be diverted. He focused on his mission: evangelism, “to bring
people out of their torpor of sin to salvation from it.”
To understand Billy’s focus, we need to grasp his passion. In his
address to the ten thousand international evangelists he brought to
Amsterdam in 2000—70 percent of them from poor, developing
countries—he said, “The older I get, the more I am asked who will
succeed me. Well, the fact is that I am just one of many thousands
who have been called to be an evangelist. I don’t need a successor,
only willing hands to accept the torch I have been carrying.”
In many cultures evangelists are looked down on, not only
because some have been hypocrites or have failed in their per-
sonal lives, but because some people view them as mere religious
salesmen. Yet in the world’s churning mix of religious and secu-
lar ideologies competing for souls, the evangelist is essential. In
The Pilgrim’s Progress, it is Evangelist who points the main charac-
ter, Christian, to the gate, which makes all of Christian’s adven-
tures and blessings possible. Today’s deeply troubled world needs
evangelists with a message of love and hope.
Samuel Shoemaker captured this in his book I Stand by the
Door. An Anglican spiritual leader, he was deeply concerned about
the sufferings and emptiness of people, and he was a primary
founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, which has helped so many
strugglers. Like Billy, he longed to share the Good News with
searching souls. He expressed it this way:
I stand by the door...
The door is the most important door in the world—
It is the door through which men walk when they find God.
There’s no use by going way inside, and staying there,
When so many are still outside and they, as much as I,
Crave to know where the door is.... The most tremendous thing in the world
Is for men to find that door—the door to God.
The most important thing any man can do
Is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands,
And put it on the latch—the latch that only clicks
and opens to man’s own touch.
The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham