Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Grace in Focus, this ministry of Free Grace theology, heard weekdays right here. We are a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society, and today Bob Wilkin and Philippe Sterling are going to talk about their own coming to faith through the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, now called Cru. Hope you’ll stay tuned, glad you’re with us, and you can find out more about the Grace Evangelical Society and our website, faithalone.org. We’d also love for you to subscribe to our YouTube channel, YouTube, Grace Evangelical Society, and view our short videos there. That’s YouTube, Grace Evangelical Society, and the website, faithalone.org. 

Now, here are Bob Wilkin and Philippe Sterling. 

BOB: I’m here with Pastor Philippe Sterling. Philippe, you and I both were involved with student ministry. We both came to faith in Christ through Campus Crusade for Christ, right? 

PHILIPPE: Yes, and also then all my initial Christian growth in that context and vocational Christian ministry. 

BOB: So how long were you on staff with Campus Crusade? 

PHILIPPE: Three years 

BOB: And what school? 

PHILIPPE: I was at a University of Delaware.

BOB: And I was involved for two years, came to faith, and then was a student leader at my campus for two years, and then I was on staff for four, two years at Arkansas State in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and two years at NC State in Raleigh, North Carolina. So we both had learned a lot of things during our time with Crusade. Some good, some things that we came to question, but that was helpful to us also. So why don’t we talk about what we learned over our time and both as a student and on staff. You want to start us out? What things did you learn?

PHILIPPE: Oh, sure. I went to Virginia Tech. I was an 18-year-old starting there. 

BOB: Where is Virginia Tech? 

PHILIPPE: It’s in Blacksburg, Virginia, in the mountainous area. The most beautiful campus that I’ve ever been on? I’ve made off those great, big blocks of stone, beautiful campus. I came there from having grown up in Arlington, Virginia, in a non-Christian home, having had no Christian influence in my life. 

BOB: Well, you were in Arlington, Virginia from age 10 on, right? 

PHILIPPE: Right. And from Haiti, originally.

BOB: Your first 10 years in Haiti, right? Near Port-au-Prince. 

PHILIPPE: Yes, I was born in Port-au-Prince and then lived in Pétion-Ville. And then from there, we emigrated, our family did, to the United States. 

BOB: And you spoke no English when you got here at age 10? 

PHILIPPE: No, not at all. I came here about two weeks before the school year began. And so I went into the fifth grade, not knowing any English other than yes, no. And that was the limit of my vocabulary. But I was immersed. I was the only non-English speaking person there in the classroom. And I became the class project in fifth grade. And then quickly learned English and made friends and became a cultural American.

BOB: Because your native language was French and Creole, right? OK. So you end up at age 18 at Virginia Tech. And when did you get involved with Crusade? And how did you come to faith? 

PHILIPPE: Yes. The very first day that I was in the dormitory at Virginia Tech, I met two students who lived right across the hall from me. There were upperclassmen actually, a junior and a senior, both believers and involved with Campus Crusade for Christ. One of them was a biology major. And that’s what I was going to be in biology at Virginia Tech. And when I found out that he was a biology major, and I was an agnostic with no knowledge of the Bible, you know, all but still I was an argumentative agnostic. 

So that very first day when I learned that Wayne was a biology major, I began to engage him in the whole matter of creation and evolution. And it was a friendly conversation, but kind of a heated conversation. And I found out later that when his roommate, you know, Mike came in that evening Wayne talked to Mike and said, hey, I blew it with this skinny Frenchman guy, you know, across the hall. So he’s going to be your project. 

BOB: That’s what he said? 

PHILIPPE: From then on. That’s what he said. But Mike was a very friendly, very gregarious and everything. And really engaged me and became a friend. And over the next six months, you know, he will talk to me from time to time about spiritual things and invite me to special events, one of them was a showing of a film on prophecy with Hal Lindsey. And I went with him to that and was very intrigued. You know, by Messianic prophecy, by prophecies, you know, concerning things to come. 

And from that, I gradually grew more open. And Mike encouraged me, you know, to read the Bible for myself. And I read through Genesis and he told me, well, now that you read through Genesis, why don’t you skip over to the Gospel of John? So I read through the Gospel of John and then one evening, just with Mike, you know, we started talking about that and focused on John 3:16. And then he then he took me to Ephesians 2:8-9, tried to use the four spiritual laws some because that contained those verses, but I wasn’t interested in reading something to me or anything like that. So we just focused on John 3:16, talking about that and Ephesians 2:8-9. And then he looked at me and said, “Well, would you like to pray to receive Christ?” And I wasn’t interested either in going through and repeating a prayer or anything. But I just looked to Mike and said, It all makes sense to me.  And I believe. 

BOB: And that was it? 

PHILIPPE: And that was it. 

BOB: Not your typical Campus Crusade for Christ testimony. 

PHILIPPE: Right, and from then on, though, the benefit from Campus Crusade was that immediately, you know, I began to be part of a Christian community. 

ANNOUNCER: The Grace Evangelical Society Seminary, GES Seminary, is getting ready for the 2025 fall semester. All classes are online. And we are now ready to receive your application. GESSeminary.org is where you apply. And if you want to begin study this fall, we must receive your application by July 29. That’s GESSeminary.org. Classroom size is limited. So let us hear from you soon. Apply now,GESSeminary.org. 

