Billy Graham is an amazing communicator, and his 1998 TED talk on technology and faith (embedded below) is no exception. In it he is witty, articulate, and convicting.
His basic message is simple: technology brings amazing benefits to humanity, but it’s failure to alleviate the brokenness of the human heart ultimately point us to our need for a Savior.
What I appreciate most about his talk is that Graham did not give it to a church audience who would immediately agree with him. Instead in his audiences are some of the greatest technological minds ever gathered, many of whom are no friends of religion. It’s a classic example of how a speaker can appeal to an audience’s sensibilities, gain a sense of trust, and then finally address the person of Jesus Christ.
Billy Graham’s 1998 TED Talk on Technology and Faith
Personally, I found it very moving to see how Billy Graham’s life of integrity gained him this rare audience. He used a subject the audience was interested in – technology – and took the time to validate its importance while also gently showing how its limitations direct us to the Savior. Amen, Billy.
Thanks for digging that up John. That was the best 26 minutes of my day. There is no way Steve will be topping that this afternoon.
Watched this late last year and really enjoyed it. I thought the same thing about Mr Graham’s life of integrity. I also appreciated that “you can’t take the evangelist out of the man.” And I got the sense that no one would want to, not even a roomful of tech gurus. It would have been inauthentic if Mr Graham had avoided the Gospel. It would be like pricking the thumb and telling it not to bleed.
Thanks for the post. It was worth 26 minutes!
How did The Electronic Gospel conference go?
Adam, it went really well I think. Shane Hipps is a fantastic presenter, and the sold out audience really seemed to be interested in his packaging of McLuhan. I think some of the audience was a little thrown off by his discussion of issues related to the emergent church vs. reformed theology, but even then I think people could at least agree that part of the problem was a different media bias. I’ll post my stuff when it become available.
I’m bummed I couldn’t be there. The emergent/reformed division and media bias sounds interesting. How did your own presentation go?