Castle Church Discussion on Ruth Graham Passes Away

AboutFaceBook

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 10:35:37 GMT

Josh Harris writes on why he stopped doing FaceBook after one week:

But even if I weren't writing a book, I don't need another reason for staring at a computer screen. I'm constantly needing to evaluate is how much time I spend emailing, browsing and blogging. Now obviously a lot of that activity is good, useful work. But sometimes it can be a time-waster. I think God's been helping me improve at knowing when to unplug from cyberville and connect with the real, rich world of reality--playing with my kids, talking to my wife, taking a walk. Throwing Facebook in the mix of my online options is just a little too much for me right now. The other reason I feel right about making my time with Facebook just a visit is a little harder to explain. How do I put this? I found that it encouraged me to think about me even more than I already do--which is admittedly already quite a bit. Does that make any sense? Without any help from the internet I'm inclined to give way too much time to evaluating myself, thinking about myself and wondering what other people think of me. If that egocentrism is a little flame, than Facebook for me is a gasoline IV feeding the fire. I need to grow in self-forgetfulness. I need to worry more about what God is thinking of me. I need to be preoccupied with what he's written in his word, not what somebody just wrote on my "wall." And, finally, I need to read more. There are so many good books I want to read and so little time. If I added up the few minutes here and there that I spent checking Facebook this past week it wouldn't be an insignificant amount of time. I'd rather give that time to reading. Anyway, all of the above is totally personal and is in no way an indictment on other Facebookers. This is just where I'm at right now. Who knows...I might be back when the kids are grown and the book is written and I have more self-control.

You can read the whole thing.

Carson, Henry, and Kantzer: Historic Video

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 02:05:26 GMT

D. A. Carson, in Basics for Believers: An Exposition of Philippians (p. 58), writes:

Several years ago I was asked to interview Dr. Carl F. H. Henry and Dr. Kenneth S. Kantzer for a videotaping. These two American theologians have been at the heart of much of the evangelical renaissance in the Western world, especially, but not exclusively, in America. Each was about eighty years of age at the time of the videotaping. One [i.e., Henry] has written many books; the other [i.e,. Kantzer] brought to birth and nurtured one of the most influential seminaries in the Western world. They both have been connected with Billy Graham, the Lausanne movement, the assorted congresses on evangelism, the influential magazine Christianity Today, and much more. The influence of these Christian leaders extends to the countless numbers of younger pastors and scholars whom they have helped to shape not only by their publications and public teaching but by the personal encouragement at which both have excelled. Both men gave lectures for the video cameras before several hundred theological students, and then I interviewed them. Toward the end of that discussion, I asked them a question more or less in these terms: “You two men have been extraordinarily influential for almost half a century. Without wanting to indulge in cheap flattery, I must say that what is attractive about your ministries is that you have retained integrity. Both of you are strong, yet neither of you is egotistical. You have not succumbed to eccentricity in doctrine, nor to individualistic empire-building. In God’s good grace, what has been instrumental in preserving you in these areas?”

Both spluttered in deep embarrassment. And then one of them [i.e., Henry] ventured, with a kind of gentle outrage, “How on earth can anyone be arrogant when standing beside the cross?”

That was a great moment, not least because it was so spontaneous. These men had retained their integrity precisely because they knew their attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ (Phil. 2:5). They knew that they had been called not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for him. If their Master had viewed equality with God not as something to be exploited for personal advantage but as the basis for the humiliating path to the cross, how could they view influential posts of Christian leadership as something they should exploit for personal advantage?

Ever since first reading this I've wanted to watch this historic video. Now, thanks to The Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding, this four-part, 120-minute video is available online for free.

You can also listen to more audio messages at the site, and more will be forthcoming.

(HT: Andy Naselli)

Science and Faith

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 02:05:24 GMT

Even if you don't care about the intersection of science and faith, you should buy and read Jack Collins's Science and Faith: Friends or Foes? The reason I say that you should read it even if you don't care about science (and obviously you should if you care about Christian truth and witness!) is that simply reading it and tracing the author's argument builds critical thinking skills.

