The job only lasted a summer, but Steve Sellers left a legacy behind. As a 16-year-old working at a clothing factory in his hometown of Statesville, N.C., Steve watched shipping department workers struggle to figure out where products on customers' orders had been placed in the factory. The location of each item was written on an index card, and the cards strewn on a table.

Steve asked his boss if he could create a better system. Twenty years later, when Steve visited, the factory was still using his pegboard organizing system for the index cards. "I really don't like ineffectiveness," says 52-year-old Steve. "I hate doing things just because that's what we're supposed to do or because it's the way we've always done it."

Reporting directly to Campus Crusade for Christ's President Steve Douglass, today Steve Sellers has the massive task of directing Campus Crusade's ministry in the 26 countries of North and South America. Whether Steve Sellers is speaking to Campus Crusade staff members about what God is teaching him personally, meeting with donors or traveling around the Americas to meet with Campus Crusade leaders, his focus is to make sure that resources and people are being used in the most effective way possible so that every person has multiple opportunities to hear the gospel. Steve believes change is good, and he's always looking for ways to improve what's around him.

In 1991, Steve, along with his wife, Christy, was given leadership over the U.S. Campus Ministry—Campus Crusade's largest arm. Steve had worked for the organization since 1976 and could have continued leading the ministry in the direction it was already going. But Steve saw some ineffective things he knew needed altering.

"The student culture had changed, but our program hadn't," says Steve. Discontent with poor results, Steve actively encouraged staff members to take risks (illustrated in a video in which Steve bungee-jumped) and to dream of innovative ways to do evangelism and discipleship—the backbone of Campus Crusade. One new idea, radical for the time, was the creation of an evangelistic Web site, EveryStudent.com. Today, Steve says, an average of 1,000 people per week indicate decisions to become Christians through this Web site.

His call to ingenuity appealed to many, and during the '90s the annual number of people becoming full-time Campus Crusade staff members jumped from 300 to 878.

While directing the entire Campus Ministry, Steve and Christy determined to not lose sight of ground-level ministry. For 18 summers—starting the year their oldest daughter, Emily, was just an infant—the Sellers family moved to a small apartment in North Myrtle Beach, S.C., to lead a six-week summer mission trip for college students. Although Steve was a top leader within Campus Crusade, his warm, inviting personality quickly put the students at ease. "He'd know all the students' names in the first week," says his daughter Bethany.

	While in the office, Steve meets regularly with his executive team.

As the Sellers family grew from three to six, Steve was able to spend quality time with his family and stay connected with students—the people he has continually made his highest priority. "We were always fresh with what was going on with students," says Steve. "We found out what they were thinking, what works in ministry and what doesn't."

Steve also used these annual mission trips to make another change. He expanded the summer program to be a training ground for all new campus directors and associate campus directors. Instead of training in a classroom, the directors, who would return to campuses across the United States, learned their new responsibilities while working with students. "Their job is inherently chaotic; they have to learn balance," says Steve. "It was a much more realistic training environment."

In January 2005, Steve stepped into his current role working with the directors of each country in North and South America as well as the leaders of the large U.S. ministries. Similar to his work within the Campus Ministry, Steve continually looks for ways to make the organization's ministry more effective. "We are refocusing on what God has called Campus Crusade to do and what His vision for us is," says Steve. This meant recommending that a few ministries that were formerly part of Campus Crusade be eliminated from the company's protective covering.

"Over the years we'd developed wonderful and necessary outreaches," explains Steve, "but they weren't a great fit with Campus Crusade's unique calling to develop evangelistic strategies that would penetrate everyone within a people group."

Steve also recommended combining other ministries for greater effectiveness. For example, the Campus Ministry, Student Venture (the high-school ministry) and Christian Leadership Ministries (the ministry to college faculty) now report to one director. This has allowed for more continuity and teamwork, such as college students being encouraged to help lead high-school students.

Steve's ability to see what's wrong, however, can also bring an inevitable temptation—believing he's always right. Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade, once asked Steve to his office. For 20 minutes the former president explained the sinful pride he saw in Steve's life.

The next three days Steve fasted, prayed and asked God to expose this pride. He also asked his wife and friends for input. What God revealed was a sophisticated form of arrogance—deep down Steve thought he knew "the best way" and usually had the right answer.

Time with Christy and their four children—Emily, Bethany, T.J. and Jason—has always been extremely important to Steve.

"He's always taught me that truth is your friend," says Jay Berlinsky, a businessman and friend of Steve's. For over 10 years Jay and Steve have met for lunch every Thursday when they both are in town. The pair discusses work, family and relationships, keeping each other accountable to a high standard of Christian living.

Even more than his relationship with Jay, Steve depends on his wife of 26 years to help him see changes that need to happen in his life. "Steve is a person who is willing to learn and to grow," says Christy. "He knows from experience that leaders are not exempt from needing change."

As much as Steve embraces changes, he's had to learn that he can't change everything. When the Sellers' daughter Bethany was 19 days old, she had a brush with death that began with a simple fever. "I went in expecting the doctor to give her a shot and I'd take her home," says Steve. Instead, Bethany was rushed to the hospital where the doctors did a spinal tap, drew blood and put her on an IV. Their baby was diagnosed with meningitis, which can be fatal. In the hospital, Steve and Christy felt helpless, completely realizing their dependence on God. Bethany is now 22, but her parents still remember that lesson about who is really in control. "He is powerful and sovereign to accomplish even more than I imagine," says Steve.

These difficult times as well as others, such as a broken engagement before he met Christy, have turned Steve into a man who is willing to be molded by God. He has learned not to value what other people think over what God thinks. "I've watched him have to walk through tough decisions," says Steve Douglass. "He's a strong leader and has resolve when decisions need to be made."

As Steve Sellers leads Campus Crusade into the future, he will continue to look for more ways to further ministry, make necessary changes and lead in the way that God directs. But at the center of his mission, Steve sees lost people—those who haven't come into eternal relationship with Jesus Christ—as the ultimate problem that needs to be fixed. The thought regularly moves him to tears. Seeing people surrender to Jesus is the change he really wants to see.

ACTION POINT - The Next Step >Ask yourself, as Steve put it, Is truth my friend? Do you ask God if anything needs to change in your life? Do you invite others to point out things that need changing?