An interview with William Graham IV By Ben Cox

In my quest to do a special tribute edition to honor the spiritual legacy of Billy Graham, with a High-Country emphasis, an interview with Will Graham 4 was a logical necessity. Will is the grandson of William Franklin Graham Jr. (Billy), son of William Franklin Graham 3 (Franklin) and Father to William Franklin Graham 5 (Quint). That’s right there’s now a 5th Graham who has already been cleverly nicknamed Quint to avoid as much confusion as possible at future family reunions. Will Graham was raised in Boone, NC, so his story is as local as it gets.

As we settled into our interview at Will’s office at The Cove retreat center in Black Mountain, NC, I was immediately put at ease by his relaxed, personable demeanor and his great sense of humor. In fact, something he said in our interview about his grandparents made me realize that the ease I felt with him stemmed from their example. Here’s what he said:

For that reason, I felt at home as Will’s story unfolded.

The personal perspective that Will provided intrigued me as he reminded me that his parents, Franklin and Jane, moved to Boone in 1977, which was the same year that my wife and I moved here. Thus, it brought back great memories to me as we reminisced about Boone and how much things have changed from then to now.

Growing Up in Boone

Ben: Please share with us what is was like to grow up in the public spotlight as the grandson of Billy Graham in a small town like Boone.

Will: Well to say public and then say Boone, back in the late 70’s and early 80’s, you know there wasn’t much public about it. I mean, Boone was so small everybody was neighbors and it seemed as if we all just knew each other.

I knew my grandfather was Billy Graham, I didn’t know what “Billy Graham” meant though. I knew him as Grandad. That’s the only way I knew him. We call him “Daddy Bill” and that's what the grandchildren, there's 19 of us, that’s what we call him, Daddy Bill. I’m dead in the middle. Number 11. I’m about dead center of the pack birth wise. So, when I was a kid, I knew Billy Graham was my grandad, but I didn’t know how famous he was.

I think the first time I remember it occurring to me how important my granddad was to people was at Blowing Rock Elementary school. I was in kindergarten and my teacher introduced me to some other teachers and put her hands on my shoulders and said. “This is Billy Graham’s grandson. I remember thinking then, “How do they know about my granddad?” That’s when I started realizing that my granddaddy was a little more famous than the average person.

But I grew up a real normal life, at least what I feel like was normal. No one my age could care less about Billy Graham. I mean when they found out, okay, who cares. Will’s on the soccer team. He scored a goal, he helped us win. That was what was important, not that I was Billy Graham’s grandson. That did nothing for them. If you had the latest transformers gobot or the newest shoes, that was what kids my age cared about. They didn’t care about who your granddaddy was. So, growing up my life was real normal. I mean I went to public elementary school in Blowing Rock, I went to Watauga High School. Went to church on Sunday and played sports in the community. It was a great place to grow up.

The Public Eye

Ben: Do you think your parents, by design, wanted to keep you out of the public eye?

Will: Yes. My dad never pushed us into it, because he didn’t like feeling pushed into it by the public who so admired my granddad. Because he was Billy Graham’s son, the day he was born he received letters in the mail. Now imagine, the day you’re born, because your dad’s already famous your first-born son is getting letters! “You’ve got big shoes to fill. Ohhhh we’re going to expect big things from you.” The day he was born the pressure was on him to be like his dad and to surpass his dad and stuff like that.

Now my dad’s parents, Ruth and Billy, never pressured him, but there was always external pressure and expectations. My dad rebelled against that. I never had that. Because dad had gone through that, he wanted to protect us even more. So even when we grew up, in high school or college, no one could talk to me about doing ministry without talking to him first. He didn’t want to push us. He loved his mom and dad, but he didn’t want that lifestyle.

I never had my dad’s type of rebellion. We did experience the feeling of living in a fishbowl and being judged by a different standard than others, but I didn’t rebel against it. In other words, I was just used to the fishbowl and didn’t resent it.

We had our privacy. We lived out in the country. Boone back then was a lot safer than it is now, so much so that we never locked our doors. We had privacy, but we knew we lived differently and were different in the eye of the public.

Growth of Samaritan’s Purse

Ben: Having moved here in 1977 and being in tune with the Christian community here, I remember noticing a time of significant growth for Samaritan's purse. Please share with us your perspective about that.

