B ANQU E T EVANGE L I ST by Carl Blumay
Bill Jones has always been a phenomenal man. When he graduated from Franklin High School in Los Angeles he went into the printing business and in just a few years was owner and editor of five community newspapers in the Greater Los Angeles area. However, an overly-friendly relationship with Old John Barleycorn and the gambling habit impaired his future in the news publishing business and in time Jones saw his newspaper empire crumble. Later, he found his childless marriage was gradually heading for trouble with divorce seemingly inevitable. Jones gave tens of thousands of dollars to the church from 1942 to 1952 in order to help salve his troubled conscience. But, this didn’t help. He was brought face-to-face with the fact that he needed Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour through the influence of Bill Bright, director of Campus Crusade for Christ. He made a full acceptance of the Lord and his decision soon found him attending Hollywood First Presbyterian Church, where he and his lovely wife Agnes, also con verted, are active members. Their conversion solved their marriage problems and Bill and Aggie have since adopted five small children. Through all this drama and excitement, Jones was trying to operate a technical publishing business which he started in 1942. Following his conversion the busi ness began to grow and, along with it, his income, until today he is in a top income bracket. The Jones live on 10% of their income, and all other income is donated to his “ banquet evangelism.” During the past two years Jones footed the entire bill for the annual President’s Prayer Breakfast in Washing ton, D.C., attended by the nation’s leaders. He has con ducted banquets for scores of worthy Christ-centered organizations.
W h e n W. C. (Bill) Jones became a born-again Chris tian in 1952, the matter of giving money to Chris tian causes was not new to him. He had been doing it for years when not a Christian. But, his conversion experi ence shed a new light on his stewardship, and he bega: to wonder how he could make his giving more effective. As a publisher and businessman, he felt his money should be put to work and should establish a growth pattern in order to accomplish more for Christ. The need became clear with prayer. He noticed that many worthy causes failed because those who backed them could not raise the necessary funds. Others barely kept going on a shoestring. Since Jones was an affluent man, he began helping some of these struggling organizations by scheduling fund-rais ing banquets and paying all the costs himself. “The $100 I would give for a banquet to help out would, in time, grow to $1000 and more,” said Jones. Some ban quets have increased his original investment as much as 30 times for the organization he hoped to aid. Jones asks no fee. Nor does he expect any of his banquet expenses to be returned. His “ banquet evangelism,” as he terms it, is entirely altruistic. With all this early encouragement Jones continued doling out his own funds until today he is recognized as the nation’s leading expert on how to run a fund-raising banquet. During the past year he organized and paid the bill for more than 50, with half of these in foreign countries. Up to press time he had conducted more than 150 banquets. Now Jones is busy trying to arrange for a Christian banquet in Russia, and has visited Moscow five times in the past year to study the possibilities. On one of these trips he accompanied Billy Graham.
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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