Leadership Principles From Bill Bright

8/9/2019 Leadership Principles From Bill Bright

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The Spiritual Legacy ofDr Bill Bright (1921-2003)

(1921-2003)

Reference

Ted Martin & Michael Cozzens,Principles of Leadership:

What We Can Learn From the Life and Ministry of Bill Bright.

Orlando, FL: New Life Publications, 2001.


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Faith Power Vision Prayer Ministry

In our time, few people, if any, have influenced more

people directly and personally, as well as indirectly

through the multiple ministries of Campus Crusade and

through his writings, than Bill Bright. According to

George Gallup, Jr., "He has reached people in depth and

in numbers matched by few others in history." -Gordon

Klenck, first recruit on CCC staff in 1952(p40)


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The crystallized form of the "by faith" concepttaught inThe Four Spiritual Laws booklet was a great discovery for

the Korean church... This had been an unrecognized

concept in the Korean church... The Four Spiritual Laws

booklet taught such a simple concept of salvation "by

faith" that it brought a revolution in the Korean church.

-Dr Joon-Gon Kim (p20)

... ...


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"My experience in working with Bill over the last 33 years

has proven, without a doubt, that he lives by faith in the

faithfulness of God. Regardless of circumstances, he

believes that by faith we can overcome any obstacle...

Nehemiah believed God for the impossible to become

possible. Bill follows the same process of living by faith

in the God of the impossible." -Thomas Abraham (p32)

...


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"Bill believes and puts his faith in God first, above

everything and everyone else. All that we see now in the

Campus Crusade ministry is the by-product of his faith.

He takes the promise of God at face value and

demonstrates his faith in these promises without seeing

tangible evidence of the outcome." -Thomas Abraham

(p33)


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"I have heard Bill cite Psalm 23 many times... If we

follow our Shepherd in faith, we shall not want for

righteousness, relief, food, recognition, joy, or

resources. My times are in His hands, and whatever

happens, I can put my faith and trust in Him. Bill

demonstrates with his life, words, and actions that

victory is not always easy, but by faith, victory is sure

and certain." -Thomas Abraham (p32)

...


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"Over all these years, Bill has been obedient to the call

of life of faith... Without knowing what was ahead, Bill

was willing to step out from his business and surrender

all that he owned to God. He and Vonette signed a

contract with God... He had great confidence in God,

knowing that God alone is sufficient and that He had

promised to provide everything he and Vonette would

need for the rest of their lives."-Thomas Abraham (p32)

...

...


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The Brights never owned a home. They have paid rent in

every place they have lived. They do not own a car. Over

the years, a friend who owns a car dealership has

allowed them to drive his demonstration cars. They do

not even have a savings account. (p286-287)


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In his mind and heart, Bill believed that the more Spirit-

filled staff and volunteers involved in ministry, the

greater the potential for more love, more evangelism,

more discipleship, more equipping and helping to fulfill

the Great Commission... He would say, "To truly be a

leader in kingdom work, one must be continually

dependent upon and filled with the Holy Spirit. (p142)

...


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One of Dr. Bright's most deeply held beliefs is that God

wants every individual to share his faith in Christ. What

stands in the way of all Christians living fruitful,

satisfying, and productive lives? The key... is that every

Christian needs to know how to be filled and controlled

by the Holy Spirit... The result would not only be more

evangelism (and hence more new believers), but a happy

and satisfied life for the believer. (p278)

...

...


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"The third event that dramatically impacted my life was

meeting Dr. Bill Bright... He and those he was discipling

seemed the special kind of men who were portrayed in

the Book of Acts. Their Christian lifestyle was a vivid

lesson to me. I learned firsthand and experienced for

myself the life of being filled with the Holy Spirit by

faith." -DrJoon-Gon Kim (p19-20)

...


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If there is any message that Bill Bright preaches or

teaches more often than the gospel of salvation in

Christ, it is the message of how to be filled... by the

Holy Spirit through faith. He reasons that if he can teach

others how to appropriate the power of the Holy Spirit in

their lives, they in turn can lead others to Christ, and

this will result in the multiplication of evangelism. (p67-

68)


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The real genius... of the ministry of Bill Bright and

Campus Crusade for Christ is not its commitment to the

Great Commission, nor its tools..., nor in its strategies...

The real genius has been the emphasis on the ministry of

the Holy Spirit.... The Great Commission is the work of

the Holy Spirit. To be filled with the Spirit is not just

victory over sin, holiness, and Christlikeness. It will also

be shown in living out our identity as God's missionaries

to the world. (93-94)

... ...

...


