Hey All!

We just posted an album full of wedding pics that we just received last Saturday.  We love them. Hope you enjoy them too!

Click here

Cameron and I are in San Diego for the next 4 days.  Approximately 800 college students have joined us for our annual Winter Conference.  They are hearing about a “Boundless” God and responding to his greatness.

Although you probably can’t be here, you can watch live from home.  Every evening at 7pm this week (through the 31st), you can tune in live to our meetings.  If you’ve ever wondered exactly what happens at our conferences, this is a good time to check it out.  If you can’t watch at that time, the videos will be archived as well.  Click here to watch.

Thanks for partnering with Cameron and me.  Hope you can join us from home! 🙂

Jeff and Cameron

Fall quarter has wrapped up at UC Davis!  We’ve seen a ton happen this quarter in the lives of students and are thankful for how so many of them have been impacted.

However, I confess that what I’m most excited about right now is that Cameron and I get married on January 7!  The next time you hear from me, Cameron will be my wife.  For the past week, we have been busy getting our new apartment ready for us to live in after the wedding.  We’ve seen God provide so much furniture, when we started out with barely anything.  We’re super thankful!  I’m living in the apartment right now, while Cameron is still sleeping at her old apartment (although most of her stuff is moved in already).  On top of moving in, we’re busy with last minute wedding preparations.  With a wedding, moving, Christmas, and our annual upcoming Winter Conference in San Diego (65 Davis students are coming), there’s certainly a lot to do!  But, we’re definitely enjoying this exciting time together.  We are blessed!

At the bottom of this post is a video from Campus Crusade for Christ (and me) to you.  Thank you so much for your partnership that makes such a difference, as you’ll see below.

With thanks, and wishing you a Merry Christmas,
Jeff (and Cameron)

Prayer Requests

– Thank God for his provision.  We received such a great deal on our apartment and have seen friends and family provide a ton of furniture.

– Pray for our wedding.  Pray that we would be able to enjoy the time and not get distracted by tasks or details.

– Pray for our marriage.  Pray that we would love each other sacrificially.

– Thank God that we get to go to Kauai for our honeymoon.  So cool!

– Pray for our upcoming Winter Conference in San Diego from Dec 28 – Jan 1.  Pray that students would be challenged, equipped, and surrendered to Jesus.  Right now, 65 students from Davis have signed up!  We’re expecting a total of 700-800 students from all over California, Arizona, and Hawaii.

There’s a lot to celebrate!

Our students and staff have been working so hard this past week to welcome the freshmen.  We passed out over 2,000 water bottles that allowed us see who wanted more info, and about 1,200 students indicated that they might be interested in hearing about bible studies or talking with someone about their spiritual perspective.  So amazing!  We’ve been busy all week calling those people all week to set up one-on-one appointments.  During those appointments, whether they claim to be Christian or not, our desire is to share the Gospel with these students.  The response has been amazing!

Our team of staff and students have been able to lead 6 students to trust Christ.  Additionally, at least 3 more have indicated that they wanted to pray to trust Christ, but wanted more time to internalize it and pray to do that on their own.  This doesn’t include the numerous non-Christians investigating Christianity and getting involved in our community.  It is so evident that the Lord is moving greatly!  As one staff member who has been at Davis for two years said yesterday, “Just so you know, this isn’t normal here.”

Here are some stories:

Yesterday, with a fellow staff member named Keith, I was able to talk to Sam and Nicole, two freshmen from liberal Catholic backgrounds.  Initially, they didn’t understand the Gospel at all.  After explaining the Gospel in depth over an hour and a half long conversation, they decided that they wanted to make the decision to trust Christ when they got back to their dorm.  So cool!  I haven’t heard back from them yet, so pray that they would follow through on that decision.  Sam plans on coming to my weekly bible study that starts on Tuesday night, and Nicole plans on getting involved in the girls bible study.

Also yesterday, Cameron was able to talk to a freshman girl named Genesis, from a Seventh Day Adventist background.  Genesis knew a lot about God, but had a hard time understanding how to have a relationship with him. Cameron was able to walk through the Gospel and what it looks like to place her trust in Christ. After their conversation, Genesis prayed right then and their to give her life to Christ and trust in the free gift of grace and forgiveness.  Genesis plans on being involved in Cameron’s bible study on Tuesday nights.

