“We have become so performance oriented that it is hard to see how compromised we are.”
-D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry
The December 13, 2006 New York Times had on its front page an article titled A Family at Cross-Purposes by Laura Sessions Step. The article concerns the family of Billy Graham and begins: “It is a struggle worthy of the Old Testament, pitting brother against brother, son against mother, and leaving the father, the Rev. Billy Graham, trapped in the middle, pondering what to do.”
What is all the fuss about? It concerns a dispute over where the final resting place of Billy and Ruth Graham will be. Ruth, Billy’s wife, desires to be buried in the mountains of North Carolina near where she raised her 5 children. Franklin Graham, the eldest son and heir of his father’s ministries, has a different idea.
Franklin designed the barn-shaped “Billy Graham Library” which is being built in Charlotte, North Carolina where “visitors will pass through a 40-foot-high glass entry cut in the shape of a cross and be greeted by a mechanical talking cow. They will follow a path of straw through rooms full of multimedia exhibits. At the end of the tour, they will be pointed toward a stone walk, also in the shape of a cross, that leads to a garden where the bodies of Billy and Ruth Graham could lie. Throughout the tour their will be several opportunities for people to put their names on a mailing list.” A8
Why in the world would Franklin want to do this? “I wanted to show to another generation of pastors and evangelists what God did thorugh a man who was faithful and who communicated it simply.”
But what about the cow? “One of my concerns is how do you engage a child.” His solution is to have a cow which might say something like: “”Hello. I bet you didn’t know milk comes from a cow. Well, let me tell you about that.” The cow will later introduce Billy: “When Billy was young, we cows knew there was something special about him…”
Reactions?
Patricia Cornwell, novelist and friend of Billy and Ruth who took a tour of the “library” (there aren’t actually any books there) says: “I was horrified by what I saw…It’s a mockery.”
Billy Graham Evangelistic Assocation Board member Graeme Keith said of the cow: “It truly is tacky.”
Ned Graham fears that it will belittle Billy’s ministry.
Ruth Graham responds: “It’s a circus, a tourist attraction.”
Now compare all of this to the way John Calvin’s supporters treated his death and burial (from “John Calvin: His Life and Work):
The enormous work accomplished by the Reformer from Geneva had drastically affected his health. In fact, he had been ill all his life. Nevertheless, from 1556 his health deteriorated to the point of causing worry to those around him. From that time he was continuously ill. At the beginning of 1564 his friends were convinced that the end was rapidly approaching. Calvin, realising his state, never ceased working. On February 2 he gave his last sermon and on the afternoon of the same day his last theology lesson. From that moment on he refused treatment. Had his illness been prolonged, he would fallen into a wretched state.
Already unable to walk on his own, he asked to be carried to the City Hall and said farewell to the Councillors. The entire Council went to his home to visit him – a gesture unique in Switzerland’s history.
During his long period of suffering, so many people came to visit him that they eventually had to be denied entry to his house.
He passed away peacefully and was able to talk to those present until he breathed his last breath. On May 27, 1564, an improvement seemed to be coming about, but, at eight o’clock in the evening, the signs of death suddenly appeared on his face. He passed away peacefully and was able to talk to those present until he breathed his last breath.
“That, ” said Bèze, “is the way the greatest light in the Church was extinguished at a time when the sun ceased lighting up the universe.”
As soon as news of Calvin’s death spread, a crowd of people went to the Rue des Chanoines to see his face for the last time. To his friends, such veneration seemed exaggerated. In order to avoid the charge of idolatry on the part of Romanists, the body was placed in its coffin the following morning and, at two o’clock in the afternoon, he was carried to the cemetery called that of the Victims of the Plague in Plainpalais. The entire city joined in the funeral procession. No monument marked his burial place. It was not until the nineteenth century that a headstone was added with his initials at the spot traditionally regarded as his tomb.
Notice the difference: Franklin Graham wants a talking cow to guide people through a cross-shaped walkway which leads to the graves of his parents. The friends of John Calvin, fearing that they could be charged with idolatry, didn’t even mark his gravesite.
Why the difference?
