NEWS RELEASE
For immediate use
22 June 2025
“I’m so grateful to be back in London. I’ve been looking forward to this,” said Revd Franklin Graham, the president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) and Samaritan’s Purse, as he began speaking to the huge crowd of people that filled ExCeL London from wall to wall on Saturday night.
The capacity at the venue had recently been increased to 15,000 because there had been so much interest in the God Loves You Tour. But when 17,000 people showed up on Saturday, the venue was filled to overflowing. Every seat was taken and the walls were lined with people standing on their feet. Security at the venue had to turn thousands of others away, but instead of becoming frustrated, many of them started clapping their hands and breaking into spontaneous worship songs outside.
Inside the venue, young people gathered in front of the stage with arms raised in praise as Grammy-winning artists CeCe Winans and Michael W. Smith, as well as The Afters, led everyone in worship. Between songs, a chant broke out among thousands of youth who shouted together, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!”
Revd Graham and BGEA partnered with more than 550 churches throughout London to bring the God Loves You Tour back to ExCeL London for the third time on Saturday. Leading up to the event, more than 2,000 young people across the UK attended Pursuit—BGEA’s youth-focused events designed to encourage young believers in Jesus Christ.
Rebecca and Patrick Pretorius, youth leaders at Freedom Church, Colchester, held one of the events last month where they saw 14 young people give their lives to Christ—including their two children. Tonight, the same 14 young people came on one of the hundreds of free buses provided by BGEA. This time, they brought their friends who have never been to church before. Rebecca Pretorius described the renewed interest that UK youth have in faith in Jesus Christ right now by saying, “There’s fire. There’s an ember there, and it’s catching light.”
On Saturday, the group from Colchester and thousands of other people listened closely to the message that Revd Graham shared from the Bible. “Since I last preached here in London two years ago, the world seems to be one step closer to Armageddon,” Graham said referencing the wars in Ukraine, Israel and Iran, Sudan, and China’s threats toward Taiwan. He continued, “Many people feel hopeless, and they’re asking is the world running out of time? Many of you who have come tonight feel hopeless. You begin to wonder if the world will fall apart. You can come to the One who can turn that around, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ—God’s Son. The Bible says that God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
When Revd Graham invited people to put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, hundreds of people flooded forward, including a 16-year-old girl who said, “Everybody is hungry for God in my generation right now, and He is moving. Everybody is ready for it, and God is there, for them to receive Him. They just need to come to Him.”
Ends
Notes to Editors
Photos and Video
To download b-roll and photos from tonight’s evangelistic event at ExCeL London, visit Media.BillyGraham.org/God-Loves-You-Tour-London-PressRoom.
Media Contact
For media enquiries, please contact Claisse Opulencia at E: copulencia@billygraham.org T: 07384365306.
About the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
Founded by Billy Graham in 1950, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) shares the Good News of Jesus Christ around the world. Billy Graham had a profound love and appreciation for the United Kingdom, and he established BGEA’s UK office in London in 1954. Mr. Graham went on to preach in the UK more than any other place outside of the United States.
About Franklin Graham
Franklin Graham is continuing the lifelong work of his father. Since his first evangelistic event with BGEA in 1989, he has held more than 345 outreaches in over 55 countries and territories, including 11 events in the United Kingdom since 1999.
Before preaching in London, Franklin Graham proclaimed the Gospel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where nearly 440,000 people gathered in the country’s largest square to hear a message of God’s love. Last year, Mr. Graham preached in Krakow, Poland; Birmingham, England; Glasgow, Scotland; and Naples, Italy, as well as in the countries of Laos; Vietnam; Mexico; and in 10 cities in the U.S. This year, he is looking forward to proclaiming the hope of Jesus Christ in Brussels, Belgium, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. He also recently convened the European Congress on Evangelism, which brought more than 1,000 Christian leaders from 55 countries and territories in Europe to Berlin, Germany.
In addition to serving as president and CEO of BGEA, Franklin Graham also leads Samaritan’s Purse, which works in more than 100 countries, including Ukraine where the international Christian relief and development organisation has helped more than 14.5 million people by providing 123,000 tonnes of food as well as nearly 1,000 tonnes of emergency relief supplies on 43 airlifts. Samaritan’s Purse also operated five field hospitals and five medical clinics in the war-torn country, treating tens of thousands of patients.