Good News Florida

PERSPECTIVE 6 MARCH 2018 Good News • South Florida Edition to Christ. So he was one of many, and really his sort of break out where he went from being from among the pack to a household name was what happened in Southern California. And the famous story is that Hearst was intrigued and said to his people, “Puff Graham,” meaning get behind this guy. So he started getting front page coverage, and these meetings in L.A. just went on. They weren’t just four or five days. They were weeks at a time. And that just brought him to more of a national stage. And then he was one of the first to start using radio. That was a big thing at the time. And using television as satellites began to be accessible, he was one of the more innovative guys to use satellite. I remember a huge thing he did in Puerto Rico called Global Mission where he did missions in Puerto Rico, but they sent them all around via satellite all around the world in I forget how many languages. And it really was interesting because it wasn’t al- ways necessarily his idea. He wasn’t a techie guy. He was very open to ideas when people would come to him and say, “look, I really think you should do this thing called television.” And he was very open to those ideas because he was so driven not by, Oh, this is a really good opportunity for me to make a brand for myself or make a name for myself. He was so driven by, God has called me to preach the Gospel and I’ve got to look at every opportunity whether it’s a private meeting with a president or some nationwide primetime televi- sioncast. He used to do Christmas specials when that was a thing. Any interview he had whether it was Merv Griffin or Dick Cavett or anybody as much as they would try to find some dirt on him or have some fun with him, he would always use those as Gospel presentations. So like I said, one-on-one conversations, inter- views, press releases, whatever, and that was to me, again, it goes back to the integrity of his call and his heart. GN - You know I’m a bit of a rock-n- roller at heart so the reference… I’m going to mention it to you so I can get your opinion. The most famous arena in the world is Madison Square Garden. Elton John has the all-time as far as an act… according to Madison Square Garden he’s appeared there 64 times. Billy Graham during his career preached before 210 million people in arenas and sta- diums, but in 1957 he played Madison Square Garden for 16 consecutive weeks. That’s 112 days, and the culmination of the 112 days he filled Yankee Stadium with another 85,000 people. He was 38 years old at the time, and that ran from May 15 to September 1 in 1957. What do you think about that? ST - I think Elton John better not retire. (laughing) I think those are the kinds of things that people don’t fully understand. To your point, the Madison Square Gar- den for 16 consecutive weeks. I mean that’s a lot of preaching, that’s a lot of work, that’s a lot of support. I sort of put that under the big umbrella of that was the favor of God. GN - Actually when he booked it, I think it was for two or three weeks, and it kept being extended for another two or three weeks, and it ended up being 16 consec- utive weeks. ST - Yup, you are exactly right. They had no intention of going there for 16 weeks. It’s like, hey, let’s do this thing. Let’s book it and then one thing led to another. I’d say there’s probably not a week goes by that I don’t have somebody comes up to me and says, you know, I made a decision for Christ, or my father made a decision or my mother made a decision, and they’ll reference Madison Square Garden. Or they’ll reference one of these meetings. And I know of some incredibly well re- spected, influential people that would reference that time as being the pivotal time that radically changed the direction of their life, and it wasn’t just an emotional mo- ment at a time of vulnerability, 20, 30, 50 years later they’re still passionate about Christ, so there is something real about it. It’s a supernatural thing. It’s not just, oh, he was a really good speaker and had all this charisma and really knew how to manipulate the media and had a really good organization, or boy, that guy really ran a tight ship. If you met him, he was so simple. I mean he grew up as a dairy farm boy in Charlotte, North Carolina, so there was almost this enigma. I mean there were times when I would hear him preach, and I would listen to him, and I would say in my heart, in my mind I would be like, yea, that’s pretty good. I mean it’s OK. I don’t really think it’s that good of a sermon. In other words, I had heard better speakers, better messages. I’d heard that, and yet there was this magnetism to what he would say and how he would say what he’d say that you would just see so many respond. So it doesn’t surprise me the Madison Square Gar- den because it wasn’t his doing. It was God’s doing. GN - In reading over his bio, they credit Billy Graham for the new tele- preachers, his cadence his delivery, and they make reference that many other preachers actually studied his technique in the way he delivered his sermon. I can only think of Billy Graham in a reference to being a family member to somebody that maybe was a family member of Elvis Presley. Is there a day that goes by in your life that either you don’t think of him or being asked a question of him or some type of reference to Billy Graham? ST - Yea, I would say, I don’t know if it’s a day, but there is definitely a con- sistent presence. So for example, last night I was briefly speaking at a large conference in Orlando called Kingdom Advisors, and they probably had 1300 financial advisors from all over the country that gather together for two or three days. They did a 10-minute little reflection on Billy Graham, and the host of the program asked, “If your life has been impacted by Billy Graham in one way or another please stand up?” And to look out at those 1300 people and see probably 1000 of them stand- ing up, that kind of thing I experience on a one-on-one basis on a regular interval. I mean people will come up to me and say, your grandfather has done this, or I remember as I child my parents would have me watch as he did talks or listen to him on the radio. Obviously in the last three days I’ve been inundated with these emails and text messages of the same. And then what happens is you apply that to your life. You don’t just say, “well that’s nice.” I never resent it. Sometimes people apologetically say, “I’m so sorry. You probably hear this a million times.” I tell them never to be sorry. I love hearing the stories, and it’s in essence my inheritance. There’s no big trust funds for their grandkids or anything like that. My inheritance are these stories and these amazing lives that have been changed. Then the fact that I can apply it to my life and not only reflect my life, my commitment to Christ, but say, OK God, what does this mean in terms of how I live my life or how I treat other people, share the Gospel, live an authentic life, be a humble man? All those things begin to cascade into my life to be application. So it’s a privilege. It’s an honor and a privilege. GN - You’re the oldest of all the grandchildren. When’s the last time you were all together at one time? ST - I can’t remember. Probably my grandmother’s funeral, which was eight years ago, I think. So because there’s 20 some grandchildren and they live all over the place, and they’re married and then they have their children, which are the great grandchildren, and now their children are having children, so they’re the great, great grandchildren, so it’s now a very large group. Its hard to even coordinate it. So there was my grandmother’s funeral about eight years ago, and obviously, in the next week or so we’ll see a lot of each other. From left to right: Ruth Graham, Stephan Tchividjian, Gigi Graham and Billy Gra- ham, with Stephan's three children at the time, Stetson, Hope and Charlee