Sharing My Story

My last working day with Campus Crusade was Wednesday,
July 7, 1982 and the actual termination day was July 16, 1982.
I attended the San Diego Comic Convention July 8-11 and
during the next week I looked for an apartment in the Rosemead
area. I closed out my San Bernardino apartment July 16 and
moved temporarily to the Narramore housing facilities on
July 17. During the next several weeks I moved into an
apartment in nearby Montebello.

There were some similarities and many differences between
the Narramore Christian Foundation and Campus Crusade.
Both were thoroughly evangelical in their orientation and doctrine.
Where Campus Crusade was a very dynamic organization with
new (and mostly young) people coming on the staff constantly,
NCF was much smaller with a static and mostly older staff.
Whereas the CCC headquarters had perhaps 300-400 staff
and hourly employees Narramore had perhaps around 30 staff
during the early years that I was there. Campus Crusade was
dedicated primarily to outreach, evangelism and discipleship.
Narramore was much more narrowly focused. Dr. Narramore
emphasized three aspects of a person's makeup. There was the
physical, emotional/mental and spiritual. In Dr Narramores
lectures, radio programs, tapes, books and other printed matter
he does touch on the physical and spiritual aspects of
human makeup. The spiritual relates to a right relationship
with God through Jesus Christ (the Christian gospel). However,
by far Dr Narramore's emphasis was on the emotional and
psychological makeup of people. Being born again didn't
necessarily mean that all the emotional and psychological
baggage one had acquired during life is immediately gone.
He often said that the churches were filled with people who
had great emotional and psychological needs. Dr. Narramore
was a pioneer in the Christian counseling movement and his
many books and pamphlets conveyed this commitment.

The time I arrived at the Rosemead campus of the Narramore
Christian Foundation (mid-1982) was a time where the
organization had reached its zenith and was plateauing off.
In the mid-1960s Dr. Narramore was given the Rosemead
property where the NCF headquarters and counseling center
were built. In the late 1960s Dr. Clyde and his nephew,
Dr. Bruce Narramore, started the Rosemead School of Psychology
which was a graduate school for Christian counselors. By the end
of the 1970s Biola University had taken over the graduate school
and it was moved to the Biola campus in LaMirada, California.

In 1982 when I arrived the lower part of the main administration
building housed a functioning counseling out patient clinic/center
that served the local area. This center was eventually closed (as
was one in Arizona) several years after I had started working there.
During the first couple of years I was at NCF another building
(plus a small swimming pool and hot spa) was constructed. This
building served as a dinner area and a residential facility. The
campus was composed of a two-story main administration building,
a separate auditorium, a residential facility (besides the then-newly
constructed building) and a Print Shop-Mailing/shipping building.
Another building was licensed to Southern California Edison.
There were several parking lots. The buildings were situated on and
around a hillside which made for a multi-level campus. There was a
sense that the best days of the organization were still ahead as the
new building was constructed to provide for additional housing for
more conferees. Prior to this time some of the conferees to various
NCF seminar had to secure off campus housing.

Labels: Biola, Bruce Narramore, Clyde Narramore, Montebello, Rosemead