The leadership secrets of Billy Graham

The Leadership Secrets of Billy GrahamCopyright © 2005 by Christianity Today InternationalThis title is also available as a Zondervan ebook product. Visitwww.zondervan.com/ebooks for more information.This title is also available as a Zondervan audio product. Visitwww.zondervan.com/audiopages for more information.Requests for information should be addressed to:Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataMyra, Harold Lawrence, 1939â€"The leadership secrets of Billy Graham / Harold Myra and Marshall Shelley.p. cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN-10: 0-310-25578-3ISBN-13: 978-0-310-25578-91. Leadership. 2. Leadershipâ€"Religious aspectsâ€"Christianity. 3. Graham, Billy,1918â€" 4. Evangelistsâ€"United Statesâ€"Biography.I. Shelley, Marshall. II. Title.HM1261.M97 2005658.4'092â€"dc222005004700This edition printed on acid-free paper.All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: NewInternational Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,or transmitted in any form or by any meansâ€"electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording,or any otherâ€"except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permissionof the publisher.Interior design by Sharon VanLoozenoordPrinted in the United States of America05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 /? DCI/ 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1OneComingAliveThe giants all had one thing in common:neither victory nor success,but passion.PHILIP YANCEYHow is it that among millions of young men of no particular distinction, one ignites andbecomes a driving force? How is it thatâ€"like a rocket on a launch pad with flame barelyvisibleâ€"one person is slightly lifted, then slowly gains momentum, thrusts upward, enginesburning steadily with increasing velocity?The phenomenon of Billy Grahamâ€TMs humble beginnings and the ever-increasing velocityof his executive leadership intrigued us. What combination of genes, culture, experience,religion, and internal response created the alchemy?This first section consists of just one extended chapter exploring those questions. Howdid his extraordinary leadership get started? How did it continue in force throughout his life?Numerous scholars and commentators have ranked Billy with the “greats.” We wereintrigued to find, in seeking to identify common principles, parallels with other great leaderslike Teddy Roosevelt, who was “ignited” by similar forces. To put Billy in context, weinclude those experiences too, which may illumine some of what happens in these extraordinarylives.C H A P T E R 1Igniting!Absolute identity with oneâ€TMs cause is the firstand great condition of successful leadership.WOODROW WILSONLeadership is forged in the furnace.The gracious, positive spirit of a Billy Grahamâ€"or the broadsmile of a Dwight Eisenhower or the exuberance of a Teddy Rooseveltâ€"does not reveal the complex, painful stories of how theyrose to great challenges or sustained their intensity. Far from beinga formula to learn, leadership is a set of life experiences meldedby intense heat.The heat and struggle create often unexpected results. JimCollins, as he researched corporate leadership for his book Good toGreat, was caught off-guard by his teamâ€TMs research findings. “Thegood-to-great leaders seem to have come from Mars,” is how hedescribed his reaction to what they discovered about the very bestcorporate leaders. “We were surprised, shocked really, to discoverthe type of leadership required,” Collins wrote. What his teamfound was a paradoxical blend of humility and “ferociousresolve.”Those two characteristics donâ€TMt easily meld. Only the furnacecan extrude such seemingly opposite characteristics. Billy Grahamâ€TMslifetime of leadership has, indeed, been paradoxical inblending extraordinary humility with fierce intensity of purpose.He fits Collinsâ€TMs descriptions of highly effective leaders, for out ofthat burning, paradoxical blend have come remarkable results.Itâ€TMs not just his countless television and stadium appearancesor his leading the nation in times of grief or new beginnings. Ithas been his leadership of his team and of other leaders and of abroad Christian movement that has continually built momentumand created such impact on nations, cultures, and on millions ofindividuals.All this from a skinny farm kid from Charlotte, North Carolina?What ignited all this? Who could have come anywhereclose to predicting it?Not his grade school teachers! According to one, he wouldhave to be taken outside in the hall before he would recite hislessons. “In the classroom, in front of the other students, he wouldhardly open his mouth. He was terribly shy and timid.”His fifth-grade teacher said, “I just couldnâ€TMt get him to say aword in class. I remember once, he just sat there looking at meafter I asked him a question, and I finally burst out in exasperation,â€~Billy Frank, donâ€TMt just sit thereâ€"say something. Please, justsay something.â€TM Not a sound. He just kept staring at me. And to tellyou the truth, I just forgot about him after he passed on out ofschool. Then, I donâ€TMt know how many years later, I saw him for thefirst time on one of his television crusades. I simply couldnâ€TMt believeit. His whole personality was so completely changed. He had suchcertainty, and the way the words were just pouring outâ€"I keptthinking, somebodyâ€TMs putting the words in his mouth, heâ€TMs just pantomimingit out. I couldnâ€TMt get over it. I kept thinking, Is that actuallyBilly Frank Graham? What in the world happened to him?”As a teenager, Billyâ€TMs work on his parentsâ€TM dairy farm took a farbackseat to girls and baseball. His wavy blond hair, sharp blueeyes, and ever-present smile attracted the girls, and his charismaticpersonality opened lots of doors. But a college classmateremembered not only the “magic and charm of his youthfulnature” but also his “loose, careless way,” and his very messyroom. “We would have been absolutely staggered back then,” herecalled, “that heâ€TMd be able one day to run such a large and complexorganization.”What in the world did happen to Billy Frank Graham?Immersion in the furnace of leadership formation began with apainful experience with a beautiful young woman.Emily Cavanaugh was a dark-haired college classmate whomBilly had asked to marry him, even though they had known eachother only one semester. Her reluctance to immediately answerworried Billy; yet after months of deliberation, Emily finallyaccepted his proposal.But one evening at a class party she sat with him on a swingand told him she had to give back his ring. “Iâ€TMm not sure weâ€TMre rightfor each other. I just donâ€TMt see any real purpose in your life yet.”She was interested in an older student, Charles Massey. She saw inhim what she didnâ€TMt see in Billyâ€"goals, plans, responsibility.Billy was devastated. “All the stars have fallen out of my sky,”he wrote to a friend.For months afterward, through the spring and summer, Billyroamed the streets for hours at night, praying for direction. Hefelt “a tremendous burden.” He was not simply grieving a romanticbreakup but confronting reality. In fact, many realities. Hedidnâ€TMt, in fact, have a sense of purpose. He had a vague sense thatGod was calling him to preach, yet he had an equal sense that he,like Moses, was not eloquent enough for the task.Some see such realities and simply move on. But in a mannerthat was to typify his long life of service, Billy agonized over all theelements with full engagement of his mind and emotions. Excerpted from The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham by Harold Myra, Marshall Shelley All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.