Billy Graham and I

In 2018 on February 21^st the Rev. Billy Graham died.  How do I remember such a fact? February 21^st is my birthday.  To learn that my birthday was his death day has stuck with me since then.   Billy Graham and I share a significant connection around other areas of life as well.

Perhaps the most famous evangelist of the modern era, Rev. Billy Graham had an amazing career which took him around the world.  Many books have been written about him; perhaps the most enjoyable and lighthearted is Billy Graham: The Man I Knew by Greg Laurie (Salem Books, 2021).

For four days in 1971, Rev. Billy Graham packed Memorial Coliseum on the campus of the University of Kentucky.   My father, Gayle M. Denny, worked for months as a member of the Lexington Crusade’s planning committee.  I recall him talking about the upcoming crusade and especially about his first meeting with Billy Graham.  Being in that crusade crowd was a seminal event in my spiritual life as a Christ-follower.

Billy Graham and I both adhered to “The Billy Graham Rule.”  When I was a pastor for ten years with a wonderful congregation, Palestine Christian Church in Wolcott, Indiana, I adhered to this well-known rule.  Billy Graham never met alone with a woman in a closed room, and I always kept my office door open for such meetings.  Mike Pence was widely mocked when he announced his adherence to “The Billy Graham Rule.”  Your opinion of this rule notwithstanding, as far as I know, neither Graham, Pence, nor I were ever slapped with harassment claims!

Some of Billy Graham’s quotes have stuck with me for decades.  My favorite Graham quote is this: “When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost.”  Our divided and toxic world right now desperately needs this “Grahamism!”

I love the structure of Billy Graham’s sermons; often I heard myself preaching his succinct points and recounting some of his memorable illustrations, which always touched the heart and not just the head!  Then there was his “invitation to come forward and accept Jesus as one’s personal Lord and Savior.”   As people streamed out of the stadium seats, I can see Graham standing still, perhaps one hand on his chin, head bowed, eyes closed, clearly praying fervently for more souls to be saved. 

Billy Graham and I not only shared February 21^st, we both shared a goal of helping sinners claim Jesus as “My Lord God,” the lead words to The Merton Prayer.  Graham to untold millions and millions.  I to dozens and dozens!

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