SOUTHERN ALBERTA BILLY GRAHAM CRUSADE

I have written several posts about Rockyview Alliance Church's evangelism ministry, etc.  Before I move on to other happenings during our ministry in Calgary, I want to share about the biggest evangelistic thrust ever held in the city of Calgary.  McMahon Stadium, the home of the Calgary Stampeders football team, held thousands of people, night after night, August 23 - 30, 1981, singing God's praises and listening to Evangelist Billy Graham proclaiming the gospel. The Sunday meetings were in the afternoon.  I had heard Billy Graham, as I've previously mentioned, but the thrill and excitement of being involved in a crusade in your own city was something else.

Final invitation in McMahon Stadium, Sunday afternoon August 30, 1981

Preparations for this big event began many months before.  There was the selection and training of ushers, choir members and counselors.  Plus there were prayer meetings, and all kinds of publicity and promotion.  Leona and I were both counselors, but I was chosen to be a counselor supervisor, which meant that I sat behind the platform, in front of the choir, so that we were first to take our place when the invitation was given.  It was my responsibility, along with some other pastors, to make certain that every person that came forward was assigned a counselor.  I did some one on one counseling when needed.  Being that it was summer, there were many tourists in the city.  I remember counseling a man who was visiting from South Dakota.

I was also a member of the follow-up committee.  That meant remaining behind after every meeting, going over all of the decision cards and assigning those who came forward to their home church for follow-up.  If no church was indicated on their card, then that person's information was given to a supporting church that was nearest to where the individual lived. 

 Leighton Ford & Billy Graham walking to the platform

As a church we were able to follow-up on several people.  Some had been referred to us, others chose to come to Rockyview.  One couple showed up at our church as a result of praying to receive Christ at the crusade.  They owned their own business and a young Christian man who worked for them, a member of Foothills Alliance Church in northwest Calgary, had been urging them to attend the crusade.  They finally went near the end of the week.  I believe that they attended the last two or three meetings.  One of those times they prayed to invite Christ into their lives.  Since their hired man attended an Alliance Church, they chose to come to Rockyview Alliance Church, as we were close to where they lived.  They were both quite reserved and felt uncomfortable in a follow-up group, so for several weeks, I went to their home and met with them, following the Tuesday evening prayer meeting.

Another couple were from an Orthodox Church and had attended Rockyview three consecutive Sundays prior to the crusade.  They responded to the invitation one evening and wrote the name of our church on their card.  I called on them after the crusade and they shared that it was all so new to them that they did not really understand.  So I explained the gospel as simply as I could.  That evening, there in their home, they both prayed to receive Christ.  They continued to attend Rockyview and both became involved in the ministry of the church.

Cliff Barrows leading the choir

I'll share just one more story.  A fellow had invited Christ into his life at one of the meetings.  He had married a lady that had grown up in a Christian home but had turned her back on God.  Now, here was her husband, who had been a non-believer, who after receiving Christ, was on fire for the Lord. All that I remember is that she was not too happy about her husband's decision to follow the Lord.

The lives of many Calgarians and beyond were changed forever because of the Southern Alberta Billy Graham Crusade.  I thank God for Billy's ministry over the six or seven decades that he preached.  I am thankful that I have lived during those years that he preached the gospel to the world. I never saw the days of Dwight L. Moody or Billy Sunday.  That is only history for me.  However, Billy's ministry was in my lifetime.  In trying to explain to a non-believer sometimes what I believed and preached, I would say that I preach the same message that Billy Graham preaches.