What’s in a name? A lot, thank you.

Imagine being a 13 year-old boy in the 70’s. Divorce was not yet the norm, and it was unusual for you to have a different last name than your parents. You haven’t seen your “real dad” since you were 8, and you REALLY identify with your step-dad.

You get it, right?

Junior high isn’t the most forgiving sub-culture in the world, and constantly explaining who you are and where you came from can be both exhausting and humiliating.

Wouldn’t you want to change your name? Wouldn’t you want to remove the obstacles that keep you from your mission? (Which, in junior high, is survival with the minimum amount of humiliation and pain.)

This week our organization announced a name change…from “Campus Crusade for Christ” to “Cru”. For 29 years I have been a part of this amazing group. Our DNA has always been to take the gospel, the love of Jesus, to EVERY person on the globe – giving every person the opportunity to say “yes” to Jesus!

In recent years, however, our name has become an obstacle. The media would have you believe that “Christ” is the issue. It’s not. But if we remove “Campus” and “Crusade”, which are obstacles, we are left with “Christ.” (I think we can all agree that that’s a bad name for an organization.)

So our leadership embarked on a prayer-saturated, sober process to rename a 60 year-old organization…an organization with a clear reputation for being willing to do ANYTHING to take the Good News to the four corners of the world, where men and women desperately need to know the God who loves them so dearly.

Explaining and operating with our name actually became an obstacle to our mission – to exalt and proclaim the name of Jesus! As our US Director stated, “We care more about effectively proclaiming the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ then we do about having the word ‘Christ’ in our name.” So we made the change.

Like hundreds of churches and parachurch organizations that operate without “Christ” or “Jesus”, our mission is not defined by our name. Our mission and values drive us…and our mission is the same mission and call given to Dr. and Mrs. Bill Bright in 1951, to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matt. 28:19)

Oh, and that 13 year-old boy? That guy was me. Changing my name made all the difference in the world to me, and I survived junior high with minimal damage.

Mission accomplished.

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  1. CRU has already shown itself to be intolerant of discussion with believers that hold a different opinion; accusing, censoring, deleting, blocking at every avenue. Why is that?

  2. Dear Chris,

    It has been a long time since we have talked. I hope you are doing well. I have two thoughts: 1.) The staff should look beyond Glenn Beck and Fox News. I haven’t really seen what either has to say about our name change. But, I have seen the comments on the discussion on the Staffweb/discussion. Somehow lots of supporters have access to this forum and their comments are overwhelmingly negative. While some of them are offended that we have removed the name Christ from our name, many, many (most?) are offended by what they feel is the meaninglessness of the name – that it stands for (in their opinion) nothing. 2) Whether these folks making negative comments are over-reacting or not, the reality is that many of those posting seem to be saying that they will not support us any longer, and I believe that these opinions (over 1400 as of last night) appeared on the forum before Fox or Beck said anything.

    Unfortunately, the crawl under the Cru symbol on the Staffweb had mostly sarcastic and shallow comments about opposition to the name. This strikes me as very unhealthy.

    The bottom line is that even if Cru is the perfect name we have a serious PR problem and this needs to be dealt with in a serious and mature fashion. I appreciate your thoughtful response above. Please encourage our staff to follow your example.

    In Christ,

    Danny Loe

  3. Actually, Doug, if you look on the site, you’ll see many comments that disagree with the name change. And honestly, I think that’s just fine! We’re not all going to agree. The comments that are being blocked are those that accuse (“the devil is in this”), those that threaten (“if you do this, I am pulling my support”), those that unfairly judge motives and presume to know the motives of others (“they did this for political correctness” or “they are ashamed of the gospel”), or those that continue to enflame conversations full of unkindnesses. I know for a fact that every comment is read, but I also know that these are public sites, and Campus Crusade for Christ, first and foremost, is concerned for how non-believers respond to this conversation. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Disagreement…absolutely!! But we still need to speak to each other in “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs”….

  4. I can no longer find any “comments” section in the ccci/cru new name info section – has that been taken down entirely, now? I had seen the negative comments the first day (the likes of which you now say would be blocked) and was interested to track how the organization will work out the disagreements. Have I just been unable to find my way back to the place where the conversation is going on, or?

    I agree with Danny, by the way, that “even if Cru is the perfect name, [you] have a serious PR problem. . . .”

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