Archive: Why Not Cooperate With Billy Graham?

by J.L. Penfold

The report of the Billy Graham Crusade held July 17-26 at Mile High Stadium in Denver, Colorado, fairly glows with balanced, holistic ministry. It exceeded every expectation. Following years of planning, the crusade consisted of 10 days of evangelism and social outreach. The challenge was laid down that this outreach continue. One could easily be reminded in those crusade days of John Wesley and his followers changing a nation and sweeping a new continent with just such a total Gospel message.

My wife and I attended the Billy Graham School of Evangelism held in conjunction with the crusade. On the second day of that event a clergywoman from our annual conference approached us and asked, “Where are the United Methodists? They are missing a great week.” Indeed they were. Of 1,200 persons enrolled for the school, eight were United Methodists from the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference.

Further evidence of United Methodist coolness toward the Graham crusade was seen in an analysis of group delegation attendance. Of major denominations, the United Methodists had the fewest churches active in the crusade. When approached about this, Rev. Richard Gilbert, assistant to Denver United Methodist Bishop Roy Sano, responded, “Billy Graham is a fine evangelist, but he’s not specifically United Methodist, so the conference office has not endorsed (the crusade). The churches, however, are free to become involved” (Rocky Mountain News, Monday, July 27).

There are a number of ironies in the tepidness of the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference toward the Billy Graham Crusade. We think of ourselves as avant garde in such matters as ecumenicity. For example, in 1986 we employed the leadership of Jewish Rabbi Stephen Foster, an annual conference preacher. Obviously Rabbi Foster is not a United Methodist, or even a Christian, and would probably be insulted to be mistaken for either. But in the name of ecumenicity we gave him the power of the annual conference pulpit. How strange that we should then turn around and say we will not endorse the Graham crusade since Billy is not a United Methodist.

The second irony is that leaders in our annual conference have recently been speaking much more about evangelism. It seems a proper emphasis in a conference that has lost more than 20,000 members in the past two decades. But when the Graham crusade team came to the Denver area and began to train persons in the practical skills of one-to-one evangelism, United Methodists kept them and the whole event at arm’s length in most cases.

The third irony is perhaps the saddest, for it makes personal the statistics that record United Methodist decline. The chairman of the Rocky Mountain Billy Graham Crusade, Howard Kast, worshiped in a local United Methodist Church until recently. Howard Kast was a lifelong Methodist. In 1965 Billy Graham led an earlier crusade in Denver. One of those who responded to Billy’s invitational to receive Christ at that crusade was Howard Kast. Howard, chairman of his Methodist church’s administrative board and a new Christian, went home to share his new vision for the church.

Many of his fellow laity caught Howard’s excitement, but his pastor was stand-offish and threatened. After years of seeking renewal in their local church and finding little support from the pastoral leadership, the Kasts began to worship in another denomination. In the early 80s they felt God was leading them back to their United Methodist Church. In 1985 when the Graham crusade was being planned, the Kasts were seriously considering rejoining that United Methodist Church. Meanwhile, Howard had been offered and had accepted the chairmanship of the crusade. In that capacity he sought the United Methodist pastor’s support in the crusade effort. The results were much the same as those 20 years earlier. The pastoral leadership offered no encouragement or assistance, and the Kasts now worship in another denomination. It is almost humorous that our denomination was the least involved in the crusade while the crusade chairman was, until recently, a lifelong Methodist.

What lies ahead for an annual conference that operates in this manner in a denomination in decline in almost every quarter? It seems clear that God has not yet given up on the people called United Methodists. He is coming to us so obviously in modern day prophets with names like Wilke and Willimon and Wilson. If we will put words into action, then United Methodism could play a key role in the national revival many believe God is poised to bring.

But if we do not, then the mainstream will pass us by and leave us on a side eddy. Our Lord Himself spoke of what happens to fig trees that bear no fruit and to branches that abide not in the true Vine. Wesley said, “Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God and I’ll take England.” Among Wesley’s descendants, do one hundred like that remain?

Rev. J. L. Penfold is pastor of Alger Memorial United Methodist Church in Eaton, Colorado, and he serves on the Good News Board.