Campus Crusade for Christ and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
Probably no other single organization, including any denomination, has impacted the evangelical world more widely and deeply since its founding in 1951 by Bill and Vonette Bright at the University of California at Los Angeles than Campus Crusade for Christ. A veritable army of young evangelists who support themselves by raising pledges of sustaining contributions through friends, family, and churches, it is found at work in most campuses and many other locations, like high schools and military bases, around the world.
Some fellow evangelicals criticize the ministry for superficiality, as its “Four Spiritual Laws” booklet, used to begin most evangelistic conversations on campuses, omits some basic Christian teachings. Defenders maintain any shortcomings in the entrée mechanism are offset by intensive discipleship and fellowship, often spanning years of campus life.
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Campus Crusade is the largest evangelical organization in the United States, according to USA Today and others. Even governmental offices are targeted for outreach by Crusade staff members, through so-called Christian embassies in Washington and near the United Nations. Its film, Jesus, has been shown around the world more widely than any other film ever produced, Crusade spokespersons claim.
Though many see the modern secular university campuses as an unlikely environment for Christians and their faith, ministries like Campus Crusade, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Navigators, and other church-based and independent campus ministries help evangelical young adults get through the challenges of college life. These groups usually co-operate and try to be mutually supportive of major programs, though sometimes territorial disputes are claimed.
Part of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, InterVarsity, oriented more to serving already-persuaded Christian students than evangelizing, had 810 chapters at 560 campuses throughout the United States in the most recent year for which figures were available. Chapters are often organized around needs of specific student groups, like ethnic minorities (especially Asian Christian students), graduate students, and others. Tracing its roots to Cambridge University in 1877, the American branch has been incorporated since 1941, following InterVarsity's establishment in Canada by British campus missionary Howard Guinness. As of the latest reported figures, there are 1,000 InterVarsity staff members serving 35,000 American student members.
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InterVarsity Press supplies academically oriented books (like Schaeffer's, on trends in philosophy, the arts, and culture) to campus groups, adding 100 titles annually, with 800 currently in print. For years, campus chapters sold the books from tables in common areas, but since the 1970s, the books have been widely available through Christian booksellers and, more recently, secular bookstores.
Navigators dates its now-international ministry to 1933, when a southern California Sunday-school teacher, Dawson Trotman, enlisted his high school–aged class to join him in evangelizing sailors serving on nearby U.S. Navy facilities. Out of this work came the Navigators' ministry of spiritual multiplication. Today staff members minister to military installations around the world, on college campuses, and in many other locations. The Navigators have long led the after-decision follow-up ministry to Billy Graham evangelistic crusade converts. Incorporated in California in 1943, its headquarters is currently in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
