A Recap of Our Cinematic Crusade

Thank you to all who watched, broadcast, and shared our very first cinematic crusade.

In A Rush of Hope, we married two media together—storytelling through film and preaching—into something that’s completely unique. We might call it “weaponized art,” meaning that it provides excellent storytelling and then presents the gospel in an artistic way.

As you may remember, at the beginning of 2020 we went before everybody and announced our goal this year of seeing 100,000 people make a profession of faith through crusade evangelism. Then COVID-19 hit and we were unable to hold our in-person crusades for the first time in 31 years. 

So we looked for new ways to preach the gospel, and came up with the idea for a cinematic crusade. We had a staggering response.

And as we tally the numbers, we’ve found we’ve not only reached, but surpassed, the 100,000 mark through our digital outreach in 2020!

Not through any of the ways we thought we would reach it, of course. We’ve reached it in an unexpected way. So what that says to me is that we had the right idea, but the Lord had a different way of bringing it about.

To God be the glory! Let’s keep going and reaching more people than ever before.

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Continue reading for more ways to see and support A Rush of Hope.

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Press Release

IRVINE, Calif. — Over 1.8 million people tuned in to Greg Laurie’s cinematic crusade “A Rush of Hope” this Labor Day weekend, breaking attendance records in Harvest’s 30 years of holding annual crusades.

“We are breaking every record we have ever set in our history,” Laurie said in a video posted to social media on Sunday.

Yet most important Laurie said are the over 17,000 professions of faith that the Harvest team received from people who decided to follow Jesus after watching the movie.

Since the start of quarantine, Harvest has seen 109,487 people make professions of faith mainly through its online services — a goal the ministry hoped to achieve over a series of in-person crusades between 2020-2021.

“In a year of never-ending bad news, this is the best news we have heard. It’s a reminder that God is greater than a pandemic or any other challenge we are facing. He can do above and beyond anything we can dream, and he is still transforming lives,” Laurie said.

Created in partnership with the Erwin Brothers’ Kingdom Story Company, “A Rush of Hope” is a cinematic crusade that addresses life’s deepest questions: Why am I here? What happens after I die? And, is there hope for today?

The movie features encouraging messages from Laurie, outtakes from faith-based films such as “I Still Believe” and “Woodlawn” and performances by artists such as Jeremy Camp, for KING & COUNTRY and MercyMe.

The movie’s message of hope is changing thousands of individual lives, but, as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sen. Marco Rubio pointed out, it is also a message for America as a whole.

“Pastor Greg Laurie is bringing hope to our country,” Secretary Pompeo tweeted last week ahead of the movie’s release.

“Every year @greglaurie brings Gods (sic) hope to our country. But this year of trials and challenges may be the most important Harvest yet,” Sen. Marco Rubio posted on Twitter.

“A Rush of Hope” aired over Labor Day weekend on dozens of online streaming and on-demand channels and over 600 radio stations. It will air on TV in major markets across the U.S. and on cable networks such as the ION network, WGN and LightTV. “A Rush of Hope” will be released to streaming and DVD in November.

The move from an in-person stadium event to a cinematic crusade follows the success of other digital ministries launched by Harvest. Greg’s podcast received over one million downloads in its first month, and Harvest at Home, the online church platform that broadcasts Greg’s weekly sermons, has increased its audience from over 40,000 people to 300,000 each Sunday.

To learn more about “A Rush of Hope” or watch the trailer, visit the movie website.

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Was your life impacted by this crusade? We’d love for you to tell us your story.

Give here to help bring this cinematic crusade to new audiences. As a thank-you, you can receive Pastor Greg Laurie’s new book, World Changers: How God Uses Ordinary People to Do Extraordinary Things.