How God Interrupted One College Student’s Lifelong Plans in 1979

On Dec. 30, 1979, some 17,000 students gathered at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to hear Billy Graham speak. Paul Maurer was a freshman at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio then and drove to the conference during winter break. 

The young Maurer dreamed of becoming an FBI agent, but during Mr. Graham’s address at the Urbana Student Missions Conference, the evangelist—over 30 years into his ministry—emphasized the urgency for people of all nations to turn to Christ.

“It is my prayer that this magnificent obsession—the love of God in Christ Jesus—will so constrain hundreds of you that you will offer, this very night, to serve His cause,” he said, his voice falling on thousands of young ears in the venue. “It is my prayer that we will represent Christ with a fervor that will put all worldly enthusiasm to shame.”

Drawing from the books of Romans, Titus, and Acts, Mr. Graham’s message was simple and direct, pointing to the Good News of a relationship with God. 

“Is Christ really Lord of your life?” he continued. “Have you submitted your will to Him—your future, your vocation?” 

Pondering these questions proved life-altering for Maurer, who was pursuing a double major in psychology and communications. 

“I bought a bunch of the tapes from that conference and listened to them over and over again,” said Maurer, now president of Montreat College in the tiny North Carolina town where Mr. Graham settled with his wife, Ruth. “The one that really landed on me was Billy Graham’s address. It prompted me to think about the big picture of my life.” 

It was at the Urbana conference that Maurer sensed God calling him to full-time ministry. 

“First semester of college, I had an application for the FBI on my desk,” Maurer explained. “By Christmas, everything changed.” 

Mr. Graham’s message urged Maurer to think seriously about his life and how he was preparing for what God might have in the future. With this new calling to ministry, Maurer didn’t waste any time in following Mr. Graham’s advice. 

“I decided to set aside a decade in my 20s for preparation for ministry in the other decades,” he said. “By age 20, I had a plan for the next 50 years of my life.” 

After completing his undergraduate studies, Maurer spent three weeks on a mission trip with the pastor and a few elders from his church. 

“We literally went around the planet,” Maurer said of the trip, which included stops in Taiwan and Korea. “It was a life-changing three weeks.” 

Inspired to dive deeper into ministry when he returned, Maurer spent the next three and a half years at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary getting his Masters of Divinity. After graduating, he joined a ministry in Cincinnati. 

“I thought it’d be a year and a half kind of internship,” he said. 

But then tragedy struck the family. Maurer’s father died shortly after he began working at the ministry, so he moved back home to care for his mother—who was grieving and alone. 

Time passed and Maurer continued to work and support his mom, seeking out ministry opportunities and mentors along the way. 

“I got to the age of 30 and went, ‘I still don’t feel prepared,’” he said. “What I realized at 30 was that ministry and preparation happen at the same time.”  

Fast forward to 2014 through years of growth and experiences as a follower of Christ. That’s the year Maurer was offered the position of president at Montreat College, where he strives to stay focused on serving God—and prays the same for the students and faculty of this Christian school.  

“The enemy is always after us, and there are always ways to stumble,” he said. Maurer walks an hour each morning, worshipping God for half of it and listening to an audiobook for the other half. “It’s a time to soften my heart, exercise, and resubmit my mind to Christ.”

As he reflected on how God used Billy Graham’s words to help spark a change of direction and priorities, Maurer shared similar hopes for Montreat College students. 

“I want them to know that God loves them and gives them purpose and meaning in life,” he shared. “They can live their lives for something bigger than themselves, the world, a paycheck—all the things that bombard them in our culture that are shallow and untrue.” 

Are you a student or ministry leader looking for inspiration or help as you pursue God’s calling? Visit the Billy Graham Archive and Research Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, to study principles of evangelism that guided Mr. Graham and his team for decades.