Jesus Christ the Lord proclaimed! In the spirit of an apostolic sweep through Asia Minor, through one Billy Graham, Northern California had in two months perhaps its greatest collective chance to meet God.
“You could be a dictator,” Vice President Nixon has reportedly remarked to Graham. No doubt many of Nixon’s fellow Californians would say the same of the evangelist, now that they have seen him draw thousands nightly to the Cow Palace, a gigantic cattle exhibition hall often shunned by entertainers because of its remote location. Yet is it not to Graham’s credit that he has been endowed with magnetic personality and authoritative delivery to an extent that more than 600 at San Quentin took up his challenge to confess Christ even though it inevitably meant incurring the ridicule of fellow convicts? If there can be faith to move mountains, can there not also be faith to move men?
The human conclusion might be that the San Francisco Bay Cities Crusade was characterized by a militant came-saw-conquered attitude. But as God would have it, the mood was rather like the loving planted-watered-increase sequence of 1 Corinthians 3:6.
Man’S Part And God’S
This planted-watered-increase pattern, which exhibits simultaneously power and charity—a tribute to the wisdom and love of God—provides the framework for evaluating the impact of an evangelistic effort. Someone plants the seed of the Word of God as containing the message of the only means to human salvation. Another lends impetus to the prospect of growth by watering the seed. And God gives the increase.
How does this pattern apply to the San Francisco Bay area? What stage of the sequence does the recently-ended Graham crusade represent? Is Northern California about to enter a new spiritual phase?
A prerequisite for understanding the answers is a realization of obstacles which prevailed. The facts are that hardly another area in the United States was so indifferent to the Gospel. Even in the city proper, in the metropolis named for St. Francis, people were peculiarly hard-hearted toward their Creator. Churches exercised pitifully little influence, partly because there were comparatively few of them.
It would be wonderful to interject at this point that the crusade changed all this. It did not. Billy Graham’s meetings in San Francisco ended short of a sweeping revival. Yet there is surely rejoicing in heaven over the results of the crusade. And Christians who can appreciate how formidable the barriers had been ought likewise to be gladdened.
To Hell Via Literature
“Where to Sin in San Francisco.” The individual responsible for the title of this newsstand guide to local night spots must have had an insight into bay area norms. For before Graham’s visit, it truly was a place appallingly void of spiritual interest. Obstacles to the presentation of God’s plan of redemption had been left over from the madly-pagan days of the Gold Rush and Barbary Coast. The resistance to evangelistic efforts stood like a barrier reef around the bay, a reef which already had repelled many a would-be spiritual invasion.
Then God’s people prayed! And God commissioned his most popularly-known servant to level the reefs.
For seven weeks, Graham, fearless and uncompromising, preached daily to the people of Northern California forcefully, consistently, and simply. He told them of the missing (not the lost, for they never had it) dimension in their lives. People began to soften their attitudes toward spiritual things. Many of them, including thousands of teen-agers, saw commitment to Christ as a transition from existence to living. They sensed true relevance. They comprehended, for this was not a theology exclusively for sophisticated intellectuals, but for whosoever will. They admired the evangelist for sticking to the Bible as a basis.
As the crusade mushroomed into the best spiritual opportunity ever afforded Northern Californians, the reefs began to fall. Then “on one of the finest days California has ever been able to deliver” (Crusade Co-chairman W. Earle Smith) came the climactic Seals Stadium rally. Early comers quickly took all available seats in the grandstands and bleachers. The rest were obliged to sit on the outfield grass. They totalled a shirtsleeved mass of humanity hungry for God—some 38,000. Many were Christians. Said one woman: “This would be a good time for the Lord to come. We’re all in one place.” Many others were unsaved, and a portion of these—1354—made a decision for Christ then and there. Others stood as an indication of spiritual need. Still others left the park without doing anything about their souls. True, effects varied, but this was clear: barriers were broken.
Christians Surge Forth
“The church has begun to go on the offensive, something new in the bay area,” said Crusade Co-chairman Carl G. Howie.
