32 ICSA TODAY
By Ken Garrett
I wasn’t surprised by the letter, but as I held it in my hands, my
stomach tightened. It read,
Regretfully, in light of the recent decision of the
Pastor’s Committee regarding the participation of
your church in the Crusade, we are sad to inform
you that you are not eligible to serve as a counselor
for the Billy Graham Crusade ...we certainly hope
that the Christian Life and Witness Classes will be of
benefit to you in your personal life in the days ahead.
They didn’t want me because they didn’t want my church.
The small committee of pastors who were leading Portland’s
efforts to prepare for an upcoming Billy Graham crusade had
determined that our little church was no longer welcome to
volunteer to serve in the crusade. Who gets kicked out of a
Billy Graham crusade?! As a coworker remarked several years
later, “Wow. That’s really a trip, Kenny. Nobody gets a pink slip
from Billy Graham! But you did—you should save that.”
A pink slip is a notice of dismissal from a job, and I had
received one from one of the most tolerant, welcoming
Christian organizations on earth. Throughout his long,
illustrious ministry, religious and denominational leaders had
often criticized Reverend Graham for his policy of inviting
Christians from all denominational and doctrinal backgrounds
to join him as he sought to bring the citizens of their cities
to the Christian faith in his Crusades. The distinctions and
distrust between Catholics and Protestants, Pentecostals
and Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists, conservatives
and liberals was simply neither acknowledged (at least not
openly), nor allowed to become a barrier to participation in
the citywide crusades that had made Billy Graham one of the
most popular, recognized figures around the globe. Many
Christians volunteered their time, dollars, and energy into
creating a successful Crusade. Nobody gets a pink slip from Billy
Graham.
Preparations began years before Graham arrived in the city
for a series of large, public events that would fill arenas. After
he left town, the genuine hope of all churches was that some
of those who responded to his preaching would convert
to Christianity and join a church. I don’t think any churches
ever exploded with growth after a Billy Graham crusade—
and I never sensed that churches were depending on their
involvement with Graham to significantly increase their
numbers, but they could always hope...
My small, fundamentalist, Bible church was no different.
Upon hearing of the plans for the 1992 Portland Crusade, our
pastor shifted our church of 40 members into high gear. We
met regularly to pray for the crusade’s success and attended
workshops for training to help new Christians become
established into the faith. We flooded the local crusade office
with offers to volunteer to answer phones, stuff envelopes,
and empty waste baskets.
How strange it must have seemed to the crusade office
managers to see members show up early, work long hours,
and return the next day for more of the same. They might
have wondered, “Do these people have lives? What about their
kids, their jobs, their schedules... the rest of their lives?” They
didn’t realize that we were perfectly suited to make such all-
encompassing, consuming commitments to volunteering for
the crusade—because we were members of a high-control,
cult-like church that demanded that level of commitment and
sacrifice from all its members, all the time. After selling homes
and cars, liquidating retirement funds and savings accounts,
PINK
SLIP
t
By Ken Garrett
I wasn’t surprised by the letter, but as I held it in my hands, my
stomach tightened. It read,
Regretfully, in light of the recent decision of the
Pastor’s Committee regarding the participation of
your church in the Crusade, we are sad to inform
you that you are not eligible to serve as a counselor
for the Billy Graham Crusade ...we certainly hope
that the Christian Life and Witness Classes will be of
benefit to you in your personal life in the days ahead.
They didn’t want me because they didn’t want my church.
The small committee of pastors who were leading Portland’s
efforts to prepare for an upcoming Billy Graham crusade had
determined that our little church was no longer welcome to
volunteer to serve in the crusade. Who gets kicked out of a
Billy Graham crusade?! As a coworker remarked several years
later, “Wow. That’s really a trip, Kenny. Nobody gets a pink slip
from Billy Graham! But you did—you should save that.”
A pink slip is a notice of dismissal from a job, and I had
received one from one of the most tolerant, welcoming
Christian organizations on earth. Throughout his long,
illustrious ministry, religious and denominational leaders had
often criticized Reverend Graham for his policy of inviting
Christians from all denominational and doctrinal backgrounds
to join him as he sought to bring the citizens of their cities
to the Christian faith in his Crusades. The distinctions and
distrust between Catholics and Protestants, Pentecostals
and Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists, conservatives
and liberals was simply neither acknowledged (at least not
openly), nor allowed to become a barrier to participation in
the citywide crusades that had made Billy Graham one of the
most popular, recognized figures around the globe. Many
Christians volunteered their time, dollars, and energy into
creating a successful Crusade. Nobody gets a pink slip from Billy
Graham.
Preparations began years before Graham arrived in the city
for a series of large, public events that would fill arenas. After
he left town, the genuine hope of all churches was that some
of those who responded to his preaching would convert
to Christianity and join a church. I don’t think any churches
ever exploded with growth after a Billy Graham crusade—
and I never sensed that churches were depending on their
involvement with Graham to significantly increase their
numbers, but they could always hope...
My small, fundamentalist, Bible church was no different.
Upon hearing of the plans for the 1992 Portland Crusade, our
pastor shifted our church of 40 members into high gear. We
met regularly to pray for the crusade’s success and attended
workshops for training to help new Christians become
established into the faith. We flooded the local crusade office
with offers to volunteer to answer phones, stuff envelopes,
and empty waste baskets.
How strange it must have seemed to the crusade office
managers to see members show up early, work long hours,
and return the next day for more of the same. They might
have wondered, “Do these people have lives? What about their
kids, their jobs, their schedules... the rest of their lives?” They
didn’t realize that we were perfectly suited to make such all-
encompassing, consuming commitments to volunteering for
the crusade—because we were members of a high-control,
cult-like church that demanded that level of commitment and
sacrifice from all its members, all the time. After selling homes
and cars, liquidating retirement funds and savings accounts,
PINK
SLIP
t
