This is the text of a statement by Billy Graham being given this month on the “Hour of Decision” broadcast.

Since the beginning of our evangelistic ministry we have been deeply concerned about the financial integrity of our work. We believe we are accountable to God for all money entrusted to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA). We consider ourselves stewards before the Lord.

When we began our evangelistic ministry almost all evangelists were supported by voluntary “love offerings.” Occasionally this led to financial abuses, and in the minds of many people mass evangelism came to be associated with an “Elmer Gantry” image of financial irresponsibility and even dishonesty.

We set out to change this image by forming a small board and setting up a non-profit religious organization. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association was formed in 1950. We stopped receiving “love offerings” shortly thereafter and put every member of our staff, including myself, on a fixed salary. All funds received for our ministry go to the BGEA. In 1950 this was a new concept in this type of evangelism; we were determined to have total financial integrity.

When the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association was founded we not only prayed that God would provide the finances necessary for our own direct ministry of evangelism, but that he would entrust us with enough financial resources to help missions and other evangelical projects throughout the world. We determined to attempt to tithe all funds that were given to us for evangelism, and dedicate this tithe to help other ministries that supported evangelism, missions, and Christian education. We felt at the time that it was scriptural and that God would honor our efforts and motives. I understand the great evangelist of the last century, D. L. Moody, once said “God will allow millions to pass through my hands for the work of God if none of it sticks to my hands.”

All finances of the BGEA are under the supervision of a board of directors. Our board has twenty-five men and one woman. It includes distinguished lawyers, bankers, businessmen, a seminary president, and distinguished clergy, including two outstanding black clergymen. The entire board meets three times a year. The executive committee, made up of seven men, meets approximately every six weeks for anywhere from one day to two full days. No paid employee, including myself, is on the executive committee. I do not attend the executive committee except by invitation.

We have insisted on the highest possible standards of financial ethics, business procedures, and spiritual principles in the business affairs of the BGEA. We have taken extra precautions to be certain that everything is done with complete integrity so no dishonor might come to the name of Christ. Our books are audited every year by one of America’s best known accounting firms.

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About three years ago we asked one of the largest and most distinguished law firms in America to assess our organization and its affiliates in every possible detail, to see if there were any financial safeguards or practices we were overlooking. After a thorough two-year study this firm (which specializes in non-profit organizations) reported that they had rarely found an organization with higher standards and better financial control than ours. One of our board members, for many years the treasurer of Harvard University, stated, “I have served on many boards but have never been associated with an organization that has such high standards of business procedure and financial controls as BGEA.”

I can assure you that your contributions are handled legally and with the highest sense of Christian ethics and spiritual concern. If you designate any gift, we guarantee it will go 100 per cent where you want it to go. For example, several years ago we established an “emergency relief fund” to help the victims of disasters throughout the world in the name of Christ. We take nothing from that relief fund for administrative expenses. Through this fund, for example, we have been able to help earthquake victims in Guatemala and Romania and famine victims in Africa. We have helped in New Guinea, Bangladesh, and many other emergency areas. We believe such relief efforts are commanded by Christ. We also believe countless people are open to the Gospel because of such actions of practical love and compassion.

Earlier, I explained how we decided to tithe our income to other evangelical causes. God has honored this commitment for more than a quarter century. We have been able to help seminaries, Bible schools, missions, hospitals, scholarships for overseas students, relief work, missionaries, evangelists, and evangelical periodicals throughout the world. We have given small and large amounts to hundreds of Christian groups that were being used of God across the world. For example, we help support a halfway house for prisoners in Mexico, a tuberculosis clinic for nomads in the Middle East carried on by devoted missionaries, and a graduate seminary and colleges in several countries of the Far East. We have also provided scholarships for seminary and college students from the Third World, help for refugees from Uganda, and thousands of scholarships for Bible school, seminary, and college students to the Schools of Evangelism in connection with all of our major crusades around the world.

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Most people did not know that we helped sponsor and pay for world conferences on evangelism, such as the Berlin Congress on Evangelism (1966) and the historic Lausanne International Congress on World Evangelization (1974)—and we have either totally paid for, or helped in part, at least a score of evangelistic and missionary conferences throughout the world. We gave substantial financial help to the Pan African Christian Leadership Conference in Nairobi last December.

We never have sought to draw attention to this side of our work, believing that this kind of attention might be mistaken for boasting and pride. We took seriously the words of Jesus: “Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them; otherwise ye have no reward of your Father, which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly” (Matt. 6:1–4).

As the years passed we began to see the tremendous need for a special fund to help undergird evangelical ministries throughout the world to a greater extent than we were able to do. Our board of directors also felt that we should take steps to insure the wise long-range investment of gifts that came to BGEA from time to time in the form of stocks, trusts, estates, foundation grants, and a certain amount of undesignated funds. A fairly large percentage of gifts that we receive have no designation. People are giving to us to act as stewards of the Lord’s money and to invest it in his kingdom as God directs us.

So, in 1970 we formed a foundation, which now is called the World Evangelism and Christian Education Fund (WECEF). There are several facts I would like you to know about the WECEF Fund.

1. It is a legally incorporated non-profit foundation registered with the Internal Revenue Service.

2. It is administered by a dedicated board of trustees made up of some of America’s most outstanding Christian businessmen. Its executive committee consists of the former president of the American Bakers Association, the chairman of the board of trustees of the Baylor Medical Center and Baylor University, and the former treasurer of Harvard University, who is also a member of the Wheaton College Board of Trustees.

