“A Rush of Hope,” a cinematic crusade from Greg Laurie and Harvest Ministries will broadcast live on more than 100 streaming channels this Labor Day weekend, September 4-7.
Created in partnership with the Erwin Brothers’ Kingdom Story Company, “A Rush of Hope” will feature encouraging messages from Laurie, outtakes from faith-based films such as I Still Believe and Woodlawn, and performances by artists including Jeremy Camp, for KING & COUNTRY, and MercyMe.
According to the ministry, “A Rush of Hope” is Harvest’s creative response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the ministry to cancel its in-person crusades scheduled this year at Anaheim’s Angel Stadium.
“Some of you may still be wondering, ‘What exactly is a cinematic crusade?’” posed Laurie in a blog post for the event.
“Think about it this way: You might go and see a wonderful Christian film like I Still Believe or I Can Only Imagine, and you’ll be moved by the story. And then you might also watch a preacher on television, preaching and giving the gospel,” he explained.
“Each is a separate medium. One is a medium of entertainment storytelling. The other is a medium of communication and preaching,” Laurie continued.
“We’ve married these two media together in something that’s unique. So it’s cinematic. It’s storytelling. I like to think of it as ‘weaponized art’—and I mean weaponized in the best way. We might say it has gospel hooks,” he added.
Since 1990, Laurie has held his Harvest crusades in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. More than 8 million people have attended the evangelistic crusades in person or via broadcast online and on TV. Moreover, more than 500,000 people have made professions of faith in Christ at Harvest crusades, including the 8,677 who did so at last year’s SoCal Harvest as the ministry celebrated the event’s 30th anniversary.
This past July, Laurie announced that he and his ministry will still hold a Harvest Crusade amid the COVID-19 crisis – but, as the Southern California pastor said, “it won’t be the same way we have done our crusades before.”
The move from an in-person stadium event to a cinematic crusade follows the success of other digital ministries launched by Harvest. Laurie’s podcast received more than one million downloads in its first month, and Harvest at Home, the online church platform that broadcasts Laurie’s live sermons, has seen more than 80,000 professions of faith since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The unprecedented success of Laurie’s online ministry was recently featured in The Wall Street Journal.
“You’re going to be able to experience a Harvest Crusade in a completely new way,” Laurie reported.
“A Rush of Hope” will be available to stream on the following social platforms September 4-7:
- Harvest.org
- Greg Laurie Facebook Live (crossposted with 100 media partners)
- Greg Laurie YouTube Live
- Greg Laurie Twitter Live
- Harvest Roku channel
- Harvest Amazon Fire channel
- Harvest Apple TV channel
