A year-long evangelistic series in the Atlantic provinces of Canada was climaxed last month with open-air services and a ministers’ conference in the historic seaport of Halifax. The series, spearheaded by 32-year-old Leighton Ford, an associate of Billy Graham, embraced Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland. Attendance figures for the twelve-month effort totaled an estimated 500,000, and about 7,000 decisions for Christ were counted.
The closing events in Halifax included an evangelistic service in a natural amphitheater where Graham addressed a crowd of 30,000 seated on the grass. A week-long ministers’ conference on evangelism, the first such ever conducted by the Graham team, drew 300 registrants.
Graham also addressed rallies in Saint John, New Brunswick, and Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. But the rest of the meetings were conducted by associate evangelists Ford, Joe Blinco, Larry Love, and Lane Adams.
Looking at one crowd of inquirers prompted a pointed observation from Dr. Ralph Chalmers, professor of systematic theology at the United Church of Canada’s Pine Hill Divinity School.
“This is Pentecost,” he said. “There are our ministers and missionaries for the future.”
It is a point of record that the Atlantic provinces have produced more ministers and missionaries than any other area of Canada. The populace retains an important measure of religious ties, which helped the evangelistic effort. But it is also conservative and cautious, which produced some impediments.
The Ontario-born Ford and his colleagues conducted a total of fifteen crusades in the four provinces. They covered all the major and several of the minor population areas.
Ford says that a thorough attempt was made to evangelize in depth. The theme was “Preparation, Penetration, and Preservation.” There were the usual pre-crusade counselor training sessions, prayer meetings, rallies, radio and television programs, and follow-up procedures. But this time there were also such things as regular morning Bible classes in a dozen cities, “conversational evangelism,” and “penetration teams.”
Some of the morning Bible classes attracted 1,000 persons each. In Halifax, a penetration team of thirty laymen moved into factories, offices, civic clubs, and homes to speak and answer questions. Team members took on informal luncheon assignments, mixing with businessmen and students to talk on spiritual themes.
Occasionally the crusades got support from unexpected sources. In Charlottetown the Roman Catholic bishop postponed a convocation in deference to the crusade and wished the Protestants well.
Ford feels that the effort vindicates the introduction of new dimensions to mass evangelism. A similar approach is scheduled for the West Coast provinces of Canada next year.
Honors At The Fair
Evangelist Billy Graham, addressing nearly 4,000 persons at the Court of the Universe at the New York World’s Fair, declared that only a “great religious revival” can save America from anarchy and revolution.
In an outdoor address on June 26, “Billy Graham Day” at the fair, the famed clergyman stressed that this nation and the world today “can see the possibility of having all our dreams fulfilled. But we also see the possibility that the human race might be destroyed. However, in the hand of God, the whole course of history moves like a guided missile to the fulfillment of his purpose. Not military might, but God will ultimately triumph.”
Before his address, Graham received the George Washington Carver Memorial Institute’s 1963 Gold Award for his “outstanding contribution to the betterment of race relations and human welfare.”
The award was presented by Republican Senator Jacob Javits of New York on behalf of the non-profit educational institution, which this year is marking the 100th anniversary of the eminent Negro agronomist and scientist.
At a press conference earlier, the evangelist hailed the courage and idealism of civil rights workers in Mississippi but questioned the wisdom of the college-student “summer project.”
Graham also received the fair’s Silver Medallion from Robert Moses, president of the Fair Corporation, and was presented with a $100,000 check to support his ministry at the exposition.
The check, which was 60 inches long and 22 inches wide, was made of polished Tennessee black walnut and was carved in the shape of the state of Tennessee. It was presented by the Billy Graham Special Train Committee of Tennessee, Inc., an organization which provides transportation to and from the evangelist’s crusades.
Made from wood taken from the farm of the famed Sergeant Alvin York, the check contained a plug of wood from a schoolhouse where Sam Houston taught. It was inserted to represent the state capital at Nashville.
After being processed, the canceled check was to be made into a coffee table for the Graham family home at Montreat, North Carolina.
Earlier last month, Graham spoke to some 30,000 persons crowded into the Arlington Park Race Track near Chicago. It was the closing rally of the Suburban Chicago Crusade, a follow-up to Graham’s Greater Chicago Crusade of 1962. The rally was preceded by a week of nightly evangelistic services.
This week Graham was scheduled to be conducting a crusade in Columbus, Ohio. The ten-day series has the support of some 800 churches.
Graham’s schedule for the remainder of 1964 includes two additional major city crusades: September 4–13 in Omaha and September 18–27 in Boston.
