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Grandson of Billy Graham tours NSW, event mobilises 40 churches


The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association Australia
Thursday, 17 June 2010, 23:33 (EST)
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Will Franklin Graham, grandson of Dr Billy Graham, has recently been on a tour of North West NSW, speaking at a community event billed as the biggest inter-church event held in the history of the region. The Anglican Bishop of the Armidale diocese, Peter Brain provided the invitation to Will Graham following his preliminary visit to the area last year.

Over 40 of the region’s churches banded together to train and equip people for various aspects of the program occurring under the locally named “Reality” banner.
During the six months lead-up to Reality, Rev John North from Sydney partnered with the Billy Graham Association Australia to train 500 people across the region in Christian Life & Witness Classes and Rev Martin Levine provided training in discipling and mentoring for 100 people.

Local Christians report that a bond of goodwill between all the different Christian churches in the region evolved during the lead up to Reality and they are hopeful this will continue long after Mr Graham has departed.

Reality Chairman and former deputy Prime Minister John Anderson coordinated local committees in Moree, Gunnedah and Tamworth to ensure events held in each town centre came together.

Over 20 outreach events made up the Reality program running over part of a ten-day period. Approximately 12,000, mostly young people, attended the combined events program and heard the gospel message in testimony, music and through the preaching of the Word of God. If you lived in Moree, Gunnedah or Tamworth you would have found a number of free events that you could attend. Christian pop/rock bands Compliments of Gus, Planet of the Stereos, Jonnday and Chasing Bailey provided music at the major events. Some of these bands gave shorter concerts in schools where they supported guest speakers Steve Davies & Andrew Fisher.

There were men’s breakfasts with extreme adventurer Graham Murphy and racing car driver Andrew Fisher and events for women with guest speakers Wendy Smith and Julia Anderson.

Approximately 50 people attended a meeting for pastors and church leaders during Reality. Duncan Brown, Senior Pastor of New Peninsula, a contemporary evangelical church on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, challenged participants to rethink the effectiveness of the traditional ‘program-oriented’ model in church and explore incorporating authentic discipleship activity occurring in the community by church people, validating their ministry, wrapping support resources around them and celebrating their kingdom work.

The main Reality events however had Will Graham as the headline speaker. These events were in held in the town halls of Moree, Gunnedah and Tamworth and included youth nights, family events and programs geared more for adults. Each event had a number of artists participating, great lighting and sound and a variety of music to support the main focus of at each event of making known the Reality of Jesus.

Popular children’s entertainer Colin Buchanan was a guest artist in Gunnedah and Tamworth, supporting the ministry of Will Graham in the family events.

Will Graham preached the gospel at seven events over the week with a total of 4278 people attending these events, (approx 7% of the population of the region). 332 people made commitments to follow Jesus and were counseled by local Christians who, earlier in the year had completed the five-week Christian Life & Witness Training sponsored by BGEA. 70% of those who made commitments were young people.
Mr Graham said that “we had a wonderful time in the three town centres we visited and I pray that this isn’t the end of what’s happening here”.

John Anderson said of Reality, “this event has mobilised some 40 churches in the region, to come together, be trained, pray and work together for the sake of the gospel. I believe we could continue to see positive results from Reality in this region, for the next 10 years.”

Leigh Brown, CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association Australia, says “Reality with Will Graham was just a tool for the advancement of the gospel in the northwest NSW. It would be wonderful if all of Australia could be reached through regional events similar to the one we have just seen God use in Northwest NSW. All glory should be given to God for the success of the events and the relationships made.“


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