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| Evangelist Billy Graham |
They started trickling in before noon, then the first of 400 buses arrived. By 6:33 every seat in Yankee Stadium was taken and new arrivals had to stand on the field. They filled all but the infield, which was cordoned off by a four-foot snow fence.
That warm midsummer day witnessed the biggest crowd in stadium history More than 100,000 people crammed in while over 10,000 were turned away. At 8:00 the lights were turned on and they were bathed in soft light.
Five minutes later Billy Graham strode to the podium. His dynamic, heartfelt presentation pierced listener’s hearts as he emphatically preached, “Christ is the only answer to our problems and dilemmas.” Then he called for attendees to make a decision for Him. In typical Graham crusades the audience was invited to the platform, but this night was different: with no room to move, those who accepted Christ were asked to rise if they were sitting and raise their hands if they were already standing.
Gradually people seated in the stands rose and hands went up all over the outfield. Thousands of people came to Christian faith in this one place, at this one time. The New York Crusade drew 2.3 million people to multiple services in the stadium, Madison Square Garden and Times Square.
Dr. Graham in his prime might still fill Yankee Stadium today, but it likely wouldn’t be the purely spiritual event it was in 1957. It doesn’t take much imagination to visualize the posters, hear the epithets and feel the anger protesters would unleash. Rampant antagonism makes evangelizing harder than it should be.
To deal with this we need a variety of tools to choose from, starting with traditional methods. One goes like this:
1. Using Romans 3:10 and 3:23 show the person he’s a sinner and get him to admit it.
2. Using 5:12 and 6:23 show him the price of sin is spiritual and physical death.
3. Using 5:8 show him that Jesus paid the price for his sins.
4. Using 10:9 show that by receiving Jesus as his savior he’ll enter heaven when he dies.
5. Pray with him and ask God to save him.
6. Get him to pray for the forgiveness of his sins and salvation for his soul, and then state he has received Jesus as his Savior.
7. Ask where he would go if he died at this moment.
8. If he answers “heaven” you’ve done your job.
This has been and is successfully used. But people often don’t think the Bible is credible, so to them it has no authority. Even worse, nowadays people conjure their own moral standards. Modern self-centered, custom designed, elastic rules are easy to live up (or down) to, so people don’t see themselves as sinners at all.
For this tough audience we need an approach that addresses their reasons for skepticism, is usable by most Christians, and doesn’t compromise our beliefs. More on this in the next Christian Standpoint post.
To view an excerpt from one of Billy Graham’s Madison Square Garden services please click on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOxCFJ7bX5o
Photo credit: Time Photos
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