Youth for Christ

===Early years, 1940s&ndash;1950s===
[[File:Youth for Christ advertisement in Stockholm 1946.jpg|thumb|Advertisement for Youth for Christ's 3-day campaign in Stockholm in April 1946.]]
Youth for Christ rallies were first held in [[New York City]] in 1940, organized by [[Jack Wyrtzen]], a young ex-insurance salesman who had also played the trombone in a cavalry band.<ref name=TIME>{{cite magazine|title=Religion: Youth for Christ|magazine=[[TIME (magazine)|TIME]]|date=February 4, 1946|url=http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,776614-1,00.html|access-date=February 21, 2021}}</ref> The Youth for Christ campaign idea spread to Washington, D.C., Detroit, Indianapolis and St. Louis. In 1944 [[Torrey Johnson]], a Baptist minister and pastor of Chicago's Midwest Bible Church, staged "Chicagoland for Christ" and became the most successful advocate of this type of campaign.<ref name=TIME /> Johnson was elected Youth for Christ's first president, with [[Billy Graham]] as its first full-time evangelist.

Following the end of [[World War II]], the movement expanded to other countries after [[Charles Templeton]] of [[Toronto]], Ontario, Canada, and Torrey Johnson met with a number of youth leaders from around the United States at [[Winona Lake, Indiana]], in 1945 to form a working group that would become an international organization.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www2.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/GUIDES/048.htm#3|title=Records of Youth for Christ/USA - Collection 48}}</ref> The name "Youth for Christ International" was adopted in 1946. By then, Youth for Christ International had approximately 300&nbsp;units in the United States and over 200&nbsp;overseas. The average attendance at rallies in 1946 was 350. The largest attendance at that time was 70,000 at [[Soldier's Field]] in Chicago.<ref name=TIME /> Popular youth events such as Bible quizzing, which is now embraced by many Christian denominations, were originally begun as Youth for Christ activities.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.biblequizzer.org/|title=Bible quizzers answer questions from God's word}}</ref>

Evangelist [[Billy Graham]] was the first full-time evangelist of YFCI. Graham took over Johnson's local radio program called ''Songs in the Night'' which was broadcast over a local station in Illinois and predated YFCI. The movement also benefited by promotional publicity in the newspapers and magazines owned or influenced by [[William Randolph Hearst]].<ref name=TIME /> Large rallies were held at the [[Hollywood Bowl]] in Los Angeles, California, organized by [[Wilbur Nelson]] in 1949-1950.<ref>{{cite news|title=Wilbur Nelson Will Conduct Services Here|newspaper=[[Pomona Progress Bulletin]]|date=January 12, 1951|page=18}}</ref>