|
| The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham | 
 enlarge | Authors: Harold Myra, Marshall Shelley
Publisher: Zondervan
Category: Book
List Price: $24.99
Buy New: $2.50
You Save: $22.49 (90%)
New (18) Used (29) Collectible (1) from $0.90
Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 456474
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.3
ISBN: 0310255783
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.4092
EAN: 9780310255789
ASIN: 0310255783
Publication Date: August 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
A behind- the- scenes analysis of twenty key principles of leadership, illustrated with stories and examples from the life of Billy Graham, whose fingerprints are on many leading Christian institutions and organizations, with transferable applications to people serving in a leadership role in business, educational, church, or parachurch settings.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Excellent Information October 30, 2008
This is an amazing book. I had read the autobiography of Billy Graham before I read this one and I think that made a great difference. I had the background to relate to when reading it. The book gave great examples of leadership and how to implement them. Using, of course, Billy Graham as an example. Very, very good! I would highly recommend it!
"Take up your attache, and follow me." October 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
How did an itinerant North Carolina fundamentalist develop his ministry into a billion-dollar gospel empire?
God, obviously, had a hand in it. But most of the credit has to go to Billy Graham.
Harold Myra and Marshall Shelley reveal how Billy did it.
_The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham_ is a book chiefly intended, not for ministers and youth pastors, but for politicians and corporate CEOs- - leaders who are more clearly in Billy's league. Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld read it, almost hot off the press. Karl Rove has read it (though too late to salvage the campaign of John McCain, who did not). Jeff Skilling has read it. Also, Rev. Benny Hinn. Pres. George W. Bush has read the book jacket. Meanwhile, socialist Muslim terrorist-buddies like Barack Obama are taking their leadership ideas from such Jewish -Marxist screeds as Saul Alinsky's _Rules for Radicals_.
Now that Harold Myra and Marshall Shelley have let the cat out of the bag in disclosing Rev. Graham's secrets, I feel it is okay to share one more well-kept secret of the mass-evangelism industry (Billy Graham won't mind, he's retired):
At Billy's evangelistic crusades--you must have seen one on television, even if you never attended--most of those folks who left their seats and cascaded down the aisles of the stadium and spilled out onto the playing field were not actually sinners coming forward to get saved. Most of them were trained spiritual counselors (volunteers from local churches) who were waiting for their cue to come forward and to assist with the harvest of new converts.
You may not have access to the televised re-runs of a Billy Graham crusade; but if you have the chance to attend one by his son, Rev. Frankie, watch closely, nothing has changed. Billy's secrets have not been forgotten:
When the sermon ends and the organ starts to play the theme song, "Just as I am without one plea," here's how to tell the repentant sinners from the happy-hearted volunteer counselors: the aspiring converts are blushing, or dabbing their eyes with a hankie as they come down the steps to the front. The trained spiritual counselors are carrying a New Testament and some helpful literature from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
It is the job of the counselors, when the organ sounds, to prime the pump: they arise from their seats (not all at once, that would be too obvious) and make their way to the playing field. That way, if you or some other lost soul is thinking of getting saved, you may say to yourself, Well, other people are going down, maybe I should, too." What you don't know is that those other folks are going down there in order to save you, not to get saved themselves - and it's a good thing you don't know that, or you might chicken out. (Seriously: to repent of your sins before a television audience of two million, plus another 70,000 right there in the stands, can be embarrassing. Billy always understood that, which is part of what made him so great.)
The actual process of getting born again does not take long after you make it past all of those kneecaps in the bleachers and down the aisle and out to the playing field. An experienced counselor can process you for Heaven in less than thirty minutes. But Billy's Greater World Evangelistic Crusades were so popular and so huge that it could get pretty chaotic down there, with a thousand trained spiritual counselors scrambling for one hundred potential converts. It was like a spiritual mosh-pit, or like open-pinata time at a birthday party: when the goodies fall, you have to grab and grab quick, or you'll never get sole dibs on a repentant sinner in need of servicing.
If you're one of the sinners who have come forward, the whole process is pretty straightforward: first, you hook up with a spiritual counselor - they're not hard to find. The counselor gives you a little explanatory talk about the Four Steps to Peace with God. Then you pray together. That's the exact moment when you ask Jesus Christ into your heart as your personal lord and saviour; although - bear with me, this can be a little confusing - it is not actually Jesus per se who comes into your heart, it's the holy Ghost who comes in, and the Ghost then becomes one with your own immortal spirit. (I don't understand the science side of that, but it seems to work; and a lot of the credit goes to Billy Graham's leadership technique.)