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Dr. Bright has frequently commented that he needs just

two booklets to start a conversation with anyone: The

Four Spiritual Laws and the Holy Spirit booklet. Either a

person needs to know Christ, or the person knows Christ

but may not understand the spiritual abundance and

power available to the believer through the Holy Spirit,

or the person should be encouraged to share the content

of these booklets with others.(77)


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The vision that God had given Bill was never simply for

the college campus. The campus was to be the primary

source of manpower for getting to the world. When I

joined the staff of Campus Crusade in 1960, all Crusade

had was a campus ministry, but the motto on the wall in

the front of the chapel where Staff Training was held

said, "Win the Campus for Today. Win the World for

Christ Tomorrow."-Ted Martin(61-62)


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If anyone asks about the overall goals of Campus

Crusade, without reservation the answer will be to give

everyone a chance to hear about Jesus. More than just

talking about it, Bill has demonstrated this commitment

throughout his life. It doesn't matter whether he is in a

taxi, in the supermarket, or walking down the street, he

always tries to pass the message of the gospel to

everyone, everywhere. -Thomas Abraham(36-37)


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Dr. Bright was not enthusiastic about evangelistic

productivity simply for its own sake... His goal was to

take the gospel to every nation, every tribe --- and

ideally, to every human being during his lifetime. (279)

...


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Bill has often said that Campus Crusade is only a leaf on

a twig... of the vine, which is the Church, the Body of

Christ. But he firmly believes that Campus Crusade is to

be a catalyst to the rest of the Body of Christ,

encouraging all believers everywhere, all denominations,

all Christian ministries to be involved in the task of

fulfilling the Great Commission. -Ted Martin(59)


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"Campus Crusade is not primarily an evangelistic

organization but is rather a discipling movement. It

exists solely to disciple leaders who are committed to

reaching and discipling other leaders to fulfill the Great

Commission in this generation. Consequently, the focus

of Campus Crusade is leadership, leadership, and more

leadership."-Stanley Oakes, quoting Bill Bright(268)


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F ith P Vi i P Mi i t


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One may also ask, "Why does a movement like Campus

Crusade for Christ have or need an emphasis on prayer?"

Dr. Bright explains, "We are engaged in a spiritual

ministry, a ministry of changing people's lives, asupernatural ministry... We must depend upon the

supernatural resources to accomplish supernatural

objectives."(105)

...



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He challenges all believers, "If you were to take seriously

the promises of God andbegin to claim by faith in prayer

all that you have been promised, you would experience

miracles in your life and ministry, multitudes would beintroduced to our Lord Jesus Christ, the whole course of

history would be changed, and you would help fulfill the

Great Commission during your lifetime."(106)



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Brad Bright, Bill's son, said of his father, "Whenever

things came into his life that I regarded as problems, his

first response was always to go to his knees and say,

'Father, what do you want me to do?' It really was justanother opportunity to see God work, whether it was big

or small."(103)



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Dr. Bright feels so strongly about the priority and

necessity of prayer that he he has said that someday he

wants to give himself completely to prayer because it is

the answer to everything -- funding, administration,results. He believes, "Absolutely, beyond any shadow of

doubt ... the most important thing we as staff can do

individually and corporately is to pray."(107)

...



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Many disciplines characterize his life, but the one that

seems to impact and support all others is prayer. This

was true from the very inception of Campus Crusade for

Christ, as the movement was actually birthed throughprayer. He says, "Vonette and I and our friends

undergirded the ministry in constant prayer. We often

found ourselves praying, 'Lord, where do you want us to

launch this ministry?'"(99)



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"Prayer is one of the most important factors in successful

evangelism and follow-up... God is 'not willing that any

should perish'... God wants all of His children to be more

and more like Christ in every way. Therefore, accordingto 1 John 5:14,15, we know God will hear and answer if

we pray for multitudes to become Christians and for

many to become disciples, because we know that we pray

according to God's will." Bill Bright (99)

...

... 5 14-15


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y y

I know that even after I had received a doctoral degree

in theology, I was still not very effective in presenting

the gospel to groups or even to individuals. Then I came

on Campus Crusade staff and received training. As I wentinto sororities, fraternities, and college dormitories to

present Christ, I began to see many people respond in

faith to the gospel. (63)



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y y

Effectiveness is actually a written "value" of Campus

Crusade for Christ...For fifty years, Bill has been in the

process of finding what works best... A good working

definition of effectiveness is: that which brings the bestresult for the effort and funds expended. Campus

Crusade is always searching for faster, better, less

expensive ways to get the good news of Jesus Christ to

those who have not heard. (133)

...

...



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y y

Reaching and recruiting leaders has also been a goal of

the ministry from the beginning. The first outreach Bill

and Vonette made on the UCLA campus was to student

leaders... Many staff members came to Campus Crusadefrom leadership positions in the secular world. They

brought leadership expertise to help many of the

ministries achieve a greater level of effectiveness. (133)

...



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Dr. Bright has always had the philosophy that it is our

responsibility to sow, but the results are up to God. He

also believes that among those who respond to the

message are those who will become 30-, 60-, and 100-fold producers... It was these men and women that he

wanted to disciple as leaders in the workforce those

who would also sow broadly and bring in the harvest.

(229)

...



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In the thirty-five years that I have been associated with

Bill Bright, one phrase has been the theme of his strategy

formulation: "small plans do not inflame the minds of

men." (299)

Leadership Principles From Bill Bright

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