Twenty-five years after the Rev. Billy Graham delivered his message of salvation to a packed Riverfront Coliseum, the “Nation's Pastor” returns this week with a mission to save souls and this time, to help a city heal its racial wounds.

The Rev. Damon Lynch Jr. (right) and the Rev. Larry Davis are co-chairs of the mission. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

        The world's best-known evangelist rebuffed an unprecedented call to stay away by boycotters, and the Southern Baptist preacher has no particular ties to this heavily Catholic area. During his 1977 crusade here, he told the audience he had long heard Cincinnati was one of the most difficult cities for evangelists.

        Yet for one of the last two scheduled crusades of a career that spans more than five decades, the Rev. Mr. Graham chose Cincinnati.

        He explained in a March letter responding to the boycott requests: “I believe this is God's time for this mission, to again bring the message of God's love and forgiveness to the great city of Cincinnati.”

        Liz Smith, a Milford woman and volunteer for her church youth group, says God has a purpose for sending the Rev. Mr. Graham to Cincinnati for the four-day mission that begins Thursday at Paul Brown Stadium.

        “Billy Graham could have chosen a lot of cities,” she says. “God sends us to the hardest places sometimes. That's where the work is needed the most.”

        When the Rev. Larry Davis began to dream of bringing a well-known evangelist to town, he first thought of Franklin Graham. It was August 2000, and many expected Franklin's father, Billy Graham, to announce his retirement.

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• THE MAN, HIS MISSION

        Pastor of First Baptist Church in Cold Spring, Ky., the Rev. Mr. Davis talked to a friend with contacts at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association about an event that could unite area churches.

        Six weeks later, Sterling Huston, then head of North American ministries for the Graham association, showed up.

        “He told me, "It's on our heart that Billy Graham should come instead,'” says the Rev. Mr. Davis, a co-chair of the upcoming mission. “I can't even really say it was my idea. Coming to Cincinnati really was something God laid on Billy Graham's heart.”

        The Rev. Mr. Davis set out to gauge interest. Although some religious leaders at first considered it a far-fetched possibility, the idea of bringing the world's best-known evangelist to town gained momentum.

        In December 2000, the Rev. Mr. Davis recalls, Mr. Huston gave him more encouragement, telling him, “There will come a day when you stand on a platform at Paul Brown Stadium and introduce Billy Graham to the city.”

        Four months later, city streets exploded with violence after a Cincinnati police officer shot and killed an unarmed black teen. Some of the pastors instrumental in the early preparations — including the Rev. Damon Lynch III — shifted their focus to the racial problems.

        For others, the riots affirmed the need for a visit from the Rev. Mr. Graham.

        By last June, Tristate organizers had solicited more than 200 letters to present to the evangelist at his crusade in Louisville, asking him to put Cincinnati on his calendar. The Rev. Mr. Graham officially accepted the invitation in September.

        During the 1960s and 1970s, the Rev. Mr. Graham received hundreds of calls and letters asking him to bring his crusade to cities around the world. Although the requests have tapered off some because of uncertainty about his health, the Rev. Mr. Graham still turns down numerous invitations for public appearances. He wants to conserve his energy, says Rick Marshall, director of missions for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

        “He is first an evangelist,” he says.

        The selection of a community for a mission isn't pragmatic, Mr. Marshall says. There are no market studies or surveys of people's readiness to hear the word of God.

        Instead, the Rev. Mr. Graham prays.

        “It's a heart decision,” Mr. Marshall says. “We've been to cities where we've thought, "What are we doing here?' Only later would we see it was part of God's plan.”

        As for Cincinnati, the Rev. Mr. Graham has said the city was on his heart. He followed the news of the riots and the ensuing struggles.

        “As I listen to him speak about racial issues over the years, he sees this as one of the great sin issues in the world,” Mr. Marshall says. “From the Balkans to the Middle East, from Africa to southeast Asia and right here in Middle America, racism is a a terrible sin and it breaks out in such raw violence.”

        Racism is more than a matter of social justice, says the Rev. Mr. Graham, who has long preached messages of racial unity, including during his 1977 visit to Cincinnati.

        In a letter to readers of The Enquirer, he writes, “Racial prejudice and injustice is fundamentally a moral and spiritual issue. God has created every person in His image, and His love is extended equally to people of every race.”

        Black and white religious and community leaders have pinned hopes of reconciliation and racial harmony on the mission and the Rev. Mr. Graham's message.

        They say bridges already have been built as volunteers from 67 denominations have come together to prepare for the mission. They hope these bonds will last long after the Rev. Mr. Graham and his team head to Dallas for an October mission, the last event committed to by the evangelist.

        “The Underground Railroad center and Billy Graham hopefully will be harbingers of things to come for Cincinnati,” says the Rev. Damon Lynch Jr., a co-chair of the local mission.

        “We can do it, but we have to put our shoulders to the plow, as the Bible would say, and not look back. When God changes a person's heart, the community will also be changed. And that's what we're hoping for.”
       

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