bigger. He did so through hundreds of connections like his con-
tacts with Kesler, and in worldwide meetings such as his confer-
ences in Amsterdam, in which thousands of evangelists came to
draw inspiration and direction. It was his idea to launch this great
enterprise and his driving-force leadership that made it happen.
His vision was large, indeed, and it inspired the 10,000 lead-
ers from 180 countries who were there. Here is what he told those
assembled. “We are the first generation that has the awesome
capacity to destroy mankind from the face of this planet because
of the development in incredible weapons of mass destruction.
But we also have within our hands the technological break-
throughs in communications that make it possible to reach every
corner of the earth with the gospel in this decade. Let us therefore
ask God to give us fresh vision. It may be painful for us to face the
failures of our lives honestly and confess them to God, but may
God break through the barriers in our hearts and minds to
strengthen our hands, to enlarge our vision, to be used of God for
his Glory and his joy.”
Billy wasn’t only an encourager. He read every draft of the
document developed in Amsterdam that gave guidance to these
thousands of Christian emissaries. He was determined that the
best theology and strategy would inform them as they carried the
good news to their own nations.
“He opened up the territory for the rest of us,” Kesler says,
“and we looked to him for many directional cues.”
What sort of cues? For one, Kesler remembers decades ago
YFC trying to chart a course on the race issue. “His example was
so important to us. Up until then, in the conservative Christian
worlds, we believed that to deny the gospel was a sin, but to deny
the social justice issues was just kind of a mistake. Watching Billy,
we saw that we needed to put them both in the same category,
that one without the other was truncated. One could be as deeply
disobedient to Christ over social issues as one could be over the-
ological issues. That’s what made us ‘new evangelicals.’
“He integrated his campaigns and brought into his organiza-
tion associate evangelists who were black,” Kesler said. “We saw
The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham