Whiz-Bang Revival Adds 2 Days

This year, organizers of the Harvest Crusade, the popular Christian revival, have cast a wider net to capture the unchurched or simply uncommitted.

They have added two days and a fistful of new attractions, beginning their five-night run tonight at Edison Field with a first-ever fireworks show.

Added are events for the young (a children’s night Thursday) and the restless (a skateboarding exhibition Friday and Saturday nights), the patriotic (Fourth of July fireworks) and nostalgic (a classic-car show Sunday) in an effort to pull in 200,000 during the crusade’s run.

“It may be entertaining,” said Michael Brazeal, director of the Anaheim crusade, “but everything we do is preparing the listener’s heart to make a decision that night: to accept or reject the message” of Christianity.

The additional nights and activities have raised the crusade’s costs to a record $700,000. The event, free to participants (parking is $8), is funded by donations and merchandise sales.

One thing hasn’t changed over 12 years: the popular combination of Christian-flavored rock ‘n’ roll and the preaching of Harvest co-founder Greg Laurie. The formula has drawn more than 2.5 million people to crusades across the U.S. and Australia since 1990.

Laurie’s messages will take on a new interactive, multimedia twist Friday and Saturday nights. Onstage, he will preach from a couch on a funky living room set, surrounded by teenagers. His talks will be underscored with video footage of popular culture on big screens, and he’ll be interrupted by questions from people in his “living room” and from a Webcast (https://www.harvest.org).

The format is patterned after the popular Day 7 service at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, the megachurch of which Laurie is pastor. The video- and music-laden program routinely draws 3,000 teenagers and young adults a week.

The visually heavy packaging of biblical material helps keep the attention of children raised on television.

“They may not agree with the message,” said John Collins, Harvest executive director, “but at least they heard it.”

Thursday night, Laurie will give up the stage to Psalty the Singing Songbook for an audience of youngsters and their families. Brazeal said he expects about 18,000 for the crusade’s first night devoted to children.

Edison Field holds 45,000 people. Still, some of the volunteers from 1,100 local churches were busy Tuesday setting up 8,000 chairs in the stadium parking lot for overflow crowds who can watch the activities on jumbo video screens.

The crusade also will be broadcast on the Web, enhanced by interactive features that will pop up on the computer screen. For example, when the bands play, background information on band members will be displayed along with streaming video.

Last year, the system maxed out at 10,000 viewers each night. Capacity has been expanded this year.

Organizers can tell you how many miles of communication cable have been laid this year (10) and how many volunteers they have (5,000), but they say they can never estimate how many converts the Harvest Crusade will reap.

“It’s not something that we can humanly plan for,” Brazeal said.