Worldwide Challenge staff writer Jessica Cline asked Campus Crusade for Christ President Steve Douglass about the movement's calling: to build spiritual movements everywhere so that everyone knows someone who truly follows Jesus Christ.

Worldwide Challenge: What is a spiritual movement?

Steve: A spiritual movement is a small group of true followers of Jesus Christ who band together to win, build and send [people] in the power of the Holy Spirit. Individually and as a group they "own" the Great Commission [Jesus' command in Matthew 28:18-20 to share the gospel with all nations]. The end product of a spiritual movement is that more and more people want to become true followers of Jesus Christ, be filled with the Spirit, be a part of God's plan and share the message with others.

Worldwide Challenge: In Campus Crusade, we often hear the words win, build and send. What do you mean by that?

Steve: If I were to use the conventional terms used in the Christian world, it would be evangelism, discipleship and leadership development. There is nothing mysterious about it. It is basic evangelism and maturing of individuals in their faith, and then equipping them and sending them out. From the beginning [Campus Crusade for Christ founder] Bill Bright clarified time and time again that we are called by God to be a ministry of spiritual multiplication, not a ministry of spiritual addition.

Worldwide Challenge: You've compared spiritual movements to spiritual multiplication, instead of spiritual addition. Can you explain the difference?

Steve: When I was in graduate school, I had the privilege of participating in a group that fits the description of a movement of spiritual multiplication. There were four of us. We owned a piece of the ministry in the Boston area. It was an exciting, engaging experience with God. The result was that when we graduated, two of us joined as full-time staff members with Campus Crusade and the other two joined as associate [volunteer] staff. The ministry multiplied.

Several years later I led the local movement at Crafton Hills Junior College. Eleven students went to my college Sunday school class. We met often to plan strategies. We did classroom evangelism and published a four-page evangelistic newspaper called The Salt Shaker. We even threw a Christmas party for the campus featuring the real meaning of Christmas. I would say the vast majority of the students at the school heard the gospel.

But I think our efforts were spiritual addition, not multiplication. The group of 11 required my ongoing motivation and encouragement. They never owned the work themselves. I felt like I had to push things along.

If you were to watch Campus Crusade from a distance the last 15 years or so, you might have thought our motto was "gospel everywhere" instead of "spiritual movements everywhere." The JESUS film [Campus Crusade's evangelistic film based on the Gospel of Luke] or other large evangelistic outreaches were most visible. Because there were dramatic conversion stories, it perhaps appeared that we were a ministry of spiritual addition, focused on just increasing the number of Christians. But "movements everywhere" encompasses "gospel everywhere" and goes further, equipping new Christians right away to own the work of helping lead others to Christ. I sense God calling us back to our roots.

Worldwide Challenge: Why is spiritual multiplication so important?

Steve: According to Ralph Winter, the founder of the U.S. Center for World Mission, the JESUS film is the most effective evangelistic tool in history. So if you take this tool, go to a village of 10,000 people and show the film to 2,000 of them, you might see 500 decisions for Christ. However, this leaves 8,000 people who have not been reached with the gospel message. The JESUS film probably won't make it back to the village for three or four years, or ever. Even if you go back several times, you're not going to show it to everybody. If you don't establish the presence of true followers of Jesus in a community, people who understand what following Jesus looks like in practice, not everyone will become a true follower of Jesus. Spiritual multiplication is crucial.

Worldwide Challenge: Why stop at everyone just "knowing someone who truly follows Christ"? Don't we want everyone simply to know Christ?

Steve: It's not that we're stopping, but it is a measuring stick. Once this is in place, the job will get done. I've been doing an informal survey with people lately, asking: "Was there anybody in your life that didn't lead you to Christ but influenced you toward Christ?" I've found well over 50 percent or maybe even two-thirds of the people I've talked to would say, "Yeah, there were very significant people that influenced me towards Christ even though they didn't lead me to Christ."

Sometimes we interpret the closing event as what led them to Christ. But I think it's a shared thing. First of all, only God leads people to Christ. But a lot of times people are looking for the explanation of how [to become a Christian] and then somebody comes along with a Four Spiritual Laws evangelistic booklet or a JESUS film and shows them how to respond. We're all thrilled with the results, but what preceded that was them knowing someone who is a true follower of Jesus. The ultimate end is that all would hear and have opportunity to respond and grow.

Worldwide Challenge: Can anyone be a part of a spiritual movement?

Steve: The answer is yes and no. Anybody could be involved in helping create a climate where God could create a movement of spiritual multiplication. But it is more an issue of someone's heart, not his or her demographics. In the parable of the sower [Luke 8:4-15], only some people turn out to be good soil. Yet several things disqualify us from being a spiritual multiplier: life's worries, riches and pleasures. A person who chooses not to give priority to the things of God but instead worries or spends time focused on the things of this world is probably not going to be much of a contribution, if any, to a movement of spiritual multiplication. In other words, they have to be true followers of Jesus, filled with God's Spirit and letting Jesus control their lives.

Worldwide Challenge: So if anyone can be involved, let's take this idea out of the philosophical. Where would a housewife or a professional start a spiritual movement?

Steve: Let's take the housewife. Generally she would know the neighbors. So if you were going to have any sort of outreach to the people around you, that would probably be better done with another person who's at home. Also, depending on her station in life, a woman might belong to certain clubs or have other natural spheres of influence.

A businessman, who works in an office, has co-workers. He also has friends he plays golf or goes bowling with. Many guys tend to be interested in sports, so there are natural friendships there. The environment of starting a spiritual movement could be with them or over lunch hour in his office. For the housewife it might be at 10 in the morning having a cup of coffee with three or four neighbors. Everyone has his or her own influence group. That is how the gospel most naturally spreads. Everybody can contribute, and then taken together, it becomes very significant.