The 25th annual SoCal Harvest, or the Harvest Crusades located in southern California, will be taking place this weekend, August 15-17 at the Angels' Stadium in Anaheim.
"This is something really amazing that God has done," Greg Laurie, the founder and leader of Harvest Crusades, told Christian Post. "I don't know of another ongoing evangelistic event like this anywhere in the world that's happened for 25 yeas"”a large scale overt evangelistic event. I would say don't take this for granted "¦ [and] would encourage my Christian friends to, at the very least, pray for this event, but even better, attend it and bring someone with them that does not know the Lord."
Harvest Crusades, annual outreach events which were first started in 1990, "are designed to be opportunities for Christians to invite family members, coworkers, friends, and acquaintances to hear the life-changing message of the gospel in an environment that is entertaining, yet nonthreatening," according to the event website.
The Harvest Crusades were first started by, and still led by, Greg Laurie, the senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, and Harvest Orange County in Irvine. Ever since Laurie was inspired to hold the first Harvest Crusades in 1990, more than 5 million people have attended, and more than 421,000 people have said that they've come to the Christian faith as a result of the Harvest Crusades.
This year, over 60 churches have been partnering with Laurie and the Harvest team to create this outreach event.
Laurie explained in an interview with the Christian Post that during the Harvest Crusades, he wants to "offer a message of hope" in the midst of the unrest that has been occurring all over the world.
"There is global chaos; there is this situation happening in the Middle East, and then of course, there's this continuing violence on our own culture, and all matters of tragedy and heartache it seems every day. It's just a reminder that, you know what, we really do need God when the day is done," he said.
"My message is one of hope and turning to God and putting your faith in Him and how He gets you through the hardest times of life, makes you stronger as a result, but more importantly, we have hope for the life beyond this one for a Christian."
