AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - The largest gathering of evangelists in the history of Christianity has begun. So far, the modern world's best-know gospel preacher has been unable to participate.
...Billy Graham, whose ministry organized the huge weeklong conference, Amsterdam 2000, lacked energy and strength to deliver the opening address by satellite July 29 after spending a sleepless night, spokesman Larry Ross said.
...Graham is in the United States, where he has been an outpatient at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., since undergoing an operation in June to relieve a buildup of fluid around his brain. He previously had decided not to come to the conference in order to prevent complications from the surgery, but wanted to speak to the 10,000 delegates long-distance. Graham canceled his speech shortly before the scheduled uplink.
...Graham's words were spoken instead by his son Franklin. "Be assured that I am with you in spirit and prayer throughout the conference," the younger Graham said, addressing the delegates from his father's prepared text. He praised the men and women, many from Third World countries, for sacrificing to come to Amsterdam and for desiring to learn more about how to spread the gospel.
...Some of the evangelists traveled great distances and faced danger to come. An evangelist from Sudan had to walk out of the country to get to a nation where he could travel to Amsterdam.
..."This conference should take us back 2000 years to learn the principles of evangelism," Graham said, adding that the New Testament Book of Acts is the model for evangelizing the world. "The way God started it all is the way that He still carries it on today."
...The elder Graham hopes to offer remarks by satellite at the closing rally Aug. 6. Franklin Graham said at a news conference July 28 that his father's surgery was "extremely successful" and that he is regaining strength and energy and making plans for public ministry events in 2001 and 2002.
...Key sessions of the conference are being transmitted by Internet webcast exclusively on Crosswalk.com.
...Graham's absence from the opening ceremony disappointed the evangelists, but has not dampened their ardent enthusiasm and sense that God is in control of everything.
..."The big God who is behind it all is here," one speaker said. "So whether Dr. Graham is here in person or absent, God is here and God is going to do His work."
..."There is electricity in the air," said John Corts, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and general director of Amsterdam 2000.
...The evangelists have converged from about 200 nations, comprising a wider international group than the United Nations or the Olympic Games, according to news reports. They are meeting at the RAI International Exhibition and Congress Centre daily to hear inspirational messages and practical teaching.
...Dozens of languages are spoken in the crowded corridors that link the RAI's enormous meeting rooms. About 7,000 evangelists and their families are housed nearby and commute by special trains. Africans, Western Europeans, Slavs, Latin Americans, and Asians live and eat together.
...Participants danced and sang as they waited for transportation to return to their dormitories Sunday night, clapping and chanting hymns in their native languages.
...Expectations are high. "Billy Graham's vision is to impart passion for evangelism. I want to catch and transfer that passion to my colleagues at home," Kim Kong Wong of Malaysia said.
...Evangelists need inspiration and encouragement, Corts said, and the conference will affirm them in their ministries and teach them new techniques and strategies.
..."There are many, many lonely evangelists out there," said Ravi Zacharias, an India-born evangelist and Bible teacher who lives in the United States. He began his ministry as an itinerant evangelist 28 years ago. "The best thing they will take away from this is the connections, the relationships they will form with others."
...The conference opened Saturday night with a procession of ministers into the darkened auditorium. Several evangelists told the story of their conversion to Christianity, and an energetic performance by a children's choir from Africa enthused the crowd. George Beverly Shea, 91, who has sung at Graham's outreaches for many years, received a standing ovation for performing the solo I'd Rather Have Jesus. Veteran songleader Cliff Barrows led a hymn.
...Korean pastor Billy Kim exhorted the evangelists to "join God's search party" and bring lost souls into His kingdom. Kim, president of the Baptist World Alliance and pastor of the 13,000-member Suwon Central Baptist Church, said evangelism is imperative because only the power of Christ can stop the increasing violence and despair in the world.
..."Without Jesus, the future is an awful catastrophe," Kim said.
...Christians must have more compassion for people, Kim said, and must be fully convinced that heaven and hell are real. "We must believe that those without Jesus Christ have no hope in this world or the next." Forty million people die every year, and two-thirds of them don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ, he said. "Is this not enough to motivate us?"
...Daunting challenges lie ahead in reaching the next generation, Zacharias warned. Atheism and Eastern religious thought are prevalent, and many people believe there is no truth, no meaning, and no certainty, he said. A preference for visual images over the written word have produced a generation that "hears with its eyes and thinks with its feelings."
...But they can be reached if followers of Jesus become living examples of Christ, he said. "We cannot just speak the gospel. We have to embody the gospel. If our proclamation is to reach a generation like ours, we too will have to live lives that make the gospel visible."
