Will Graham Fest Draws 12,000 People in Alabama
Third generation evangelist Will Graham, grandson of Billy Graham, drew an estimated 12,000 people on Sunday to an event held at the Auburn University campus in Alabama.
The three-night event saw hundreds of people commit their lives to Christ. Over the three-day period, about 19,700 people attended the evangelistic festival, according to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Throughout the weekend, Graham challenged the audience to think about salvation.
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"Some of you are out there thinking, 'I'm going to do some good things, and hopefully they'll outweigh the bad things and I'll get to heaven,'" Graham said. "My friends, nothing can be further from the truth."
"Truth is not an idea," he said. "Truth is a person; the person of Jesus Christ."
Graham told the audience that the day they give their life to Christ is their "spiritual birthday."
"All the angels in heaven are rejoicing with us in here," he said.
On Sunday, the young evangelist shared the stage with hard rock band Skillet, hip hop artist TobyMac, and contemporary Christian artist Matthew West.
The Will Graham Celebration at Auburn University took nearly two years to organize, said the Rev. Clifford Jones, pastor of Greater Peace Missionary Baptist Church in Opelika and the chairman of the celebration's pastor's committee.
"God has brought together churches, denominations and ethnicities, and we continue to work together today," Jones said, according to BGEA. "This is just the beginning."
Jones said the local celebration committee plans to meet after Easter to discuss how to build on the event, including possibly inviting Graham back for another celebration.
Local churches will also be following up with those who accepted Graham's invitation to give their life to Christ. Each person who stepped forward during the event filled out a card with their information that was later given to an area church to follow up with.
"It's my prayer that those who came forward these past few days will ultimately change Auburn, Lee County and beyond," Graham said Sunday at the end of the celebration. "This has been a blessed weekend."