One student I’m really excited about is Shin.  Shin doesn’t come from a church background.  On Wednesday night, he went to a meeting on campus where the speaker talked about God, science, and the origins of the universe, which affected Shin deeply.  From the survey one of our students received from him, I called him on Thursday and offered to meet up.  He came immediately to talk.  He mentioned that he talked to someone on Wednesday night who became a Christian in college and thinks that could be his story as well.  I shared the Gospel with Shin, directed him to a website called EveryStudent.com, and challenged him to read the book of John, asking while he reads it if he thinks Jesus is someone he can trust.  He came to our weekly meeting on Thursday and was super excited.  He plans on coming to my bible study on Tuesday nights.  I texted him yesterday and asked how things are going and says he’s reading through the book of John.  Pray for Shin.  Pray that Jesus would meet him in a deeply personal way and that he would place his trust in Christ.

We are nowhere near done talking to students; there are so many more people to contact!  Pray that we would have many more divine appointments next week.  Also pray for endurance.  Our staff and students have worked SO hard this past week and are exhausted.  Cameron and I are super tired.  But, it’s worth it.  I love that the Lord is moving so much.

Keep praying! 🙂

As I write this, thousands of freshmen are moving into the dorms at UC Davis, about to begin four of the most influential years of their lives.  The decisions they make in college will affect the rest of their lives, and many of those decisions start in the first few weeks of college.

Starting Monday, our movement at UC Davis will be reaching out to the freshmen, Christian and non-Christian.  We’ll be giving away water bottles to students in exchange a short spiritual interest survey.  We’ll use these surveys to get in touch with students in the coming weeks who indicate that they want to talk about spirituality or get involved in a bible study.  We hope to give away 2,000 water bottles (and get 2,000 surveys) from Monday through Wednesday.

Please pray for these students.  Pray that the Lord would move in their hearts, that he would go before us.  Pray that he would lead us to the right students.  Also, pray for our endurance, as this tends to be an extremely tiring week for us.

Excited to see what happens this next week! 🙂

In addition to my thoughts in the previous post, I wanted to post some links to a few other blogs:

Is Campus Crusade Falling Away from Christ? – Examines this fear from a biblical perspective.

Everything You Need to Know About the Cru Name Change – Provides some perspective from a number of different sources, both inside and outside the organization.  A wealth of helpful links.

Campus Crusade for Christ is changing its name to Cru.  This link is the perspective of the leaders who made the decision (with FAQs).  Below are some of my thoughts.

We are no longer just a campus ministry.  The last two words, “for Christ,” absolutely still apply, but the associations many people have with the term “Crusade” have changed since Campus Crusade was founded in 1951.

While I work on the college campus, Campus Crusade for Christ is much more than a campus ministry.  Many people I talk with, however, are completely unaware of this.  There are over 25 other ministries under the Campus Crusade umbrella, including Athletes in Action, Priority Associates, Here’s Life Inner City, Jesus Film, our music ministry called Keynote, and many others.  Our previous name didn’t do justice to these ministries and the impact they are having around the world beyond the campus.

According to Tom Gilson, “Crusade” was a religiously neutral term in the 1950s (when Campus Crusade started) and for several years following.  Awareness of Islam and its history, however, has risen steadily since then.  The Christian crusades cause a lot of baggage to be carried into evangelism today.  “There’s a lot of misinformation concerning the Crusades (see here on that), but still they are a stain on Christian history,” says Gilson.  It hinders our mission of seeing lost students come to Jesus when people associate our name with something so terrible.  Why put that stumbling block in their way?

Many of our local campus ministries have been calling their meetings “Cru” for more than ten years.  It’s what we call it at UC Irvine.

The leaders of our ministry brought in good outside help and did extensive research.  The researchers found that the name “Cru” seems to work well with other people we’re connected with such as volunteers, financial supporters, etc.

As for not having Christ in our name any longer, having the word “Christ” in the name of a mission mission agency isn’t a must, and, in fact, few missions organizations have “Jesus” or “Christ” in their name.  To quote Gilson again, “what matters is whether He is exalted in the leaders’ and members’ hearts and actions, their motivation, and their outreach.”  I think of many Christ-focused ministries that are making a huge impact in the world, such as Navigators, Wycliffe, and World Impact.  None of these ministries contain anything overtly Christian in their names, yet few can deny how Gospel-centered they are and that they are helping millions around the globe realize how great Christ is.  Conversely, the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints contains the name of Christ, but I think most Christians would agree that his name is being misrepresented by their mission.

I am so impressed at the way our ministry’s leaders have rolled out this name change in our staff conference this week.  It has been constantly emphasized in every aspect of our time together that there is still only one Name that matters: Jesus Christ.  “Our mission is not changing,” says Gilson. “We are as focused as ever on glorifying Christ and helping to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20).  Jesus Christ is no less at the core and the heart of our movement now than he ever was.”

