Remembering Dr. Bill Bright

       

More and more I have been asked by young Christians this question: “what kind of man was Dr. Bill Bright?” It’s been more than 10 years since he went home to ‘be with the Lord’ so I suppose it’s to be expected that younger Christians would want to inquire of those who knew him and what kind of man he was - this hero of the Christian faith.

His accomplishments are well documented: the founder of the world’s largest ministry, Campus Crusade for Christ with 26,000 full time employees and 225,000 trained volunteers in 181 countries; writer of the four spiritual laws which has been printed in some 200 languages and distributed to 2.5 billion people; commissioned the Jesus film seen by 5.2 billion people in 234 countries and in 786 languages; writer of over 100 books.

Bill Bright is and will always be one of the greatest men of God who ever walked this Earth.

So who was this man and what was it that sparked his genius?  In answering that I will not try to imply I knew him best or completely but I am honored to say I served God under his leadership and was one who he invested part of his life into. I am a disciple of Bill Bright.

Dr. Bright was 5’4-5’5 in height. He was heavy set. He once told me his weight was due to being asked to dinner so often and he never wanted to offend his host by not eating everything set before him. He was a careful and snappy dresser; he appropriately dressed for each occasion often resembling the look of a wealthy tycoon or business magnate from California. I remember once he wore white pants with a blue double breasted sports coat at a conference. He wore Allen Edmonds shoes and told his lieutenants to dress to look successful. Dr. Bright looked like someone of great importance. His manner was one of kindness and professionalism - gracious and relaxed. He was inclusive and wanted to give everyone a chance to express themselves. I remember sitting with him at a banquet table once where one of the guests dominated the discussion to which Dr. Bright took charge to change the dynamics of the discussion. He asked if we could take turns going around the table and asked each of us to share our backgrounds. I never forgot that.  If Dr. Bright had above average intelligence you would never know it as he was not a show-off in anyway. He had no great personal presence of power or inter-dynamic strength as you would think such a great leader would poses, but he did have a radiance of love on and around him that was noticeable. The projection of peace and love was Dr. Bright.

Life was never about Bill Bright. Some describe him as the most humble man they have ever meet. I found him to be completely humble all the years I knew him. Dr. Bright was not interested nor impressed by wealth, yet he did respect the skill and energy it took to amass it.

I meet Dr. Bright through History’s Handful. History’s Handful was one of dozens of ministries started by him - this one was set up for families of wealth to help fund the Great Commission. His premises was that throughout human history the world had been changed though small groups of committed resourced individuals binding themselves to a common goal. Dr. Bright’s goal was funding the Great Commission. His tool of choice was The Jesus Film. History’s Handful was a donor-lead ministry organized by Dave Hannah who had set up Athletes in Action for Dr. Bright. Dave Hannah is one of the best fundraisers of all time. It is reported that History’s Handful raised 784 million. Mr. Hannah told Dr. Bright he needed him to ‘spend some time with his key guys’ - this lead to my personal relationship with Dr. Bright.

Dr. Bright loved Jesus with a love few men could match. When he spoke his favorite subject was The Spirit Filled Life. I think I heard him give that message dozens of times. Even when he spoke about another topic it was really just tack-on for his Spirit Filled Life message which was still the core of the message. Even to the staff, that was his one message. It was his life’s message - ‘’with the Holy Spirit that lives inside of us God Built THIS MINSRTY” he would say.  He didn’t want us to forget that truth, it was and is and will always be through the Holy Spirit great things are done.

One story I must share. Once when History’s Handful had a meeting in Cancun Mexico, Dr. Bright could not attend due to his failing health. The leadership and some top donors meet in a conference room and called Dr. Bright so he could thank us and give his apologies himself. As the call developed one of the top donors said ‘Dr. Bright, we want to thank you for being such an inspirational leader for us and the body of Christ.’ To this Dr. Bright kindly listened, then gave this reply, ‘thank you for saying that, but I cannot receive that for myself. I am just a slave of Jesus Christ. You see, 50 years ago Vonette and I signed a contract with God and gave our lives to him as slaves so anything that we have done, it was due to Him doing it for us; and I know it all came from that contract’. As I listened I said to myself ‘that is it, I want to be a slave of Jesus Christ myself’. After the conference I wrote him a letter telling him that as he spoke I made up my mind to become a slave of Jesus. A few weeks later I received a letter back from him saying that I had found and now shared with him the greatest secret to life, belonging to JESUS AS A SLAVE.

Dr. Bright was a Great Commission man. That was his passion. In fact, he signed all his letters with ‘Yours for fulfilling The Great Commission”. He did this his whole life. He was the first to focus the church to this goal and his faith and focus directed a whole generation to the task. Later when he thought we were close to the goal he changed the way he signed to “Yours for fulfilling the Great Commission in every generation”. Being around him awakened a world-view of missions and a can-do attitude.

Dr. Bright was highly regarded by the church. I attended his funeral and it was a Who’s Who in Christianity. Once, I was asked to broker a meeting between Billy Graham and Dr. Bright (a story for another day); Billy Graham asked me if I could set up the meeting by saying ‘‘I would very much like to meet with my dear friend Bill one more time before we’re gone”. Little did he know it would be Dr. Bright that would be gone first. To my knowledge this was their last personal meeting.

My last meeting with Dr. Bright I will never forget. It was at Arrow Springs California the former headquarters for Campus Crusade. He was very ill and knew he had only a few months to live. He told us he was writing 20 books and filming as many messages on blue screen as strength would allow. After we spoke for 45 minutes he prayed for us a deep and touching prayer ending with his statements of love to Jesus. When I opened my eyes I saw tears running down his cheeks and his eyes will full of tears. Even to his last, Dr. Bright loved Jesus with intimacy and humbleness of heart.

Dr. Bright was an exemplary example of living a life of purity and integrity. He took great pains to be careful never to discredit the trust the Lord and man had given him. I heard him say many times that he told the Lord to kill him before he ever would bring shame on the ministry or his marriage. Dr. Bright loved his wife Vonette with the passion of a newlywed and he treated her with reverent respect. He always gave her full credit as a co-founder of Campus Crusade.

Lastly, Bill Bright was a man known most of all for his amazing faith. He counted on God for everything and the most astonishing things anyone has ever asked of God. He was an evangelist and had the gift of evangelism as strong as I have ever known it with anyone. He was a man of great vision and trusted God to take care of the little things. He would say, “its God’s ministry” and “I am less than a flea so God will have to do it”. To sum up the life, accomplishments and person of Dr. Bill Bright would be to simply say, He HAD A GREAT GOD.