October 2003

ARTICLE TOOLS

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CAMPUS CRUSADE FOUNDER Bill Bright died in July after a long struggle with pulmonary fibrosis. The famous evangelist didn't just convert people to Christ; he inspired not a few of them to embark on ministries of their own. Those ministries have in turn converted others and inspired a new generation of ministry-driven disciples. Here are just three examples:

• Josh McDowell, who heads a ministry that extends the impact of his decades of speaking and writing. Evidence that Demands a Verdict is his best-known book. McDowell has also become involved in humanitarian outreach to Russia.

• Dave Hannah, who founded Athletes in Action, a sports outreach ministry of Campus Crusade, and led it for decades. Hannah now gives himself to History's Handful, a ministry to individuals and corporations able to donate $1 million or more for fulfilling the Great Commission.

• Rick Warren, who is pastor of Saddleback Church, one of America's largest churches, and author of the best-selling The Purpose-Driven Life.

Here is how McDowell, Hannah, and Warren remember Bill Bright changing their lives.

IN THE FALL of 1961, Bill Bright visited Wheaton College to give a chapel service on the Great Commission. After his talk, he took the time to meet with a few students and me at the student coffee shop. It seemed like time stood still as we sat in that booth, completely transfixed as Dr. Bright shared with us how to be filled with the Holy Spirit by faith.

He took a napkin and drew three circles with a simple chair sketched in the center of each one. On the first two chairs, he drew an S to represent the self, the ego.

"There are three kinds of people in the world," he explained. "The Bible tells us there is the 'natural ...