I wrote everything I could think of, both about the magazine’s
organization and about its purpose.”
Then, he drove the process. What Billy wrote down became the
detailed plan he later presented to movers and shakers who could
help implement it. But first, he had plenty of preparatory work
to do.
He talked first to his father-in-law, L. Nelson Bell, a surgeon
but also a lay leader who had started an influential Presbyterian
magazine. Bell had been thinking along very similar lines and was
enthusiastic about joining him. Billy recruited Harold Ockenga,
president of Fuller Seminary and pastor of historic Park Street
Church in Boston, along with key businessmen to serve as trustees.
Dr. Bell, at the same time, was working on his key contacts.
He sought the money needed. Dreams usually require money, and
although throughout his career Billy was extremely reluctant to
ask his wealthy friends for donations, he knew the new maga-
zine would require a lot of capital. He wasn’t overly optimistic
that adequate funds could be raised. When he tried to enlist busi-
ness leaders, he found them interested but noncommittal. He told
J. Howard Pew, head of Sun Oil, that he “was giving more
thought to the possibilities of this magazine than to any other sin-
gle thing in my life.” He sensed that if Mr. Pew were to get on
board, the dream might become reality.
He and Dr. Bell, who had recently written to Mr. Pew about
the magazine, arranged to visit with him. According to Dr. Bell,
“On 10 March 1955, we boarded the overnight train from Black
Mountain, the station below Montreat, for the definitive discus-
sion with Pew at Philadelphia. They had a two-berth compart-
ment, and as we neared Philadelphia, Billy said, ‘Let’s pray.’ He
got down on the floor, not exactly kneeling but almost as if pros-
trate before the Lord. I’ll never forget that morning on the train.”
Nelson Bell told the staff of Christianity Todaymore than ten years
later, “I had never seen a man pray like that before exactly. There
was an earnestness about his prayers, that the Lord would lead
Mr. Pew, if it was the Lord’s will, to do something that would
insure the beginning of the magazine.”
The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham