Sterling leaned forward. “I always began the process of explor-
ing crusade cities by asking, ‘Billy, what are some cities on your
heart?’ Some he mentioned I would think to myself, I know the
religious makeup there;it would take two years to meet with all the lead-
ership. That city is not united,and I don’t know of any prayer movement
there.Many time my observations were correct, but sometimes I’d
go there and find God had been at work preparing the leadership
of the city to work together. Billy had that spiritually intuitive
sense of where God was working. I would report my findings back
to him, giving reasons why we should or should not go to a par-
ticular city. He listened carefully to my recommendations, but he
always made the final decision only after praying about it.”
We nodded. “You said that his friends would sometimes try to
persuade him to go to a city that probably wasn’t ready. We often
hear he’s known for changing his mind. Yet you spoke of his com-
mitment once his decision was made. How does a readily changed
mind and strong commitment fit together?”
Sterling smiled. “In my twenty-eight years of directing Billy’s
crusades, it was very rare that his friends might have unduly influ-
enced his decisions. I can only think of two cities where this might
have happened. Sometimes he would delay making a decision on
crusade cities for several months while he prayed and consulted
others, but when he finally had peace of heart about a city, we
could move ahead with confidence that his decision was firm. His
eventual commitment and the process he went through to make
the decision assured and energized the people who worked for
him. His track record was awfully good about being in the right
place at the right time, which was ultimately confirmed by the
blessing of God on the meetings.”
We concluded that even Billy’s “weakness” of waffling on cer-
tain difficult decisions because he didn’t want to say no, and his
not wanting to fire anyone, was leveraged into strength—because
he was ever the humble learner, giving strong colleagues their
freedom and passionately driving toward the best win-win
approach. For instance, he knew that if you don’t feel called to
play the role of “bad cop,” you have to find someone who could.
The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham