Grant Wacker > Quotes

“He started reading local papers six months before he got to town and arranged regular breakfast meetings for local pastors.”
― Grant Wacker, One Soul at a Time: The Story of Billy Graham (Library of Religious Biography

“Equally important was the approach of the advertising, which can be summarized with a single word: “minimalist.” “Billy Graham, Harringay Arena, 7: 30 Every Night.” Or “Hear Billy Graham.” Or just “Billy Graham,” with his photo. Crusade organizers took a cue from advertisements for Cadillacs in the United States. They gave just enough information to arouse curiosity, implying that the product was so desirable it sold itself.”
― Grant Wacker, One Soul at a Time: The Story of Billy Graham (Library of Religious Biography

“Graham committed himself to an hour of prayer and Bible study each day after breakfast. He began with five chapters of Psalms, he claimed, to know how to get along with God, and one chapter of Proverbs to know how to get along with other people. That way he read each book through once a month.”
― Grant Wacker, One Soul at a Time: The Story of Billy Graham (Library of Religious Biography

“Graham spoke plainly and directly. Convinced that the average person had a working vocabulary of six hundred words, he made a point to stick with common words and short sentences. Though he never put it exactly this way, he instinctively grasped the import of Sister Aimee Semple McPherson’s recipe for rabbit stew: first “you have to catch the rabbit.”
― Grant Wacker, One Soul at a Time: The Story of Billy Graham (Library of Religious Biography

“Even so, in Graham’s case there was a big difference between actually running for office and plunging deeply into the political discussions of the day. He remained an avid imbiber of current events. Journalist visitors to Graham’s home routinely reported seeing most of the major newsmagazines and papers—Time, Newsweek, US News & World Report, the New York Times, and the Times of London—strewn around his office. For a time, Graham even had a UPI teletype machine installed in his kitchen.”
― Grant Wacker, One Soul at a Time: The Story of Billy Graham (Library of Religious Biography

“Long-term results are even harder to measure. On one hand we know that in Graham’s meetings, at home and abroad, some people were alienated by the perceived thinness of his theology and irrelevance of his message to the deeper needs of the times. On the other hand, others found the theology clear, direct, and relevant. One Anglican bishop, looking back, likened Graham’s meetings to “divine adrenaline for a jaded church.” And so it was that thirty years later, Queen Elizabeth II invited Graham to join her for dinner on the royal yacht when it was anchored in San Francisco Bay. As he boarded the vessel, a British naval officer, part of a color guard, broke ranks and whispered two words in Graham’s ear. “Wembley, ’55.”
― Grant Wacker, One Soul at a Time: The Story of Billy Graham (Library of Religious Biography

“Much of the advertising focused on Graham’s name and image. He appreciated the power of repetition. He once remarked that the quality of the words and colors on a billboard was less important than the number of billboards a motorist passed.”
― Grant Wacker, One Soul at a Time: The Story of Billy Graham (Library of Religious Biography

“Though he had professed Christian faith and tried to live a Christian life as far back as he could remember, he had never clearly repented of his sins and given his heart to Christ in a direct, personal way. Even so, it was a tearless conversion. The next day, he remembered, he felt no different inside. But the world looked different outside.”
― Grant Wacker, One Soul at a Time: The Story of Billy Graham (Library of Religious Biography

“The preacher’s voice, a timbered baritone, sounded remarkably like that of a professional newscaster. It proved crisp enough to capture attention yet mellow enough to feel inviting.”
― Grant Wacker, One Soul at a Time: The Story of Billy Graham (Library of Religious Biography

“Pentecostals also used sarcasm to gouge their enemies. [Charles] Parham led the way, challenging a local Baptist antagonist who routinely tagged his name with Ph.D., D.D., and LL.D. to come by and spend a week at Parham's school. When God was finished with him, Parham promised, he would want to add 'A.S.S.' to the list.”
― Grant Wacker, Heaven Below: Early Pentecostals and American Culture

“If in Los Angeles in 1949 he had preached “fast and loud,” by the time he got to New York in 1957 he had learned to dial down the speed and let the microphone do the heavy lifting.”
― Grant Wacker, One Soul at a Time: The Story of Billy Graham (Library of Religious Biography

“The British wondered why these young Americans would be coming all the way to the British Isles—where Christianity had prospered for fifteen centuries—to explain to them why and how they needed to scrub up their spiritual lives. They also found Graham’s approach odd. His flamboyant attire raised eyebrows among folks accustomed to seeing clergy in black robes and tab collars. The Graham team surely looked like Americans selling religion the way Americans sold everything else: as a commodity for the taking.”
― Grant Wacker, One Soul at a Time: The Story of Billy Graham (Library of Religious Biography