Protestant pastors ranked Billy Graham by far the most influential living preacher in survey results released Feb. 2 by LifeWay Research. Asked to name three living Christian preachers that most influence them, 21 percent of pastors named Graham, 91, who has preached to more than 200 million people in 185 countries.

That is three times the number who named the second-place preacher, popular author, pastor and radio personality Charles Swindoll. The list was compiled from telephone interviews that the research arm of the Southern Baptist Convention’s publishing house conducted with 1,002 pastors in November.

Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research, said he was surprised that most of the preachers on the list are generally regarded as theological conservatives.

“Considering our sample includes liberal and conservative, all races and ethnicities, mainline and evangelical [Protestants], we were surprised that the list looked like mainstream Christian radio and publishing and was not more representative,” Stetzer said. “Of course, the majority who answer drive the final numbers, but I was expecting more diversity in the responses.”

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