Reconsidering the Impact of the All Scotland Crusade of 1955 upon Children and Young People

Abstract

Billy Graham led the All Scotland Crusade in Glasgow for six weeks between March and April 1955. 830,670 people attended the events he hosted at the Kelvin Hall, Ibrox and Hampden stadiums, while 19,835 of them responded to his altar call and became inquirers. A significant proportion were children and young people. This paper will examine the immediate, medium-term and long-term effects of the crusade upon this group of people. It will contend maternal influence encouraged a significant number of children and young people to respond to Graham’s altar call, emotion often accompanied their decisions, and many of them underwent an evangelical conversion experience. It will claim many became active participants in the life of their local churches where they received pastoral care and spiritual counselling. It will argue some of them found a vocation in full time Christian ministry and mission, and spent their lives serving the church. Above all, this paper will establish how the lives of several thousands of children and young people were radically transformed through their experience of the All Scotland Crusade in 1955.