Graham’s Rock the River draws thousands of teens

ST. LOUIS — More than 65,000 people gathered at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis for the second stop on the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s (BGEA) Rock the River tour, which yielded more than 500 professions of faith in Christ.

The free event Aug. 2 included seven hours of performances by a variety of Christian music artists interspersed with gospel messages by Franklin Graham. The concert kicked off with hip-hop artist Canton Jones followed by Red. It also featured rapper Lecrae, the band Hawk Nelson and gospel music artist Kirk Franklin. Performances by Skillet and Flyleaf capped the event.

Though people of all ages attended Rock the River, the vast majority fell between the ages of 15 and 25 — exactly the age group BGEA was targeting. Graham catered specifically to youth each of the three times he presented the gospel.

“Do you have emptiness in your life?” he asked. “Many of you may know the story of Kurt Cobain (lead singer and songwriter of the rock band Nirvana who died at age 27 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head). It has been said that not long before he killed himself, he had written somewhere that he had a great big empty hole inside that he just couldn’t fill.

“He couldn’t fill it with drugs, with sex or with fame,” Graham said. “Nothing could fill it. I know that hole that he talked about. I had it, too. But I thank God that when I was 22 years old, I finally got on my knees and I asked for Jesus Christ. There is only one road to God, only one way to fill that hole, and that is through Jesus Christ.”

Rock the River is a four-city concert tour that began in July in Baton Rouge, La., and proceeded up the Mississippi River to St. Louis and the Quad Cities in Iowa and Illinois before concluding in Minneapolis/St. Paul on Aug. 16.

“The purpose of Rock the River is to share the good news of the gospel with tens of thousands of young people and young adults along the Mississippi River basin from Louisiana to Minnesota in a fun, festival setting,” a news release from the BGEA said.