Bill Bright, co-founder of Campus Crusade for Christ International, an evangelical organization that began on a Los Angeles campus and grew to include dozens of ministries, died July 19. He was 81.
Bright died from complications from pulmonary fibrosis and prostate cancer, said Campus Crusade officials.
Bright, the longtime president of Campus Crusade, was officially succeeded in 2001 by Steve Douglass, former executive vice president.
But Bright, who co-founded Campus Crusade with his wife, Vonette, in 1951, was still working on books, preparing videos and planning training for Christian leaders in recent months despite his illnesses.
Former U.S. Senate Chaplain Lloyd Ogilvie described Bright earlier this year as a man who brought “dynamic leadership” to Campus Crusade, exuding confidence as he depended on God.
In 1991, Crusade moved its headquarters to Orlando, Fla. Famed evangelist Billy Graham, a longtime friend of the Brights, said Bright carried a lifelong “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,” Graham said in a statement.
Former Southern Baptist Convention President James Merritt said members of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination have long admired Bright, who he considered a great follower of Jesus’ command to evangelize the world.
“I can say without question or qualification that Southern Baptists have a tremendous love and respect for Dr. Bright,” Merritt told Religion News Service in 2001. “I don’t know of any man in the 20th century that did more to promote the Great Commission … than Bill Bright.”
A native Oklahoman who once owned a confections business, Bright liked to refer to himself as a former “happy pagan.”
He studied at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey and Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., but chose to remain a layman because he thought some people would be more comfortable around him without the ordination credentials.
His ministry expanded from campuses to include outreach to diplomats, professors, executives, military personnel, athletes and families. In addition to overseeing Campus Crusade, Bright wrote more than 50 books and booklets.
Dennis Rainey, executive director of FamilyLife, a Campus Crusade division focused on supporting families, said Bright’s faith led him to embark on new ministries.
“He once told me in a meeting ‘that when I die, I want to be found guilty of believing God for too much rather than too little,’ and I think his life has exemplified that,” said Rainey, whose division is based in Little Rock, Ark. “No one would ever accuse Bill Bright of having small plans.”
In five decades, his ministry grew to include 22,000 full-time staffers and almost half a million volunteers.
Bright, the winner of the prestigious Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1996, was honored in 2001 by prominent evangelical organizations.
The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association awarded him its Gold Medallion Lifetime Achievement Award and the National Association of Evangelicals chose him for its first-ever Lifetime Ministry Award.
Among his most noteworthy evangelistic accomplishments was the creation of a little pamphlet titled “Have You Heard of the Four Spiritual Laws?”
The small booklet, which explained how people can become Christians, has been printed more than 2.5 billion times in more than 200 languages.
His ministry also has been known worldwide for the distribution of a movie about the life of Jesus. The film, simply called “Jesus,” now exists in more than 800 languages.
Rather than accepting praise for his wide-ranging work, Bright often gave God the credit.
“Can you imagine a little old movement started by two little old people like Vonette and me, but see incredible things happen?” he marveled. “It has to be God’s doing.”
Bright is survived by his wife, a sister and brother, two sons and four grandchildren. (RNS)
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