Evangelist Billy Graham’s New York City campaign this week has many people looking back over his remarkable career, including the New York Times.
Graham’s first New York crusade was in 1957. Later that year came his first visit to InterVarsity’s Urbana Student Mission Convention. Graham returned to the Urbana convention five more times, in 1976, 1979, 1981, 1984, and 1987. Each time he challenged the delegates to make a commitment to follow Jesus Christ for the rest of their lives. The renowned evangelist will be asking New York residents to make a similar commitment.
More than 1,000 New York area churches have been praying and working for months to prepare for Graham’s return, June 24-26. A New York Times story on the growth of the church, estimates the population of evangelical Christians in New York City at around one million. And it’s a very diverse Christian community that includes many immigrants who have come to New York City from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association reports “more than 130 languages are spoken within walking distance of Flushing Meadows Corona Park,” where Billy Graham will be speaking.
InterVarsity is also committed to ministry in New York City. We have staff connected to local congregations and working with chapters on a number of college and university campuses. We’re excited by the diversity of the city. And we’re challenged by the cultural influence of the city.
Because, as Eric Metaxas, a New York writer, producer, and cultural critic said, “Today we drink in what Hollywood and New York pump out as if from a firehose. We gulp it down….The media reality is so much with us that it competes with actual reality. It’s as if everyone in America effectively lives in Hollywood or Manhattan. We drink their water and breathe their air.”
InterVarsity’s commitment to share the Gospel on the campuses where the leaders of tomorrow are trained, includes the campuses of New York City. Some of those leaders of tomorrow will be making their commitment to Jesus Christ during this week-end’s meetings with Billy Graham at Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
