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Despite these overtures, tensions mounted between the two evangelical campus ministries as Crusade expanded nationally. Crusade staff member Gordon Klenck remembers an encounter in which Woods encouraged him to cease Crusade work at the University of California at Berkeley. Bob Kendall recalls the IVCF faculty adviser at Michigan State informing him that he "had no business coming in there," complaining that he had not "checked with them first." These local encounters mirrored a budding conflict between Bright and Woods. "We do not have one instance," Woods complained in 1953, "where he [Bright] has ever kept to any agreement that he had either with Mel Friesen or with me." In particular, Woods asserted that Crusade "seemed very often to go to our students and try to win them away to his operation from InterVarsity." Furthermore, Woods claimed that Bright had agreed to keep Woods abreast of his expansion plans and to explore circumstances in which IVCF students could participate in Crusade's evangelistic teams. Woods also took umbrage when Bright talked of sending Crusade staff to "unreached campuses," some of which had established IVCF chapters. In Woods's opinion, Bright's stated willingness to cooperate "was nothing more than hot air." "He had no intention … of so doing," Woods concluded, "although one must refrain from judging motives." IVCF also criticized Crusade's methodology. In a 1958 IVCF manual, Charles Hummel insisted that an IVCF student leader "must not be a recent convert" and lamented that "how often today a Christian group chooses its leader primarily because of personality, prowess as an athlete, popularity, effectiveness in public speaking or genius for organization." As opposed to Crusade's willingness to send its staff on evangelistic blitzkriegs, Woods warned against "a sudden, brief evangelistic campaign for a month or two." IVCF's complaints and criticisms irritated Bright. IVCF regional director James Nyquist reported in 1960 that Bright "thought Stacey [Woods] was dishonest and critical of CCC and that he never had been [critical] of IVCF."

Despite occasional attempts at reconciliation, the relationship between Crusade and InterVarsity remained stony into the 1960s. When Charles Troutman succeeded Woods as IVCF's national secretary in 1961, he sent a conciliatory letter to Bright: "I am anxious to do everything I can that our energies may be directed toward the enemy and not against one another." "Screwtape [C. S. Lewis's personification of the Devil] must be delighted," he allowed, "at the way we pull strips off one another." Bright responded in kind. In a 1961 form letter to Crusade staff and supporters, Bright called IVCF "obviously a work of God" and emphasized that "there is no other honest attitude a Christian can take but to thank God for InterVarsity." He did, however, insist upon Crusade's right to expand to campuses with IVCF chapters and delineated some differences between the two organizations. "I.VC.F." Bright asserted, "is primarily a Christian fellowship with an evangelistic program," whereas "Campus Crusade for Christ is a Crusade, with a strong follow-up program." Such statements rankled IVCF because of the strong implication that IVCF was less than fully committed to evangelism.

Nevertheless, better relations briefly seemed possible. Paul Little, a top ICVF official, attended a Crusade staff training conference in 1961, and Bright planned to participate in IVCF's triennial missions conference. Troutman, however, soon abandoned efforts at intra-evangelical detente. In 1962, he referred to Crusade as "an open competitor of InterVarsity> in that they seek to establish another group on campus and generally begin their work through IVCF students." Troutman, who asserted that Crusade "represent[s] the attitude expressed in this country by the ultra-right-wing fundamentalist," alleged that Crusade staff workers "gain enthusiasm by distorted and inflated stories of campus activity." John Alexander, who succeeded Troutman as IVCF's president in 1965, concluded in an internal memorandum that it "is impossible for CCC and IVCF to cooperate on campus and observed that whenever "CCC opens a work on a campus, attendance at IVCF functions drops."

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August (Web-Only) 2008, Vol. 52