“Our Protestants have lost their inferiority complex,” commented a newspaper editorially.
Outstanding press coverage marked the entire crusade, serving as one more instrument for evangelism. Newspaper and wire service accounts served right from the start to augment the effects of crusade meetings. (Ventured Associated Press: “Hottest public attraction within memory in the San Francisco Bay area.”) Detailed reports of the evangelist’s remarks and letters to the editor all helped people to think and talk not only about Billy Graham but about religion in general, if not about salvation itself.
It was apparent from the beginning that the Cow Palace meetings, though the focal point of the evangelistic thrust, were only part of the crusade. The message was going out by a multitude of means as one aspect grew out of another. Graham was moving at an awesome pace, speaking to service clubs and school assemblies, at churches, athletic fields, and military centers. Fellow team members were doing likewise.
Then There Was Fellowship
Not to be overlooked are the warm Christian fellowships which came out of prayer meetings, counselor training sessions, choir rehearsals, Operation Andrew bus and car pools, and the usher orientations. Christians from different denominations became acquainted. Seeing many of like faith bolstered personal beliefs.
Neither was the crusade without its human interest twists. The Upjohn Pharmaceutical Company sent a representative to several meetings to get sales pointers from Graham. And Billy Graham, aged 11, (no kin) was converted at a Cow Palace meeting.
Coming back to the planted-watered-increase sequence, the question may be asked as to how all this came into pattern. The classification of crusade phenomena, the answer to the application of the sequence, varies according to the perspective in which it is viewed. For those who made public confessions, the sequence was made complete as by the grace of God they became children of God. In those who heard without yielding, at least the seed had been planted.
Collectively, the seed was planted around San Francisco Bay, but only because there were barriers broken, obstacles of indifference and resistance brought down. To fit the framework, the unusual bay area barriers may have to be classed as a sub-stage or a preliminary to planting. But regardless of where they belong, this much bears repeating: old hindrances were overcome.
“The overall effect of the Billy Graham crusade is good,” said California Governor Goodwin J. Knight. “The fact that thousands have been helped to a better spiritualization makes it worthwhile.”
The Mayor Agrees
San Francisco Mayor George Christopher, on hand for a word of greeting at the Seals Stadium service, agreed. Speaking of Graham, Christopher said “we are better off for his having visited us.”
Said Alan K. Browne, president of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce: “While it seems to be that there is a spiritual awakening abroad in the land, real progress cannot be made without stimulation, and this has been provided through the crusade. I am sure that many of the results will be permanent and this augurs well for the future of the San Francisco area.”
“Only God knows the real effects,” said Co-chairman Howie (Calvary Presbyterian Church), pointing out that the campaign could still turn out to be the means of wide-scale spiritual awakening “if we let (it) be a beginning and not a conclusion.”
Possibly because they were a little more open to the Gospel at the start, San Francisco suburbs seemed to realize more benefits than did the city. But in the city and out, the impact upon youth was a most heartening aspect of the crusade. Around the bay area there is much talk of the “beat generation.” In contrast to it, Billy Graham was offering the challenge of a life dedicated to Christ. Thursday night, an “off” night in most evangelistic crusades, found youth pouring in—and taking up the challenge! Invitation response was consistently the largest on Thursday nights, and the greatest number of decisions in any Cow Palace meeting, 1243, came on a youth night.
The response among youth insures lasting impressions. These will be complemented by personal contacts made through a week of visitation evangelism which followed the Seals Stadium rally. A spirited nucleus of bay area ministers saw in the visitation evangelism effort a watering and made further plans for follow-up in the fall. As they persevere, and as God’s people pray, God will give the collective increase to the Church, which is Christ’s body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
News Editor David E. Kucharsky flew to San Francisco to prepare this analytic account. A former United Press correspondent, he holds the A. B. in journalism from Duquesne University. For two years he served as squadron adjutant in the Air Force with the rank of lieutenant.
