Harvest Crusade to Be Carried Live on Web

More than 180,000 faithful were expected to jam Edison International Field this weekend, starting Friday night, for the three-day Harvest Crusade. But they won’t be alone: At least 50,000 more are expected to watch the spectacle on the Internet at www.harvest.org.

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 this year’s “cybercrusade.”

This is the 10th year for the Harvest Crusade, which has hosted more than 2 million people in stadiums across the country. Along the way 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 Web broadcast will become an alternative entry point to the crusade message of hope and forgiveness through Christianity.

“It’s added a dynamic dimension,” 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.”