Top Stories of 2003: Campus Crusade for Christ Founder Bill Bright Passes at 81
by Jenni Parker
December 29, 2003
(AgapePress) - William R. "Bill" Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ International, the largest Christian ministry in the world, has passed away at the age of 81. Bright died Saturday, July 19, from complications related to pulmonary fibrosis.A dedicated and impassioned leader, Bright was driven by a desire to spread the love and knowledge of Jesus Christ to every living person on earth. He spent more than 50 years building and leading the Orlando, Florida-based Campus Crusade for Christ, a ministry that serves people in 191 countries through 26,000 full-time employees and more than 225,000 volunteers working in some 60 niche ministries and projects.
Bright was an impassioned and dedicated innovator who continuously sought ways to equip Christians with evangelistic tools to carry out the great commission and to communicate the gospel throughout the entire world. In 1956, he wrote a 77-page booklet titled "The Four Spiritual Laws", which has since become the most widely disseminated religious booklet in history, having been printed into 200 languages and distributed to more than 2.5 billion people. And in 1979 Bright commissioned production of the "Jesus Film", a feature-length documentary on the life of Christ based on the gospel of Luke. The Jesus film has since been viewed by more than 5.1 billion people in 234 countries and translated into more than 800 languages, making it the most widely viewed and most widely translated film in history.
In 1996 Bright received the prestigious Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, the world's largest financial annual award . Bright donated all of the money -- a prize worth more than $1 million -- to causes promoting the spiritual benefits of fasting and prayer.
Evangelist Billy Graham, a long-time friend of the Brights, said of Bill, "He has carried a burden on his heart as few men that I've ever known. A burden for the evangelization of the world. He is a man whose sincerity and integrity and devotion to our Lord have been an inspiration and a blessing to me ever since the early days of my ministry."
Bright's work through Campus Crusade for Christ will continue under the leadership of long-time associate Steve Douglass, whom Dr. Bright chose as his successor in 2001.
Douglass spoke of Bright's passing as a loss both personal and universal. "Not only have I lost a dear and lifelong friend in Bill Bright, but the world has lost one of its greatest visionaries and faithful servants of Jesus Christ," he said.
James Dobson of the Focus on the Family ministry, whose July 21 radio broadcast is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Bright, says. "I really believe after the first century Christians, there has been no one who has been more influential for Christ or whose work has reached more of the world than Dr. Bill Bright and the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ."
Bill Bright is survived by his wife Vonette, who assisted him in founding Campus Crusade for Christ; his sister Florence Skinner; his brother Forest Bright; his son Zachary, pastor of Divine Savior Presbyterian Church in California; his son Bradley, a member of the Campus Crusade staff; and four grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, the Brights request that friends honor Bill's memory and help to further the work to which he devoted his life by giving to the William R. Bright Legacy Trust.