I think D.A. Carson nails it in his book “The Cross and Christian Ministry.” He says:
Western evangelicalism tends to run through cycles of fads. At the moment, books are pouring off the presses telling us how to plan for success, how ‘vision’ consists in clearly articulated ‘ministry goals,’ how the knowledge of detailed profiles of our communities constitutes the key to successful outreach. I am not for a moment suggesting that there is nothing to be learned from such studies. But after a while one may perhaps be excused for marveling how many churches were planted by Paul and Whitfield and Wesley and Stanway and Judson without enjoying these advantages. Of course all of us need to understand the people to whom we minister, and all of us can benefit from small doses of such literature. But massive doses sooner or later dilute the gospel. Ever so subtly, we start to think that success more critically depends on thoughtful sociological analysis than on the gospel; Barna becomes more important than the Bible. We depend upon plans, programs and vision statements-but somewhere along the way we have succumbed to the temptation to displace the foolishness of the cross with the wisdom of strategic planning. Again, I insist, my position is not a thinly veiled plea for obscurantism, for seat-of-the-pants ministry that plans nothing. Rather, I fear that the cross, without ever being disowned, is constantly in danger of being dismissed from the central place it must enjoy, by relatively peripheral insights that take on far too much weight. Whenever the periphery is in danger of displacing the center, we are not far removed from idolatry.” pps. 25-26
I am not for a moment suggesting that I have a right to judgmentally critique Franklin’s heart- for I know my own heart, the path I have followed, my own tendency to lean on my own ingenuity, and my own pride. I am a weak man who often fails to do what he knows he ought to do and too often succumbs to the “spirits of the age.”
Though entering into seminary wanting to know nothing but Christ crucified, I too, came under the spell of the “cult of Barna.” Rick Warren had unlocked the key to success and I would “go and do likewise.” “Bill Hybels did it, why can’t I?”
My personal theology convicted me of my oftentimes results-driven motivations which did much to entertain but little to proclaim, but I reasoned this way: “I know what I think I ought to do, and what I wish I could do, but I guess that is really a dream world and I must resign myself to doing what works.” I am ashamed of that, and wish that was an overstatement of where I was, but I think it is thoroughly accurate. Now I am not saying that I don’t believe that we should not strive to grow our churches. I’m simply saying that all that we do must be Christ-centered not man-centered, that we must do everything realizing that the Gospel is the power unto salvation, not our creativity and that we need to say “If the Lord wills” more often than we do.
Reflecting on my own experience I can relate so well to what James White and Thom Ascol each said at a recent conference (transcribed from a downloaded recording):
White: I teach in a Southern Baptist Seminary and I see young men whose spirits are crushed because they are put under such a burden to use unbiblical methodologies and, in essence, to edit the gospel- to get rid of those things which are offensive to the natural man. And there is a tremendous liberty when you come to realize that the Gospel is ours to proclaim, not to edit and we can trust the Spirit of God to apply His truth to His people. we don’t ahve to hold back, we can speak the whole counsel of God and the only reason that any one of use can go to bed at night with a clear conscience is because, we like Paul, have not held anything back, we have proclaimed the whole counsel of God and that way we can say I am innocent I am clean of the blood of any man because I have fulfilled my duty as an abassador for Christ I have proclaimed His truth. I see what happens in churches when, because of a push to have artificial numbers, get a bunch of people through the baptistry, 90% of them you will never see again, you’ve just turned them into religious hypocrites, but you get ‘em through there. I’ve seen what happens when that kind of methodology crushes the spirits of young men. Somebody has to stand up and say “enough, no more!”
Ascol: “Everyone wants to be successful evangelistically, every Christian wants to see evangelistic success. What we need to do is redefine success in terms James just laid out that the Bible teaches when the Gospel is proclaimed accurately, honestly passionately representing Jesus Christ’s call to repent and believe, that is success. However, I think that the hook that exists in so many church growth strategies and all the new techniques that come out is just this one point- look how many people can be decisioned, brought out or reach decisions or whatever terminology is used and everybody wants to see people come, so the confidence comes in the technique or strategy or program.”
Billy Graham says that he will “just think and pray” about the conflict within his family over where he and his wife will be buried. My prayer is that he will, indeed, provide an example to be followed by letting Christ take center stage and by leaving the talking cow to Disney World.
More than that, I pray that I will learn from this and recognize that, too often, that cow is a metaphor for the types of activities I have engaged in “in the name of the Lord” and that I will too, let the foolishness of the cross take center stage over and above my own “wise” ingenuities.
