Did the Southern Cross Crusade bring revival to Australia?
The Southern Cross Crusade took in Australia and New Zealand. Nearly 3.25 million people attended meetings, 25 per cent of the entire population of both nations. Of these 150,000 decided for Christ. In Melbourne, where the Crusade began, attendances totalled 719,000 with 26,440 enquirers for Christ, (3.7 per cent). Attendances at the Sydney Crusade totalled 980,000 with 56,780 enquirers, (5.8%. The highest response rate appears to have been in Tasmania (Hobart 6 per cent, Launceston 7 per cent). The average response rate of 4.6% of his hearers for the whole of Australasia was more than double Graham’s average response rate which is 2 per cent. (by 1989, 2m out of 100m). The first thing seen by a visitor to the Billy Graham Center, based for 50 years in Minneapolis, is a picture of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, packed with 143,000, the largest crowd ever to occupy that hallowed space. Never have so many Australians been so interested in the Gospel. But was it a revival? Graham never ins
