Greg Laurie | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Laurie in 2019 | |
| Born | December 10, 1952 Long Beach, California, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | Christian pastor, evangelist, author, law enforcement chaplain |
| Employer | Harvest Christian Fellowship |
| Known for | Harvest Crusades |
| Title | Senior Pastor |
| Spouse |
Cathe Martin (m. 1974) |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | www.harvest.org |
Greg Laurie (born December 10, 1952) is an American evangelical author, pastor and evangelist who serves as the senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship, based in Riverside, California. He also is the founder of Harvest Crusades. Laurie is also the subject of the 2023 film Jesus Revolution, which tells the story of how he converted to Christianity and got his start in ministry in the midst of the Jesus movement.
Greg Laurie was born in Long Beach, California. He was raised by a single mother married seven times total; they moved often, sometimes to vastly different locations such as New Jersey and Hawaii.[1] He worked as a newspaper boy for the Daily Pilot in Orange County, California.[2] Laurie was not raised in the Christian faith or a church environment. In 1970, when Laurie was 17 years old, he became a devout Christian while attending Newport Harbor High School under the ministry of evangelist Lonnie Frisbee, as the Jesus Movement was exploding in Southern California.[3][2]
In 1973, at the age of 20, under the mentorship of Calvary Chapel pastor Chuck Smith, Laurie was given the opportunity to lead a Bible study of 30 people in Riverside, California.[4] The group quickly grew in size, and that same year, Laurie founded the Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, where he still serves as senior pastor.[4]
In 1990, Laurie founded the Harvest Crusades, an organization that hosts large-scale evangelistic events around the U.S.[5]
Laurie serves on the board of directors for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.[6] He is also a chaplain for the Newport Beach Police Department.[2] In 2013, Laurie served as the Honorary Chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force. President Donald Trump selected Pastor Laurie as one of several evangelical church leaders to participate in the National Prayer Service hosted at the Washington National Cathedral following the presidential inauguration of 2017.[7]
In 2017, Greg Laurie organized a movement titled "The Year of Good News". Multiple church leaders signed the letter he penned to initiate the movement.[8] One paragraph of the letter reads, "In a time of fake news, distracting news, divisive news, disorderly news, and, sometimes, depressing news, we—as Christians and as leaders—want to recommit ourselves to making sure that the Good News of Jesus cuts through it all. We call upon Christians in America to make 2017 'The Year of Good News.'"[9]
In 2017, Harvest Christian Fellowship became a member of the Southern Baptist Convention, at the request of Laurie, who considered that the latter has important national and international evangelistic programs. The church maintains its ties with Calvary Chapel.[10]
When all California churches were forced temporarily to shut their doors because of COVID-19,[11] Harvest Christian Fellowship and Greg Laurie started the online church program "Harvest at Home", which swiftly became one of the most-watched internet worship services in America, averaging over 200,000 viewers weekly during the pandemic.
On Palm Sunday 2020, then-president Trump tweeted that he would be watching Harvest at Home, and the webcast saw record viewership that week, with over 1,300,000 people tuning in to watch.[12]
On October 5, 2020, Laurie revealed that he had contracted COVID-19, and released a statement saying, "Unfortunately, the coronavirus has become very politicized. I wish we could all set aside our partisan ideas and pull together to do everything we can to defeat this virus and bring our nation back."[13]
Harvest at Home continues to be one of the most widely watched online church services in America post-pandemic, with average viewership of over 100,000 in 2023.[citation needed]
Laurie has written more than 70 books, including The Upside-Down Church (1999, co-authored with David Kopp); this book won a Gold Medallion Book Award in the "Christian ministry" category in 2000.[14]
Laurie's sermons are featured on the syndicated half-hour daily program A New Beginning,[15] broadcast on over 1,100 radio stations worldwide.[16] A New Beginning is also featured as a Christian podcast, available on iTunes.[17] Laurie is also a guest commentator at WorldNetDaily and appears regularly in a weekly television program called GregLaurie.tv on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN).
In 2018, he published the autobiographical book Jesus Revolution, which was adapted for the cinema in 2023.[18][19] The film, also titled Jesus Revolution, is produced by Kingdom Story Company and Lionsgate. It depicts the story of how Laurie and his wife Cathe came to faith during the Jesus Movement in Southern California.[20][21]
Laurie resides in Newport Beach with his wife, Catherine. The couple had two sons, Christopher and Jonathan, as well as five grandchildren.[22] On July 24, 2008, Christopher was killed at the scene of a 9 a.m. car accident on the eastbound Riverside Freeway west of Serfas Club Drive in Corona, California. He was 33 years old.
Laurie holds two honorary doctorates, from Biola University and from Azusa Pacific University.[23]
Greg Laurie has produced or written six films:
He is working on a seventh documentary, about fame and faith.
