us by giving your opinion in answer to a few questions?" The woman at the door nods and the questioning begins. "Are you a member of any religious group? Do you feel a need for a more personal religious faith?" etc., etc. While Joan Vellinga is asking her questions she has displayed on her pad a little brown book entitled: 'The Four Spiritual Laws.' Now that the survey has been completed and the lady has been thanked for her time Joan takes the little booklet and asks: "Have you heard of the spiritual laws?, Mrs. X indicates that she hasn't and Joan now proceeds to share its content with her, a simple presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Those who are familiar with the booklet have recognized the scene: the four women are sharing their faith and are using the method designed by an organization called: Campus Crusade For Christ International. It is not impossible that our women have just completed a week long training in a multiple church training experience known as L.I.F.E.: Lay Institute For Evangelism. If this is the case this is their first witness experience with the help of the Four Spiritual Laws or another (blue) booklet bearing the title: 'Have You Made The Wonderful Discovery of The Spirit Filled Life?' The booklets and the L.I.F.E. are all part of the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ (C.C.C.). Let me tell you something about a group which for the past twenty years has been instrumental in leading many individuals to Christ and in helping a great number of churches to be renewed and revitalized.

I first heard of Campus Crusade about two years ago when a colleague in our neighbourhood suggested that the churches in our community join and have a Lay Institute For Evangelism as conducted by Campus Crusade. His Church would host the event, other churches would either participate or cooperate. Plans materialized and as it turned out an Institute could be held in February 1973 and be combined with any efforts related to Key '73, the challenge of which is to call every Christian on this Continent to Jesus Christ. Our consistory studied the matter, familiarized herself with the nature of the training and then decided to send the pastor and his wife to a full week Institute to be held in Niagara Falls, Ontario in October of 1972. It was felt that if the pastor and his wife have an opportunity to acquaint- themselves with the kind of help C.C.C. offers, they would be in a so much better position to recommend the training to their people. We attended the Niagara Institute and came back with great enthusiasm, feeling that by God's grace our church could greatly benefit from the experience. It is a week ago now that the Wainfleet Institute was concluded with more than 700 participants, 80 of whom came from the Maranatha Reformed Church, Wainfleet. God blessed us in that experience, and it is our prayer that whatever ,vas gained here may be used to greater service and greater glory.

What is Campus Crusade For Christ? In very brief you might say, it's a vision, a faith, a method and a strategy. The vision is that the Great Commission (Matthew 28 : 19) be fulfilled in this generation (1980 to be exact); the faith is that "all things are possible to him who believes" (Mark 9: 23); the method is personal evangelism with the aid of simple tools; the strategy is a plan which aims at mobilizing the Church so that every member may be a full fledged and useful disciple. Campus Crusade calls itself an arm of the Church. It does in no way want to replace the Church, it wants to assist the Church. As such the group functions in a movement which is becoming stronger as it progresses, namely Church renewal. Campus Crusade and many others (Faith at Work, the Lay Witness Mission) our own Robert Schuller Institute of Garden Grove, California) are agents which God has raised up to guide the movement (which is His own work) and to give it stability and vision.

William Bright is the Founder and President of Campus Crusade, the headquarters of C.C.C. are Arrowhead Springs, California. Bright is a former businessman who later in life studied theology at Princeton and Fuller Seminaries. He was never ordained in the ministry because of a conviction that God could use him better in his lay status. The lay status has become typical for the staff of the organization. Begun in 1951 with Mr. and Mrs. Bright the group now has close to 4000 staff workers, many of them prominent and well established lay people who left all to follow Jesus in C.C.C. In my training with C.C.C. I was instructed by a former dentist, a former (well established) sales manager, and the owner of seven lumber yards somewhere in Canada. The latter is an associate staff worker since he has kept his business. C.C.C. began as a Campus ministry under the motto: win the Campus for Christ today, win the world for Christ tomorrow. Beginning in 1957, laymen and pastors, aware of the tremendous impact of this movement on the College Campus began to request similar training and a similar program for their churches and denominations. The Lay Ministry has since become a vital part of C.C.C.

Training lay people and pastors in the popular conference style, week long, or weekend institutes became the essence of the lay ministry strategy. The basic training centers on two theme questions: 'how to live the abundant life' and 'how to share the abundant'. The first theme question is experienced as an exercise in sanctification. A series of lectures deal with subjects such as: The Cleansed Life, The Spirit Filled Life, How To Walk In The Spirit, How To Witness In The Spirit, etc. A strong emphasis in this part of the training is placed on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. "The Christian who has not understood the ministry of the Holy Spirit (who is not filled with the Holy Spirit) cannot really live in Christ, or love in Christ, or believe in Christ, or witness in Christ, or produce the fruits of the Spirit." The second aspect of the training program deals with the 'how' of witnessing. It is here that the booklets are used: 'The Four Spiritual Laws', and 'Have You Made The Wonderful Discovery of the Spirit Filled Life?'

Next to the basic training which we described above there are the strategy courses, one of which is the Way of L.I.F.E. Plan. L.I.F.E.in this instance reads: Lay Involvement For Evangelism. The Way of Life Plan outlines a strategy the central objective of which is to fully equip every Christian in a systematic and ongoing way. Provision in this plan is made for understanding classes (beginning Christians) and for growing classes where the Scriptures and the truths of the faith are studied in greater depth. At the same time training is made available for outreach so that the community (the world) may be saturated with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The secret of the strategy is that it is ongoing, training people 'who train others.

In an age when secular forces make inroads on the Church and when we find ourselves in the malstrom of revolutions of many kinds, there is a great need for the Church to mobilize her forces and to be caught in the winds of renewal which the Lord so generously provides. Essential in this mobilization is the training of our lay people. Essential is the vision, the faith, the method and the strategy. Many of our people are -available, but their availability is often useless because they don't know HOW. Often they don't know how to live the abundant life in Christ; more often thy don't know how to share the abundant life." God is calling us to a new commitment, calling us to a new thing. Let us go where the wind blows, the wind of the Spirit of God. Let us go in the faith that all things are possible to him who believes. Let us go ... and help, change the WORLD!

The National Lay Coordinator of Campus Crusade for Canada is Mr. Peter G. Dueck. His address: Campus Crusade For Christ of Canada, P.O. Box 386, Abbotsford, B.C.

Come Help Change The World is a book by Bill Bright describing the history of the movement.

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