Our first interview for our book, The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham, was with John Corts, a key employee of Billy's organization for 35 years, ten of them as its president. After a dinner conversation that ranged over the decades, we asked, "John, what would you say is the bottom line distinctive of Billy's leadership?"

John paused a long while. Finally he said, emphatically, "Love. The difference between him and so many other leaders is that whatever the circumstances, Billy always led with love."

As we continued interviewing and researching, John's assertion was confirmed throughout the process. Billy led with love.

Yet some would ask: What's love got to do with it? Aren't the essential requirements of leadership to be results oriented and to personify authenticity and employ a variety of techniques and emphases?

Not in the Billy Graham model. Billy often quoted the Bible's familiar words, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son," as well as Scripture's profound assertion, "God is love." Yet how did he balance this off with the leader's necessity to face brutal facts and take action on them, and to deal with life's rugged realities? After all, the Bible also speaks of God's wrath and judgment, which Billy warned about. Some religious leaders are viewed as emphasizing lots of wrath and little love, lots of anger and little compassion.

Somehow, in the most difficult situations, Billy has communicated a heart full of love for others. People sense it. His internalizing love has deepened through the years as he has listened intently to the Spirit, whose first fruit the Bible says is love. In a Christian Century article, Billy explained what had been happening to him after a decade of international ministry.

In his meetings, Billy has often asserted, "God is saying to you, 'I love you. I love you. I love you.'" His love has been obvious to others and has radiated to his colleagues and those he leads, as well as to the watching world.

Two years after 9/11 with its destruction of the World Trade Center, Billy was holding meetings in Dallas. Some Americans felt all Muslims were suspect. Billy's colleague, Rick Marshall, told us, "It surprised me to learn that one of the largest U.S. populations of Muslims is in central Texas. We were at Texas Stadium in October, right between Dallas and Fort Worth. Billy did an interview with The Dallas Morning News, and one of the questions the writer put to him was, 'Dr. Graham, do you have a message for the Muslims of Texas?' He answered without hesitation.

"The next day the headline on the front page, bottom section was 'Billy Graham has a message for Muslims: 'God loves them, and I love them.'

"It was a powerful statement. Talk about cutting right to the heart of the gospel! Everyone was talking about it, because it defused so much anger and so much criticism. It brought to the table the hallmark of Billy's ministry."

We asked Rick about Billy's handling of religious and other differences. "To me," he said, "Christians have often been too strident and legalistic. Billy has always been theologically rooted in grace. If it's Muslims or Hindus or anyone else, his focus is to love them and to share with them the love of Christ."