Chris Lange, FISM News
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Nearly 7,000 people gave their lives to Christ last weekend at the 34th annual Harvest Crusade. The event was again hosted by Pastor Greg Laurie, founder of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California.
A crowd of 34,000 gathered at the Honda Center in Anaheim for the two-day event, titled “Jesus Changes Everything,” while 200,000 viewers attended virtually, according to a Harvest press release.
“We had an incredible immersive worship experience in the round,” Laurie wrote in a Twitter post. “Thousands of people were turned away each night because every seat was taken by excited believers who wanted to worship. At the same time, this was our most effective evangelistic event that we perhaps have ever had.”
“There was an electric, revival-like atmosphere in that room both nights. You could sense God’s presence,” he added.
This year’s crusade included musical performances by top Christian artists including Chris Tomlin, Michael W. Smith, Taya, Phil Wickham, and the Passion worship band. More than 600 media outlets across the U.S. partnered with Harvest to broadcast and livestream the event, and more than 270 Southern California churches participated in this year’s event.
‘WHO IS YOUR GOD TONIGHT?’
“Everybody worships something,” Laurie told the crowd. “Some people worship things. Some people worship relationships. Some people worship a career, and some people worship God. And I wonder, ‘Who is your god tonight? You have a god.’”
Laurie, who founded Harvest Christian Fellowship in 1973, is widely considered to be one of the pioneers of the sweeping “Jesus Movement” of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, which is chronicled in the box office hit “Jesus Revolution.”
Laurie referenced the film at one point during his message, which he titled “Jesus and You.”
“Before I was a Christian, I was really searching, searching for meaning and purpose in my life. My mother was a raging alcoholic. Maybe you saw the story. How many of you have seen the ‘Jesus Revolution’ film?” Laurie asked as the stadium erupted in cheers and applause.
“I saw the alcoholic haze of my mother’s bad choices. And I knew I didn’t want to live that life. But then, I made some bad choices myself. I got into drugs,” he said.
“It wasn’t long until I concluded, — I’m only 17 at this point — but I concluded I don’t want the life of my mother’s generation. I don’t want the life I’ve been living. It was sort of like a process of elimination. I knew what I didn’t want to do. But what did I want? Why was I on this earth? Why did I exist?”
Laurie said that he used to joke with his friends that he would never become a “Jesus Freak,” but that everything changed one day.
“I was walking across my high school campus, and I saw a group of Christians sitting in a circle singing songs to Jesus,” Laurie recounted. “They were simple songs, maybe like four chords in the song. But there was something there that I thought; ‘that’s real. I want what they have.’ I never thought of knowing God in a personal way, and it opened my heart.”
Laurie acknowledged the life of a Christian is not always easy but said: “Whatever you give up to follow Jesus will be more than made up to you.”
Harvest Crusades have been held in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, with more than 8 million in-person attendees and more than 700,000 professions of faith.
This article was partially informed by Christian Headlines and Christian Post reports.