October 28, 2002
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| THOUSANDS of people brave a pouring rain to respond to Billy Graham's invitation to follow Christ at the Friday night session of Metroplex Mission. (BGEA photo) |
Mission accomplished
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___IRVING--A quarter of a million people came to hear Billy Graham preach the simple message that Jesus is the answer,
breaking attendance records for Texas Stadium on two consecutive nights this month.
___More than 11,000 people made public decisions during the five meetings of Graham's Metroplex Mission Oct. 17-20, with 6,150 of them making professions of faith in Jesus Christ.
___Neither driving rain, massive traffic jams nor ribbons of people waiting at the stadium gates could quench the zeal of the participants for what could be Graham's last large-scale crusade.
___The Texas Stadium attendance record was broken the first time Saturday night at the mission's "Concert for the Next Generation," when 82,000 people, primarily youth, filled the upper and lower decks of the stadium, covered the field in front of the
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| EVANGELIST Billy Graham at the Metroplex Mission meeting at Texas Stadium in Irving. (Richard McCormack/SWBTS Photo) |
stage and then overflowed into 15,500 chairs in the stadium parking lot.
___Sunday night's attendance was the third-largest mission audience for Graham in recent memory, according to Graham spokesman Larry Ross. Only a Sunday night crowd of 96,000 in Minneapolis and 89,000 at the "Next Generation" concert in Charlotte, N.C., top the 83,500 who attended Sunday night's meeting at Texas Stadium.
___"The limiting factor at Texas Stadium was parking," Ross said. "On Sunday night, we shut the gates at 6:15, 45 minutes before the mission began, because there were no more parking spaces. Thousands of people were turned away both Saturday and Sunday nights."
___When Ron Harris, general manager of radio station KCBI, heard that people were turned away on Saturday night, he offered to broadcast the meeting live if the parking lots filled Sunday night.
___Harris got the call at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, and a half hour later the mission was being broadcast for worshippers unable to get near the stadium. "It's something that is not unprecedented, but it's been a while since we've done something like that," Ross said.
___The crowd was diverse. The meetings were translated so that people could hear Graham's messages in Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Gujurati, Russian and Hindu.
___Even the preparations reflected diversity. More than 1,000 churches from 37 denominations helped prepare for the Saturday-night concert. More than 25,000 individuals served as volunteers during the mission, including counselors, ushers, choir members, follow-up workers and as a part of the co-labor team that helped to get names of respondents to churches overnight for next-day follow-up.
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| THE EVANGELIST and his son, Franklin, greet former President George Bush on Thursday night. (Richard McCormack/SWBTS Photo) |
___"One of the beautiful things about this mission has been the unity that has come as a result of all these congregations working together," said Gary Hearon, director of missions for Dallas Baptist Association and one of the leaders in asking Graham to come to North Texas. "There is a new fellowship, a new unity in the spirit, a new camaraderie, a new coming together of the body of Christ in the Metroplex."
___The crowds each evening were generous, and by the end of the mission, gifts exceeded the $3,147,000 budget by about $70,000.
___That doesn't mean additio
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| George Beverly Shea sings. (Richard McCormack/SWBTS Photo) |
nal gifts aren't still needed,
Ross said. "Inevitably, there will be additional costs, and we really won't know what our expenses will be until all the bills come in. But the committee has decided to do two things with any overage there might be--help to fund broadcast of the meetings in the area and to send on any other money as seed funds to the next mission."
___When and where that next mission might be has not been decided. Graham said he has not determined the Metroplex Mission will be his last, nor did he commit to any future missions.
___"People ask me, 'Is this is your last crusade?' They say it very hopefully, some of them," he quipped Sunday night. "I said: 'I don't know. That's in God's hands.' I never want to say never, because we don't know."
___However, due to Graham's age and battle with Parkinson's disease, many have speculated the Metroplex Mission could be the end of an era.
___On the first night of the crusade, Graham told the crowd he didn't know if he would be able to preach when he arrived at the stadium. "But I knew people were praying, and I want to say, 'Thank you, Lord.'"
___Mission organizers said Graham's preaching got stronger each night of the mission and was the most powerful it had been in the last five years.
___Graham was introduced to the 37,000 in attendance on opening night by former President George Bush.
___"A lot of things happen to you when you are a former president, and tonight is one of the best of them," Bush said. "Billy Graham has been a personal pastor to America's first family for as long as I can remember.
___"All of us who have been privileged to call the White House home have gained strength and a greater sense of purpose from his healing ministry," Bush continue
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| The "Kidz Gig" featured Psalty the singing songbook. (Henson/Standard Photo) |
d. "Today we live in uncertain times and in an unpredictable world, yet as Americans, we have faith in a loving God. The God we all pray to, as Billy would tell us, is a God of love and peace."
___Pat Summerall, renowned National Football League announcer, told about his faith journey on Friday night prior to introducing Graham. Summerall said that while he was at the peak of his career, alcohol and bitterness were ruining his life.
___But faith in Jesus Christ changed all that, he added. "What happened to me is one of the great miracles of all time--I am proud to say that I am a Christian, that I believe in Jesus Christ and that I am ready for eternity."
___Friday night's crowd was the smallest of the mission, with only 34,000, but heavy rains doused the region all day and night. When Graham offered the invitation, he told those responding to move to the sides so they would not be under the hole in the stadium roof. Respondents, however, moved immediately to the center of the field despite the torrential downpour.
___Large-screen monitors projected the image of Graham praying over a sea of umbrellas only partially covering hundreds of people soaked to the skin.
___Even so, people continued to come forward.
___While Graham had told those making commitments they never would forget doing so in Texas Stadium, it also was a night to remember for Judy Tapp, a counselor from Calvary Baptist Church in Arlington.
___"Two sisters helped their 84-year-old mother down from the top of the stadium--she could hardly get down the steps--onto the field so she could make a commitment to Christ," Tapp recalled. After counseling with the mother, she discovered the sisters also were coming to make first-time commitments to Christ.
___"I was thinking about not coming since I was tired and it was raining, but then I thought, 'I might miss something,'" she said. "And look what happened. This just goes to show that God can work in spite of you and in spite of the rain."
___Saturday night's concert featured Jars of Clay, dcTalk and Fort Worth hip-hop sensation Kirk Franklin. When Graham addressed the 82,000 present, he brought focus to the energetic gathering.
___"That's the man-bites-dog story of this whole thing," Ross said. "That 82,000 young people would come to hear an 83-year-old, soon to be 84, man with Parkinson's disease come to speak the gospel of Jesus Christ is incredible." Commitments numbered 3,217 Saturday night, but surprisingly, more than 20 percent of those were made by adults, some in their 70s.
___Saturday morning's "Kidz Gig" program at Texas Stadium registered 1,809 decisions. The event was geared for younger children.
___Each evening, Thursday through Sunday, Graham preached the same message he has preached for the more than half century: Whatever your problem, Jesus is the answer.
___"God had a son, and he sent him to rescue us, to save us," he said.
___
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