6 SBJME 1.3 | SPRING 2013 My Hope with Billy Graham: A Theological Airmation LON ALLISON, TIMOTHY K. BEOUGHER, ALAN MYATT, AND MICHAEL A. MILTON Lon Allison is the Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois. Timothy K. Beougher is the Billy Graham Professor of Evangelism and Associate Dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky. Michael A. Milton is the Chancellor and Chief Executive Oicer at Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte, North Carolina. Alan Myatt is the Professor of Theology and Missions at Gordon- Conwell Theological Seminary, Charlotte, North Carolina. “Daddy thinks the Lord will allow him to live to 95.” I t was not a prophecy but a hope. A hope, Frank- lin Graham explained, that was not merely about his father’s desire to live to see a milestone of four score and iteen years of age, but to live to see the beginning of a Christian renewal, and if God would so allow, a genuine heaven-sent revival in America. his past April (2012), the Billy Graham Evange- listic Association invited pastors, theologians, and evangelical leaders from across the nation to a meet- ing to unveil a new outreach emphasis called, “My Hope with Billy Graham.” Franklin Graham’s introductory remarks and Billy Graham’s passionate plea that followed removed any cynical thoughts in the room that this might be a “send off” campaign for Billy Graham before he went home to heaven. The old gospel warrior’s words, pauses, inlections, and yes, even his aged faintness of voice all carried urgency and an unmistakably genuine, passionate concern that North America needed a powerful movement of God if we were to survive as a people.  We have been to several “Christian campaign kick-ofs.” his one was diferent, not just because those of us who were blessed to atend got to hear his burdened plea for revival in an intimate seting at the Billy Graham Library in Charlote, North Caro- lina, but because here was a man of God who was as commited to the Great Commission of Jesus Christ in 2012 as he was in 1949. 1 He acknowledged that revival was God’s business. Yet he also focused on the mandate of the Great Commission, the response of love, and the hope we have in Christ 2 -- to inten- tionally proclaim the Cross of Jesus Christ to this generation. 3 He told us that the increasingly com- plex problems we were facing called for a powerful movement of Christ. Then he began to warn that From The Southern Baptist Journal of Missions & Evangelism, Vol. I, no. 3 (Spring 2013): 6-10. For more information, visit www.sbts.edu/bgs/sbjme.