A very interesting extract from this otherwise ordinary article in the SMH:
World Youth Day aims to bring young people back to the Catholic Church, and while some liberals think the hoopla and singing is some sort of second-rate attempt to mimic Hillsong, the Sydney Pentacostal Christian church that is extraordinarily popular with the young, others think Billy Graham laid the groundwork all those years ago.
The evangelist arrived in Sydney on February 12, 1959, for a 15-week crusade… His first appearance in Melbourne filled the 5000-capacity West Melbourne Stadium; the next the outdoors Sydney Myer Music Bowl, and finally the Melbourne Showgrounds. In all 714,000 Melburnians, almost everyone who lived in the place, saw Graham. Pretty much the same thing happened in Sydney.
About 50,000 showed up at the Moore Park showground, and 150,000 crowded the showgrounds and the adjoining Sydney Cricket Ground for his last Sydney appearance. One million listened on radio.
The American’s success prompted anthropological coverage in Time magazine, which noted how well Graham had gone down with teenagers… By the time Graham left Australia, 130,000 people, nearly 2 per cent of the population, had reputedly answered his call to come to the stage and make a commitment to Jesus Christ. The historian Stuart Piggin used Australian Bureau of Statistics figures to show the crusade contributed to a drop in alcohol consumption, extramarital births and crime.
Karl Faase, of Gymea Baptist Church, is making a documentary on Graham’s 1959 crusade. He believes World Youth Day’s success is inevitable, but wonders what happens next. “What happens to those young Catholics when they go back to their churches? Will anything have changed?”
No. What changes people? A concert, a parade, a party, visiting some bones or watching an 81 year old man drive down the street in a gold-fish bowl?
It is God who changes people, through the gospel, which “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). Therefore, preach the word, in season and out of season.
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You brought something up there briefly. What do you think of the Hillsong Church, and in particular its initiative Mercy Ministries?
I’ve never been to Hillsong. I want to like them. They love Jesus, their statement of belief on their website is generally very good. There are a couple of things I don’t like – such as their emphasis on prosperity in this life, or the unbalanced emphasis on sentiment over thinking. I think it is a bit too much like a rock concert.
But if they love Jesus and trust in Him, they are my brothers and sisters.
I don’t think I can comment on Mercy Ministries. I suspect I don’t have the full story of those recent events – the little I know comes from extremely biased sources – and it would surprise me if those events were a representative sample of all its operations.
I will say that I think most churches aren’t doing enough to help the poor and disadvantaged. In that respect, I like what Hillsong is doing. It may be that they are doing it badly, however.
My grandmother was converted by Billy Graham, it’s the reason I’m a Christian today (God chose me before time, too).
Yeah, wow. That’s really cool.