Will: As a typical kid, I didn’t pay that much attention to what my dad did for work. But in 1984 or 85, I can’t remember the exact year, but I was around 9 or 10 years old when it seemed to me like Samaritan's Purse shot up overnight. Of course, it didn’t shoot up overnight.

I know now that it started small in California by a man who was good friends with my dad and granddad named Bob Pierce. When he died the board of Samaritan’s Purse asked dad if he would consider taking Bob’s place. Dad told the board, “If I agree to take Bob’s place, I’ll need to move the headquarters to North Carolina, because that’s where I live and go to school.” So, the board agreed to that and dad moved the headquarters to Boone where he had already been living for 2 years.

I also know now that before dad moved SP headquarters to Boone, he had already agreed to help Drs. Lowell and Richard Furman start World Medical Mission through connections he had with my grandad’s ministry and with Bob Pierce. In 1977 the Furman brothers built an upstairs office space in the new building where their surgical practice was so my dad could work there with World Medical Mission. Thus, when SP moved to NC, that’s where the original office was.

Communion

Ben: Please share with us about your own “defining moment” when you realized that you had to come to grips with your own personal relationship with God?

Will: I gave my life to Christ in early January 1981. I was almost 6. My birthday is in January, but this was early January. Like the 11th. It was a Sunday. I was at Alliance Bible Fellowship and back then Alliance met upstairs at the old location on the corner of Depot Street and River Street.

We were up there having church and because I was turning 6, I was too old for children’s church. I had to go to big people church. I loved going to children’s church with the other kids because they had snacks and you got to play.

In big people church you had to sit and be still and listen to some guy talk. I remember on this particular Sunday it was communion Sunday. These guys got a whole thing of bread up there. Look at that thing of grape juice. This is great. So when it came by, I really thought it was snacks so I went for it and dad smacked my hand and told me I couldn’t have it. I thought it was because my dad thought I was going to spill it on the carpet.

After church I didn’t think anything about it. We went out to eat at, as we did most Sundays and then home. I was about to go out and play when dad said, “Son, I want to talk to you.” He took me up to my room and explained to me why I couldn’t have communion is because I hadn’t had Jesus living in my heart and I had to have Jesus living in my heart to take communion.

Dad then explained the gospel to me, that I was a sinner. Even when I was 6 years old I knew I wasn’t a good kid all the time. I disobeyed, I knew I was a sinner and I didn’t want to spend an eternity in hell, so I asked Jesus to come into my life. It was a really childlike thing. I didn’t have a complete understanding. I couldn’t tell you the books of the bible, but I wanted to be with Jesus and I gave my life to him. It was simple, childlike faith.

From that time on I started living for Christ. I was a sinner, but I never had a rebellious time in my life like my dad did. I was actually a pretty good kid. My parents believe in well-disciplined children. They spanked liberally. (laughing). But when it came to spankings, we deserved it. To be honest, we deserved it.

We were three boys. We walked into Belk’s and they couldn’t wait for us to leave. Mannequins weren’t safe, clothes on racks weren’t safe. We weren’t trying to be rude or mean, we were just trying to have fun. We were just kids, little boys. I was the oldest and we were just a terror. I realized I was a sinner and needed Jesus in my life and dad explained that to me and led me to Christ.

Christ’s Call

Ben: So, from that point on, you took that relationship seriously. I’m assuming then, that it was in the context of your own personal relationship with Christ that you felt the call to full-time Christian ministry for yourself. Tell us about that.

Will: Yes, but there isn’t just one point. I look back and I see breadcrumbs. I see dots here, here, and here. I start to see a trail. If I had to pick one day it would have been right across this hill right here at camp. We used to have our own Cove Summer Camp. I remember distinctly a time when I’m about 15 years old, getting on my knees and saying, “Lord, I’ll do whatever you want me to do.”

However, I also remember feeling a special calling on my life when I was at Blowing Rock Elementary in about the 2nd grade. The teacher told us to draw a picture of what we wanted to be in life. I drew a picture of David Clark headsets (what aviators used in their airplanes, an ugly 1970s green) and I drew a picture of an open Bible. I wanted to fly around and tell people about Jesus. I wanted to be like my dad: Fly in an airplane and go around and tell people about Jesus. I didn’t feel like it was a mission field, I didn’t feel like I was going to be an evangelist. I just wanted to go tell people about Jesus.

In addition to this, I also remember at Alliance Bible Fellowship they had a missionary come and speak and I got out of my seat and walked forward and the speaker had some of the elders come up and pray for the children standing. Ed Pilkington came forward and put his hand on me and prayed for my calling in life. After that I remember Ed continuing to encourage me in my faith, taking me out from time to time to get ice cream. I look back and I see these different points in my life. But I see that one night with Ed putting his hands on my shoulders and praying. I remember walking forward because I could hear God calling me. I was somewhere between 8 and 10 years old at the time. But again, I would say the strongest defining moment was right across here when I was about 15 and that’s when I got on my knees (about 1990).

Church Ministry

Ben: So, now let’s fast-forward to hear a brief synopsis of how you’ve now arrived at a time in your life of fulfilling your call to “fly around and tell people about Jesus.”

Will: Because I was assured of my calling to preach the gospel, I was equally convinced of my need to receive more training than I received from growing up in a strong Christian home. So, I attended Liberty University where I got my Bachelor of Science Degree and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, where I got my Master of Divinity degree in 2001.

It was there that I went from being on staff as a pastoral intern at Bay Leaf Church in North Raleigh when they asked me to help plant a church called Wakefield Baptist Church. At first, we were rotating the preaching duties (one every 4 weeks). It was taking me about a month to come up with a sermon. Then 6 weeks later the pastor at Bay Leaf said, “Will, I want you to do two services a month.” I was still a full-time student!

Then he said, “Will, you just do all the services now” and so from that point on I really kind of ran the church. They called me pastor, I was named pastor of the church, but technically we were still under the authority of the other church. So, he was the one that hired me. The funny thing is I was never voted on as a pastor, I snuck through.

We started this church in 2001, which is the same year I graduated from Seminary. So before I ever started doing crusade type ministry, I pastored that church for 6 years and was involved in a pastoral role for 8 years. In 2003 we moved from a high school to a more permanent rental facility.

Celebrations

It was while I was pastoring there in 2004 that I got a phone call from a Canadian. He ran our Canadian office for Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. His name is Sean Campbell. Sean said, “Will, we’ve been working on this new youth initiative and have been training all these kids in how to show and share their faith. We want them to have a chance to practice and do it for themselves and lead their friends to Christ. We are going to book a youth outreach where they can invite their friends and have good music for young people and we want you to be the evangelist.”

I said, “No that’s my dad and my grandad’s thing. I’m a pastor in this church full time now. I don’t have time for that. But Sean persisted in asking, so I finally said, “Ok I’ll do it.” I went up there and that was the first time I’ve ever preached with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. It was in the fall of 2004. It went extremely well and so we started doing some others.

Because I was still pastoring the church, they would give me a weekend away and I would go up there and preach and come back on Monday and get back in the office. I would do this twice or three times a year. It usually took me a day to get up there, a day to preach and a day to fly home.

Then in 2005, after one of those events, a person came up and said, “Hey, we really like this. We want to do this in our neighborhood in Canada. But we don’t want to do it one day, we want to do it for three days and for all ages.” I told them that’s a crusade.

They asked, “Do you want to do it?” I was like, “Alright I’ll do it.” So, the Spring of 2006 I did my very first crusade in a place called Leduc, Alberta Canada, only they didn’t call it a Crusade like my granddad’s meetings were called or a Festival like my dad does, they called it a Celebration. So, I did my first one there and it went extremely well. The following April in 2006, God called me away from the church I had been with for 8 years. I left on July 9th, 2006 and still miss it today. I always pray that God will let me go back one day.”

More…

Taken from Billygraham.org/about/biographies/will-graham/

“The first of Will’s crusade-style events – called Celebrations – took place in 2006 in Leduc, Alberta, Canada. His first Celebration on United States soil came later that year in Gastonia, N.C. Since then, he has held evangelistic outreaches on six continents around the world.

“His 2017 schedule includes three-day Celebrations in Alabama and Indiana, as well as international outreaches in Canada, Mexico, China and Romania.

“‘I’m not trying to be the next Billy Graham; I’m just Will Graham,’ says the ordained minister. ‘I have a burden in my heart to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If that’s to an arena full of people or one person on the street, I will do whatever God is calling me to do.’

“In addition to his evangelistic outreaches, Will also serves as vice president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and as executive director of the Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove in Asheville, N.C. The Cove offers multi-day seminars on a variety of Christian subjects and features nationally-recognized speakers.”

This article was originally written for the Summer 2017 Edition of The Journey magazine.