Over 80,000 Attend Final Night of LA Graham Crusade
The Greater Los Angeles Billy Graham Crusade saw a total of 312,500 in attendance over the course of the four-day evangelistic event.
Over 80,000 people gathered in the Pasadena Rose Bowl Sunday for the concluding night of the Greater Los Angeles Billy Graham Crusade. The four-day evangelistic crusade—which was most likely the last U.S. West Coast crusade to be led by renowned evangelist Billy Graham—saw attendance figures total about 312,500 from Nov. 18-21.
The crowd on Sunday nearly filed the 92,000-seat stadium—the largest U.S. venue ever booked for a Graham crusade, the Associated Press reported on Sunday.
Sunday's program, which began with a performance by Christian rock group Jars of Clay, included a prayer from Willie Jordan, who attended every night of Graham's 1949 Los Angeles revival, and a testimony by Michael Reagan, the eldest son of the late Ronald Reagan.
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According to AP, Graham, who is now 86, spoke for about 45 minutes on Sunday, pausing half way through his sermon to sit down. “Now I can preach another hour,” Graham joked as he sat.
“Many of you have a Christian heritage, grew up in a Christian home, but you have this other pull of the sins of the world. Are you really happy?” Graham asked. “God is offering to you and to me a pardon for our sins. God says, 'I love you, I'll forgive you, and I'll have mercy on you.'"
After Graham finished his sermon, hundreds of people came down from the stands to make a commitment to God, filling the football field, AP reported. Non-English speakers gathered under dozens of signs in different languages, while faith counselors circulated to help people fill out cards to be distributed to local churches. Around 3,400 responded to the call Sunday, bringing the four-day total to about 312,500.
Although there was concerns that Los Angeles' size and linguistic diversity would make it difficult to mobilize worshippers, organizers told AP that they were pleased with the turnout.
"What makes a crusade happen is when people in the local churches bring friends and family, and obviously that happened in a big way here in Los Angeles," crusade spokesman Larry Ross told AP.
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) reported that more than 1,400 churches were involved in preparations in the months leading up to the crusade, which was originally scheduled for the end of July but later delayed after Graham underwent a minimally invasive procedure in May to stabilize a pelvic fracture he sustained at home.
The Crusade—which Graham's advisers say was his last in California, and likely his second-to-last ever—marked his return to the area that hosted the historic 1949 crusade in the “canvas cathedral” at the corner of Washington and Hill streets that launched him and his ministry into worldwide prominence.
Since then, Graham has preached the Gospel to more than 210 million people in more than 185 countries, and led 416 crusades worldwide, including five previous campaigns in the Greater Los Angeles area, in which more than 75,000 individuals made decisions for Christ.
His last crusade appearance is currently slated for June 2005 in New York's Madison Square Garden. It will be Graham’s 417th evangelistic crusade in the world, and his seventh campaign in the area. His first visit to New York in 1957 was the most historic as meetings initially planned to last for six weeks were extended to sixteen.
