Anchored to the Rock.” And his natural inclination was to dis-
miss the British clergy as neither geared to the times nor
anchored to the Rock.
But his time in war-ravaged England convinced him that if
revival was going to come, it would have to come through the
mainstream denominations. As John Pollock comments: “The
Southerner who had scarcely met an Episcopalian began to grasp
the peculiar significance of the Church of England.” His bridge-
building efforts, begun in 1946, later paid off in significant ways
in the success of his campaigns in 1954.
While other Americans were viewed as blasé or “know it all,”
Billy endeared himself to his hosts with his courtesy and eagerness
to soak up the British scene.
Even his occasional faux pas was forgiven. Jerry Beavan, one
of Billy’s aides in those years, told us, “I remember the time he
was invited to Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s royal estate
up in Sandringham. When he went in, the butler put his hand
out, and Billy shook hands with him. What the butler was ask-
ing for was Billy’s hat! Billy literally was, as he frequently says,
a farm boy from North Carolina. And suddenly he’s thrust into
these situations. But he had the charisma to pull it off, to fit into
those situations.”
Billy put it this way: “Learning was an insatiable desire with
me. I burned to learn, and I felt my limitations of schooling and
background so terribly that I determined to do all I could through
conversations, picking up everything I could from everybody.”Find Common Ground
How could Billy connect with people in India, Hong Kong,
and South Africa? What allowed him to work with Catholics,
Jews, conservative Protestants, and intellectuals? He found ways
to emphasize their common ground.
When he met with three Iraqi religious leaders in 1999—a
Shi’ite Ayatollah, a Sunni leader, and a Patriarch of the Chaldean
Church, Billy began by discussing humanitarian aid. Though there
are significant differences between Christianity and Islam, Billy
The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham