Bill Bright will be 80 when he passes control of his 87-ministry organization to Stephen Douglass, a Campus Crusade for Christ colleague of 30 years and Crusade's current executive vice president.The baton will change hands in July of 2001, but Douglass will now begin to assume Bright's responsibilities to ensure a "seamless transition." Bright plans to develop at least 10 more books for Crusade's International Training University, an institute that prepares workers for evangelism all over the world (CT July 14, 1997, p. 14)."There is no other Bill Bright," says Douglass, who admires Bright's humility, faith, and commitment to make the Christian life simpler for the average person to understand.

A Virginia district judge has ordered the Internal Revenue Service to refund taxes paid by the Christian Coalition in 1990 because the irs has conceded that the organization was tax- exempt that year.The decision on July 25 by U.S. District Judge Henry Morgan Jr. of Norfolk, Va., came within two weeks of the coalition receiving a refund for its $169.26 payment to the irs.The decision is a "major victory," says Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, which represented the coalition. The suit followed irs rejection of the coalition's application for tax- exempt status in 1999.