Jan
25
2011

Wisdom from Billy Graham

An article by Matt

Christianity Today had an interesting interview with Billy Graham last week. Conducted via email due to his failing health the interview deals with aging, dealing with aging parents, and the state of the church. What I found to be most interesting was the third question:

If you could, would you go back and do anything differently?

Yes, of course. I’d spend more time at home with my family, and I’d study more and preach less. I wouldn’t have taken so many speaking engagements, including some of the things I did over the years that I probably didn’t really need to do—weddings and funerals and building dedications, things like that. Whenever I counsel someone who feels called to be an evangelist, I always urge them to guard their time and not feel like they have to do everything.

I also would have steered clear of politics. I’m grateful for the opportunities God gave me to minister to people in high places; people in power have spiritual and personal needs like everyone else, and often they have no one to talk to. But looking back I know I sometimes crossed the line, and I wouldn’t do that now.

This fascinates me for many reasons. As many of my friends know the level of involvement that the church has in the political realm concerns me. Whatever the politics involved I believe that when church leadership gets too involved in the political process that the church suffers. I find it interesting that Billy Graham is now, years later, realizing that church leaders best serve their churches by steering clear of politics.

The second part of this that I find fascinating is the desire to spend more time with his family. I have seen far too many ministry families that have been ravaged by the church. I think that this is a word of warning to us all. The first ministry that God entrusts us with is our family… do not mortgage your family for the church that you are leading.

The last part of this is something that I really find interesting. Billy Graham wishes that he preached less and studied more. I believe that there is something to that. I have long believed that we do ourselves a disservice by expecting the same person to communicate God’s word forty (or more!) weeks a year. In order to maintain freshness in communication preachers need to have down time in order to cultivate illustrations and freshness that only comes through downtime and study.

I have a great deal of respect for Billy Graham… his willingness to answer this question, and answer it saying that he would handle two of the things that he is best known for differently shows a great deal of humility.

Looking back over your ministry experiences, what would YOU do differently?