I read some more chunks of it last night. Collins, as I mentioned before, is not only an MIT grad, but also has a PhD in Hebrew, OT, and linguistics from the University of Liverpool. That makes him ideally suited to write a book on science and faith. But what makes the book unique is his down-to-earth wisdom and good cheer--this is a guy who likes to quote Lewis, Chesterton, and Sherlock Holmes to make his points! The genesis of the book was a call from a homeschooling mom who wanted a resource for teaching her children science. So Jack wrote a book!

In a separate post I'll highlight a helpful little section on some cautions on the "culture wars."

Old School Church Planting

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:30:32 GMT

I've never met Andy Webb in person but we've corresponded for several years. He is a PCA church planter and he's started a new blog on planting Old School Presbyterian (OSP) congregations. I've learned from and benefited from his writing in the past and the blog looks helpful.

Andy is trying to offer an alternative to the way that church planting is often considered. It is widely accepted that, in order to plant a church we must conduct what might be called a "bait and switch." We're to pretend to be broadly evangelical, or "seeker sensitive," and even, in some cases, quasi-Pentecostal in order to attract people to a new congregation. There is tremendous pressure on church planters "to succeed." There is pressure to "produce numbers" in very short order.

As James Boice used to say, so I'm told, "what you use to get them in, you must use to keep them in." In other words, if we "market" our congregations as one thing, there's no reason to think that the folk we attract using such methods will be much interested in getting to know us as we really are.

Here's a pointed example: imagine a young women decides to attract a husband by dressing and acting like, what used to be called, "a girl of easy virtue," or "fast" or "easy." Let's say she meets a man and he agrees to date and marry her with the understanding that she's a certain sort of girl. Once married, however, the sleazy clothes go away and suddenly she wants to go to church weekly and pray at meals. The new husband has a right to ask, "Hey, this isn't what I signed up for!"

Why would we think that we can attract folks to our congregations, when we say we want to be Reformed, and convince them to be Reformed when we, by our actions, have demonstrated that we don't really believe it ourselves. We say we believe it, but we're willing to set it aside in order to get the church started.

It's like trying to start a family restaurant by convincing consumers (not the happiest metaphor) that we're a McDonalds.

Why do we feel such pressure? For one thing, the first thing anyone asks a church-planting pastor is, "How's your attendance?" They mean well and it's not as if thinking about how many folks are attending is unimportant, but the question serves to put pressure on the congregation to measure itself by attendance. We also feel pressure because, unless you live in Philadelphia or Greenville, SC or Grand Rapids, perhaps in a few other cities, you're probably not living in "Presbyterian Country" or "Reformed Country." We need to be realistic. It's probably not possible, in the ordinary providence of God, to plant a confessionally Reformed congregation in two years. It probably takes much longer than this. We should think in terms of 10 years, not 2 years.

I'm not defending mediocrity or failure. There are times and places to close works and to start over or to move on, but we have decide to plant what we want to grow: confessional Reformed congregations. If we plant something other that confessional Reformed congregations, we're not likely going to get confessional congregations.

All this is to say, it's great to see someone, who is actually doing it, writing about planting confessional Reformed churches.

At the heart of Reformed Theology

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 06:15:58 GMT

"At the heart of Reformed Theology, at the heart of Luther and Calvin's struggle, and in Knox and Jonathan Edwards, were men who were awakened to the greatness, to the majesty, to the holiness, and the sovereignty of God. By contemplating the holiness and sovereignty of God, they were driven to develop their doctrines of the grace of God. Because until you meet a God who is holy and is sovereign, you don't know what grace means. I don't think we are ever going to see a healthy evangelical church until the evangelical church is solidly Reformed, where it takes biblical Christianity seriously with a right concept of a sovereign God.

That's because unreformed Christianity has failed in our culture. It has been pervasively antinomian (no law, no Lordship), and has been pervasively liberal in it's trends and tendencies away from scripture, because there's been no real basis in the sovereignty of God.

Today's evangelicals are never amazed by grace, because they don't understand sovereignty. They don't understand God. The evangelical church today is sick, more sick than it has ever been. We need a style and a variety of Christianity that is not a religion, but is a life and a worldview, where at the heart and foundational structure of it is a sound and deep biblical concept of the character of God."

