The sole basis of our beliefs is the Bible, God’s infallible written Word, the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. We believe that it was uniquely, verbally and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit and that it was written without error (inerrant) in the original manuscripts. It is the supreme and final authority in all matters on which it speaks.

We accept those areas of doctrinal teaching on which, historically, there has been general agreement among all true Christians. Because of the specialized calling on our movement, we desire to allow for freedom of conviction on other doctrinal matters, provided that any interpretation is based upon the Bible alone, and that no such interpretation shall become an issue which hinders the ministry to which God has called us.

These two paragraphs provide a solid groundwork for understanding the why and the what that we believe and live out.

Let’s start with the second paragraph. “We accept those areas of doctrinal teaching on which, historically, there has been general agreement among all true Christians.” What this means is that we fall into the category of orthodox (small O, as in more general than the Eastern Orthodox churches), we are committed to the doctrines that are central to what it means to be a faithful follower of Christ and to what God has called us to as a ministry.

There are some controversial issues that the statement of faith will not cover – predistination, the sign gifts, what version of the Bible is the best, church government, modes of baptism, or the age of the earth and specifics on the methods of creation. The reasons that Campus Crusade for Christ does not take stands on these is because they do not affect at a basic level the ability to be a part of the mission of reaching the world for Christ. Also, there has not been a consensus over the course of history on these issues and God has not called us to take stands on these issues – He is using others to speak to those issues.

Also, it does take on issues that may not be in a church’s statement of faith because it also sets down some guidelines that are important and are central to the mission of Campus Crusade for Christ, you’ll see these toward the end of the list particularly dealing with our belief in the unversal call for all believers to “do the work of evangelism” regardless of their vocational call.

On the Bible

We do agree with the historically Protestant view on the the canon of the Bible, the Apocraphal books and sectionsof books that some Christan traditions view as scripture are seen as at best good history and insight into beliefs that some of the Jewish people had at certain times. For example the books of Maccabes are a good historical account of the Jewish rebellion agains the Greeks, also the canonical New Testament book of James quotes the book of Enoch which is not viewed itself as canonical but that James chose to quote something that is eternally true. I actually would encourage all Christians who have the free time to talk to one of your Catholic friends or a library and borrow a Bible that has the 6 or 7 apocraphal books and read them with very large grains of salt. Just as you would with any “Christian” literature or books you need to remember that only the 66 books of the Bible can be trusted 100% – everything else very probably contains errors.

The next half of the first paragraph contains some densely-packed statements. To clarify my statement of what can be trusted, only the original manuscripts can be trusted 100%. The hard part of that is that we do not have any of the original manuscripts that were physically written by the apostles or prophets. What we do have is a huge number copies of them so that we are able to be sure about every important passage. We’re able to compare them all and know where someone had merely made a mistake because the overwhelming evidence

“Uniquely, verbally and fully inspired”

These three words are very, very important in understanding what we we believe. The Bible is the only (uniquely) book that’s content can be considered to be God’s Word (fully) and God’s words (verbally). There is no other book, magazine, preacher, newsletter or any thing else that we read that can successfully contradict the Bible, if it does it is not God’s word and it is not to be fully trusted (without the aformentioned large or small “grains of salt”). This also means that we believe that no other religious text is inspired by God or to be trusted as vital for our spiritual growth. Also, all of the Bible is God’s word (it must be read in the right literary and historical context) and each individual word in the original manuscript is the word (in Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic) that God chose for it. All of this together indicates that, while other books may be good for our growth in our walk with Christ, only and all of the Bible is vital to our growth.

When Carrie and I came on staff in 2003 we both had signed a copy of this committing to uphold these beliefs and to say that wa can agree to them without any hesitation. These are not things that we hold our financial partners to, and they’re not things that we require of non-leader students in our movements; if someone is thinking about leading in an official way – volunteer, student leader, intern, staff, etc. it would be necessary for them to agree to these points in a way that at least they would committ to not teach anything that disagrees with these points.

So, as I go into this series I want to let you all know that I actually am excited about thinking through this because as missionaries it empowers what we do, it defines who we are as a staff team and it defines what we teach students.

This series may take a while to get through, but I want to make sure that you continue to understand and get even deeper what we do and the ways we do it.

It was indeed too good to be true.

Please continue praying for our possible move, and that we don’t get scammed in the process.

Please, keep praying about this possible move – even if this one doesn’t work out we want to follow where God’s leading. Pray that He’d bring a house before us and that we’d see it when He does – and that it would work.

The sign that said that caught students’ attention too. On April 24, we spent about 10 hours at Georgetown University for Georgetown Day, the campus’ annual excuse for an all-day block party on the quad complete with bands, free food and about 10,000 people. Georgetown Day sees a lot of alcohol consumed by students (as we got to campus at 10:30 a.m., the liquor store’s line was out the door).  Beer is on many minds already; God, maybe not.

