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What started as an evangelistic effort among college students has turned into one of the more ambitious undertakings in church history. The man behind the movement, Dr. William Rohl Bright, traces its origin to a call from God that came to him while he was studying for a Greek examination at Fuller Seminary.

His organization, Campus Crusade for Christ International, is marking its twenty-fifth anniversary this fall by developing strategy to help to evangelize the entire world. Political activities surrounding Bright's evangelistic endeavors and his association with Arizona congressman John Conlan and other conservative political leaders have attracted the attention of the news media in recent weeks.

To get a firsthand account of his political interests and evangelistic vision, Christianity Today editors interviewed Bright at the "Christian Embassy" in Washington. This article originally appeared in the September 24, 1976 issue of Christianity Today.

Where are we in America? Would you say things have deteriorated in the last twenty-five years?

I would use a stronger word: disintegrated. Our nation is in grave trouble.

What do you mean?

Well, for one thing, many of our leaders say we are in trouble economically. And politically we have more discord than ever. Morally and spiritually, we have reached the point of bankruptcy. Our entire society is becoming increasingly secular, humanistic, and materialistic. Anti-God forces largely control education, the media, entertainment, and government.

Are you saying that it's all over for America?

What happens in this country this year will in my opinion determine whether or not we remain free. I don't mean that we will lose our freedom this year, but we'll reach the point of no return. I think that if we don't meet the conditions set down in Second Chronicles 7:14, we're in trouble.

What are you doing about it?

Working in cooperation with thousands of pastors, we are seeking to disciple and train millions of Christians in the United States to help to saturate our nation with the Gospel through a movement called Here's Life Americ

I canceled all my engagements overseas for 1976. Usually, I visit every continent once or twice a year because we have a staff now of more than 5,000 in more than eighty countries. I arranged for others to do the overseas traveling.

As it turned out, however, we had an unusual opportunity to launch Here's Life in Asia with the potential of ultimately training more than 70,000 Chinese. So I did go to Asia to help to set the wheels in motion to train them, in the hope that one day the door will be open and tens of thousands will go into mainland Chin I've been praying for China for many years. While there, we launched Here's Life Philippines, Here's Life Malaysia, Here's Life Singapore, Here's Life Republic of China, and Here's Life Hong Kong.

What is "Here's Life"?

It is a movement of discipleship and evangelism that involves thousands of churches, and we trust there will soon be many, many millions of Christians involved. It is a movement committed to share the claims of Christ with every person in Americ We have already launched Here's Life in many of the major American cities with phenomenal results, and we are praying that soon the rest of the 265 major metropolitan areas and 18,000 smaller communities will become involved. Since Here's Life emphasizes discipleship along with evangelism, we are confident that the movement will gather momentum and explode throughout the world. Our role is one of servant, to the local church, the pastor, and his people.

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July (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47