In Grandpa's Footsteps

Tullian Tchividjian is not one to cash in on the family name.

Because if he were, his new book would bear his full name: Tullian William Graham Tchividjian.

As in Billy Graham, who happens to be his grandfather.

'Growing up, I honestly never realized how important he was,' says Tchividjian, 35, pastor of New City Presbyterian Church in Coconut Creek, where he lives with his wife and their three kids.

'He was always Daddy Bill to us - a normal, loving, approachable grandfather who loved to spend time on the beach with his family. It never occurred to me how important he was on the world stage.'

Of Graham's 19 grandchildren, Tchividjian is the only one to pursue a calling in ministry. And even then, he didn't heed that call until he got himself in a mess of trouble.

That's why his new book, 'Do I Know God? Finding Certainty in Life's Most Important Relationship' (Multnomah, $16.99), is going to resonate with a lot of folks. His story isn't about a member of America's first family of Christianity and his hallowed upbringing. His own biography is gritty, real and a testimony to the power of faith's role in turning around lives.

That makes him one of us. An imperfect person living in a very imperfect world. And even though Daddy Bill was a big factor in his life, Tchividjian didn't always live sanely or saintly. For most of his teen years, it was quite the opposite.

He's one of seven children of Stephan and Gigi Graham Tchividjian, the eldest daughter of Billy and his late wife, Ruth. His parents met through their parents, who were friends.

Tchividjian loves to tell the story of how his parents got together. His father is a Swiss Armenian who came to Christ after picking up Billy Graham's book 'Peace With God' at a Switzerland bookstore. Four years later, he met and fell in love with Gigi Graham.

From Idyllic To Troubled Times

Born in Jacksonville and raised in South Florida, Tchividjian spent most of his summers at Graham's homestead in Montreat, N.C., 'our home away from home.' Those are some of his fondest memories, when he, his siblings and cousins didn't have to share their famous grandfather with the rest of the world.

As a young teen, Tchividjian started getting in trouble, dabbling in drugs, booze, promiscuity and truancy. He was the middle child of his siblings - the youngest of the older kids, the oldest of the younger ones. He didn't feel he fit in at home, so he began seeking his own way outside the secure family environment.

'Sinfully selfish, immature and rebellious,' he says of those teen years. It got so bad that at age 16, he dropped out of high school and was kicked out of the house.

'I'm sure it was the hardest thing my parents had to do, but I was so disruptive, they had no choice,' he says. 'For a while, I thought I was living the dream, with no parents and no teachers to hassle me. But it was a very empty life.'

That emptiness eventually led Tchividjian back to his roots. It wasn't an earth-shattering event or an epiphany that changed his heart and soul at age 21.

It was a simple prayer to his Lord: 'I'm desperate; I'm broken; I need you to rescue me.' No angelic choir, no bright lights leading toward heaven. Just a young man praying for some peace, solace and divine direction.

He says he got saved then and never looked back.

'All the things I used to hate, I started to love,' Tchividjian recalls. 'All the things I used to run from, I started running to. I asked God to come to me, and he conquered me.'

Living His Dream In Florida

Life has been very good to Tchividjian since that transformation. He married the woman who used to bail him out of jail. He went on to Columbia International University, a small Christian school in South Carolina, where he studied philosophy and graduated with honors. Then it was on to Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, a mainly Presbyterian school, which is the denomination of his late grandmother.

His seminary education was financed by his grandfather, who always regretted his own lack of formal training in that area. If you're going to properly preach the Scriptures, Billy Graham told him, you need to be properly trained.

After graduation, he served in the young adult ministry at a Tennessee church. Then four years ago, Tchividjian got the call to come home to Florida, where he can pursue his love of surfing in his free time.

He's now living his dream - ministering to a growing church with more than 500 members, hosting a weekly radio program, speaking at conferences and writing a monthly column for Coconut Creek Life and Parkland Life magazines.

He also has written and contributed to several books and is enjoying strong sales of his newest release, which aims to take readers through an examination of the heart to reveal whether they are genuinely walking in faith.

'I set out to answer two questions: Is God knowable, and if he is, how do I know if I really know him?' he says. 'There's a distinct difference in knowing about God and actually knowing him.'

Tchividjian says a relationship with God is forever. Once God saves you, 'there's nothing you can do to lose your place in that family. You may have eternal security, but sin can take away from the experience. So it's always a work in progress, maintaining and nourishing that relationship.'

Yes, he is very much a Graham, but it could have gone in another direction for Tchividjian. He's grateful every day that God welcomed the prodigal son back home.