18th March, 2005

DAVID ADAMS

The Gospel and nothing but the Gospel. That, according to Franklin Graham - the son of renowned US evangelist Billy Graham - is the entirety of the message he has brought to Australia.

“That’s what the churches want - they don’t want some specific message; they want God’s message and they want God’s message for today,” says the 52-year-old evangelist.

That message, says Graham, is the same as that his father delivered when he was in Melbourne preaching to record crowds at the MCG in 1959. “The Gospel message is the same and the power of the Gospel is the same.”

Graham (officially William Franklin Graham III) is the chief executive and president of the US-based Billy Graham Evangelistic Association founded by his father in 1950. He is currently holding a number of meetings in Australia which kicked off with Hobart, Tasmania, last weekend where he preached to more than 10,500 people at the Derwent Entertainment Centre.

Franklin Graham, right, with his father Billy Graham. “And I want to go somewhere where there has really been a lot of prayer by the churches for evangelism...If they are just wanting to have a program, if they’re looking just for another big event - I’m not interested in that. I want to go somewhere where the churches are really eager about evangelism and are ready to work and to pray for the souls of men and women and are committed to preaching the Gospel. That’s what I do - is preach the Gospel. I’m not a miracle-worker. I’m not here to put on a show. I’m here to preach the Gospel.” - Franklin Graham

Now in Melbourne, Graham will hold three main meetings at the Telstra Dome under the banner of ‘Festival Victoria’. They kick off tonight and continue on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Artists including Darlene Zschech, Marina Prior and Geelong’s Guryel Ali will be taking part and there will be testimonies from people such as former Brisbane Lions player Shaun Hart, photographer Ken Duncan, tennis great Margaret Court, golfer Aaron Baddeley, cricketer Justin Langer and the Oaktree Foundation’s Hugh Evans. A kids program has also been developed.

Graham has also been speaking at a number of other events while in Melbourne including a breakfast attended by pastors and another by civic and business professionals.

Graham, who committed his life to Jesus Christ at the age of 22 after what is described as “a period of rebellion and travelling the world”, held his first evangelistic ‘event’ in 1989 and has since preached to more than 3.5 million people in cities across the globe - from Johannesburg in South Africa to Veracruz in Mexico.

Speaking in Melbourne earlier this week, he says the top priority for him in deciding which country to come to is the support of the local churches.

“You want to have a broad support so that it can be as much of a community-based festival as possible,” he says.

“And I want to go somewhere where there has really been a lot of prayer by the churches for evangelism...If they are just wanting to have a program, if they’re looking just for another big event - I’m not interested in that. I want to go somewhere where the churches are really eager about evangelism and are ready to work and to pray for the souls of men and women and are committed to preaching the Gospel. That’s what I do - is preach the Gospel. I’m not a miracle-worker. I’m not here to put on a show. I’m here to preach the Gospel.”

Graham says that while there is “Holy Spirit power” in the Gospel message, unfortunately some pastors and evangelists - worried that the message is offensive - “feel they have to water it down or apologise for it or that they have to maybe add something to the Gospel because the Gospel isn’t strong enough”.

“I don’t come with Gospel plus anything,” he says. “I come strictly with the Gospel and give men and women an opportunity to respond. I believe my duty is to share God’s truth with the audience but it’s the Holy Spirit who touches the hearts of people...”

He says that apathy and the watering down of the Gospel to try and make it more user-friendly are among the greatest dangers facing the Christian church today.

“The Gospel doesn’t need help. Tell the truth - and young people today want the truth. Don’t candy this thing over and don’t try to make it so appealing that you take the power out of it.”

Referring to the decline in church attendance in the Western world Graham says he believes, that for the United States at least, the decline can be traced back as far as World War I when millions of men were away from their families for years and become involved in alcohol and immorality which then permeated the remainder of US society on their return home.

“I think the liberalism began to get into the churches during this time,” he says. “I see the decline of much of or some of the main churches attributed...to that time. I can’t say that for Australia but I’m sure there are similar issues.”

In contrast, Graham - who is also the president and chief executive of relief organisation Samaritan’s Purse - attributes growth in Third World churches to their lack of materialism and the corruption that goes with it.

Franklin Graham in Sudan. Referring to the church in Sudan - where the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association runs a hospital and is working to strengthen the local church - he says that despite persecution which has seen hundreds of pastors killed and churches destroyed “their faith is so strong you couldn’t shake it with a bulldozer”. “Bombs and bullets, they haven’t deterred them,” he says.

Referring to the church in Sudan - where the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association runs a hospital and is working to strengthen the local church - he says that despite persecution which has seen hundreds of pastors killed and churches destroyed “their faith is so strong you couldn’t shake it with a bulldozer”.

“Bombs and bullets, they haven’t deterred them,” he says.

Graham says there has been great support and unity across denominations in Melbourne for his visit with some 800 churches praying and working together.

“The unity from that, I believe, will spill-off well past this festival...” he says. “I hope this is a catalyst for the beginning for the renewal of evangelism all across this state and not just in Victoria but all across Australia.”

Last weekend in Hobart, he says, some 600 people responded to the message and more than 400 gave their lives to Christ. Not bad in a city where there’s an estimated regular church attendance of somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 people.

Not that Graham believes numbers of people coming forward can be equated with success.

“There maybe just a handful of people who respond down here this week but yet maybe that handful of people may be the church leaders in another generation 20 years from now. I don’t know.”

To illustrate his point, Graham tells the story of an evangelist named Mordecai Ham who visited Charlotte in North Carolina. There was a small church meeting and just a few people responded each night.

“I’m sure Mordecai Ham probably left Charlotte discouraged - thinking ‘Well that wasn’t much of a meeting’. But...one person who came, God used that one person to touch the world in a unique way.”

That person was his father, Billy Graham.

FESTIVAL VICTORIA
Events program:

Friday, 18th March
• Main Event 7:30 pm
Telstra Dome, Docklands, Melbourne

Saturday 19th March
• KidFest 9:30am - 12:30pm
Telstra Dome, Docklands, Melbourne
• Main Event 7:30 pm
Telstra Dome, Docklands, Melbourne

Sunday 20th March
• Main Event 2:30 pm
Telstra Dome, Docklands, Melbourne

Note: The pre-event program starts 30 minutes before each meeting. Doors will open approximately one hour before each event. No reserved seating available. Bookings are not required.

For further information, visit www.festivalvictoria.com.au