Rev. Billy Graham, crusading Evangelist, climaxed his tour of New England with a mass rally on historic Boston Common on April 23, 1950. Some 50,000 persons attended the event.
Posted on 03/28/2011 12:42:25 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
For at least the last half decade, there’s been speculation as to who could replace the Rev. Billy Graham as the next greatly esteemed and world-renowned leading Christian evangelist. When his 2005 New York crusade was billed as most likely his last, we began wondering if anyone could rise to the task. Or should any individual do so?
Since emerging on Christianity’s landscape in the mid-1940s, Graham has never let up in his simple belief that people need Jesus. His way of presenting the gospel message of hope through accepting Christ as Savior has touched millions of hearts.
Graham has a personality and philosophy that helped him cross many of the world’s largest divides.
He spoke with Martin Luther King Jr. about racial reconciliation. He was the first white evangelist to invite an African American preacher to tour with him (Howard O. Jones).
Graham was able to travel behind the Iron Curtain and speak with Soviet leaders when the fall of the curtain was just a glinting hope in America’s eye. He’s been an acquaintance turned friend or spiritual advisor to multiple U.S. presidents.
As he aged, he crossed generational boundaries by seeing the importance of modern music as a way to reach out to youth. His crusade schedules blended the use of favorite old traditional hymns with the appearance of popular young contemporary Christian artists.
In today’s social environment where Christianity faces a tarnished image and God is dismissed as a myth, who else can do this instead of inciting anger in people’s minds for “pushing” salvation through Christ?
Graham’s son Franklin Graham speaks out for Christianity worldwide and leads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the nonprofit charity organization Samaritan’s Purse. But he has yet to overcome a bad reputation earned for political incorrectness when he called Islam “evil” after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The Next Billy Graham?
Articles in a variety of publications from faith-based to economics have mentioned these leading pastors and evangelists among others as possibly the next Billy Graham.
Evangelist Luis Palau has been called the Billy Graham of Latin America. He began preaching God’s word in Buenos Aires, Argentina as a pre-teen. Today he’s best known for throwing party-type evangelistic events with Christian music for young people in the United States and other countries as well.
Pastor Rick Warren was named most powerful evangelist in America by The Economist website in 2008. To be sure, his book The Purpose Driven Life challenged Christians and non-Christians alike to realize life isn’t about us but something grander – it’s all about God’s purpose for our lives.
Joel Osteen pastors the largest church in America, Lakewood Church in Houston, and has of late been trying to overcome the image that his message is just one of prosperity. He stated to CNN’s Larry King in a 2007 interview that his desire is for people to come to know Christ as their Savior; but nevertheless, we won’t get anywhere just preaching the negatives.
Pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, Calif., has packed houses both on the road and at his home church with his ability to reach multiple generations in easy-to-understand, yet uncompromising speeches, sermons and books.
Laurie rejected a 2005 comparison of him to Graham, especially after spending two days with the man. The two discussed 2 Chronicles 7:14 as written for God’s people, not non-believers, to turn toward God in repentance with the hope of seeing a spiritual revival in America.
Graham Challenges 21st Century Christians
Not every church pastor has the nature of a traveling evangelist. But in a way, every Christian is called to be an evangelist.
Billy Graham published a challenge to Christians for the new millennium in a 1997 article for Christianity Today. Within its text, he mentions society, and especially the youth population, facing a multitude of non-Christian religious ideas and anti-God secularism. He says Christians shouldn’t retreat, but keep in mind Jesus’ goal of having disciples who would reach the ends of the world (Matthew 28:19-20).
He reminded us that Christianity was spread throughout the post-biblical world not by a few, but by many, and outside of church walls. If we are to see Christianity grow, it will not be done by waiting for people to walk through church doors, but by Christians being faithful to Christ’s calling to outwardly mobilize the whole church again.
It seems Billy Graham himself has answered the question, “Is there a next Billy Graham?” He wants it to be everyone who knows Christ.
bttt
Glenn Beck?
Rev. Graham’s appeal was because he was dead honest and unpretentious. He’s never had the oiliness of a Swaggart or the hypocrisy of a Rick Warren. He’s got one purpose—to bring people to Jesus—and he does that and ONLY that. He’s never expressed himself much about politics, I honestly don’t know if he’s even a Democrat or a Republican. And he’s always come across as totally straightforward in his dealings and unswerving in his purpose, while still keeping that human touch. He’s one of a kind and we’ve been blessed to have him preaching the Word for sixty years.
