![]() ![]() While Laurie planned the Crusade as an event for nonbelievers, in reality, the majority of attendees were and continue to be Christians looking for a good time. Laurie filled Costa Mesa’s Pacific Amphitheater for five consecutive nights, and in the next couple of years, he moved the event to Angel Stadium in Anaheim to bring in an even bigger crowd. “We wanted to do an event that was designed, beginning to end, for a nonbeliever, so we could present what it is to be a Christian, who Jesus is, what he said, and how to come into a relationship with him.” “Most church services are designed for worship, Bible study or spiritual growth,” Laurie said. They instructed churchgoers to bring their non-Christian friends, family and co-workers to the event. In 1990, two decades after he began his ministry, Laurie and Smith put on the first Harvest Crusade in Orange County, an event that they hoped would draw those who weren’t already packing the church every Sunday. It now includes the Harvest Orange County “campus” in Irvine. Smith put a 19-year-old Laurie in charge of a small Bible study in Riverside, and from this, Laurie built Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside into a congregation of more than 15,000 that has become one of the largest mega-churches in the country. They turned Jesus into a countercultural figure.” “He appealed to young people through music,” said Eileen Luhr, associate professor of history at Cal State Long Beach and author of “Witnessing Suburbia: Christian Conservatives, ‘Family Values,’ and the Cultural Politics of Youth.” “Not by making them lose their cultural markers when they came into the church, but by accentuating them instead. “I had no background in the church or Christianity,” he said.Īt age 17, he became Christian through the Jesus movement, a wave of religious fervor in Southern California that emerged as a direct response to the counterculture of the 1960s.Īt the forefront was Chuck Smith, a pastor who founded the Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa in 1965. Laurie, a Long Beach native, comes from what he calls a “broken home.” He was raised by his mother, who he describes as a “raging alcoholic” who was “married and divorced seven times.” ![]() “To my understanding, there’s no precedent for what we’re doing,” said Laurie, “having a large-scale evangelistic event in the same place for 27 years.” Greg Laurie, the type of music he has, the kinds of events he has, he does it to appeal to the people of today.”īut if his style isn’t unique, Laurie’s enduring ability to draw huge crowds is a striking feat considering the Harvest Crusade’s location far outside the Bible Belt and in a state that Pew Research Center has categorized as one of the least religious in the country. “They’re really good at contextualizing what they do religiously within the larger culture. “This is something that’s been going on with evangelicals as far back as when they first emerged,” said Richard Flory, senior director of research and evaluation at the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture. ![]() In addition to Laurie’s preaching on topics such as the meaning of life and what happens after death, the free public event will feature popular Christian musicians such as Chris Tomlin, TobyMac, KB and Phil Wickham in a large-scale production designed to entertain. This year, nearly 100,000 people are expected to attend the 27th annual Harvest Crusade - known now as SoCal Harvest - at Angel Stadium from Aug. He spoke on finding happiness by quoting comedian Jim Carrey, joking about Botox and referencing a Time magazine article in between offering Bible verses in what sounded more like a secular motivational speech than a traditional church sermon. Laurie, who has no traditional theological training, is known for his simple and relatable preaching style that quotes movie stars and pop psychology studies more than theological writings or church doctrine - in a concert-like atmosphere.īy using humor and a stripped-down theology of Jesus’ salvation, he hopes to satisfy the faithful while appealing to the growing number of non-believers in the country.Īt last year’s Harvest Crusade, for example, Laurie took to a stage on the infield of Angel Stadium in Anaheim wearing a black polo shirt and jeans as a giant television screen broadcast his face to the 30,000 people packed into the stands. That is how Laurie approaches his annual Harvest Crusade, considered one of the largest evangelical outreach events in the world, though his delivery methods today are more interesting. My job was to get it on their doorstep, and they could decide what to do with it.” You learn as a paper boy how to clear hedges, sideway throws, that kind of thing. ![]() “I’m effectively the same thing,” he said. ![]()
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