As Campus Crusade for Christ or as Cru, our primary mission is to reach those who don’t know Jesus.  Research showed that 20% of people who were interested in having a conversation about Jesus were no longer interested in having that spiritual conversation after they heard the name Campus Crusade for Christ.  It makes sense, since these people don’t know who Jesus is and they a group with such an aggressive name as Campus Crusade.  In their eyes, it doesn’t seem like there is much room for discussion.  In my eyes, Jesus is Lord and Savior, but it might be a process that takes repeated discussion for them to realize this.  If I can help with a name change but still be true to the mission, why not change the name?

While doing evangelism, I have had many people refuse to even have a conversation with me because I’m a Christian.  I have been able to introduce Christ to people, however, that would have never talked to me, only because I was more gentle with them than some other methods that have been used in the past.  I am not ashamed of the Gospel or of Jesus’ name, as some people are claiming.  I am convinced, however, that Paul’s instructions to become all things to all people (1 Cor 9:19-23) at times includes not mentioning Christ immediately at the beginning of a conversation.  I till the hard soil, however, and pray for an open door to share Christ so each person can come into a relationship with the only one who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Still, there was no explicit intention to take Christ out of the name.  According to Justin Stowell, who was involved in the naming process,

“Campus Crusade for Christ (Cru) is unswervingly committed to proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ.  We are committed to the centrality of the cross, the truth of the Word, the power of the Holy Spirit and the global scope of the Great Commission.  We care more about effectively proclaiming the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ then we do about having the word “Christ” in our name.  Although the words Campus and Crusade served as hindrances, there was never any intentional decision to remove the word ‘Christ.’ Yet as we considered hundreds of name possibilities, our experience confirmed that Cru would provide greater opportunity to connect men and women with the heart of Jesus, and to help them consider the good news of the gospel.”

So, what does “Cru” mean?  The name doesn’t mean much of anything yet.  But, what we do as an organization will give meaning to the name.  For example,  Starbucks was an empty word when the company first started.  Over time, however, it became what it is now, so that you can’t hear the word without thinking of coffee.  Similarly, “Cru” will acquire meaning over time.  This meaning will come from our mission to reach lost people around the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Another staff member named Shawn McGrath has posted a very helpful reflection on this topic.

On a personal level, I think the change is good.  It does seem weird to have a name like Cru that doesn’t mean anything right now.  As mentioned above, however, it won’t stay that way for long.  Our leaders have handled this name change wonderfully at every phase.  They researched, considered names, involved the right people in the decision, and announced the change this week.  Christ has been central in all of this.  Prayer has been behind all of it.  I believe God has led our organization to a new name.

What has been hard about this, however, has been seeing the reaction of some Christians outside the organization.  Some comments I’ve seen have been downright condemning, judgmental, and distrusting.  We are not ashamed of Christ!!  On the contrary, we are just as committed to making Christ known throughout the world as we have been in our 60 years of existence.  Thousands, even millions, of lives have been impacted with the Gospel during that time because of Campus Crusade for Christ.  To those who don’t completely understand or agree with the name change, I ask you to please believe the best and give us the benefit of the doubt!

Yours for the Gospel,

Jeff

I head to Fort Collins, Colorado today for our biennial US Staff Conference.  Five to six thousand full-time Campus Crusade staff will gather for training, teaching, vision, prayer, and refreshment for 10 days.  Pray that the Lord would meet us and direct us.  Personally, since I have gluten allergies, pray that I would be able to find good and healthy food in the campus cafeteria.  Also, pray that I would depend on the Spirit.

Thankful for you,

Jeff

After a week of preparation by the staff, students finally arrive tomorrow!  I’m excited to have them here.  My group will consist of Andrew from UC Santa Barbara, Elijah from Cal State Fullerton, Eric from Chico State, and Matt from Cal Poly SLO.  Pray that God would do a ton in their lives and use them greatly in the lives of others in Santa Monica.

As we have prepared for the arrival of the students, we have been able to do some evangelism and understand the people of Santa Monica better.  It seems like education and environmentalism are big idols for them.  The way to fix the world is by giving people more education.  Another person’s answer was to conserve, using less gas if you can.  I think education and taking care of the environment are good things.  When they are substitutes for Jesus and his work, however, it’s clear that they’ve become idols.  Pray for wisdom for us as we engage with people, and softened hearts from them.