Dispatches from the evangelist’s memorial service, which he planned years before his death last week at 99.
After spending his life traveling the world to rally millions for Christ, Billy Graham returns today to his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina, to be laid to rest in a ceremony deemed his final crusade.
More than 2,000 guests—including 200 members of Graham’s family, Christian leaders from 50 countries, and dignitaries such as President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence—will gather at noon Friday for the funeral. Graham himself planned out the ceremony more than a decade ago, hoping that even his death could continue to point people to the gospel.
This last crusade will take place in front of the Billy Graham Library in a towering, 28,000-square-foot white tent meant to evoke the “canvas cathedral” where the evangelist held one of his first crusades in 1949 in Los Angeles.
Christianity Today will be reporting from today’s funeral, and this post will continue to be updated with dispatches from the event.
“When I pulled up to the parking lot, I thought that it was so fitting to that all the satellites and trucks were here. It would have been exactly what he wanted, that the Word would go out and people would hear the name of Jesus today,” said Bible teacher Beth Moore, one of dozens of influential Christian leaders gathered under the funeral tent.
The ceremony comes over a week after Graham’s death at his home in Montreat, North Carolina, last Wednesday at age 99, and follows multiple days of public memorials in both Charlotte and Washington, where Graham became the fourth American in history to lay in honor in the US Capitol.
The funeral participants—a mix of family members and ministry partners—reflect Graham’s booming legacy.
His eldest son, Franklin ...
from
http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/PnyfU91ZcNE/billy-graham-funeral-last-crusade-charlotte-trump.html
No comments:
Post a Comment