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Ralph Reed, 35
Executive director, Christian Coalition

"Vote for Ralph Reed: The Little Giant" was the motto of the then junior-high politico wannabe who was running for student council. Today, as executive director of the Christian Coalition—which represents, says Time magazine, "the most thorough penetration of the secular world of American politics by a religious organization in this century"—Ralph Reed is no longer a wannabe. In 1989 Reed met Pat Robertson, who asked for the young doctoral student's advice on how to revitalize his supporters after his failed presidential bid. After follow-up conversations, Robertson handed over his mailing list to Reed, which Reed translated into a community-based, local-issue-driven groundswell of politically active conservative Christians. Today his advice is solicited by a spectrum of leaders and politicians, usually Republicans, though he insists that CC members are not in the lap of the GOP: "They're conservative, religious people that are pro-life." Reed says he hopes that the CC will be a "long-term participant in American public life," working "to see a day when the sanctity of innocent life is enshrined in our laws and in the Constitution."

Bruce Main, 39
Founder, Urban Promise

When Bruce Main was a freshman at Azusa Pacific University, he asked himself, "Where in the U.S. are children and teens most needy?" After college and Fuller Seminary, he and his young bride, Pamela, moved to the economically depressed city of Camden, New Jersey. Nine years later he is still there, heading the organization he founded, Urban Promise, with its 30 full-time paid and volunteer staff and an annual budget of $1 million. The ministry sponsors job workshops, after-school programs, summer day camps (for nearly 1,000 children), and two gospel choirs. It also gives high-school students tours of historic African-American colleges. "With a 60 percent dropout rate in our high schools here, and with less than 4 percent finishing college," says Bruce, "we are excited that 15 of our youth are now freshmen and sophomores in college, and that 70 percent of our current high schoolers are now seriously considering college." The next big project for Urban Promise: a Christian school in Camden to open September 1997. Tony Campolo, who first inspired Bruce to consider urban ministry when he spoke at Azusa, notes: "Bruce has created and developed one of the most significant urban ministries in America."

Michael Teague, 37
C.O.O., Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles

When Michael Teague goes to his office at the Union Rescue Mission in L.A. every morning, he is motivated by the conviction that "today's rescue missions are as integral to cities throughout the United States as were Good Samaritans on the road to Jericho some 2,000 years ago." Now chief operations officer at the largest rescue mission in the U.S. (annual budget: $14 million) and a sought-after consultant to other shelters, including one in Capetown, South Africa, Teague is convinced that today's rescue missions need to go far beyond the stereotypes. Union, for example, sponsors job-training and addiction-recovery programs as well as runs a health center, a transitional-housing complex, and a youth center. "Today, less than 5 percent of the rescue mission population fit the stereotype—middle-aged, Caucasian alcoholic," he says. "Instead, the fastest-growing population served is women and children, who make up one-third of all homeless people in shelters today. Minority men between 30 and 35 years of age make up another one-third of this population, with over 80 percent of them addicted to chemicals." With a background in business (B.A. in business administration and three years as a financial analyst for Texaco) and ministry (a seminary degree, five years as an associate pastor, and three years at a Seattle rescue mission), Teague, says Stephen Burger, head of the International Union of Gospel Missions, "has moved quickly through the ranks of rescue mission leadership and is one of the outstanding young leaders in urban ministry today."

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November 11 1996, Vol. 40, No. 13