Tomorrow is Here (CCC Blogference Post)

In 1951, Dr. Bill Bright set out on a mission, one that would help fuel Christ-centered missions around the globe and usher in a new student volunteer movement. The movement sprouted from humble beginnings on the campus of UCLA but would soon take flight to dozens of countries around the globe.

As Dr. Bright began to share the vision of Campus Crusade for Christ with his fellow believers, he would use a simple yet defining rallying cry: “Reach the campus today; reach the world tomorrow.” That would set the direction for the fledgling movement as Campus Crusade would take the message of Christ to thousands of college campuses in 191 different countries, making it one of the largest evangelical organizations in the world.

A few years into the movement, Dr. Bright would complete a book called, Come Help Change the World. Thousands of students and staff members signed onto the organization with the belief that reaching a generation of college students with the message of Christ would later touch every aspect of society. An army of young, impassioned students would have an effect on societies the world over. The ripple of the Gospel would leave transformed cities and cultures in its wake. After all, history has shown that its greatest movements have sprung from the hearts of its youth. Reach the campus today and change the world tomorrow? You bet!

So after 58 seven years of work in the United States, we should expect to see a vastly different place; a place where crime has trouble finding a dark alley, poverty has nothing to feed on, corruption and greed make everyone angry, children receive the highest education and strongest nurturing and a culture that puts no price tag on the value of instilling biblical values.

Yet somewhere, somehow, we have fallen drastically shy of that mark.

We now live in a country that is experiencing a steady decline in those who call themselves Christians. We can interpret this differently depending upon our perspective, but the wave of current statistics points to an undertow of resentment or indifference toward the local Church. (I find it appropriate to capitalize that last word, as the responsibility to influence the community falls on the Church corporately.)

No doubt that the vision and mission of Dr. Bright and Campus Crusade for Christ have unleashed a movement that can claim hundreds of thousands, even millions of souls for Jesus Christ. The students and staff have taken the light of the Gospel to some of the farthest corners of the globe. Millions have heard the Message. So was something lacking in the original vision? I don’t think so. But somewhere in our zeal to reach the campus today, we let the driving vision of a changed world tomorrow fade into proverbial history.

What must we do to regain that massive vision that so captivated the hundreds of thousands of staff, students and volunteers that joined the ranks of Campus Crusade for Christ five decades ago – that vision that hearkened back to one delivered a few thousand years ago by a Man from a small town called Nazareth?

Dump some thoughts out here. What’s your perspective? How can Campus Crusade/the Church in general embrace the full vision and calling of our Lord to bring the kingdom to earth?