Crusade Uses Web to Let Believers Attend in Spirit

The 180,000 faithful expected to jam Edison International Field over three days beginning tonight for the annual Harvest Crusade will not be alone: At least 50,000 more around the world are expected to log on to the spectacle on the Internet.

Last year, more than 43,000 people viewed the evangelical festival online, featuring live video, audio and text transmissions from Anaheim. The numbers spurred Harvest organizers to earmark more resources for the “cybercrusade” this year.

This is the 10th year for the Harvest Crusade, which has hosted more than 2 million people in stadiums across the country. The movement has revolutionized old-fashioned revival meetings with a polished blend of Scripture and pop culture.

Touting the success of the Harvest Internet outreach, crusade founder Greg Laurie said he hopes the Webcast will become an alternative entry point to the crusade message of hope and forgiveness through Christianity.

“It’s added a dynamic dimension to our crusades,” said Laurie, pastor of the Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, the nation’s eighth-largest church. “We have people make commitments to Christ via the Internet, which is a pretty amazing thing.”

The stadium’s press box will serve as headquarters for the Internet operation--a bevy of computers, a tangle of wiring and an online staff of 25--including volunteers from local churches. One person on the staff will have the job of simply standing on the sidelines and praying that the phalanx of high-tech equipment doesn’t crash.

The Harvest Crusade organizers want to make sure they have the technological power to connect with people online and not leave them in limbo. They say the anonymity of the Internet is a perfect place to fish for potential believers.

“We’re gearing it toward nonbelievers and non-Christians,” said cybercrusade leader John Carley, who wants to woo surfers off secular sites and into the Harvest domain. “That’s the purpose of the crusades, to introduce Jesus Christ to people in a non-formal environment.”

The Web is an endless source of converts for the cyber-evangelizers. It’s also a place for spiritual searchers. People can test out different faith communities online in the comfort and privacy of their own homes.

“The great myth that many social scientists want to encourage is that there is an incompatibility between modern technology and traditional religion,” said Rodney Stark, professor of sociology and comparative religion at the University of Washington in Seattle. “This is absolute nonsense. If anything, it’s the reverse.”

Indeed, the crusades have relied on their Internet presence to post crusade training classes and maps, locations of crusades, and promotional fliers and videos. The Harvest site also reviews attendance at past crusades and posts messages from Laurie, who has been ahead of the curve in his technological ministry, beating many other big revival leaders to an online broadcast of his event.

The 23-year-old Carley, president of Trinet Internet Solutions in Irvine, approached Laurie in 1995 after attending a Harvest Crusade and asked if he could help Laurie beef up the Harvest Crusade’s presence on the Internet.

Carley’s initiatives led to a text-only broadcast of the crusades on the Harvest Web site in 1995, which attracted nearly 2,000 visitors. The next year, about 8,000 tuned in to get a glimpse of Laurie and his message. By the next year, online attendance had mushroomed to about 25,000, and last year reached 43,000.

Carley said he’s been the trouble-shooter on many crashed computers at past crusades, something they are trying to avoid this year with two high-speed lines as backup.

The sites are rigged to be interactive, with the capacity to ask questions and send e-mail to crusade volunteers. The crusade Webcasts include audio and video in addition to a slide show of images from the event and translations of the event in Arabic, Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese.

Carley said that one of the highlights of last year’s crusade was when Laurie invited people on the field to accept Jesus into their lives. He said he was simultaneously inundated with e-mail from cybercrusaders who made a decision to dedicate their lives to Christ. He said that all online commitments to Christ were honored with a packet of materials and a free Bible.

Carley said the site gets the most hits from California and New York. Last year, the crusade was viewed by people in 60 countries, including China, Japan, Australia, North Korea and Zimbabwe.

Still, many cyber-savvy crusaders say that nothing beats celebrating Christ under Laurie’s leadership at the stadium with thousands of people who are caught up in the Christian fervor.

“I love being gathered with such a body of believers,” said 17-year-old Orlando Carrasquillo of Fontana. “It’s an awesome sight to see. I’d much rather be there in person.”