Folks around these parts may well remember the old Billy Graham crusades.
Often televised on national networks, the crusades would feature the well-known evangelist, preaching to audiences packed into the nation’s largest football stadiums, proclaiming the Word of God and, in the end, inviting those attending to come forward, accept the teaching he was offering from the Bible. Occasionally Graham would even venture outside the U.S. for those gatherings.
While the Graham crusades are long-gone — he died in 2018 at 99 years of age, and had retired from the crusades 13 years earlier — Mount Airy soon will be hosting a modern version of the gatherings.
Evangelist Rick Gage will be presiding over the crusade, set for four nights in September at Veteran’s Memorial Park, according to one of the local organizers, Brian Warren.
Warren, a member of Hope Community Church in Cana, Virginia, and a co-chairman of the upcoming crusade, said Gage’s ministry — Go Tell America — is different from many of the other such crusades in that the ministry targets more rural areas that are often overlooked by the bigger crusades.
That doesn’t mean small crowds, however. Warren said those organizing the upcoming crusade expect between 12,000 and 16,000 people to attend over the four nights.
Monday night he said there will be an information dinner at Mount Airy High School’s gym, at 1011 N. South Street, for volunteers working with the crusade, as well as for others interested in learning about the upcoming gatherings or wanting to learn more about volunteer opportunities.
Warren said the idea for a local crusade began taking shape late last year. His church, Hope Community, helps pay for kids to be able to go to a summer camp at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, where interns and college students working with the Go Tell Ministries serve as counselors and in other capacities.
Warren’s pastor, Anthony Thomas, brought up the idea of the church working with others in the area to bring such a crusade to Mount Airy.
He said representatives from Go Tell Ministries came to the area, talked with officials from the church and elsewhere in the community, then studied the surrounding region — Mount Airy, Surry, Yadkin, Wilkes, and Alleghany counties in North Carolina and Carroll, Grayson and Patrick counties in Virginia.
“They found that, within a 50-mile radius, 80% of people don’t go to church,” he said, adding that within that same 50-mile radius, 50 to 60 churches are banding together to support the fall crusade. He said a number of area businesses also are offering support, as well as area officials — Mount Airy Mayor Jon Cawley is serving as the chairman of the local crusade committee.
“This will be the biggest crusade Mount Airy has ever seen,” Warren said, adding that between 500 and 800 volunteers will be needed between now and September to prepare for the event as well as working those nights.
While those overseeing the effort have been working on it since January, Warren said Monday night’s banquet is the official public kick-off for the effort.
Among those scheduled to speak will be Mayor Cawley, Gage, and Dean Haun. He is pastor of First Baptist Church in Morristown, Tennessee, site of a previous Go Tell Crusade.
“He will talk about what it did for their community, what it is still doing for their community,” Warren said.
Warren invited members of the public to Monday’s dinner. In addition to general information about the upcoming crusade, he said that evening details about what volunteer opportunities there are will be shared. Among those will be prep teams made up of people who will commit to visiting homes in the area prior to the crusade, those who will work to set up and break-down the crusade area each night, counseling teams to be onhand each night, music teams, youth teams, and other tasks.
“There is a wide variety of opportunities for people to volunteer,” he said. “We’re open to anybody who would like to be a volunteer with the crusade to come (to the Monday banquet). We have 500 seats. If other people in the community would like information, or to hear about it, or to be involved, they are more than welcome to come.”
He said people can also contact him at 336-466-1266, or visit the group’s Blue Ridge Go Tell America Crusade Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/965536631263935
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