R. C. Sproul - from his series "A Blueprint for Thinking."

Ruth Graham and End of Life Ethics

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 14:19:31 GMT

From Jeffrey Weiss at the Dallas Morning News:

Shortly before she died, a family spokesman told the news media that Mrs. Graham had asked to no longer receive nutrition or liquids though a feeding tube. How she and her family reached that decision offers valuable lessons for others who will inevitably face similar situations, said professionals who work with the dying. . .

“The key ethical dimension for stopping life support is: What does the patient want?” said Dr. Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. “What happened in her case was ethical and in accordance with her expressed wishes.” . . .

Mr. Graham is a Southern Baptist. His denomination’s emphasis on preservation of life does not specify what the “right” decision is in a case like Mrs. Graham’s, said Malcolm Yarnell, a theology professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

“I’m not sure I could come to the same decision that she did with a clear Christian conscience, but I can see how she could come to her decision with a clear Christian conscience,” he said.

“Ruth Graham case spotlights end-of-life planning” – Jeffrey Weiss (Dallas Morning News)

Role of Pastor's Wife has Changed Since Ruth Graham's Era

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 11:59:39 GMT

When she agreed to marry Billy Graham, Ruth Bell Graham said she knew her life would "be lost in Bill's." For her generation, the pastor's wife was expected to work solely in service to her husband and his flock. There was no job title, no pay and enormous pressure to be ...

Mourners Gather to Honor Ruth Graham

Sun, 17 Jun 2007 12:05:12 GMT

Reflecting her simple tastes, a casket built of plywood carried Ruth Bell Graham through the streets of her mountainside home in the Blue Ridge range on Saturday as mourners gathered to remember the wife of evangelist Billy ...

2,000 attend Funeral of Ruth Bell Graham

Sun, 17 Jun 2007 04:44:27 GMT

Billy Graham surprises attendees by rising to address those gathered to pay last respects to the wife of America’s best-known evangelist. Story HERE.

Ruth Graham: Anchor of Faith

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 22:09:48 GMT

The passing of Billy Graham's life partner and closest confidante on Thursday has drawn attention to the woman behind a man considered the greatest evangelist in ...

Ruth Graham RIP

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 20:05:13 GMT

The much beloved wife of Billy Graham has died. There is lots of coverage on the CT Blog Justin Taylor says it well when he writes "I join others around the world in thanking God for a life well lived in quiet, unashamed, faithful service to the Lord and his kingdom." I am glad for the work of this couple who have represented Jesus well to the whole world for decades. I wonder if we will ever

Ruth Bell Graham

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 19:05:14 GMT

(Author: Noel Piper)

On my “mentors” shelf sit books by Edith Schaeffer, Ann Ortlund, Gail MacDonald, Elisabeth Elliot, and Ruth Graham. I never met Ruth Bell Graham in person. But I spent time with her through her writing. She expressed a winsome, seemingly uninhibited breadth of personality and emotion—from impertinent to pensive.

Many Advent seasons, I read aloud to my children The Christmas Story (now revised and retitled, One Wintry Night). We returned to it again and again because it tells the whole Christmas story, beginning with “In the beginning.”

When I heard of Ruth Graham's death, I pulled from that shelf her Collected Poems: Footprints of a Pilgrim. Among the many flagged pages, I found three for today.

Ruth Graham's calling was to her husband and children. Her life was shaped in large part by the publicness of Billy Graham's life and the challenges of raising children and keeping love warm while he was so much on the road. In this poem I hear a young Ruth preaching to herself when she's about to say another goodby to her beloved (p. 90):

Love
without clinging;
cry
if you must—
but privately cry;
the heart will adjust
to the newness of loving
in practical ways:
cleaning
and cooking
and sorting out clothes,
all say, “I love you,”
when lovingly done.

So—
love
without clinging;
cry—
if you must—
but privately cry;
the heart will adjust
to the length of his stride,
the song he is singing,
the trail he must ride,
the tensions that make him
the man that he is,
the world he must face,
the life that is his.

