With Crusade Down to One Day, They’ll Need Amazing Space

How would you fit 100,000 people in a stadium built for 50,000? Organizers of Orange County’s annual Harvest Crusade may find out Saturday.

Staged at Angel Stadium for a three- to four-night run each summer, the Christian revival meeting -- a Southern California institution for 15 years -- has been scaled down this year to a single day. The change could mean some worshipers will be turned away at the gate.

Festival organizers said the decision to shorten this year’s crusade was made to accommodate a planned appearance by Billy Graham at the Rose Bowl this month.

Not wanting to compete with the 85-year-old veteran evangelist, they planned this year’s event as “a one-day rally in support of Billy Graham’s crusade,” said John Collins, director of Riverside-based Harvest Ministries.

But Graham suffered a broken pelvis in May, postponing his California appearance until November.

Harvest leaders said that by then it was too late to change their schedule.

“It’s a little disappointing the plans didn’t work out,” Collins said.

“But ... we’ll make the best of it.”

Many who were planning to attend the Harvest Crusade were caught off guard. “It’s really shocking,” said Xiomara Joslyn, 33, who said she has attended nine of the last 10 years.

“It’s a packed house every night. Where are all those people going to go?”

Some people might also feel conflicted about attending because, she said, “you want to be able to leave the chair open for a nonbeliever.”

Collins said conflicts between evangelical crusades are rare:

“We generally don’t bump into each other.”

Last year, Graham drew 270,000 people over four days in May in San Diego. Harvest Crusade scheduled its three-night run in August.

But Pasadena and Anaheim are a little too close for two similar crusades.

“If we had kept all three days and if [Graham] had been doing his crusade shortly thereafter, we felt it would be a little bit of an overload,” Collins said. “We chose to stand back and let Mr. Graham have the spotlight.”

Harvest leaders also worried about overtaxing local churches, which provide many of the volunteers and counselors that keep things rolling at a crusade.

With last summer’s gathering averaging 35,000 people per night, organizers anticipate a very full house Saturday.

But the numbers don’t bother organizers.

Collins estimates that about half of the people who flock to Anaheim each summer attend all three days. Although they’ve had to turn people away in the past, he said, “that’s not a typical problem we’ve faced.”

Spreading activities throughout the day will also help, Collins said. Harvest plans a Summerfest from 2 to 5:30 p.m. geared toward younger audiences. The event, first staged last year, features a freshly packaged message of faith delivered by Christian rock bands and professional extreme-sports athletes doing tricks on BMX bikes and skateboards.

The evening worship program -- intended for older audiences -- begins at 7 p.m. and will be translated into Korean, Arabic, Spanish and Vietnamese.

Event founder Pastor Greg Laurie will speak at both sessions. Admission is free; reservations are not required.

Billing the day as two different events, Harvest officials estimate that this year’s festival will draw 70,000 to 80,000 people.

One of those hoping to find a seat is Joslyn, who says she accepted Christ in 1993 at her first Harvest Crusade. She’s made it to nearly every summer crusade since. The creation of a Summerfest for children has added incentives for her 11-year-old daughter and 16-year-old son to tag along.

“My daughter likes all the noisy bands,” she said.

But even when the crusade has been spread over three evenings, Joslyn said, people were still lining up outside the stadium at 5 p.m.

“It gets just as packed as a baseball game,” she said.

At Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, Pastor Carlos Ayub helped explain to parishioners why this year’s crusade in Anaheim would be shorter.

People mostly understood, he said.

“They realize it’s all about Jesus and not about the crowds,” he said.