‘America’s pastor’ sets record at California mission gathering

California’s agricultural heartland yielded a harvest of souls Oct. 11–14 as evangelist Billy Graham preached on God’s love and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ during a record-setting “outreach” in Fresno.
   
Undeterred by a broken foot and unprecedented security precautions, Graham launched the four-day event at Fresno’s Bulldog Stadium exactly one month after terrorist attacks struck New York and suburban Washington, D.C. The preacher known as “America’s pastor” referred to the tragic events each time he spoke.
   
“Something about what happened on Sept. 11 caused people to think about spiritual things for maybe the first time in years,” Graham said. “We are living in a different world, which will be felt in every area of our society for years to come.
   
“We are in troubled times. We’re going to have to rethink our lives,” Graham continued. “But in the midst of all that, there is one hope, that Jesus Christ said He is coming again. Without hope, our nation will not go on.”
   
Graham, 82, broke his foot in three places while in his Fresno hotel room two days before the campaign began. He arrived on the platform each night in a wheelchair, accompanied by his son Franklin Graham, CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. When it came time to preach, the senior Graham walked slowly to the pulpit aided by his son or another associate and wearing a brace on his injured foot.
   
Graham seemed to grow stronger each night of the campaign.
   
“The Bible teaches that we need to have faith and believe things we don’t understand,” the evangelist declared. “I don’t understand why those hijackers hit those two great buildings in New York or hit the Pentagon. I don’t understand that, but I accept by faith that there is a sovereign God.
  
“Maybe God is speaking to us,” Graham continued. “Maybe God is saying, ‘It’s time for you to repent and get right with God and change your way of living and change this state and this country.’”
   
Thousands responded to Graham’s nightly call to repentance. They streamed down from the bleachers and gathered in front of the high-tech stage. Immediately, trained counselors recorded each decision and distributed Christian literature to the new believers.
   
“I just joined the group!” an excited convert told the California Southern Baptist after he prayed with nearly 3,000 others crowding the stadium floor.
   
Campaign organizers reported 14,731 spiritual decisions registered during four evening services and a Saturday morning children’s program. Nearly all were reported to be first-time professions of faith in Jesus Christ.
   
A Graham spokesman said attendance totaled 201,000 in five sessions including 62,000 at a Saturday night “Concert for the Next Generation.” An overflow crowd numbering 15,000 packed a neighboring baseball complex equipped with a giant video screen while 47,000 people jammed the Fresno State University stadium.
   
The youth-oriented concert featuring Kirk Franklin, dc Talk and Gamaliel Ruiz also drew the one-millionth young person to attend one of the Graham campaign events.
    
More than 500 churches from 54 denominations and some 20,000 volunteers helped stage the four-day campaign in the heart of California’s San Joaquin Valley. The event, more than a year in the planning, originally was called the Central Valley Billy Graham Crusade. Citing sensitivity to other religions, organizers decided to abandon the term “crusade” in favor of  “outreach,” “mission” and “campaign.”
   
Fresno Mayor Alan Autry, former “In the Heat of the Night” actor and Green Bay Packers football player, helped kick off the outreach.
   
Autry said Graham’s “message of salvation has never been more wanted or needed by this country.”
   
Charles Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship, shared the platform with Graham on the final night of the gathering. (BP)