Needless to say, our table about beer, God and happiness provoked some interesting conversations. With a survey about the Ben Franklin quote, we requested thoughts on God, the nature of love and happiness, and even the meaning of Jesus’ death. Below is a quote from a corresponding website, BeerIsProof.org:

“To Ben the issue was simple. Simple enough that a cold beer from the local pub was proof that God loved him. What about you? Consider laughter, music, sunsets at the beach and the miraculous combination of chocolate and peanut butter. Do these things suggest that the genius behind it all wants us to be happy?”

Without endorsing drinking, we managed to have over 100 conversations and at least one person who said that he wanted to invite Christ into his life.  Apparently anything can start a conversation about Jesus.

Go big or go home – and bring someone with you.

The semester is over. Students have moved home, gone to their summer projects or graduated and started “real life.” Last week at an end-of-the year retreat to help us look back before we look forward, we named as our greatest “wins” things that happened in our homes and extended “off hours” hangout times – out on the quad until midnight, at our place drinking tea over movies and life discussions, at campfires at the staff guys’ house, or at gatherings sharing home-cooked meals on couches rather than in fluorescent-lit meeting rooms facing front.

Year Two has seen God answer our prayer for genuine community marked by transformation.  Internationals, skeptics of all varieties and even a few Jewish students have hung around to consider the claims of Jesus. Things have come into the open that normally don’t.  We haven’t seen the masses come to meetings, but lives are changing. Praise God!

Lean, mean and on the scene!

This year we had a ready-made community of 9 staff and interns and three apartments to invite students into.  With the close of the year comes (hopefully temporary) end of this fun chapter. This fall, it will be just 3 of us. Some of the interns will be fundraising and going elsewhere, one is moving on to pursue a masters and the other couple will be moving to an established ministry where their gifts will be a better fit.  Every change comes with pros and cons, but we’re excited to see what the year will bring! Pray that God would fight our battles for us, and provide a way to move closer into the city.

Pray for:

• As we hope to move from Arlington into DC at some point, pray that we’d find affordable housing that can fit lots of students.
• This summer we’ll be taking classes again – this time to help us learn how to lead a team and structure a movement. We’re pining for summer project but recognize our need for training.
• We’ll be working on developing a larger support base in DC this summer before and after our assignment, pray for contacts and perseverance in that work.

Because of that need for help Carrie and I are attending a Family Life “Weekend To Remember” conference north of Baltimore this weekend. Family Life is a ministry under the umbrella of Campus Crusade for Christ International that focuses on building up marriages and families in towards strength founded in Christ.

Please pray for us this weekend, this is a maintenence & improvement weekend for us and we’re looking forward to coming back with ideas of how to be better at loving each other.

To the Ends of the Earth

What would college ministry be without a few ridiculous “pick-up-and-go” weeks every so often? Last year, spring break came to our team.  This year with no incoming students, we decided it would be the perfect year to divide, conquer, and see the world: two bussed it to a conference in Panama City, FL for Cru’s annual outreach to the American beach partiers, a few went to Venezuela, and a handful of us headed to North Africa to experience the culture and see what ministry looks like there.

As we regrouped, the contrast was incredible.  The Florida group found about what you would expect from Americans – a fair amount of spiritual interest dulled by an assumption that they’ve heard it all before. Meanwhile the Venezuela group marveled at the openness, watching 30 students express the desire to start a relationship with Jesus.  As for our N. Africa trip, Jayson may have been the only one to even talk about the gospel, and only once, to correct an error in a Religion text book.

This isn’t surprising, considering the high cost of discipleship for those who profess Christ in North Africa. While foreigners have a certain degree of religious freedom, nationals only worship Jesus in the safety of homes for fear of being cut off from society by families and often left with no livelihood.

Thoughts on Reentry

It’s hard to not be shaken by the contrast in Jesus’ approach to sharing the message and that of the 21st Century American church.  He remains honest and unapologetic about the difficult aspects of the faith, comfortable saying, “take it or leave it.”  We hurry to assuage all objections with comfort and user-friendliness to assure even the most demanding spiritual consumers. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with eliminating barriers that would deter a seeker. But the message of Jesus is neither a product, idea or personality accessory to add to our repertoire, nor an experience to make us more well-rounded, self-actualized or nice.  It is a call to respond in either marriage or rejection to the God who is romancing us, a decision about what we will leave and to whom we will cleave.

Oddly enough, this thought gives me great hope for our movement and the city of Washington, DC.  Over the past months, our team has groaned and pleaded with the Lord over many students who linger unfulfilled in indecision about Jesus. But as they ask the right questions week after week, I can’t help but look forward to the energetic certainty that will follow when they take their vows, having fully counted the cost.  Given the masses whose complain (rightfully) of Christian hypocrisy, I will take three slow-cooked, thorough believers who knew what they were getting into over 50 fast floaters into a comfortable faith, not expecting spiritual resurrection to require death or sacrifice of any kind.

Rubber Meets Road

Last month, we mentioned our February conference (called “neXt”). Here “M,” a new Chinese believer decided to tell her parents about her faith, thus instigating her parents to cut off all financial and emotional support.  Now, a month before graduation, she finds herself sleeping on friends’ floors, trying to get a work visa in order to stay here and minister to other internationals, while I am challenged by her sturdy confidence in a God she has just met.  Please pray for M and for her parents, (prominent figures in the Chinese government) to come to faith.  We serve a God who specializes in the unlikely!

Pray For

• Health & National leadership for movements in North Africa and Venezuela.
• Freedom of staff there (and here) from judging their worth by performance or people’s response.
• Courage for students who have much at stake in livelihood & reputation if they profess following Jesus.

I wanted to clear up what’s going down next week as we head out for Spring Break.

We’re headed to North Africa to a country that we can’t share the name of for security reasons. To assure you, we are going to be safe and we’re actually not going to be doing anything illegal in that country. The country that we’ll be spending time in does have religious freedom legally, but the way that the culture operates can be very different. Of the countries in that region of the world it is definitely one of the most safe for Americans, the security issues that limit us are for the brothers and sisters who are naitives of the country who could be in danger if we weren’t closed about it.

We’ll fly out of the Washington-Dulles Airport on Friday at around 8:00 PM and will return almost exactly a week later (it’s less than a half-hour off). I am dissappointed that we’ll miss seeing what Friday is like in a Muslim country, but it will be an awesome experience for us and the 5 other people that we’ll be travelling with.

Please be praying for us that God would speak in and through this trip to us about where He is calling us to serve Him. We don’t expect that God is calling us overseas, but we’re willing to follow if He does. Also, pray that we’ll encourage our friends on the staff team that is over there long-term and that we’d represent Christ well in whatever way we’re able.

Also, you can be praying for our families as there is still some anxiety about us being there; especially for my (Jayson’s) parents as my brother, Ryan, will be in Iraq at the same time to run sound for a USO show for soldiers in the field there.

Thanks, we’ll share whatever pictures and stories that we can when we get back!

After talking to some friends the other day, I realized that I hadn’t posted our January Prayer Letter here at all! Yeah, I know, it’s March. Here it is. I’ll have the February one up a.s.a.p. as well!

Transformers

Ready or not, the new year is upon us, and the DC Cru team is squarely into Semester #4! As usual, with the change come signs of growth and just as many new questions, now with more eyes looking to us to have a plan.

If there is one thing that God is convincing me of these days, it’s that as the Author of all good stories, He is quite fond of suspense, and will reveal what I need to know no more than a chapter at a time. And if every chapter has a heading, this semester’s seems be “Transformational Community.” This concept  will sound  glorious concept  on paper  - the  power  of the  Risen Christ reworking distant, suspicious, selfish individuals in a city of isolation and racial tension into a gracious, truthful, humble community celebrating the God Who Came Near. It’s beautiful.

In real life, everything we do here starts in the hearts of our greatest asset, a staff team of nine people in absurdly close proximity, all of whom are different, most of whom are roommates, half of whom are spouses… let’s just say it is a workout!  But as we work it out together  with a faithful God, bleeding Romans chapter  12, we are seeing women who say “I don’t bond with females” plan women’s lunches with students from across the city. We’re seeing our (white) staff guys so welcomed in unusual places that they’re being mistaken for members  of historically black fraternities. We’re seeing students  at schools were everyone is too busy and important to give the time of day give up their afternoons  to meet  with friends across the city to talk with strangers about God. We’re seeing non-believers volunteering to plan prayer meetings and giving Christian books to friends. We’re seeing momentum build as people who say “I’m normally not that into God” keep surfacing to see if this community is for real.

Over and out

One of the key marks of a community genuinely transforming in the power of the Spirit is a contagious outward focus, and we (with the help of four visiting Australian summer project students) have been pitching the thought of living on mission wherever the Lord takes us. I wish  I could say I am not surprised to see what I pray for.

Of the 20 students who came out to our last citywide event, at least 6 are seriously considering doing a summer project with Campus Crusade, and 3 have already been accepted to go internationally! Summer project is the best thing Campus Crusade for Christ has to offer, but it is not for the faint of heart. Considering that summer project involves fundraising and spiritual conversations with relative strangers, this is a big deal! As it now stands, DC Cru students will be serving and sharing the story of Jesus on four continents this summer!

Guess it’s that time!

The irony in this story is that the Whelpleys have yet to travel abroad. With the exception of day/weekend trips to Canada, neither of us (or our team leader) have ever been out of these fine United States. The opportunity has come up for several members of our staff team (and extended community) to take a week-long vision trip to North Africa over spring break! More details to come as the time gets closer. Thanks again for your prayers and generosity!

Pray For:

• Vision for structure – pray that in the midst of a ministry that’s changing every semester, we would follow God’s lead, see the big picture, remain flexible and give the structure needed.
• Renewed hunger for God, desire to understand His word, and confidence in His promises in our Cru community.
• The upcoming “neXt” conference for juniors and seniors about how to walk with God and make good decisions after college. February 13-15. Over 200 students registered, 4 from the DC ranks.

P.S. Make sure you’re visiting our website pretty regularly, you can read (slightly) more frequently and see pictures that don’t end up fitting into our monthly prayer letters. You can even sign up to get those updates by email! It’s at Whelpley.org! (Good job, you already know all of this!)