Library honors ministry more than evangelist

Oral Roberts assured his legacy when he founded a school bearing his name.

Jerry Falwell founded Liberty University; Pat Robertson, Regent University.

Billy Graham, whom many consider the country's greatest evangelist, chose a different path.

On Thursday, Graham, 88, will preside at the dedication of the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte. The library, essentially a museum, opens to the public June 5, and spans Graham's life -- from his birth on a Charlotte dairy farm in 1918, to his work on six continents reaching an estimated 210 million people with the message of Jesus.

That the ailing Graham chose to anchor his legacy in a museumlike setting rather than a university speaks to the nature of his ministry.

"He's been very clear about his calling -- what it is and what it isn't," said Bill Leonard, dean of the Divinity School at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem. "He was not an educator. He was not a pastor. He was not a president. He was an evangelist."

As such, he was known to audiences the world over, but was never as grandiose or presumptuous as many of his peers. The library is designed to recall his humble past. The 40,000-square-foot building features a 60-foot grain silo and a 40-foot glass door cut in the shape of a cross.

Not a monument

It's built to look like a dairy barn -- recalling where the teenage Graham milked cows during the 1920s and '30s, before rising to prominence as an inspiration to millions of Christians, a counselor to presidents and friend to world leaders.

Three former presidents -- Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush -- will be among 1,400 invited guests at the ceremony under a tent on the grounds of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Graham, who suffers from Parkinson's disease and uses a walker, is expected to speak. Bush will give the keynote address.

Although Graham played no direct role in planning for the library, his son and successor, Franklin, said his father's wishes were respected throughout the process.

"We were careful not to build something that would be perceived as a monument to Billy Graham," said Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

The result is a mixture of features. Some, such as a talking cow, a 1936 Chevrolet farm truck and a scavenger hunt for the kids, evoke a theme park atmosphere.

Others suggest a museum, with high-tech multimedia presentations, video montages, and real-time re-creations of Graham's famous 1949 Los Angeles crusade.

The evangelist, once known as "God's machine gun" because of his rapid-fire sermons, is softer spoken these days. The library tries to capture that, while highlighting Graham's contribution to the age-old institution of the traveling evangelist with his pioneering use of mass media. Whether it was radio, television, satellite technology or the Internet, Graham used it all, and the library reflects that. It boasts rare film footage, 350 photographs, two theaters and lots of video spots.

A boon to tourism

Tourism leaders are already excited by what they consider a potentially lucrative addition to the state's attractions. Despite the failure of Heritage USA, the doomed Christian theme park built by televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker in Fort Mill, S.C., the Graham library inspires high hopes in tourism officials.

About 200,000 visitors are expected each year. The Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority estimates the visitors will inject $36 million annually into the Charlotte economy.

In addition to individuals and families, the library will make Charlotte more attractive to church groups and denominations wanting to stage annual meetings, said Wit Tuttell, a spokesman with the state Division of Tourism, Film and Sports Development.

There are no academic books in the new space, and university professors will still continue to visit the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill., which houses archives of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

But scholars say youth groups ultimately may be the primary audience for the Charlotte library. Many of them are too young ever to have seen Graham on television or heard him in a real-life crusade.

"If you ask kids, 'Who do you know in the Graham family?' they'll say Franklin," said Leonard, the Wake Forest University dean.

The library exhibits allow children to fill in that gap, and along the way renew their faith in God.

"The Gospel message comes across very clear," Franklin Graham said. "It's about the man Billy Graham served: Jesus Christ."