Milwaukeeans responded with gusto last month to the simple gospel message preached by evangelist Billy Graham. During a five-day crusade in the nation’s beer capital, more than 10,000 “inquirers” filed onto the outfield grass in 50,000-seat County Stadium. This number represented 6.8 percent of the 150,000 aggregate attendance total—almost double the average response to Graham altar calls at other U.S. crusades.
Local pastors and Graham team members were excited—but admittedly a little surprised by the receptivity. Historically, Milwaukee has had a reputation as a “deathbed for evangelism,” said local Nazarene pastor and crusade follow-up chairman Walter Ballard.
First traversed in the late seventeenth century by French missionaries and visited after 1848 by a heavy influx of German immigrants, the Milwaukee area became largely conservative Roman Catholic and Lutheran. This characteristic, plus its ethnically mixed population, perhaps made the city a “closed community” in terms of evangelistic outreach, said Ballard. That may be one reason, he speculated, why the Graham team earlier was “reluctant” to hold a Milwaukee crusade. Except for a final night appearance at the successful 1973 Leighton Ford Reachout Crusade, which many credited as giving the spiritual impetus to the Graham meetings, Graham had never held a major evangelistic meeting in Milwaukee.
Interestingly, Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches among the metropolitan area’s 1.4 million population gave Graham some of his most loyal support. Local crusade chairman Arthur Riemer, board chairman of the Wisconsin Bridge and Iron Company, is an active Lutheran layman. Roman Catholic Archbishop Rembert Weakland sent a letter last year to priests throughout his 10-county Milwaukee archdiocese (with an estimated 700,000 parishioners) telling them they could support the meetings.
Some priests were skeptical about the Graham crusade because they saw Graham’s conversion call as giving “one moment of excitement and not a lasting commitment,” said Sister Maureen Hopkins of the archdiocesean ecumenical office. “My argument to them was that it’s not up to Graham, but to the local church, to make conversion a lasting commitment.”
Some of the priests became less critical, she said, when they learned that the Graham team emphasizes local church involvement for new converts and would not challenge their own ministries. A Graham team member conducted a seminar last November for area priests and lay leaders, in which he explained the Graham operation. Many Roman Catholics and Lutherans were among the inquirers during the meetings, said crusade officials. (Graham explained that he uses the word “inquirer,” rather than convert, to describe altar call respondents to “get away from the idea that we [the Graham team] ever convert anybody”; many persons, not just one, have a part in bringing someone to Christ, he said.)
Sterling Huston, team member in charge of Graham’s North American crusades, offered an explanation for the large number of inquirers, saying, “many people came from liturgical backgrounds and had never made a decisive or public decision. They just that felt this was something they wanted to do.”
Graham had these Catholic and Lutheran churchgoers in mind during his sermons, which presented a salvation message simple enough, he said, that either “a child or an adult could understand.”
At each meeting he repeated a recent statement attributed to Pope John Paul I: “The priority of the church ought to be to evangelize those who have already been baptized.” He followed this statement at the concluding service on Sunday with, “Perhaps many people need to come and reconfirm their confirmation.” And at that meeting, which began with Martin Luther’s hymn, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” and concluded as had the four previous services with “Just As I Am,” more than 2,300 persons responded. Even then, said crusade chairman Riemer, some of the inquirer figures may have been low since many went back into the stands before counselors could reach them.
Adeline Smith, a Roman Catholic and one of 1,500 counselors who attended each meeting (more than 2,300 counselors were trained), said most of the persons she counseled were already affiliated with a church and were from out of town.
The latter may be explained by Graham’s continuing drawing power. A Minneapolis man, carrying an overnight duffel bag, had ridden a bus into Milwaukee Saturday morning and would leave the same night; he tries to attend at least one crusade per year, regardless of its location, he said.
But some of the attenders may have been in town for the Wisconsin State Fair, which concluded the same day as the crusade. The fair dates were set after the crusade was announced, said Graham’s director of media and public relations, Donald Bailey. But what at first was an irritation to the Graham team, later was seen as a “plus,” said Bailey.
Graham made appearances at the fairgrounds each of the three days before the crusade. His brother-in-law and associate evangelist, Leighton Ford, held a Sunday morning service in the amphitheater at the fairgrounds, and Graham team vocalists entertained the fairgoers with gospel music during the week.
Graham appeared on three local television stations during the week. Due partly to curiosity aroused by recent Graham biographies, Graham attracted a running sermon-by-sermon commentary by the local newspapers. The extent and the tone of news media coverage in Milwaukee pleased Graham, and he told the County Stadium audience on Sunday, “I think you ought to write to the editors and thank them for the wonderful media coverage.”
Several columnists questioned the lasting effect of the crusade—in terms of church attendance and changed lives. As usual, the Graham team, in conjunction with the local committee, planned a number of follow-up activities: “The most that have ever been done,” said follow-up chairman Ballard, whose lengthy itinerary for follow-up of Milwaukee inquirers began with an on-the-field referral to a local church. The inquirer would be contacted within 24 hours by his field counselor, and would be directed into a Bible study and nurture group. A personal enrichment seminar for inquirers would be held later, said Ballard. All inquirers were asked to listen regularly to a local radio program of Christian nurture content.
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee arranged a special eucharistic celebration for Roman Catholic inquirers. The celebration, held a week after the crusade, would indicate that the sacraments are “still an important part of the church,” said Sister Hopkins, and that Roman Catholic doctrine and Graham’s message need not be contradictory.
The seemingly tireless Graham, 60, planned his next crusade for Halifax, Nova Scotia, in late October. During the past 12 months he has held crusades in Norway, Sweden, Poland, Australia, Singapore, and the U.S. cities of Tampa and Nashville. After an Honor America Day rally in Washington, D.C., July 4, he left for Europe on a working vacation and a visit in Switzerland with his daughter Gigi and her husband. While there, said media director Bailey, Graham spent about six hours a day writing a new book—his tenth, scheduled for 1980 publication, on the subject of why God allows suffering
