25 Things About Billy Graham

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on February 11, 2009

The ‘25 Things’ meme is sweeping the nation (or at least Facebook), with an estimated 5 million people taking part. So maybe it’s time for 25 Things About Billy Graham:

1. Billy Graham’s first formal sermon lasted eight minutes and included four separate sermons, the only ones he knew.
2. As a senior in high school a young Billy Graham found himself in a dark classroom with a girl who begged Graham to have sex. Instead of rounding the bases, Graham made like Joseph and ran away.
3. In 1964 Billy Graham’s name came up as a potential presidential candidate. His wife, Ruth, put a stop to any consideration of forsaking his call to evangelism: “If you run, I don’t think the country will elect a divorced president.”
4. Though close with many U.S. presidents, Billy Graham actually went skinny-dipping with Lyndon Johnson.
5. In 1937 Billy Graham fell in love with Emily Cavanaugh and proposed to her in the summer. She had to think about it and eventually said yes in the fall. But by 1938 she was having second thoughts and in the spring she dumped Billy Graham for one of his classmates, Charles Massey.
6. Billy Graham spoke at the TED technology conference in 1998.
7. Billy Graham served as a pastor to Western Springs Baptist Church in Western Springs, Ill., for a year in the 1940s. It was the only time he would officially pastor a local congregation. During his time there he changed the name to the Village Church since there were few Baptists in the area.
8. In 1979 the Mexican Navy detained Billy Graham for trespassing. At the time he was wearing nothing but a borrowed swimsuit belonging to George H.W. Bush.
9. In 1948 Billy Graham became the youngest college president in history as president of Northwestern College in Minneapolis.
10. As early as the 1950s Billy Graham held integrated crusades, at one point tearing down ropes that separated white sections from black sections, causing the head usher to resign in protest.
11. Billy Graham was knighted in 2001.
12. Martin Luther King Jr. insisted Billy Graham call him “Mike.”
13. As a child, Billy Graham went to church only “grudgingly” and the minister at his family’s church reminded him of a mortician.
14. The first time Billy Graham shared his testimony was with a group of about ten prisoners. The experience “reinforced my conviction that I would never become a preacher.”
15. Billy Graham attended Bob Jones University for one semester and upon leaving Bob Jones Sr. predicted nothing but failure for Graham.
16. At Florida Bible Institute Billy Graham would paddle out to a small island in the Hillsborough River to practice his sermons and preach to the alligators and birds, like a St. Francis of Florida. If the animals wouldn’t stop to listen, he’d preach to a captive audience of cypress tree stumps.
17. Throughout his life Billy Graham participated in nine presidential inaugurations and in 2009 passed on the hat he often wore to those inaugurations to Rick Warren who offered a prayer at Barack Obama’s inauguration.
18. On his wedding night Billy Graham had trouble falling asleep in the bed, so he crawled out of bed and fell asleep on the floor. In the morning Ruth woke up to find her new husband gone—it took her a few minutes to find him curled up on the floor, sound asleep.
19. During World War II the U.S. Army rejected Billy Graham for the chaplaincy program because he was three pounds underweight.
20. In the 1970s Billy Graham attended various rock festivals, protests and love-ins in order to better understand and connect with young people. To maintain anonymity, he attended “incognito” (meaning he donned a hat, sun glasses, and a big sweater).
21. Billy Graham left on a trip the day his first child was born, dismissing Ruth’s insistence that the baby would come soon and he should stay home. Billy predicted it would take another two or three weeks. Virginia “Gigi” Graham was born that evening.
22. He has always tried to minimize his own prominence, to the point that he strongly resisted naming his organization after himself in 1950 and when the Billy Graham Library opened in 2007 he declared there was “too much Billy Graham.”
23. In 1993 Billy Graham participated in an AOL chat session, his first foray into the world of online evangelism.
24. Billy Graham once loaned money to then-president Richard Nixon. When the offering plate was passed at a 1970 crusade in Knoxville, Tenn., the president didn’t have any money on him, but Graham discreetly slipped the president a few bills. A few months later Nixon repaid the loan.
25. Billy Graham is one of the few Americans who can get mail that’s simply addressed, “Billy Graham, America.”

Meeting Billy Graham

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on February 6, 2009

Jeff Henderson, pastor of Buckhead Church in Atlanta, recently met with Billy Graham and blogged about his experience. He describes the encounter, what Graham said, and includes some photos of the Graham home in Montreat, N.C.

A few highlights from Henderson’s experience:

• Henderson asked Graham for advice as a pastor: “Spend lots and lots of time in prayer. It blesses us and touches the heart of God.” Graham added, “We need the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, we’re empty.”
• Henderson asked how he could pray for Graham: “Just pray. I need God every moment of every day.”
• “I miss her greatly,” Graham said, pointing to a picture of his late wife, Ruth. This is a sentiment Graham has expressed repeatedly in interviews since her death.

Billy Graham Switches Church Membership

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on December 31, 2008

After more than 50 years as a member of First Baptist Church of Dallas, 90-year-old Billy Graham has changed his membership to the First Baptist Church of Spartanburg, S.C. Homebound in Montreat, N.C., Graham has watched broadcasts of the Spartanburg church’s services on TV and is good friends with pastor Don Wilton (Graham wrote the forward to Wilton’s 2005 book Totally Secure: Finding Peace and Protection in the Arms of God).

Billy Graham refers to Wilton as his “TV pastor,” according to Graham’s spokesman, Larry Ross.

“Our church is deeply humbled and deeply grateful to accept him as one of our own,” said Wilton. “And it certainly gives us great joy to do that.” Wilton and his son spoke with Graham on Christmas Eve when he asked to transfer his membership. The news was met with immediate applause on Sunday at all three services at the First Baptist Church of Spartanburg.

Billy Graham joined the First Baptist Church of Dallas in 1953 during one of his crusades in the city. At the time, the church was considered the preeminent church in the Southern Baptist Convention. Since he never lived in Dallas, Graham attended the church only sporadically.

Since Billy Graham’s church membership has seemed to mean little in the past 50 years, it’s strange that he’s just now changing it. But as more than 291 news articles can attest, where Billy Graham holds his church membership must be newsworthy.

“This was not an easy or quick decision by Mr. Graham,” said Ross. “But he increasingly felt it was important to unite with First Baptist Spartanburg, as that has had his attention and focus, especially through television, in recent years.

“We’ll always treasure the relationship,” said First Baptist Church of Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress.