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Randy Hultman

hultman_randy.jpg“The CCO’s ministry was the dominant means whereby the Holy Spirit took a raw, just-saved 18-year-old through to a fully-committed Christian in a mere three years,” says Randy Hultman. “The realization that all Christians are in full time Christian service, not just those who choose ministry as a vocation, has stuck with me to this day. I honestly don’t know what would have become of me if I had not had the opportunity to see folks like Dave and Nancy Diehl, Terry and Natalie Thomas, Ted Schumacher, and several others, living this out.”

Randy Hultman showed up for his freshman year at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1970, a year before the CCO was incorporated. IUP was one of three campuses where the CCO placed staff members in 1971, its first year. “The CCO vision was to place dedicated staff workers on the campus to work with existing groups in a collaborative manner,” says Randy. “The CCO concept was novel and, frankly, it took adjustments for the students, faculty, churches, and other para-church organizations to figure out how to work effectively together.”

The adjustment was made, and Randy is grateful, almost four decades later, for the impact that the CCO ministry at IUP made on his life. “The CCO staff were only a few years older than me, yet there was a passion for evangelism and Christian discipline and a wisdom that belied their age,” he remembers. “Christianity is in many ways a personal experience that is deeply intimate and private. But it is also a corporate experience, and there’s nothing quite like having a living, breathing example to follow just as Timothy and others followed Paul.”

Today, Randy and his wife, Lynda, who was also a student at IUP during this time, live in Dover, Delaware, where Randy works in information technology management and as an adjunct professor in the graduate school at Wilmington University.

“I share my faith continuously in word and deed,” says Randy. “All of my colleagues at work are keenly aware that I am a Christian who strives to live it out every day. I share with other workplace Christians whenever I can, and have even had the opportunity to hold lunch time meetings to share about some of the mission trips I’ve been on. More importantly, I apply Christian principles to my management and work style and take appropriate opportunities to acknowledge them as part of my Christian worldview.

“The Lordship of Jesus Christ is so central to who I am now that I cannot conceive of where I would be today without it. The CCO’s ministry was the dominant means whereby the Holy Spirit got hold of me. While I cannot conjure up an image of myself outside Christ, I am still firmly convinced that my life would not be as full and meaningful as mine has been thus far without the influence of the CCO.”

Randy and Lynda have two grown children, and they are active members of Wyoming United Methodist Church, where Randy recently preached a sermon on Lay Sunday which has its roots in what he learned from CCO staff during college.

“I chose as the title of message ‘All of Life Redeemed,’ and I shared my story of salvation, maturity, and discipleship over the years, but with special emphasis on the formative years of my college experience. I believe that the CCO influence was crucial to establishing an early lifestyle of distinctly Christian values and behaviors such as personal discipline, service inside and outside the church, tithing of finances as well as time and energy and talent, and a willingness and readiness to share the reason for the hope within me. The CCO staff members I worked with exemplified a radical Christian lifestyle and unashamedly called us to follow them.

“Perhaps one of the most striking impacts is the desire in my heart to find my way back to some kind of college campus ministry in the final years of my career, or even in retirement. I can’t think of a better organization to associate with than the Coalition for Christian Outreach.”