{"id":32250,"date":"2022-09-10T16:02:13","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/what-does-a-world-without-billy-graham-look-like\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T16:02:13","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:02:13","slug":"what-does-a-world-without-billy-graham-look-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/what-does-a-world-without-billy-graham-look-like\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does a World Without Billy Graham Look Like?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Aaron Earls<\/em><\/p>\n

On February 21, 2018, Billy Graham left our world and entered into the next. What did he leave behind?<\/p>\n

In the year since Graham\u2019s death, modern-day evangelicalism has had its fault lines surrounding ethnicity, gender, and politics exposed.<\/p>\n

In addition, numerous high-profile pastors and Christian leaders have resigned or been forced out for personal moral failings, mishandling allegations of sexual abuse, and significant character flaws.<\/p>\n

Outside of those being forced out, numerous pastors, denominational leaders and parachurch organization heads have retired or announced their upcoming retirement, including the president of the National Association of Evangelicals and the president and CEO of Christianity Today, which Graham founded.<\/p>\n

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Significant persecution threatens Christians around the world, while subtle challenges confront believers here in the United States.<\/p>\n

And we face all this without the man who has\u2014for decades\u2014been synonymous with the evangelical Christian faith.<\/p>\n

In 2017, half of American churchgoers said they had watched a Billy Graham sermon. Only 4 percent said they had never heard of him.<\/p>\n

Prior to his death, Graham made Gallup\u2019s \u201cMost Admired\u201d list for a record 61st time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d be hard-pressed to find another American Christian leader who has that kind of name recognition,\u201d said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research.<\/p>\n

Graham\u2019s passing marked the end of an era.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs America\u2019s pastor, Billy Graham was able to bring U.S. Christians together at a moment in history when that was still possible,\u201d wrote Tom Gjelten, religion reporter for National Public Radio. \u201cIt was an achievement others will have a hard time matching.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked who could be the next Billy Graham, evangelical scholar Mark Noll had a simple answer\u2014no one.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many different things went into the making of the influential figure that he was,\u201d Noll said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to imagine they would come together in exactly the same way again.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the difficulties is in the situation of the movement Graham led.<\/p>\n

While Graham was able to bring evangelicalism together in many ways, Ed Stetzer, the executive director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, said, \u201cI think today evangelicalism is fractured and fracturing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, Christians do not have to look far to find examples of a church thriving in the midst of difficult circumstances. That has been the historic norm for the church and has been the testimony of the church since the beginning.<\/p>\n

In many ways, the world of today looks like the world of the early church\u2014challenged by a sexually permissive culture demanding acquiescence on one side and condemned by Pharisees asserting our sinfulness on the other.<\/p>\n

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See also  8 Ways to Persevere in Ministry<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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And we have the same gifts those early church leaders had been given.<\/p>\n

On Sunday evening after Jesus\u2019 death, the disciples sat huddled together, frightened over what lay beyond the locked doors. But then Jesus appeared and offered them peace.<\/p>\n

Later, on the day of Pentecost, they again were gathered together when the Holy Spirit fell on them and filled the room. Empowered by His indwelling presence, they began to boldly preach the gospel in the same city in which they had been so afraid before.<\/p>\n

As we walk into an evangelical world without Billy Graham, we do not walk alone. We have the peace of Christ to comfort us and the Holy Spirit to guide us.<\/p>\n

The same God who ordained Ester to become queen for \u201csuch a time as this,\u201d has ordained each of us to be alive at this very moment for His good purposes.<\/p>\n

At Graham\u2019s funeral, Beth Moore was asked who might be the next Billy Graham. \u201cWhat if there\u2019s not just one?\u201d she replied on Twitter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if instead there are 10,000s of them all over the globe? They\u2019re the ones we could walk in on & find facedown, crying out to God for souls.\u201d<\/p>\n

American evangelicalism no longer has one person at the forefront who unites us and embodies our beliefs. But maybe in this moment, we do not need a \u201cnext Billy Graham\u201d in that sense.<\/p>\n

Maybe we simply need men and women who are faithful and obedient to Christ in their own local context as Graham was on a much larger scale.<\/p>\n

God knows exactly what is needed to expand His kingdom and fulfill the Great Commission.<\/p>\n

Yes, in many ways, the church in America sits in a different spot than we did just one year ago with the passing of Billy Graham. But the God of the church sits in the exactly the same spot He has always sat\u2014His throne.<\/p>\n

AARON EARLS (@WardrobeDoor)<\/strong>\u00a0is online editor for\u00a0<\/em>Facts & Trends.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Dig Deeper at Lifeway.com<\/div>\n
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The Secret to Happiness<\/h2>\n

Billy Graham<\/p>\n

FIND OUT MORE <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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By Aaron Earls On February 21, 2018, Billy Graham left our world and entered into the next. What did he leave behind? In the year since Graham\u2019s death, modern-day evangelicalism has had its fault lines surrounding ethnicity, gender, and politics exposed. In addition, numerous high-profile pastors and Christian leaders have resigned or been forced out … Continue reading “What Does a World Without Billy Graham Look Like?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}