The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) is a non-profit Christian outreach organization that promotes multimedia evangelism, conducts

evangelistic crusade A revival meeting is a series of Christian religious services held to inspire active members of a church body to gain new converts and to call sinners to repent. Nineteenth-century Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon said, "Many blessings may come ...

s, and engages in

disaster response Disaster response is the second phase of the disaster management cycle. It consists of a number of elements, for example; warning/evacuation, search and rescue, providing immediate assistance, assessing damage, continuing assistance and the immed ...

. The BGEA operates the Billy Graham Training Center in Asheville, North Carolina, and the

Billy Graham Library The Billy Graham Library is a public museum and library documenting the life and ministry of Christian evangelist Billy Graham. The complex opened to the public on June 5, 2007. The library is located on the grounds of the international headquarte ...

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

History

The organization was founded in 1950 by

Billy Graham William Franklin Graham Jr. (November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018) was an American evangelist and an ordained Southern Baptist minister who became well known internationally in the late 1940s. He was a prominent evangelical Christi ...

in Minneapolis, Minnesota; it later moved to

. The organization broadcast the ''

Hour of Decision The ''Hour of Decision'' was a live weekly radio broadcast produced by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. First broadcast in 1950 by the American Broadcasting Company, it was a half-hour program featuring sermons from noted evangelist Bi ...

'' radio show for more than sixty years. In August 2018, six months after Graham's death, the BGEA launched the Billy Graham Channel on

SiriusXM Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. It was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius Sa ...

to broadcast Graham's sermons.

Franklin Graham William Franklin Graham III (born July 14, 1952) is an American evangelist and missionary. He frequently engages in Christian revival tours and political commentary. He is president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) and ...

serves as president and CEO. Several times a year, he and his son, Will Graham, preach at

s modeled after those Billy Graham was known for holding. The BGEA's internet evangelism ministry, Search for Jesus, was launched in 2011. The outreach is aimed at sharing the Christian Gospel with people around the world through websites in multiple languages. More than 50 million people have visited the websites since 2011, according to the BGEA. The organization produces a television special each month, which is broadcast on TV stations across the United States and posted online. The organization also publishes ''Decision'' magazine monthly. The BGEA began an international evangelism project in 2002 called My Hope, in which Christians invite friends, neighbors and relatives to their homes to watch a national telecast featuring Billy or Franklin Graham, translated into their language. BGEA claims that the project saw more than 9.8 million people "make decisions for Christ." Billy Graham and his ministry were also instrumental in founding '' Christianity Today Magazine'', the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, and the Internet Evangelism Coalition. BGEA's Charlotte headquarters is the site of the

, which was formally dedicated on May 31, 2007, with former U.S. Presidents

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1 ...

, George H. W. Bush, and

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

in attendance. Former U.S. Presidents

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

, and

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

visited the Billy Graham Library to pay their respects following Billy Graham's death.

Controversy

The group supports

gay conversion therapy Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to align with heterosexual and cisgender norms. In contrast to evidence-based medicine and clin ...

References

External links

BGEA website

Billy Graham Library in Charlotte

{{Authority control Organizations based in Charlotte, North Carolina Billy Graham Evangelism Sirius XM Radio channels

History

Controversy

See also

References

External links