Page 97 - Heros of the Faith - Textbook w videos short

and began to warn against the temptations and pitfalls that lie in wait for religious leaders who enter the
political arena.

When the movement known as the Religious Right surfaced in the late 1970s, he declined to participate in it,
warning fellow Christian leaders to "be wary of exercising political influence" lest they lose their spiritual impact.

Global vision
As Graham came to sense the breadth of his influence, he grew ever more determined not only to help
evangelicalism become increasingly dynamic and self-confident, but also to shape the direction of contemporary
Christianity. That determination manifested itself in several major international conferences sponsored or
largely underwritten by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA).

In particular, the 1966 World Congress on Evangelism in Berlin, attended by 1,200 evangelical leaders from 104
nations, and the 1974 International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland, attended by
2,400 delegates from 150 countries, helped evangelicals to see themselves as a worldwide Christian force,
alongside Vatican II and the World Council of Churches, an international movement capable of accomplishing
more than its constituents had dreamed possible.

Few, if any, developments in Billy Graham's ministry have been more surprising or controversial than his success
in penetrating the Iron Curtain. Beginning in 1978, virtually every Soviet-controlled country progressively gave
him privileges that no other churchman, including the most prominent and politically docile native religious
leaders, had ever received. Graham used these visits to preach, to encourage Christian believers, and to explain
to Communist leaders that their restriction of religious freedom was counterproductive, hampering diplomatic
relations with America.

Graham's proudest achievements may be two BGEA-sponsored conferences in Amsterdam in 1983 and 1986,
with a third scheduled for the year 2000. These gatherings, attended by a total of 13,000 on-the-job itinerant
evangelists from 174 countries, provided basic instruction in such matters as sermon composition, fundraising,
and effective use of films and videotapes. As a sign of Billy Graham's change-embracing spirit, approximately
500 attendees at the 1986 meeting were women, and Pentecostals outnumbered non-Pentecostals.
Subsequent smaller gatherings throughout the world have afforded similar training to additional thousands of
evangelists.

Indeed, it is plausible that the answer to the oft-asked question, "Who will be the next Billy Graham?" is no
single man or woman, but this mighty army of anonymous individuals whose spirits have been thrilled by Billy
Graham's example, their hands and minds prepared with his organization's assistance, and their hearts set on
fire by his ringing exhortation at the Amsterdam meetings: "Do the work of an evangelist!"

Age and Parkinson's disease took their toll, but they did not quench Billy Graham's spirit. "My mind tells me I
ought to get out there and go," he said, as he was beginning to feel the effects of his disease, "but I just can't do
it. But I'll preach until there is no breath left in my body. I was called by God, and until God tells me to retire, I
cannot. Whatever strength I have, whatever time God lets me have, is going to be dedicated to doing the work
of an evangelist, as long as I live."

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