#HARVEST CHURCH GREG LAURIE HOW TO#

It was packed to capacity where we just couldn't get any more in. And then, of course, when he came down to take the Monday nights, it was instant. When did you first start to notice that God was using him in some kind of a unique way in bringing people to Christ? Well, of course, we were able to observe it out there in Riverside as God just had his hand upon Greg's life and the anointing of the Spirit on the messages and the way the church in Riverside was growing, so successful. Well, Pastor Chuck, Greg had been speaking for many years on Monday nights at the church where you're a senior pastor. Well, I guess we do serve a big God, Pastor Chuck. You go from a 3,000 seat venue to 18,000 seats and then you run out of room. And that's why the second year we decided we'd take the final night over at the Anaheim Stadium so that we would have more room for people on the final night. So it was just really far more than anything we had ever anticipated or expected. The traffic was so heavy around the area that they just couldn't get in. And then people just couldn't get to the fairgrounds. People outside, we set up speakers for them. And it was just really, though, exciting because they had to finally just lock the gates. So there was an urgency, people, you know, oh no, this might be the end of the world. You remember what was happening then? Oh my, yes. If there's a religious revival underway in America, this may well be the leading edge. It is called the Harvest Crusade, religion with a contemporary approach, organized by a minister from Riverside, California. So some kind of religious event going on there tonight. It was pretty crazy.Īnd in Orange County, the traffic is backed up on the 55 freeway near the fairgrounds and on most of the side streets around the fairgrounds. And the final night, the place was overflowing, there were people that couldn't get in, there was traffic backed up the streets. In fact, as I recall, on that first week, by the time we were done, we had broken all attendance records at the Pacific Amphitheater. But, you know, a contemporary type, not that Billy Graham's Crusades aren't contemporary, but an idea that where we would take sort of what was happening on the Monday nights, reaching the younger people, and then do it in a Crusade-style, you know, larger scale, and obviously inviting people to Christ. But it really was a bold step of faith to do something like that, and Chuck envisioned it as sort of a Billy Graham-style Crusade. So I thought, yeah, you have a point there. And my response was, well, Chuck, that's a pretty big place, isn't it? And Chuck replied, well, Greg, we serve a pretty big God. Well, Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, we can seat, I would say there's probably 3,000 kids coming on Monday night, and Pacific Amphitheater is 18,000 at a capacity. Now, contrast the size of Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa with the size of the Pacific Amphitheater. So I just was wondering, you know, if we took it to a larger venue, just how many would come out?Īnd it was just a curious kind of an idea on my side of it, just how many would come? So I talked to Greg about maybe getting the Pacific Amphitheater and just do a one-week kind of a Crusade to see what the Lord would do.

How did this idea come to you, and what did Greg say when you suggested it to him? Well, Greg was doing the Monday night studies for the young people here at Calvary Chapel, and the church was just crowded back to capacity, and kids were outside and all. More than 260,000 people have made decisions for Christ through the Crusades. Well, Pastor Chuck, let me ask you about this idea you came up with. Gentlemen, thanks for talking with us today. Pastor Chuck Smith is Senior Pastor of Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, and Pastor Greg Laurie is Senior Pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California, and the speaker of the Harvest Crusades. And I'm happy to introduce a couple of gentlemen who know more about this move of God's hand than perhaps anybody else this side of eternity. Today we want to focus on one slice of church history, how the Lord used those tools to touch hundreds of thousands of lives through a move of God called the Harvest Crusade.

#HARVEST CHURCH GREG LAURIE HOW TO#

If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to.

Thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners.

Harvest church greg laurie