William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr., born on November 7, 1918, was an American evangelical minister. Ordained a Southern Baptist preacher, he rose to celebrity status in 1949 among a white, middle-class of moderately, conservative Protestants. He was a spiritual adviser to many US presidents; especially close to Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, and rumored to be a close friend to Richard M. Nixon. During the Civil Rights Movement, he even invited Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1957 to speak at a revival in New York city. He even bailed him out during the 1960s for arrests for demonstrations. Graham has had a variety of media and publishing outlets with 3.2 million people responding to his "Crusades", receiving Jesus Christ as their personal savior. In 2008, Graham had an estimated lifetime audience of 2.2 billion people. He is listed in a Gallup poll as one of the most admired men or women, appearing 55 times (49 consecutive years); more than any individual in the world. Graham became "The Great Legimator" during the middle 60s and "America's Pastor during the middle 70s.
EARLY LIFE
Born to William Franklin Graham, Sr. (1888 -1962) and Morrow Coffey (1892-1981), Graham grew up on the family dairy farm in Charlotte, North Carolina. Graham, who is of Scottish descent, is the oldest of four siblings, two sisters and one brother. He was turned down for membership to a local youth group for being "too wordly," but Albert McMakin, a family friend who worked on the family farm, convinced Graham to speak to evangelist, Mordecai Ham. In 1934, at the age of 16, he was converted during one of Ham's revival meetings in Charlotte. He graduated in May 1936 from Sharon High School and attended Bob Jones College in Cleveland, Tennessee, but soon dropped out because he thought it too legalistic in rules and coursework. Almost expelled, Bob Jones, Sr. is quoted:
At best, all you could amount to would be a poor country Baptist preacher somewhere out in the sticks.... You have a voice that pulls. God can use that voice of yours. He can use it mightily.
He transferred to Florida Bible Institute (now Trinity College) in Temple Terrace, Florida and received his calling on the 18th green of Temple Terrace Golf and Country Club (now in the front of Sutton Hall at Florida College.) Reverend Billy Graham Memorial Park is now established on the Hillsborough River east of the 18th green where Graham is said to have paddled across by canoe to a small island to preach to birds, alligators, and cypress stumps. Graduating from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois in 1947 with a degree in anthropology, Graham accepted the Bible as the Infallible Word of God; Henrietta Mears, First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, Hollywood, California was instrumental in helping Graham wrestle with this issue.
FAMILY
On August 13, 1943, he married his Wheaton classmate, Ruth Bell (1920-2007), whose parents were Presbyterian missionaries in China; her father, L. Nelson Bell, a general surgeon. They had five children: Virginia Leftwich (Gigi) Graham, born in 1945, is an inspirational speaker and author; Anne Graham Lotz (1948) runs AnGeL Ministries; Ruth Graham (1950) is founder and president of Ruth Graham & Friends, and leads conferences in the US and Canada; Franklin Graham (1952) is president and CEO of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and president and CEO of the international relief organization, Samaritan's Purse; and Nelson Edman Graham (1958) is pastor of East Gates Ministries International, where he distributes literature to China. Graham has 19 grandchildren and numberous great-grandchildren, one for whom is Tullian Tchividjvan, son of Gigi, and senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
MINISTRY
During college, Graham became pastor of United Gospel Tabernacle as well as other preaching engagements. He briefly pastored First Baptist Church in Western Springs, Illinois, not far from Wheaton in 1943-44. His friend, Torrey Johnson, a pastor of Midwest Bible Church in Chicago, told Graham that his radio program "Songs in the Night," was canceled due to funding. Graham consulted with members of his church in Western Springs and took over Johnson's program with support from his church and launched a new program. On January 2, 1944, still dubbed "Songs in the Night," Graham recruited baritone, George Beverly Shea as director of the radio ministry. In 1947, at the age of 30, Graham was hired as the youngest president of Northwest Bible College in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Graham's original plans were to be a chaplain of the armed forces, but he contracted mumps shortly after applying for commission. After he recuperated from the mumps, he was hired as the first full-time evangelist for Youth For Christ International (YFCI), along with co-founders Torrey Johnson and canadian evangelist, Charles Templeton. Despite having little formal training, Graham traveled the US and Europe as an evangelist for YFCI.
CRUSADES
Since Graham began his ministry in 1947, he has conducted more than 400 crusades in 185 countries and territories on six continents. The first was held from September 13-31, 1947 at the Civic Auditorium in Grand Rapids, Michigan and was attended by 6,000 people. Graham referred to his ministry as Crusades after the Christian forces that conquered Jerusalem.
BILLY GRAHAM EVANGELISTIC ASSOCIATION
In 1950, Graham founded the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Minneapolis, Minnesota, then was relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina in 1999. It included:
· Hour of Decision, a weekly radio program broadcast around the world for more than 50 years
· Mission television specials broadcast in almost every market in the US and Canada
· A syndicated newspaper column, My Answer, carried by newspapers across the United States and distributed by Tribune Media Services
· Decision magazine, the official publication of the Association
· Christianity Today was started in 1956 with Carl F. H. Henry as its first editor
· Passageway.org, the website for a youth discipleship program created by BGEA
· World Wide Pictures, which has produced and distributed more than 130 films
In April 2013, BGEA kicked off "My Hope with Billy Graham," the largest outreach to encourage church members to spread the gospel to smaller communities by showing a video message by Billy Graham.
REFERENCE
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