So
love
without clinging;
cry—
if you must—
but privately cry;
the heart will adjust
to being the heart,
not the forefront of life;
a part of himself,
not the object—
his wife.

So—
love!

Dr. Graham and their children, children-in-law, and grandchildren today are experiencing what Mrs. Graham wrote once about another house and another person (p. 179):

A house
is not the same
when she who made it home
is gone;
it looks
as it has always
looked
and yet
forlorn.
There is an emptiness
within,
a silence
where her chuckle was.
From now on
it is me alone
who once was “us.”

I pray God will bless the Graham family and that they might find the same comfort she did after the death of someone close (p. 268):

. . . flowers brought
a flood of memories
with which
my life is full.
Because of her
I'm rich.

I thank God for the life of Ruth Bell Graham.

Thanks to God for Ruth Graham

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 19:05:12 GMT

(Author: John Piper)

This morning in our prayer meeting at Desiring God, as we gave thanks for the life of Ruth Graham, I was moved. Probably because of her death in proximity to my father's (March 6). The connection is this. When I was growing up there was a cluster of independent traveling evangelists in Greenville, South Carolina. My father, Bill, and his brother, Elmer, were in that group. Cliff Barrows, Billy Graham's partner in music for decades, was also part of the fellowship from time to time. That was the connection with Billy and Ruth Graham. So in my mind, my mother, Ruth, and Ruth Graham were in the same business—supporting a traveling evangelist.

It was a hard calling. In those early days when propeller airplanes with their single rear wheel would whisk away Big Billy (Graham) and Little Bill (Piper) to who knows where around the country for two, three, four, five, or six weeks at a time, to preach the everlasting gospel. Ruth (G) and Ruth (P) were left at home with house and lawn and rusting gutters and leaky faucets and weeds and utilities and checkbook and laundry and church and neighborhood and homework and discipline and sports and plays and teenage acne and fear and no one at their side at church or in bed. It was a hard calling. So when we gave thanks for Ruth (G) I was flooded with thanks for Ruth (P) and Little Bill (P), and that flood increased my thanks for Ruth (G). Only when the books are opened in eternity will we know the ten-thousand-fold fruit of their lives, as they bore the weight of sending their men into the greatest battle in the world.

Ruth Bell Graham

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 12:05:14 GMT

A Life: Ruth Bell Graham, married for 64 years to evangelist Billy Graham, has passed away. The CT blog is compiling tons of links, memoirs, and info on this extraordinary lady.

Ruth Bell Graham (1920–2007)

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 10:49:25 GMT

Ruth Bell Graham celebrated her 87th birthday on June 10. On June 13, she slipped into a coma after a bout with pneumonia. Today, she went to be with the Lord. She was married to Billy Graham for 64 years.

I join others around the world in thanking God for a life well lived in quiet, unashamed, faithful service to the Lord and his kingdom.

In a prepared statement Billy Graham said:

Ruth was my life partner, and we were called by God as a team. No one else could have borne the load that she carried. She was a vital and integral part of our ministry, and my work through the years would have been impossible without her encouragement and support. I am so grateful to the Lord that He gave me Ruth, and especially for these last few years we've had in the mountains together. We've rekindled the romance of our youth, and my love for her continued to grow deeper every day. I will miss her terribly, and look forward even more to the day I can join her in Heaven.

The following profile is found on the BGEA website:

Ruth Bell Graham, wife of evangelist Billy Graham, was born at Qingjiang, Kiangsu, China, on June 10, 1920, as Ruth McCue Bell. Her parents, Dr. and Mrs. L. Nelson Bell, were medical missionaries at the Presbyterian Hospital 300 miles north of Shanghai. As a young girl there in the small hospital compound, Ruth first sensed the great calling to abandon all for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Her childhood was spent on China's mission field with her parents and siblings Rosa, Virginia, and Clayton, surrounded by disease, despair, and the eventual disorder and chaos of civil wars. The suffering she observed only strengthened in her the conviction of mankind's need for the Savior. Until her early adult years, she dreamed of serving as a single missionary in a far corner of the world -- the mountainous nation of Tibet.