This uniting of your spirit with the holy Ghost is what evangelists mean by "the atonement" (the at-one-ment). All of those sinners who have taken the Four Steps, including you, have now become "at-one" with God.
For me, that is absolutely the worst moment of an evangelistic Crusade, when I see all of those former friends taking the Four Steps to become at-one with the Trinity. It makes me feel so dejected that I usually step over to the stadium hot dog stand, and I ask the vendor there to please make me one with everything. (Ha-ha-ha! Pardon the borrowed witticism - I stole that joke from a hot dog vendor, and it still cracks me up every time I tell it.)
After the prayer is over, you are one with God and are no longer "lost." At worst, you are just a little confused. But that's why they give you the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association promotional literature, and a free New Testament, and the list of Bible-believing local churches: so that you can continue to "grow in faith and discipleship" after the conversion experience.
(This is one key component of organizational success: you have to get out there, recruiting new talent for the movement. Catholics do that by making babies. Billy Graham did it by gaining converts, which is a lot tougher way to go.)
The new converts are then free to head home. There's always a traffic jam leaving the Crusade--these events are held in big stadiums and convention centers.
And here's another secret: by sundown I have usually reclaimed sole dibs on 8 out of 10.
- L.
The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham May 11, 2008
Awesome book! Full of fantastic leadership hints and real-life examples. I would recommend to anyone interested in improving themselves and/or improving relationships with others.
Full of illustrations and nuggets September 11, 2006
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
I teach a leadership course and tell my students I will read and review the business or leadership books they recommend. I was skeptical at first, most attempts to create Bible oriented business books fail. However, in this case the authors chose to use Good to Great, one of the best business books of the decade, as a primary focusing lens and there is a single Bible verse at the end of each chapter.
The story begins with the observation leaders are often forged in the furnace of life. Billy got off easy this once. His furnace experience was being rejected for marriage by Emily, saying "I just don't see any real purpose in your life yet." The statement stung and after months of consideration, Billy decided to be fully committed to God. The story then moves to Theodore Roosevelt, who was also pursing his life's true love. He got the girl, but only for three years, soon after his father passed away, his mother and wife died at his home within hours of one another.
Billy's calling as an evangelist was tested, he was offered movie contracts, even a million dollars a year, ( this is the 1950s, so that would be more like 6 million today using the Consumer Price Index).
The book pours you through history, not just Billy's experiences, but those of his friends. Billy had to face the growth pains of the nation, trying to serve both Catholics and Protestants in divided cities like New York and Boston. They discuss the civil rights movement where he was pressured to hold segregated meetings; he did not. I am not overly emotional, but I cried during many of the historical passages as I remember this nation's history, the author's tell the story well.
He was friend to Presidents and others in power including friends that fell including Nixon and evangelist Jim Bakker. He gave Nixon's Eulogy and conducted the memorial service for the Oklahoma City Bombing and the National Cathedral service for the 9/11.
The book does a great job of covering his management style; he built a great team and gave them a lot of freedom to act. If there is one place a bit more depth would have helped, it would have been more information on his health struggles, how did Billy Graham balance life and mission.
The bottom line, this is a good book whether or not you believe in the Christian faith. It deserves at least two readings, there are so many illustrations and nuggets it is impossible to get them all the first time through.
 Accurate Biography but Not a Good Guide for Leadership July 11, 2006
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
A lot of the adivce in this book is cliche and common sense. But some of the advice as to how to be a great leader like Billy is wrong and misleading. For example the author points out that prayer is a big factor, however he records that the advice of a Welsh pastor inspired Billy Graham to become a better preacher, and shows that Billy and the Welsh Pastor thought that this was accomplished merely by a prayer and to be broken like Paul. However a single prayer and being broken is not going to make you a great preacher. Rather wisdom and the desire to be perfectly obedient to God and continuous prayer are the keys.
Billy said he felt that he was filled with the Holy Spirit upon his prayer with the Welsh pastor and was so excited he kept talking about it afterwards and crying. Think about it, why would one prayer and not the others work? Billy already shown he was broken so why would praying to be broken again do anything?
The fact is many people become great leaders because they pander (whether purposely or not), are tall, decent looking or good looking, have a good speaking voice, speak well, and are the the right places at the right time. As shallow as that may seem it is true. The author rather implies it is because of Billy's humility towards God, when really, as I've discovered in my research, that it is Billy's humility towards man. Billy doesn't believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven, and he lets people know this, and that is why he is so widely embraced and supported.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
