Acknowledgments
This book was written as part of the fiftieth anniversary celebra-
tion of Christianity Today International to help recognize and pass
on the legacy of its founder, Billy Graham. Billy originally per-
ceived a need, processed a wide range of thinking about it, created
a vision paper, communicated it to influential people who could
make it happen, and raised the necessary capital. He recruited the
highest caliber leaders to CTI’s board, slogging with them through
the inevitable difficulties of launching a magazine. He then con-
tinued to give board leadership to the organization for more than
five decades, and it grew from one magazine to a multimagazine
and Internet communications ministry. All proceeds from this
book go to the nonprofit ministry of CTI (and for a sample copy
and risk-free trial subscription to the magazine Billy launched,
Christianity Today, go to http://www.christianitytoday.com/go/graham)..)
Clearly, we owe much to Billy for his foresight and commit-
ment to CTI, as well as his blessing on the writing of this book.
Many others also made vital contributions. We are grateful to
the scores of those we interviewed, many of them Billy’s close
associates. We were able to quote directly only a fraction of what
they so generously gave us. Others provided valuable background
information, and even though their names do not appear in the
text itself, their contributions shaped in a significant way the con-
tent of this book.
Collin Hansen offered outstanding service as a researcher and
interviewer. A recent graduate of Northwestern University, Collin
quickly became fluent in the Graham literature and the many
records of his ministry.
In addition, Laurie Powell made major contributions as pro-
ject coordinator and chief transcriber. We also received valuable
help from CTI’s Harold Smith and Harry Genet and the staff at the
Billy Graham Center archives. The team at Zondervan, especially