Dr. Gideon Strauss is the editor of Comment, the Work Research Foundation’s monthly worldview journal.
I think I first heard about the Coalition for Christian Outreach from someone who told me about the maverick itinerant philosopher of western Pennsylvania, Pete Steen, and the astonishing influence he has had on students in that part of the world during the 1970s. I have since attended several of the Coalition’s annual Jubilee conferences for students, and have become friends with several Coalition staff and alumni, and I can without qualification say that I think the Coalition for Christian Outreach is the greatest campus ministry on planet Earth.
The reason for my very high regard for the CCO can be found already in the purpose statement which has remained unchanged since the founding of the organization on March 23, 1971: Transforming college students to transform the world. As a neocalvinist I am inspired by the transforming vision that CCO staff over several generations have communicated to college and university students. I am inspired by the evidence of the influence of this vision in the lives of CCO alumni - both former student participants in the ministry, and former staff whose vocations have taken them elsewhere - who are bringing cultural renewal to a wide diversity of spheres of society...more