Too Much Billy Graham?

The other day I bought Billy Graham’s autobiography “Just As I Am” on tape for really cheap. I’ve listed to the first couple of chapters so far, but I can tell that Billy Graham is a great man of God. I also think it’s safe to say that Rev. Graham is the greatest evangelist of the 20th century, brining millions through the power of the Holy Spirit to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. But it dawned on me the other day that maybe American evangelicalism has had a little too much of Billy Graham after all.

Now I’m not trying to criticize Billy Graham in what I am saying here. As a matter of fact, he had nothing to do with this development that I want to describe. Rather, I think that the church is at fault here. A little background. One of the reasons Rev. Graham was so successful was that he found a relevant way to preach the gospel to 20th century America. This method is called a “crusade.” As you may know, a crusade is like an overblown revival. It includes intense evangelistic preaching, cutting edge Christian music, skits, and any other type of eye-grabber that might point someone towards the gospel. Usually these crusades are held in large arenas or football fields. The crusade was a great invention for the glory of Christ. But I believe that some people, pastors, and churches have tried too hard to adopt the crusade model and replace it with the local church.

What I’m attempting to say is that many churches today look a lot more like Billy Graham crusades than local New Testament churches. And this is a bad thing. You see, in Christian life, the church has a central and special function. In a sense, the Catholics were right when they said there is no salvation outside of the church. They were wrong to say that connection to the Roman church alone saves, but they were right to articulate that a Christian has to be connected to the preaching, fellowship, ordinances, and discipline of a church in order to grow in grace. The local church is not a revival. It is not a crusade. It is a place where the ordinances are administered properly and the Word is preached rightly. This is not to say that the local church’s mission is not to save the lost (the purpose of the church is to fulfill the Great Commission), but it is to say that Sunday morning should go deeper than a Billy Graham crusade.

Rev. Graham’s method and message were only meant to save people from sin and never to disciple on a regular basis and help Christians grow. He was an evangelist, which is very distinct from a pastor or elder (there are many different members of Christ’s body). The place of the evangelist is not leading a local church. The evangelist is to be out in the world seeking the lost. The teachers and preachers are supposed to be in the local church, seeking the lost but also building up the found. Sometimes I think we’ve got it backwards. I think we’ve got too much of Billy Graham’s method where it’s not supposed to be. We’ve made the local church into perennial revivals and crusades…into something it was never meant to be. The church should be a place where the Word is preached and the ordinances are administered. We would do well to remember that.