Bill Bright

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Bill Bright (actually: William Rohl Bright ; born October 19, 1921 in Coweta , Oklahoma , † July 19, 2003 in Orlando , Florida ) was an American evangelist and founder of the world's largest missionary organization, Campus Crusade for Christ International , which today with 26,000 full-time employees and approx. 225,000 voluntary employees in 191 countries around the world. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland the mission work exists under Campus for Christ .

Life

Bill and Vonette Bright 1980

Bill Bright was the son of Forest Dale Bright and Mary Lee Rohl Bright. He grew up on his parents' farm with four other brothers and two sisters. He came into contact with the Christian faith at an early age, primarily through his mother, but for a long time could not do anything with it. Due to a sports injury, he began to comment on the games of the home football team. So he developed an extraordinary gift of speech at a young age. He studied economics and sociology, graduated with honors in 1944 and was then appointed as an associate professor at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma . However, he preferred business life and founded a successful confectionery factory in Los Angeles . During this time he got to know the Hollywood First Presbyterian Church and its university pastor, Henrietta Mears. Because of her influence, he made a conscious decision to live with Jesus Christ in 1945 and began to read the Bible intensively . While doing business, he studied theology at Princeton University and Fuller Theological Seminary .

In 1948 Bright married Vonette Zachary, also from Coweta. The two adopted two boys. As a married couple, they made a written "contract with God" in which they made themselves available to God with everything they were and had. A short time later the idea of ​​a worldwide Christian movement among students emerged with the aim of " reaching the world in this generation with the gospel ". The starting point for this student work was the University of California, Los Angeles, and Vonette and Bill Bright worked closely together. For a long time, student work remained the only branch of Campus Crusade for Christ's work , but over time more and more target groups came into focus: artists, ambassadors, prisoners, business people, students ... For five decades, Bright was the international president of Campus Crusade for Christ , in 2001 his longtime employee Steve Douglass succeeded him. Bill Bright died in July 2003 of complications from pulmonary fibrosis .

Works

Bill Bright has written more than 100 scriptures, books, and countless articles. In German u. a. published:

  • 1971: The Communicable Concepts, 9 books on topics such as: Effective Prayer, Living in the Holy Spirit ...
  • 1983: Surprises with God ( ISBN 3-7751-0815-7 )
  • 1990: Spread the word naturally - how to invite others to believe ( ISBN 3-7751-1594-3 )
  • 1996: Expecting God's Action - Spiritual Renewal Through Fasting and Prayer ( ISBN 3-88404-102-9 )
  • 1998: Got It: Key Experiences with God ( ISBN 3-7751-1890-X )
  • 2004: First Love - Learning to love God passionately ( ISBN 3-7655-1856-5 )

effect

1979 Bill Bright presented the film Jesus . The film flopped at the US box office, but is a huge success internationally and has been translated into over a thousand languages.

Since 1972, Explo conferences (the term Explo stands for spiritual explosion) have motivated Christians around the world to carry out Jesus' missionary mandate and to convert others to the Christian faith. The premiere was in 1972 in Dallas / Texas with 85,000 participants, in 1974 in Seoul / Korea 330,000 participants came. Since 1985 the explo has been broadcast worldwide via satellite transmission.

In 1996, Bill Bright was awarded the £ 1.1 million Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in England . With the money he sponsored a worldwide prayer service.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jesus in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  2. ↑ "Evangelism in the native language: Jesus film now translated into over 1000 languages"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.jesus.de  
  3. ^ John G. Turner: Bill Bright & Campus Crusade for Christ: the renewal of evangelicalism in postwar America. UNC Press Books, 2008, ISBN 0807858730 , ISBN 9780807858738 , page 152.
  4. ↑ http://www.templetonprize.org/previouswinner.html

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bright, Bill
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bright, William Rohl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American evangelist and founder of the world's largest missionary organization, Campus Crusade for Christ International
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Coweta , Oklahoma
DATE OF DEATH July 19, 2003
Place of death Orlando , Florida