Young evangelists need encouragement to share the simple yet powerful message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, according to Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Graham is also the convenor of the European Congress on Evangelism, a four-day event beginning today (May 27) that brings together 1,000 evangelical and ministry leaders from 56 countries at the JW Marriott Hotel in Berlin, Germany.
Graham was joined in a press conference this afternoon (central European time) by his son Will Graham, executive vice president of the BGEA and Viktor Hamm, vice president of Crusade Ministries for BGEA, who led organizing the event.
Both Grahams recounted how special the nation of Germany was to the late Billy Graham, having preached in the country eight times as a young man in 1954, in the postwar period, up to 1990.
For Franklin Graham, the importance of Europe as a continent cannot be understated in a spiritual sense as he recalled how countries such as the U.K. sent so many missionaries across the world. He emphasized the importance in encouraging younger European evangelists to be bold for the gospel and unashamed to preach the good news of Jesus Christ.
“There's a younger generation that I believe is taking hold of the gospel and is taking the challenge of preaching the gospel to the ends of this Earth,” said Franklin Graham.
“And I think many of these young people need to be encouraged. And so I think this Congress is important to encourage another generation to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to this continent.”
Graham disclosed there had been discussions about including other nations in the goals of this particular congress but “I didn’t want to do that,” he stated. “I want to focus on Europe.”
“We can do conferences in other parts of the world but right now, we're focusing on Europe. And so many missionaries and great church leaders came out of Europe. They came to the United States and evangelized the United States, and then not just the United States, but throughout so much of the world.”
Graham continued that many churches had seen generations come and go with no evangelism. He expressed a desire to see fellowships discover the need to evangelise and that “it’s not just for today but for every day.”
Will Graham echoed his father Franklin in saying that the intention of the conference is to “help encourage another generation.”
“Like my father said, to preach with authority, to preach the blood and the cross of Jesus Christ to fan the flame for another generation to get excited about evangelism,” said Will Graham recalling how his grandfather Billy had been envisioned with not only preaching the gospel but encouraging others—both men and women—to become evangelists as well.
“We used to ask my grandad, who’s gonna take your place?” Will Graham added in his reflection upon Billy Graham’s legacy. “And he would always look to the crowd and say, ‘They are’ and point to all these other evangelists. And so he poured his heart into evangelists—and that’s what we are going to do.”
At the press conference, Christian Daily International/Christian Post asked if the Grahams had a particular message of encouragement for European evangelicals feeling affected by the war in Ukraine and the sense of fear on the continent with governments ordering families to prepare food rations in case a wider conflict happens.
“Prayer is the most important thing we can do,” responded Franklin Graham, “and that is to pray for President Putin, President Zelensky, and the leaders in both countries that God would work in their hearts to find a solution to this war.
“Thousands upon thousands of people have been killed. No one even actually knows the numbers, but we know it's horrific. And it needs to come to an end. We need to pray for those, but we also need to pray for President Trump who's trying to help, mediate it. You know, try to get them started at least talking to one another, and that's so important to talk.
“And so pray that God would somehow touch the hearts of these men and bring them to a point of reconciliation. And at least where the killing would stop, and they could negotiate instead of trying to blow each other up. And that's what I would encourage the church to do.”
In a further response to a question by Christian Daily International/Christian Post about whether women were well represented in the speakers’ list at the Congress, which mostly comprise male leaders, Franklin Graham responded, “I don’t think we’re trying to have a number of this or that.
“I think we're trying to find speakers that can address the issues that we wanted to focus on,” he added. “And so it's not that we don't have so many slots for this group or that group or this gender or that gender. We're just trying to get the message out.
“And so I think those that have selected the speakers worked hard over the last year trying to get those that we felt were qualified to speak.”
Franklin Graham, responding to another press question about how young people disliking organised religion, also said answers were found in the gospel. He quoted Paul in Romans 1: 16: “I’m not ashamed of the gospel.” Graham claimed that older generations have “tried to soften the gospel” in not wanting to cause offense to others, such as not talking about the cross of Jesus. But younger people were bolder.
“It's not politically correct, but there's Holy Spirit-filled power in it. And I think young people today are challenged by a challenge. How do we reach our generation? How can we convince them? How can we talk to them? How can we get their attention? Young people want a challenge.”
A similar boldness was emphasised by Graham in response to a question of Christians feeling their freedom of speech is under pressure from secularism. He said the attitude of evangelicals at this time should be: “You don't give up. You don't quit. And you don't become less bold. You become more bold.”
“If Christians begin to be quiet, we'll lose our freedom to share the gospel,” said Graham. “And so I don't encourage Christians to go out and throw rocks through windows and stuff like that. I believe we just stand firm on what the Bible teaches. If there's ever been a time where we need to be more bold, it's today and being bold in the Word of God and not compromising.”
Graham lamented that some countries previously open to the gospel were changing their stance.
“There's going to be places where we used to be able to share our faith, but we won't be able to do that anymore,” he said, anticipating a secular societal pushback against the message of the cross in European countries and a removal of freedom of speech.
”I think it’s important [to preach] as long as we have the freedom to do it.”