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3. There are no full-time employees of WECEF. No board member receives any financial benefit from it.

4. The money given to WECEF (as to BGEA) is committed to benefit projects in missions, evangelism, and Christian education.

5. In order to be good stewards, the trustees of WECEF have directed the investment of the funds in a prudent manner until distribution.

6. The WECEF Fund is audited annually by a nationally recognized auditing firm, and an official “990” IRS report is filed annually with the federal government.

7. WECEF has been on the public record since its inception—open for all to inspect, but it has not been publicized. For one thing, we felt it was scriptural. For another thing, extensive publicity, we knew, would mean we would be innundated with requests for help that we could not begin to meet. We already knew of far more projects than we could support, and we did not want to have to divert money from worthy projects to employ a large staff to handle such requests.

8. WECEF is the only foundation or fund to which BGEA is affiliated.

The reason I have tried to outline all of this to you is that there has recently been some misunderstanding about the World Evangelism and Christian Education Fund. The Bible says, “Let not your good be evil spoken of” (Rom. 14:16). God has greatly used WECEF, and we have a responsibility to tell you the facts about it. I hope you will pray for its ministry.

In recent years we have thought and prayed frequently about the future of our ministry. God has given us an increasing burden for training other men and women who will do the work of evangelism in the decades ahead. When I entered full-time evangelism I was president of a liberal arts college and a Bible school with 1,200 students in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I have always carried this burden of training others. About fifteen years ago we came very close to building a university. We had the land and a great part of the money offered us, but at that time we felt it would be too much of a diversion from our evangelistic crusades. So after much prayer and soul-searching we decided not to build it.

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But Paul told Timothy, “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2), and I believe God is leading us in two major projects to fulfill this vision. First, we are helping to build at Wheaton College in Illinois what I believe is destined to become one of the world’s unique training centers in missions and evangelism. It will draw students and laymen from around the world for intensive courses in training for evangelism. Church leaders from various countries will be able to come for further training. In it will be one of the finest libraries on evangelism and missions in the world. It will also house Wheaton’s growing Graduate School in Biblical Studies and Communications. It will also house the records and memorabilia of our ministry. The first floor is designed so that a visitor walking through will be confronted with the claims of Christ. It is our hope and prayer that people will find Christ every week, just visiting this center. Construction will begin this fall. It will be a continual evangelistic effort long after God has called us to heaven. This institution will be owned, operated, and directed by the board of trustees of Wheaton College.

Second, tentative plans are underway for a Bible training center specifically designed to train laymen in the Bible. It will not be a Bible school in the traditional sense, for there will be no academic credit or graduation diplomas. It would bring outstanding Bible teachers from many denominations and other parts of the world for short periods of teaching. A layman or a student or even a clergyman could go there for a month, or three months, or even a year, and study the Bible in depth. We have felt it should be in a secluded spot where they could have time for long walks, places for quiet and prayerful decision-making concerning their life’s priorities. Many people are converted late in life and cannot take time off to go to a Bible school or seminary, but they could take a month off for an intensive Bible survey study. As far as I know, this would not be in competition with any denominational effort anywhere in the world. A beautiful location in western North Carolina has been purchased and preliminary studies have already been completed. However, since we will not begin this project until the Wheaton Center is finished, it may still be at least three or more years away. Already proposals for other sites in other parts of the country are coming in. Three years is a long time in this swiftly moving world. We are waiting upon God to either open this door or close it. We pray “thy will be done.”

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The World Evangelism and Christian Education Fund is committed to help fund both these projects. However, we do not have the full resources needed to build these two great projects and also meet the needs of many other important projects that we now help. We need your increased financial support if this work is to continue. If you desire to designate gifts for either of these two projects or any other evangelistic project, you may do so through your gift to the BGEA. In addition, we need your continual support for our ministry of evangelism through radio, films, and literature. We are having to face rising costs in everything from postal rates to the purchase of television time.

We find ourselves limited to the many visions and dreams that God has given us to touch the world for Christ in our generation. Calls are coming from every part of the world for us to come and proclaim the Gospel and to help in various ways. Unfortunately, we have to write hundreds of letters each year turning down worthy requests. We are limited because of physical strength, time, and finances.

One of the interesting things is that when we go to other countries in response to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ to go into all parts of the world to proclaim the Gospel, our income goes down. I would like to challenge you with the responsibility of the whole world for Christ. When you hear that we are in some other country ministering, I hope you will increase your giving and consider it a missionary contribution. When we go to many parts of the world we bear the team expenses from BGEA and usually have to help substantially in the crusade expenses, especially in the underdeveloped countries whose financial means are limited.

We are living in a very ominous, critical, and serious moment in history. It has been my privilege during the past few months to talk to a number of leaders in different parts of the world from various walks of life. I found a great deal of pessimism.

Yet I am not pessimistic. Doors are open right now as perhaps never before. I am told that as many as 50,000 people a day are becoming Christians. This is an age of unprecedented harvest. If ever we are to pray and give, it is now. “The night cometh, when no man can work” (John 9:4). It is a question as to how long we can remain on television and radio with the same freedom of proclaiming the Gospel as we now have. It is a question as to how much longer we can have the freedom to hold evangelistic crusades in many parts of the world.

We are ready to spend our strength and our energy, if you will stand behind us with your prayers and your financial support. God bless you.

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