Gospel in the Goldfields Celebration

KALGOORLIE, Western Australia – Will Graham has been traveled to and preached the Gospel in Australia several times over the past decade. The Goldfields Celebration at Centennial Park in Kalgoorlie concluded with a three-day evangelistic outreach and concert where Mr. Graham presented the Gospel to those in attendance.

Will is the son of Franklin Graham and the grandson of the late Billy Graham. His evangelistic “Celebrations” are sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, of which he is vice president. He is also executive director of the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove in Ashville, North Carolina.

Despite his lineage, Will has made it clear that “I’m not trying to be the next Billy Graham; I’m just Will Graham. I have a burden in my heart to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If that’s to an arena full of people or one person on the street, I will do whatever God is calling me to do.”

About 5,900 people attended the Celebration during which Graham emphasized the message that “So many people are chasing gold, possessions, and the things of this world,” using the gold-mining region and the nearly universal hunger for gold as the basis for his message that people they still aren’t happy. “That’s because they’re chasing all the wrong things. There’s more to life, and it’s found in Jesus Christ.”

Nearly 400 people responded to the invitation to make a commitment to Christ and another 150-plus requested prayer from the team.

Eternity News in Australia noted that attendance at the event was “a significant achievement” because the total population of the Kalgoorlie-Boulder areas is only 30,000.

Some 1,700 people attended the Sunday morning worship service that included choirs from the local churches representing several different nationalities.

The event, which normally requires three months of planning, placed a special emphasis this year on “welcoming the aboriginal community.” Because tensions have been running high over the death of a young aborigine in Kalgoorlie two years, this event, which included all 17 churches in the community, required extra effort from those churches and teams from BGEA in Australia and Canada.

A popular Christian group comprised of indigenous Australians, The Brownley Gospel Singers, was featured at the concerts over the multi-day event.

Karl Faase, chairman of the board for BGEA and Samaritan’s Purse Australia said, “The Goldfields Celebration is a great example of churches working together, of cooperation between Australian ministry leaders and resources from the US and Canada. There is no doubt that the church must use a variety of approaches and styles to be effective in sharing Jesus across our nations. Events like the Goldfields Celebration show that large-scale events still have a place in evangelism.”

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