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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 man,' the 'spiritual man,' and the 'carnal man.' The natural man is one who hasn't received the Lord Jesus as Savior. The carnal man is one who has received Christ, but lives a defeated life."

Then, on the chair in the third circle, he drew a cross.

"But the spiritual man," he continued, "places Christ on the throne of his life, and his own ego steps aside to allow God's Holy Spirit to control his life. The fruits of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, and goodness—are the obvious benefits."

I remember thinking, When I get up and walk away from here, I will never again be the same. Never will I be able to say I don't know how to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And that proved to be true; my life has never been the same since that night.

That was only my first exposure to Bill's passion for evangelism. His faith and desire to share Christ was so much on the forefront of his mind; he was so captivated by his calling to reach others for Christ that it became contagious. You simply couldn't be around Bill without walking away with a greater desire to share Christ. Many people, including myself, so often think of evangelism as a task to accomplish. But Bill never looked at it that way. To Bill, evangelism was just a way of life.

BILL BRIGHT CHALLENGED me to think big and dream big and ask God for big things. I remember after I went on staff, Campus Crusade sent me to the University of Oklahoma. The largest number of OU students to attend a CC conference at Arrowhead Springs, California, was about 30 people. I decided to try to bring 100 from Oklahoma—that was far more than had ever attended.

When I told that to Bill, he said, "How about getting 500?"

That challenged me, and we actually ended up with 300 attending.

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October 2003, Vol. 47, No. 10