‘The Billy Graham Rules’ of ministry

Last updated on: April 2, 2017 at 8:49 am by Deacon Greg Kandra

‘The Billy Graham Rules’ of ministry 2017-04-02T08:49:16-04:00 Deacon Greg Kandra

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I alluded to his most famous rule a couple days back, but NPR has unearthed a few others that are notable:

At a 1948 meeting, Graham and his ministry team came up with what was called the Modesto Manifesto, a set of four guidelines (including the no-alone-time-with-women rule many evangelical men follow).

Here’s an abridged rundown of the rules, as Graham described them in his autobiography (emphasis ours):

“The first point on our combined list was money. … [T]here was little or no accountability for finances. In Modesto we determined to do all we could to avoid financial abuses and to downplay the offering and depend as much as possible on money raised by the local committee in advance.

“The second item on the list was the danger of sexual immorality. We all knew of evangelists who had fallen into immorality while separated from their families by travel. We pledged among ourselves to avoid any situation that would have even the appearance of compromise or suspicion. From that day on, I did not travel, meet or eat alone with a woman other than my wife. …

“Our third concern was the tendency of many evangelists to carry on their work apart from the local church, even to criticize local pastors and churches openly and scathingly. We were convinced, however, that this was not only counterproductive but also wrong from the Bible’s standpoint. …

“The fourth and final issue was publicity. The tendency among some evangelists was to exaggerate their successesor to claim higher attendance numbers than they really had. … In Modesto we committed ourselves to integrity in our publicity and our reporting.”

You can read more here.

For better or for worse, they have proven effective:

“In hindsight, Billy Graham and people close to him would say, ‘Whatever inconvenience these practices might have involved, it was worth it to protect his reputation and the reputation of the ministry, and that for 60-some years, there was no hint of scandal surrounding him,'” said Mark DeMoss, Graham’s spokesman. “So I think it paid good dividends.'”

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