Billy Graham and Technology

With the passing of Billy Graham, the great Christian evangelist, we look in awe at the many people he brought to Christ.

Chris Heaslip, Co-founder of PushPay, a software service that allows mobile payments, spoke about Billy Graham at Summit 2018.  Tobin Perry, a writer at PushPay, recounts some of his remarks in an article for the eChurch Monthly newsletter published February 25, entitled “What Billy Graham’s Ministry Teaches Us about Technology:”

“Billy understood one key thing: People feel wanted when we engage them through technology and culture,” Heaslip told church leaders at the Summit.

You don’t think about Billy Graham when you ponder technology, but it’s really hard to imagine the breathtaking impact of his ministry without it. While many church leaders reflexively pushed back against technology, fearful of its potential for evil, Graham saw the potential in it for gospel proclamation.

I am amazed at the wonders of technology and am grateful for the ways in which we are able to use it to share the gospel around the world, he once said.

Perry concluded with a thank you to Billy Graham:

We have much to thank Billy Graham for today—for all the people who heard and responded to the gospel through his ministry, for a lifetime of modeling integrity and faithfulness in ministry, and for his influence on some of the most powerful people on the planet (and some of the most common) with the gospel.

But let’s also be thankful he cared about the gospel message enough to use all means necessary to share it. Graham’s model of innovation should be an inspiration as the church marches into the future. Graham said:

I see no contradiction between the old, old story and the newest means to transmit it. It is time for the church to use the technology to make a statement that in the midst of chaos, emptiness, and despair, there is hope in the person of Jesus Christ.

Thanks to Billy, millions were reached with the message of the gospel. And for that, we are grateful.

If we know anything about Billy Graham, we know that he cared about the gospel message and spent his life sharing it using every means possible including radio, TV and the Internet.

Twenty years ago Billy Graham spoke at a TED conference in Los Angeles.  The video is below.  What I take from this talk is that technology and developments in technology offer great possibilities for humanity and for the spread of the Gospel, but they cannot answer the deepest questions in life. Nor should they be expected to. We turn to Jesus for those.

You can read Tobin Perry’s entire article here.