Franklin Graham, left, helps his father, evangelist Billy Graham, to the podium at First Baptist Church in New Orleans in 2006. Franklin Graham will appear June 16 and 17 in Rochester at Sahlen’s Stadium. / The Associated Press file photo 2006
Written by LEO ROTH Staff writer
Billy Graham in Rochester
The famed Billy Graham Crusade made an eight-day stop at Rochester’s Silver Stadium in September 1988, drawing 143,780 people. Some 590 churches representing 51 denominations helped organize the event, which raised about 10 tons of food for the city’s hungry.
Gene Wing, a deacon at Pittsford Community Church, is a fan of large congregations. The more folks who gather to worship Christ, the better it is.
That’s why Wing is looking forward to this summer’s Rock the Lakes Festival featuring Franklin Graham, son of Christian evangelist Rev. Billy Graham.The two-day affair scheduled for June 16 and 17 at Sahlen’s Stadium, home of the Rochester Rhinos, can accommodate 20,000 worshipers with on-field seating.“I’m very excited. I’m a guy that loves megachurches,” said Wing, 59, a Kodak retiree who has joined an army of local volunteers helping to organize the event. “This church, of course, will be outside, but what a wonderful thing it will be to have the whole community there, hearing the Gospel and letting people know there is hope and there is good news.”According to the Rev. Pat Medeiros of Greece Assembly of God and co-chairman of the Rock the Lakes Rochester task force, about 110 to 118 churches in the region already are signed on to help. About 70 senior pastors attended a luncheon to kick off the organizational drive last month.Since the Grahams’ various Christian festivals are free to attend, it does require a massive amount of volunteerism to pull off. The key is marketing at the local parish level.“The word has spread quickly and people are getting excited,” Medeiros said. “We’re taking lots of calls from people wanting to serve and we feel the number of volunteers will just grow.”Rochester is the first of four cities in the Great Lakes region that will host a Rock the Lakes event in 2012.
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Billy Graham in Rochester
The famed Billy Graham Crusade made an eight-day stop at Rochester’s Silver Stadium in September 1988, drawing 143,780 people. Some 590 churches representing 51 denominations helped organize the event, which raised about 10 tons of food for the city’s hungry.
— Leo Roth
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