About Cru

When Bill and Vonette Bright first launched Campus Crusade for Christ as a campus ministry in 1951, the underlying concept was to "win the campus today and change the world tomorrow." More than 50 years later, the mission remains the same.

Today, the campus ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ is a network of vibrant, growing movements on 1,029 campuses in the United States and beyond. Proven and diverse outreach strategies expose millions of students to the gospel each year. Over the past five years, more than 37,900 students made a decision to become a Christian.

Cru Campus

There are over 110 million college students around the world. This represents only a small percentage of the world's population, the "powerful percent." These are the future leaders of the nations. WSN is the international effort of the campus ministry to serve the nations of the world in reaching college students.

Campus Crusade for Christ International

The campus ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ is part of a family of 60 ministries under Campus Crusade for Christ International based in Orlando, Florida . Dr. Bill Bright founded the ministry in 1951 at UCLA. Campus Crusade for Christ now has 26,000 full time staff and 550,000 trained volunteers worldwide serving on campuses and in community based ministries in 191 countries. The goal of the campus ministry is to help reach the 110 million college students of the world with the message of the gospel. To learn more about the other ministries of Campus Crusade for Christ International visit www.cru.org .

History

Campus Crusade for Christ was founded by Bill and Vonette Bright at UCLA in 1951. One year later, Bill Bright wrote The Four Spiritual Laws- likely the most widely distributed religious booklet in history, with approximately 2.5 billion printed to date.

By 1960, Campus Crusade was established on 40 campuses in the United States and in two other countries. During the 1960's the ministry began conducting international Christmas conferences and summer mission projects.

In 1983, a major event called KC'83 was held in Kansas City that drew 17,000 college students. Almost a decade later, in 1991, Campus Crusade relocated its headquarters from California to Orlando, FL.

US News & World Report rated Campus Crusade as the top religious charity in the United States in 1995. Money magazine ranked the ministry as the most "efficient" religious ministry in the U.S. in 1996.

By the year 2000, Campus Crusade for Christ International , the parent organization for the college ministry, had more than 24,000 full time staff members, and more than 500,000 trained volunteers serving in 191 countries. Founder Bill Bright passed the leadership torch to new president Steve Douglass, formerly executive vice president and director of U.S. Ministries in 2001.

Statement of Faith

The sole basis of our beliefs is the Bible, God's infallible written Word, the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. We believe that it was uniquely, verbally and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit and that it was written without error (inerrant) in the original manuscripts. It is the supreme and final authority in all matters on which it speaks.

We accept those areas of doctrinal teaching on which, historically, there has been general agreement among all true Christians. Because of the specialized calling of our movement, we desire to allow for freedom of conviction on other doctrinal matters, provided that any interpretation is based upon the Bible alone, and that no such interpretation shall become an issue which hinders the ministry to which God has called us.

• There is one true God, eternally existing in three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – each of whom possesses equally all the attributes of Deity and the characteristics of personality.
• Jesus Christ is God, the living Word, who became flesh through His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and His virgin birth. Hence, He is perfect Deity and true humanity united in one person forever.
• He lived a sinless life and voluntarily atoned for the sins of men by dying on the cross as their substitute, thus satisfying divine justice and accomplishing salvation for all who trust in Him alone.
• He rose from the dead in the same body, though glorified, in which He lived and died.
• He ascended bodily into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God the Father, where He, the only mediator between God and man, continually makes intercession for His own.
• Man was originally created in the image of God. He sinned by disobeying God; thus, he was alienated from his Creator. That historic fall brought all mankind under divine condemnation.
• Man's nature is corrupted, and he is thus totally unable to please God. Every man is in need of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
• The salvation of man is wholly a work of God's free grace and is not the work, in whole or in part, of human works or goodness or religious ceremony. God imputes His righteousness to those who put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation, and thereby justified them in His sight.
• It is the privilege of all who are born again of the Spirit to be assured of their salvation from the very moment in which they trust Christ as their Savior. This assurance is not based upon any kind of human merit, but is produced by the witness of the Holy Spirit, who confirms in the believer the testimony of God in His written word.
• The Holy Spirit has come into the world to reveal and glorify Christ and to apply the saving work of Christ to men. He convicts and draws sinners to Christ, imparts new life to them, continually indwells them from the moment of spiritual birth and seals them until the day of redemption. His fullness, power and control are appropriated in the believer's life by faith.
• Every believer is called to live so in the power of the indwelling Spirit that he will not fulfill the lust of the flesh but will bear fruit to the glory of God.
• Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church, His Body, which is composed of all men, living and dead, who have been joined to Him through saving faith.
• God admonishes His people to assemble together regularly for worship, for participation in ordinances, for edification through the Scriptures and for mutual encouragement.
• At physical death the believer enters immediately into eternal, conscious fellowship with the Lord and awaits the resurrection of his body to everlasting glory and blessing.
• At physical death the unbeliever enters immediately into eternal, conscious separation from the Lord and awaits the resurrection of his body to everlasting judgment and condemnation.
• Jesus Christ will come again to the earth – personally, visibly and bodily – to consummate history and the eternal plan of God.
• The Lord Jesus Christ commanded all believers to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world and to disciple men of every nation. The fulfillment of that Great Commission requires that all worldly and personal ambitions be subordinated to a total commitment to "Him who loved us and gave Himself for us."