"We are selling the greatest product on Earth. Why shouldn't we promote it as effectively as we promote a bar of soap?" -Billy Graham
Photo courtesy of the Strategic Culture Foundation
This past week, the world said goodbye to "America's pastor," Reverend Billy Graham. In Graham's almost 100 years of life, he preached to an estimated 215 million people, and hundreds of millions more were affected by his presence on television, radio and many other media platforms.
The message he shared affected more people than some of the largest celebrities today. With that kind of reach, he must have been doing something very right. And as communicators, there's much we can learn from his movement's success.
1. He capitalized on new media.
Oftentimes, it seems like religious organizations are the last to jump on brand-new technology. But Graham dispersed his message through not only traditional resources, but also the cutting edge technology of the time period. Graham used newspapers, magazines, internet, television, and even movies in a time when some of these forms of media were in their infancy and still considered "sinful" in Christian circles.
Graham believed in bringing the Gospel to where the people were at, and one of those places was in the movie theaters. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association even created a movie company called World Wide Pictures. His movie company produced 100 films between 1949-2004 and over 30 of them are still available on DVD.
“We used every modern means to reach the ear of the unconverted, and then punched them straight between the eyes with the gospel.”
In 1993, when the internet was beginning to come to forefront, Graham participated in an AOL chat session, his first leap into the world of online evangelism. In 1998 he even gave a Ted Talk about faith and technology.
Today, Graham's association still carries his vision of using new media. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has an active presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest.
2. He constructed his message for his audience.
Every individual approaches messages with his or her own biases, and it should be the No. 1 goal of communicators to form their messages in a way that every individual receives the message in the way it is intended to be received. The best way to do this? Keep the message simple.
Graham knew this and employed it in his sermons. This is why he not only reached so many people—his message actually resonated with the people.
We must learn to take the profoundest things of the gospel and proclaim them in simplicity … We must communicate so people will understand. So preach it with simplicity. …People want simplicity, and I am sure that was one of the secrets of our Lord because the common people heard Him gladly; He spoke their language."
3. He relentlessly stayed on message.
We've all heard the phrase "practice what you preach," and Graham really took that idea to heart.
To put it in communication lingo, Graham was a huge influencer and ambassador of a brand (Christianity). To many, he was the face of western Christianity. That's not a job you can clock out of. Graham lived his life according to the Bible he preached out of, and perhaps that was the greatest testament of his message
Also, even though his sermons varied in topics, his message consistently stayed the same.
The combination of these two factors only boosted the credibility of him and his message.
“During all my years as an evangelist, my message has always been the Gospel of Christ. It is not a Western religion, nor is it a message of one culture or political system . . . it is a message of life and hope for all the world.”
4. He had great public-speaking technique.
Logos, ethos, pathos—all those great words you learned in your Public Speaking 101 class—Graham harnessed all them to truly capture his audience.
Graham used a modified form of Monroe's Motivational Sequence in his sermons. He identified the subject, provided evidence of the issue (sin), incited emotion to fix the problem, provided a solution (Jesus), then he called the listener to action (salvation).
And what he did worked because millions of people accepted the call to action and received salvation because of Graham's preaching.
5. He harnessed culture to make his message relevant.
It's one thing to speak truth—it's another thing to speak it in a way that is relevant to the listener. Graham often incorporated the current (and highly discussed) events of the time period into his sermons. He kept his finger on the pulse of culture, so to speak, and these direct relations in the minds of the listeners reinforced his message
Graham also found opportunities where his message could be received and looked for ways to make the message directly relevant to that specific group. He and his son Franklin traveled to New Orleans in March 2006, where Graham shared a message of hope with tens of thousands who were recovering from Hurricane Katrina. In 2002, he preached a message of racial healing after riots broke out over a police shooting.
6. He was honest and sincere in responding to PR crises.
Graham did not have many public relations "crises" in his decades of ministry, but even when he did, he responded with truth and sincere apology instead of going on the defense.
Public opinion is fickle, and it can make or break a person's reputation in minutes. But the most credible response in public eye is a sincere apology, sometimes regardless of the fault
7. He didn't do it on his own.
Even if Graham perfected all the communication techniques known to man, his tremendous reach and influence are still unexplainable. Such monumental success can only be explained by a committed dependency on the Holy Spirit—the kind of dependency where no decision is made without consulting the God who not only knows his audience—he crafted each individual before they were even born.
According to an article from Christianity Today, even presidents witnessed the affects of his prominence and wanted in on the secret to his rhetorical success. Many of them would ask Graham how one man with one message could pack out stadiums with 50,000+ people. Graham's answer was, "Well, I didn't do it. God's doing it."
“I have had the privilege of preaching the gospel on every continent in most of the countries of the world. And I have found that when I present the simple message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, with authority, quoting from the very Word of God—he takes that message and drives it supernaturally into the human heart.”
Sources
https://relevantmagazine.com/current/nation/billy-graham-just-americas-preacher/
https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/billy-graham/billy-graham-presidents-oval-office-confidante.html
https://www.sermoncentral.com/pastors-preaching-articles/dennis-phelps-9-things-we-can-all-learn-from-billy-grahams-preaching-1678
https://memorial.billygraham.org/biography/
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/21/us/how-billy-graham-became-famous/index.html
http://platformmagazine.org/2017/11/19/principles-master-communicator-billy-graham-turns-99/
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