I Asked Billy Graham, “What’s It Like for You to Attend Church?”

I was one of the many friends of Evangelist Billy Graham. Ever since he was a teenager, he liked to play golf. When I played the regular PGA Tour, sometimes Billy participated in the pro-amateur event preceding the Atlanta Classic and the Kemper Open at Charlotte. Those tournaments were close to his home in Montreat, North Carolina.

One year I first met Billy Graham on the practice putting green at Atlanta Country Club, where the Atlanta Classic was held. Billy played golf cross-handed. So, he was putting right handed, yet cross-handed, in which you grip the club with your left hand lower than your right hand. Back in those days, there were no pros on the Tour who putted cross-handed. But look at ’em nowadays–a large percentage of the pros on the American PGA Tour putt cross-handed. For lots of pros, it must be the best way to putt. Back in my day, I guess we pros should have been listening to America’s favorite evangelist about more than the gospel. However, Billy also hit all of his golf shots cross-handed! You won’t see any pros on Tour do that! They’d be afraid they might break a hand or a wrist. I once asked Billy if he ever tried to get converted to the right way of hitting his full shots. He said pros had tried to give him lessons to change, but he couldn’t do because it didn’t “feel right.” Sounds like a sermon right there about himself.

During my time on the regular Tour, Billy Graham spoke to our PGA Tour Bible Study group three times. He also spoke at a dinner that our group hosted for all of the Touring pros at the Atlanta Classic, held at a Marriott hotel. Most of those pros participating in the tournament that week attended it.

So, I got to know Billy Graham somewhat. He even endorsed my book, The Gospels Interwoven. Billy Graham is one of the best people I’ve ever met.

I also knew the pastor of the Presbyterian church in Montreat that Billy Graham and his family attended. He was a really nice guy, too, and his name was Calvin Thielman. Thinking of Calvin, I once asked Billy, “What’s it like for a person like you to attend church?” If I recall correctly, he first said he enjoyed hearing Calvin preach. But I was surprised when he then answered, “You know, I’d rather we’d sit around and share the Lord together.” Billy answered a more important question, “How should we do church?”

That’s how home Bible studies are conducted. It’s also pretty much how the PGA Tour Bible Study has been conducted for forty-nine years now. Billy was saying he preferred more of an informal, open meeting for a Sunday morning church service. In reading the Apostle Paul’s New Testament epistles, that seems to be how the early church in New Testament days usually met. It is a better format for people to get to know one another. And it is more conducive to folks expressing their spiritual gifts. I think there should still be preaching and teaching in such a format by those recognized as having such gifts.

I don’t know if this sort of format is possible today with so many large churches. However, most churches throughout the world are still quite small. Researchers claim that the average size of a church even in the U.S. is still less than 100 people attending on Sunday morning.

Food for thought.