In the Comments, Cary asks an interesting question which I will copy here for convenience:
"One thing that I want to hear about is what happened in your minds and hearts when Wes Reagan gave his speech at the '65 Abilene lectureship. You both were in what I imagine were fairly comfortable and secure ministry positions and were doing well with what you already had going. From what I can tell neither of you had particularly extensive experience with campus ministry. Why did that particular challenge strike you and what pushed you to go for something so big?"
Jim Bevis answered more eloquently than I will. I'm going to copy his Comment as well.
"In response to [Cary's] most recent contact, I would have to say that "the Lord spoke to my heart" through Wes Reagan's message in a way I had never experienced the Holy Spirit's direct operation. By this time in my spiritual journey, I had, in a sense, reached the pinnacle of my career in the Churches of Christ, and having arrived at "Broadway" I knew there had to be "something more." I ultimately found that "something more" as I pursued the challenge of the college campus.
Wes Reagan spoke with a relevant, Spirit-empowered word that had "the ring of truth." We were already experiencing some success with our efforts in the College class at Texas Tech. It was obvious that we had not even touched the "hem of the garment." Wes put the challenge before us and the Lord put it in our hearts to go to the campus with Jesus Christ in all of His fullness, without the sectarian bend which characterized the Churches of Christ in the 60s. Our mission field was two fold: First, the lost and I mean those truly lost and secondly, the multitudes of students on the campus from Churches of Christ who did not have a personal, vital relationship with Jesus Christ. I would say that the message presented by Wes Reagan at ACC and that which followed, was a divine call to the campus."
Thinking back more than 40 years to hearing Wes Reagan's speech, I can only say that I remember where Jim and I were sitting in the packed auditorium and being stirred by the explosion of insight Wes was putting before us. It was kind of electrifying. The call jumped out at us both and we were both charged.
I was not a "career" minister. At the constant urging of Norvel Young I had in high school committed to myself that some time in life I would give two years to "full-time church work" as Norvel called it. I had begun fulfilling the commitment as an associate at the Broadway church officing next to Jim Bevis.
As a young student, probably junior high, I had been present for the founding of the Bible chair at Texas Tech. I went there occasionally with Tech friends when I was home from ACC. But, at the time of Wes' speech, as an associate minister, I was involved in teaching the Sunday morning college class at the Bible chair. Can't remember why I was the teacher, but I was. So, I had enough exposure for Wes' comments about the college campus to resonate (and resonate strongly). It was also plain to see that while the Tech Bible chair was performing a service to the church that it was designed for, it was not touching the lives of the thousands of other students right up the street. Reaching the campus became a challenge and faith adventure.
It was also apparent to me that reaching the campus was not just employing the right set of techniques and tools, but the right Spirit.
Here's what I mean by Spirit. Before CE involvement, I was in charge of personal evangelism for the Broadway church, training, teaching, mobilizing, and encouraging members to conduct "cottage Bible studies" in homes. It was a fairly aggressive program which drew quite a few members to participate and the tools and techniques we were using attracted attention from several quarters. That resulted in my being invited to do a workshop in personal evangelism on one occasion where I attempted to teach the workshop attendees about how the Holy Spirit can empower and indwell you resulting in a natural outpouring of evangelism as you can relate what the Lord has done in your life. Sadly, probably due to my poor teaching that went right over most of their heads. It appeared that all they wanted was copies of the literature, lists of filmstrips, and the reporting forms we used!
So, there you have it -- in a different vocabulary, but with the same message.
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