Billy Graham ― An Ordinary Man and His Extraordinary God

As the world celebrates the life of Billy Graham, Lon Allison shares the story of the man and his message of Jesus Christ with a whole new generation.

“My prayer is that this book will be read by a generation that has never heard of Billy Graham…. I also write for those who are broadly attached to the Christian faith, and for those who have had only a small or short brush with faith in their lives. Billy impacted everyone from Catholics and Lutherans to Bible Church Evangelicals and Assembly of God Charismatics. As I hope you will hear clearly in what follows, he touched people like me with very little religious background. He was the ‘Pastor to Presidents’ and a spiritual guide to celebrities. But more than everything else, he was a friend of Jesus and passionately devoted to telling Jesus’s story to everyone he possibly could in all the world.”
—Lon Allison, from the introduction

Billy Graham said, “You have no idea how sick I get of the name Billy Graham, and how wonderful and thrilling the name Christ sounds to my ears.” So, then, why another book about him?

Lon Allison, an evangelist himself, and popular evangelical pastor in Wheaton, Illinois, has learned much from Billy. Allison retells the highlights of what has been, by any objective account, a fascinating life, and tells it is a way that resonates with the Graham legacy of serving God and seeking to spread the Good News. Every stage of Graham’s life is included, even the rough spots, with appreciation and a desire to answer the question: What can we learn from the life and ministry of Billy Graham? What is his legacy? What was his message and how might it still be relevant for today.

Foreword by Dr. Leighton Ford and Jean Graham Ford.

An experienced teacher—with a gift for explaining how everyday people can connect personally with the God who loves them—Lonnie J. Allison came to Wheaton Bible Church in 2013 from his previous role as Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College. Lon has taught master’s and doctoral evangelism courses at Gordon Conwell Seminary, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and Northern Seminary, and is a visiting professor at Wheaton College Graduate School. He maintains an active speaking schedule at churches and conferences around the world, and is the author of Going Public with the Gospel, That the World May Believe, and Possible: Discover the Joy of a Prayer, Care, Share Life. He and his wife, Marie, have three grown children and live in West Chicago, Illinois.