Highlights From CSU '09

Every other summer, all 5000 U.S. Campus Crusade staff meet in Fort Collins, CO, for a week-long conference. We come to hear from our leadership, remember God’s faithfulness, pray and repent, receive more training, look to the future, and simply be together. Something often wells up inside of me when we all—broken, sinful people that we are—lay our burdens down to lift our hearts and our hands together toward Jesus. At those moments Moby Gym—the Colorado State University basketball arena where we meet—becomes one of those magical “thin places”, where the wall separating heaven and earth is almost transparent.

Some highlights so far:

From Vonette Bright—co-founder of CCC along with her husband Bill—as she opened our time with prayer, as she has done for the past 58 years:

“After all these years, I never feel adequate for this.”

From Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NY and one of our keynote speakers:

“I’m gonna talk to you this morning about the gospel. What idiot would come to a Campus Crusade staff conference and talk about the gospel?”

But of course he spoke profoundly as he opened up Romans 3 & 4. On the distinction between forgiveness and freely-bestowed righteousness:

“The first says, ‘You may go.’ The second says, ‘You may come.’”

He pointed out that in Romans, Paul contrasts faith not with sin, but with boasting.

And then he quoted Spurgeon to warn us all: “Don’t preach the gospel to save your soul.”

One last story…
Scott and I came to CSU a day early for a 24-hour conference for Bridges, CCC’s ministry to international students, which we just became a part of in May. It was thrilling to hear stories about the nations—both here in the U.S. and around the world—turning to Christ. My favorite:

When a young Indonesian woman recently decided to follow Jesus, her family—who worshipped another god—was furious. But two weeks later, every single member decided to follow Jesus and get baptized. When asked why, the father replied, “Every night for two weeks we poisoned our daughter’s dinner in order to kill her.”