CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – The Rev. Billy Graham’s children remembered “America’s Pastor” on Friday as a man devoted to spreading the Gospel, living his life at home as he preached it in stadiums, with a personable humility and an unwavering focus on the Bible. As his oldest son told the funeral congregation, “There weren’t two Billy Grahams.”
His adult children – all speakers or preachers in their own right – recalled being taught by their parents how to read Scripture aloud and deliver sermons, but also taking quiet walks with their father and feeling his embrace even when they made mistakes.
Franklin Graham, who delivered the main funeral message, said all of those qualities were part of the whole.
“The Billy Graham that the world saw on television, the Billy Graham that the world saw in the big stadiums, was the same Billy Graham that we saw at home. There weren’t two Billy Grahams,” he said. “He loved his family. He stood by us. He comforted us.”
Pastor Fanklin Graham delivers a sermon during a funeral service at the Billy Graham Library for the Rev. Billy Graham, who died last week at age 99, Friday, March 2, 2018, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
Franklin Graham’s funeral message, which included a Gospel call to repentance and salvation, followed shorter remarks by his siblings in a service that lasted just over an hour before an invitation-only crowd of approximately 2,000.