PHILIPPE: And I began to love, you know, doing that and just being part of that Christian community and with the follow-up program, and the Bible studies and everything.

BOB: So you were in an action group? 

PHILIPPE: Initially, a discovery group time and then an action group and then became an action group leader and then became a leader in the, what they call the central action group, the whole leadership, the major leadership structure for the campus ministry. So for three and a half years, I became part of the leadership community for Campus Crusade. And another benefit in that time was also the focus on being part of a mission outreach to people. 

BOB: You were going on campus sharing your faith with people? 

PHILIPPE: Oh, yes, I was very active in that. And having seen many students come to believe in Christ and starting to grow and getting them involved in discovery groups and ultimately in action groups and helping them develop their own action groups and also seeing that multiplication aspect and experience occurring there. And so that became really my major focus instead of focusing on all my biology classes and everything. I began to spend a good bit of my time just involved, you know, with those activities and that sense of mission that really began to grow, you know, within me. And that would ultimately lead also to my going on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ after graduation. 

BOB: All right. Well, maybe I could tell a little bit of my story because it kind of parallels yours in many ways. And then maybe we’ll do another one where we can talk about the things we learned, et cetera. 

But when I got to University of California at Irvine—Go Anteaters—in Orange County, California, I was a very religious person from a holiness, basically a cult. It was a sinless perfection holiness group. And they taught that you had to basically turn from your sins and commit your life to Christ and follow Christ before you were born again. They didn’t call it born again. They called it saved. And then once you were saved, you had to live a sinless life to stay saved. And they were pretty extreme. Here’s how extreme they were Philippe—one sin after you were saved and you lost your salvation and could never regain it. 

PHILIPPE: Oh, really? 

BOB: Yes. You either had to be sinless or you went to hell. So, and in order to be saved, the leader taught that there was a time between the ages of 5 and 20 when it would be your Sunday. And I think everybody got saved on Sunday, had to be in church, and you had to go forward in church. And—at least that was the impression I had—

PHILIPPE: So it was programmed.

BOB: It was programmed and you would go. And if you were ready, if you would turn from your sins enough and committed your life enough, then when your time came, you would go forward and be saved. And he said he missed his time when he was about 6 or 5. And he said, but then the Lord gave him in His grace, gave him another chance when he was about 10. And he struggled and went forward and was saved. And since then, the man was about 70 at the time. He believed he had never sinned from age 10. This is what the group I was in. 

And so I was that kind of thinking my freshman year, my sophomore year, I basically skipped my junior year because I graduated in three years. So at the beginning of my senior year, just before I started, a friend John Carlson who had been in the same cult, he had come to faith through Campus Crusade at University of Southern California. He invited me to one of their college life meetings. 

So I went to the meeting. I heard these people talk about the free gift of salvation. It made no sense to me. It was too easy. It was cheap grace. And so—but it was intriguing. So I got the phone number for somebody at UC Irvine that was on staff. And when I got back to campus, I called this guy up. His name was Bob. And he said, yeah, let me, why don’t you meet with Warren Wilkie? 

So I met with Warren Wilkie. And I told Warren, I lack assurance. I’ve invited Jesus in my heart lots of times. I felt something at times, but I’m not sure I’m saved. So Warren didn’t use the four laws because he wasn’t being, I wasn’t asking him, what do I need to do to be saved, I was asking about assurance. So he took me to Ephesians 2:8-9. And he must have read it 10 times that first session, “By grace you’ve been saved through faith, that not of yourselves, It’s the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone boast.”

And I would say, yes, but what about Hebrews 6? Or what about Hebrews 10? Or what about James 2? And he kept giving me a brief answer. And then he would re-quote, “By grace you’ve been saved through faith. It’s not of yourselves, not of works.” 

We met five times, Philippe. I can’t remember if it’s five days in a row, but it was over the course of a week. And in the fifth meeting, I finally got it. And I was like, I believe. Well, Warren wasn’t thinking I had just been born again. He was thinking I had just gained assurance. But I knew this is when I was born again, because I knew now that I was saved forever. 

And that led me to become involved in an action group. And then ultimately lead my own action groups. And then I ultimately went on staff like you did. But the key thing for me was the fact that salvation was secure the moment we believe. The same thing you learned. And both of us not through going through the four laws, but through, in my case, Ephesians 2:8:9, in your case, John 3:16, and Ephesians 2:8-9. 

PHILIPPE: Yeah, John 3:16, and having read through the Gospel of John. And then focusing on just that simple message, I think that’s encapsulated in John 3:16. 

BOB: All right. So now Campus Crusade is called Cru. So in the next show when we talk about positive and things that needed correction, we’ll just talk about Cru. So in the meantime, let’s all keep grace in focus. 

ANNOUNCER: We invite you to check out our Monday, Wednesday, and Friday five-minute YouTube videos at YouTube, Grace Evangelical Society. You will love the content and learn a lot. There are a lot of costs involved in staying on the air. That’s why we so much appreciate our financial partners. If you’d like to learn how to become one, you can find out more by going to faithalone.org. 

On our next episode: lessons learned through crew. Please join us, and until then, let’s keep grace in focus.