4-Day Crusade Expected to Draw 150,000

It has become the largest evangelical crusade in the country.

More than 150,000 people are expected to jam into Anaheim Stadium later this week for the sixth annual Harvest Crusade, a four-day Christian happening that is part rock concert and part Bible study, with some old-fashioned preaching stirred in.

Monique Clifton, 19, of Laguna Niguel, attended the crusade last year and is already excited about returning. The event, starting Thursday, is for all ages, but the emphasis on Saturday night is the younger generation.

“It was so touching,” Clifton, a Saddleback College student and member of Calvary Church Capo Beach’s college ministry, said of her experience last year. “It’s cool because it seems like everyone comes together and they unite as one. Last year, a lot of my friends came to the Lord at the crusade for the first time.”

Patterned after the Christian crusades created by the Rev. Billy Graham in the 1950s, the Harvest Crusade moves around the country to six cities bringing music and religion--presented in a contemporary fashion--to outdoor arenas.

This week, the crusade is back in Anaheim and the county where the Harvest Crusade began in 1990.

People arrive dressed casually as they would for a rock or country-Western concert. Instead of traditional Christian hymns pumped through pipe organs, they hear modern music with a Christian theme through the reverberations of electric guitars.

“We are kind of leaving behind what most people would recognize as things that are associated with a traditional church . . . and presenting the message of the Gospel in a contemporary way,” said John Collins of Riverside, director of the Harvest Crusade.

More than 90,000 people attended the event the first year. Last year, more than 350,000 attended nationwide.

This year, the crusade has already been held in Eugene, Ore., and after the Anaheim program will travel to San Diego in August, Colorado Springs in September and Rochester, N.Y., and Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., in October. This week’s event is being held in affiliation with 650 churches in Orange County and Riverside and San Bernardino counties, Collins said.

“It was never a plan to continue on with this thing, but there has been such a great demand for it,” Collins said. “We keep coming back because so many churches and pastors indicate they want us to continue.”

While the presentation of the crusade’s Christian message is contemporary, the ideas remain true to the teachings of the Bible, said Collins, 41, a pastor for the past 11 years.

“We are presenting the timeless message that people can find answers to life’s most difficult questions . . . and that they can find the meaning of life and can find eternal life through the message of the Gospel,” Collins said.

The Rev. Greg Laurie will be the featured pastor at each day of the event. Laurie, of the Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, was formerly affiliated with Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, one of the county churches that helped create the crusade.

“He’s very dynamic and very encouraging,” said Michelle Murray, 18, an Azusa Pacific University student who works with the First Evangelical Free Church in Fullerton. “Knowing that everyone there is either interested in becoming a Christian or is a Christian or has some contact with Christianity is really exciting.”

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Christian Gathering Anaheim Stadium is the site this week of the sixth annual Harvest Crusade. Some particulars about the evangelical event, which is part Biblical message, part rock concert: * Dates: July 13-16, Thursday-Sunday * Time: 7:30-9:15 p.m. nightly * Gates open: 6 p.m. * Admission: Free * Stadium parking: $7 * Children: A “Kids Crusade” will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday * Performers: Entertainment includes the Maranatha Praise Band, The Kry, Love Song, Jubilant Sykes, Vessels of Praise Gospel Choir, Bryan Duncan, Crystal Lewis * Information: (800) CRU SADE Source: Harvest Crusade