}:-)4
seriously? Beck? No!!!
RE: Glenn Beck?
Is he going to use the Book of Mormon in his sermons?
There is already terrific pastors who aren’t shading the gospel and just preaching the truth. John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Tullian Tchivijian(honestly don’t know the correct spelling. He’s Billy Grahm’s grandson as well. Paul David Tripp, JR Vassar, and my favorite as well as my pastor and friend Matt Chandler. :)
I’m not a strongly religious man. That said I find the messeages from Dr.Wayne Webb to be inspiring in many ways.
God annoints and appoints. It’s the message, not the man.
Graham says that people need Jesus.
But in the last few years, he has said that there could well be people in heaven who have never heard of Jesus.
Got this little question mark floating over my head.
I luv Billy and he’s right. But the problem is that we are in the time of the last church - Laodecia. Read about it in Revelation 3. (Here’s a clue....... Jesus is on the outside knocking.)
I luv Billy and he’s right. But the problem is that we are in the time of the last church - Laodecia. Read about it in Revelation 3. (Here’s a clue....... Jesus is on the outside knocking.)
He was fairly heavily involved in politics during the Nixon years. He got in trouble by having been too tight with Nixon and being with him when the former President made some disparaging remarks on tape.
Having said that, I do believe I read that Graham is a registered Democrat. Also, he said some positive things about the Clintons some years ago.
Franklin Graham was right. Islam is evil.
When the pupil is ready to learn, a teacher will appear.
Isaiah, chapter three.
There's a lot of unreality going on, out there. Billy Graham's crusades had a 96% defect rate -- only 4% of those who "went forward" actually gave later evidence of being Christians. I just talked to an evangelist who claimed that 5,000 Jamaicans had "accepted Christ" during his recent two-week tour. I reserve judgment.
Making disciples is the core of the Great Commission. The only verb, in fact. All the other "action words" are subordinate to this main thing, in the original (Greek) language. We are not told to "make converts." That's God's role. When we neglect our responsibility[1] to try to take on God's part, we distort the whole process, and end up mass-producing false conversions. As any stage hypnotist can testify, a skilled orator can exert uncanny power over willing subjects. Activities dominated by natural charisma, however, do not yield permanent spiritual results. Ask Billy Graham.
Parenthetically, a quiet "under the radar" reformation has been underway for several decades, now, that Focuses on the Family as the place where the discipleship action is. The ministries of people like James Dobson, R J Rushdoony, Raymond and Dorothy Moore, Samuel L. Blumenfeld, Gary DeMar, and many others, have eschewed mass meetings, but nurtured vigorous, and happy, family living for the millions. This was deliberate and intentional. James Dobson is a guy who can draw crowds -- but he realized that his family was being neglected, and walked away from a promising career as a major performer. He sought a form of ministry that got him off the road, that did not require him to desert his family for days, or weeks, on end. Jerry Falwell was always in his own pulpit on Sunday mornings, and paid attention to his own household as well. He died "on task," in his office, leaving behind a church pastored by one son, and a university provosted by another.
One was enough
So--he should have just kept his mouth shut and let those 4% stay on the path they were on?
It doesn't matter matter so much what the failure rate is--as long as he led people to Christ, he can be considered a success.
Even one person being led to Christ is a success.
Actually, no. You are evidently one of those fortune-tellers who thinks we can glorify God by proclaiming the power of Satan. By assuming that the God of the Bible has already decided to take a dive, and let the other team have a few free kicks.
A Biblical Christian does not regard the future as his to surrender. Not even in his imagination. Those who let themselves be seduced by the fortune-tellers and fatalists blind themselves to what is happening right under their noses. When human sacrifice was legalized in their own back yard, Dallas Theological Seminary was blissfully oblivious. An addiction to "prophecy" teaching made them unable to see, and to speak, prophetically about Roe v. Wade.
To those with eyes to see, to those who have not blinded themselves with foolish prognostications and doomsaying, God is at work today. A quiet reformation is underway.
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