At the age of 13, Ruth was sent to boarding school in Pyongyang, in modern-day North Korea, where she studied for three years. Under terrible homesickness, Ruth learned to overcome the loneliness of being far from loved ones by taking care of the needs of others, a skill that would serve her well in the coming years.

Ruth completed her high school education in Montreat, North Carolina, while her parents were there on furlough. In the fall of 1937, she enrolled at Wheaton College, outside Chicago, Illinois, and three years later was introduced to "Preacher," the nickname other students gave the strapping Billy Graham from Charlotte, North Carolina.

The couple began courting, and so also began a struggle in Ruth between what she thought was her calling to the mission field and her blossoming love for the driven young evangelist. In late April 1941 after much struggling in prayer, Ruth realized her life's mission was to be bound up in Billy's passion for evangelism. Shortly after their graduation from Wheaton, the two were married in Montreat on August 13, 1943.

For a brief period, Ruth served as a pastor's wife in Western Springs, Illinois, before Billy moved on to serve as an evangelist with Youth for Christ; as president of Northwestern Schools in Minneapolis, Minnesota; and eventually as evangelist and president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

With their increased time apart due to frequent preaching trips -- and with their first child on the way -- Ruth convinced Billy to move the family to Montreat, near her parents. Ruth's ministry flourished in the mountains of western North Carolina, where she built the family homestead and raised five children: Virginia (Gigi), Anne, Ruth, Franklin, and Nelson Edman (Ned). Ruth treasured her role as the strong woman behind "America's Pastor" and was Billy's closest confidant, most trusted advisor, and dearest friend. She loved to move behind the scenes, away from the spotlight, and helped him craft and research sermons and even books.

A gifted poet and writer herself, Ruth authored or coauthored 14 books, including Sitting by My Laughing Fire, Legacy of a Pack Rat, Prodigals and Those Who Love Them, and One Wintry Night.

For lots of links and updates, go to CT's Liveblog where Ted Olsen is working overtime.

Ruth Graham: Thanks for the Example June 14

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 09:44:25 GMT

Today the world lacks heroes and models.

The world lost one today. Ruth Graham, wife of Billy Graham, died today at 87. In sixty-four years of marriage, she was his rock and support, as well as a trusted partner. Together they were a model of marriage.

Here is what Billy said in a statement released through his spokesman, Larry Ross:

"Ruth was my life partner, and we were called by God as a team," Billy Graham said in a statement. "No one else could have borne the load that she carried. She was a vital and integral part of our ministry, and my work through the years would have been impossible without her encouragement and support.

Ruth Graham Dies

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 07:34:19 GMT

Ruth Graham, wife of Evangelist Billy Graham, passes away at her Montreat, NC home. Story HERE.

Ruth Graham, Wife of Evangelist Billy Graham Dies

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 04:56:12 GMT

CNN reports:

Ruth Graham, who surrendered dreams of missionary work in Tibet to marry a suitor who became the world’s most renowned evangelist, died Thursday. She was 87.

Graham died at 5:05 p.m. at her home at Little Piney Cove, surrounded by her husband and all their five children, said a statement released by Larry Ross, Billy Graham’s spokesman.

Billy Graham's Wife Ruth Dies at 87

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 01:50:30 GMT

Ruth Graham, who surrendered dreams of missionary work in Tibet to marry a suitor who became the world's most renowned evangelist, died Thursday. She ...

Billy Graham's Wife Ruth Dies at 87

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 00:57:39 GMT

Ruth Bell Graham, RIP (1920-2007)

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 22:43:17 GMT

A family spokesperson has just announced that the Rev. Billy Graham’s wife Ruth has just passed into the presence of Jesus. She was married to Rev. Graham for 64 years. In a statement just released, Rev. Graham says:

“Ruth was my life partner, and we were called by God as a team. No one else could have borne the load that she carried. She was a vital and integral part of our ministry, and my work through the years would have been impossible without her encouragement and support. I am so grateful to the Lord that He gave me Ruth, and especially for these last few years we’ve had in the mountains together. We’ve rekindled the romance of our youth, and my love for her continued to grow deeper every day. I will miss her terribly, and look forward even more to the day I can join her in Heaven.”

Ruth Graham was 87 years old. RIP.