Campus Crusade's Power to Change's mission is to boldly go where the United Church of Canada has gone before

"Most people are devoted to causes which are neither significant nor lasting."
--Howard Hendricks, from the promotional film for the Campus Crusade for Christ conference KC '83.

It comes as no surprise to this blogger to see the continuing liberal direction taken by Power to Change (more familiar to those of us of a certain age as Campus Crusade for Christ, Canada). It’s what I predicted would happen after they announced their "new paradigm" in May 2006. An example of this is the unlikely issue of bottled water. At a general council of the hopelessly apostate United Church of Canada in Thunder Bay in August 2006, a resolution was put forward against "commodification" of water supplies that included a request that UCC congregations and members boycott bottled water. However, as reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation:

Ironically, the church's delegates are drinking bottled water this week at its meeting at Lakehead University. The conference facility was not equipped to provide drinking water.

The Calgary Herald, in an editorial, offered a dissenting view:

Of course, delegates attending a conference in Thunder Bay, Ont., can stroll to the nearby shores of North America's largest freshwater lake, Superior, and have all the water they want for free. They can even take it out of the taps for nothing more than the utilities charge. What they're really paying for is the cost of purifying it, packaging it and delivering it.

That's not commodification, it's fee-for-service.

On November 30, 2006 the UCC issued its policy position on water, which included:

Discourage the purchase of bottled water starting within its courts and congregations where possible;

The UCC social policy position page includes the link to their report titled Water: Life before Profit.

Flash forward to April 2010, and the Power to Change site contains a blog post by Claire Colvin titled Raise a Glass for Earth Day, which advises:

Yes, drinking bottled water when you’re out somewhere is healthier than drinking pop. But drinking water from a tap is even better, for all of us. This year for Earth Day, instead of turning something off, turn something on. Head to the sink and pour yourself a delicious glass of tap water. You’ll do us all a favor.

More Books and Things contains some excellent commentary (e.g., this post) on Power to Change’s use and promotion of the materials of Erwin McManus. Few of the blog posts on PTC’s Soul Cravings page mention the gospel of Jesus Christ or contain anything that’s distinctively Christian; most of the posts could have been written by any secular motivational speaker or writer. It’s almost enough to make one nostalgic for the formulaic writing of Bill Bright. The current emphasis of Power to Change is an excellent example of what Chris Rosebrough is talking about (go to Fighting for the Faith and search for "3D Theology") when he says that the material principle of modern evangelicalism, i.e., what it’s really about, has gone from "Jesus Christ crucified for our sins" to "the changed life," while the formal principle, i.e., the source of the material principle’s authority, has gone from "sola scriptura"--the Bible as our only guide of faith and practice--to "the Bible as guidebook"--containing principles for practical living.

If their website is any indication, Power to Change is becoming just a self-help movement, and is increasingly unrecognizable as Christian. To see where this sort of development has come from and where it’s headed, read the text of Samuel Tow’s prescient address from 1983 titled Today’s Evangelicals, Tomorrow’s Liberals.