I'm trying hard to figure something out . . . I'm assuming I'll fail, though.

I mentioned a few weeks back that Billy Graham has decided to do one of his crusades in San Diego this May. It was widely believed that his crusade in Dallas last year would be his last, but then he announced that he would be coming here and Oklahoma City this year. I have a lot of mixed feelings about this whole thing. On one hand, I do have great respect for Dr. Graham and I believe he's followed God and has been used powerfully of God. He has consistently made efforts (whether or not those have been high quality efforts is up to you) over the years to penetrate culture through film and including "contemporary" musicians in his work. On the other hand, I think his presence has given the church a big excuse to be lazy and leave evangelism to the specialists like him, not to mention completely forgetting about the concept of discipleship. His organization makes strong attempts to avoid this, but the facts are the facts.

With all that said, I'm trying to figure out whether or not I should jump on the bandwagon. Not so much because I'm buying into the hype going around, but because I am watching what this thing is doing to many churches in this area. There is no doubt in my mind that each night of the crusade will be packed out - no brainer there. But so far, every night of the counselor training courses has been packed out - we're talking several thousand seat sanctuaries overflowing with people night after night. The Church in San Diego has had a reputation in the past for not being able to get along, but people are galvanizing around this thing. A cynical view would say that the people are pulling together around a man - Billy Graham - but the questin in my mind is "What if this is a Holy Spirit thing?"

I'm still definitely not on the bandwagon, perhaps because I am the cynical one, but I also don't want to be guilty of a self-serving, self-righteous spiritual elitism of non-conformity. Truly, I have to be very very honest with myself in all theses questions, because if I am called to church planting, this may be a strategic time and place to be doing it . . . if God really is in this whole thing.