Greg Laurie
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Greg Laurie (born 1952) is an American evangelical pastor, evangelist, and Christian author who serves as the senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship, based in Riverside, California.<ref name=HC2025>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.
Early life and education
Greg Laurie was born in 1952 in Long Beach, California.<ref name=KandilLATimes>Template:Cite web</ref> He was raised by a single mother who was married seven times in total.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He worked as a newspaper boy for the Daily Pilot in Orange County, California.<ref name=KandilLATimes/> Laurie was not raised in the Christian faith or a church environment; in 1970, when Laurie was 17 years old (while attending Newport Harbor High School), he became a Christian as a result of the ministry of evangelist Lonnie Frisbee, in a period when the Jesus Movement was exploding in Southern California.<ref name=KandilLATimes/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Career with HCF
In 1973, Laurie began a home Bible study in Riverside, California,<ref name="christianpost.com">Template:Cite web</ref> an opportunity given to him, at age 20, to lead 30 people under the mentorship of Calvary Chapel pastor Chuck Smith.Template:Cn The group quickly grew in size,Template:Cn and Laurie founded the Harvest Christian Fellowship in that same year, in Riverside,<ref name=SmithCP/> where, 50 years later, he still served as senior pastor.<ref name=HC2025 /><ref name="christianpost.com" /> In 1990, Laurie founded the Harvest Crusades,<ref name=NBLM /> an organization that hosts large-scale evangelistic events around the U.S.Template:Cn As David Olson noted on the occasion of the organization's 25th anniversary crusade at Angel Stadium of Anaheim, California, the organization began its "Harvest America" program in 2012, in which "people from across the country [can] watch a crusade live in a church or other venue via high-quality Internet streams and satellite feeds".<ref name=OlsonOCR>Template:Cite web</ref>
As of June 2017, Harvest Christian Fellowship was maintaining its ties with "the Calvary Chapel association of evangelical churches".<ref name=SmithCP/> In June of that year, Harvest "officially joined the Southern Baptist Convention" (SBC) under Laurie's leadership, after a first-time, 2017 collaborative participation in the "Crossover Phoenix" evangelistic event of the SBC's North American Mission Board.<ref name=SmithCP/> Also noted in reporting was the fact that two days after Harvest America held a large - and what it considered a very successful - crusade at the University of Phoenix Stadium, the SBC began its 2017 annual meeting in Phoenix as well.<ref name=SmithCP/> As Samual Smith noted in reporting in the Christian Post, the reason for the decision by Laurie and the leadership at Harvest to affiliate with SBC was "to... work toward the ultimate [common] goals of 'national revival' and a 'great awakening'.<ref name=SmithCP/> Even with the new affiliation, Lurie "vowed to continue working with Christians from 'nearly every other denomination'".<ref name=SmithCP>Template:Cite web</ref>
Harvest at Home
Template:Refimprove section When all California churches were forced temporarily to shut their doors because of COVID-19,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Harvest Christian Fellowship and Greg Laurie started the online church program "Harvest at Home",Template:Cn which became one of the most-watched internet worship services in America, averaging over 200,000 viewers weekly during the pandemic.Template:Cn
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
As of 2023, Harvest at Home continued to be one of the most widely watched online church services in America,Template:Cn with average viewership of over 100,000 in that year.Template:Citation needed
Other ministry responsibilities
In 2013, Laurie served as the Honorary Chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force.<ref name=NBLM /> 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.'"<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Laurie has served on the board of directors for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.Template:When<ref>Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. 2006 Annual Report Template:Webarchive, p. 18</ref> He has served as a chaplain for the Newport Beach Police Department for over 25 years.<ref name=KandilLATimes/><ref name=NBLM>Template:Cite web</ref> He also became a chaplain for the Costa Mesa Police Department in 2013.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Controversy
In 2025, lawsuits were filed against Laurie and Harvest Christian Fellowship, with regard to assault allegations at an orphanage in Romania.<ref>The Associated Press, nbcnews.com, USA, September 18, 2025</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Media
Published works
As of 2024 Laurie has written more than 70 books.<ref name=NBLM /> His publications include;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Cn
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- Template:Cite book Note, David Allen Books-Kerygma Publishing appear to be the publishing arm of Greg Laurie's ministry, and is thus (apart from other evidence, is located to Riverside, CA; explore at this, and this link regarding this conclusion. (No other address appears on their published works, and no authoritative entries appear for this publisher at standard publishing sources.)
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- Template:Cite book Note, Google Books indicates the Publisher as Simon and Shuster, at odds with the publisher appearing in the front material excerpt provided (which clearly presents Regnary-Salem).
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Films
Laurie's 2018 autobiographical book, Jesus Revolution, written with Ellen Vaughn, was adapted as a feature film in 2023.<ref>Maureen Mackey, 'Jesus Revolution' taps into today's hunger for faith, says Greg Laurie: 'People are getting scared', foxnews.com, USA, March 1, 2023</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The film, also titled Jesus Revolution, was produced by Kingdom Story Company and Lionsgate, and presents the story of how Laurie and his wife Cathe came to faith during the Jesus Movement in Southern California.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Laurie has produced or written several films, including;
- Lost Boy. (2010) <ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Hope for Hurting Hearts.(2013) <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Steve McQueen: American Icon. (2019) <ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- A Rush of Hope. (2020) <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon. (2022) <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Jesus Revolution (2023).Template:Cn
Other media
Template:Refimprove section Laurie's sermons are featured on the syndicated half-hour daily radio program, A New Beginning,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> broadcast on over 1,100 stations worldwide.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A New Beginning is also featured as a Christian podcast, available on iTunes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Laurie has also a guest commentator at WorldNetDaily,Template:Cn and as of this date,Template:When appeared regularly in a weekly television program called GregLaurie.tv on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN).Template:Cn
Awards and recognition
Laurie's The Upside Down Church (1999, co-authored with David Kopp, see Published works), won a Gold Medallion Book Award in the "Christian ministry" category in 2000.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
As of 2023, Laurie is reported to have been given two honorary doctorates, from Biola University and from Azusa Pacific University.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Third party inline
Personal life
As of 2024, Laurie resided in Newport Beach, California, with his wife, Catherine (Cathe); the couple had five grandchildren.<ref name=NBLM />
Greg and Cathe had two sons, Christopher and Jonathan; on July 24, 2008, Christopher was killed at the scene of a car accident on eastbound Riverside Freeway in Corona, California; he was 33 years old.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
References
External links
- 1952 births
- Living people
- 20th-century Baptist ministers from the United States
- 20th-century evangelicals
- 21st-century American male writers
- 21st-century American non-fiction writers
- 21st-century Baptist ministers from the United States
- 21st-century evangelicals
- American anti-abortion activists
- American Christian creationists
- American Evangelical writers
- American male non-fiction writers
- American religious writers
- Baptist writers
- Charismatics pastors
- Jesus movement
- Members of the Calvary Chapel
- Newport Harbor High School alumni
- Southern Baptist ministers
- Trinity Broadcasting Network people
- Clergy from Long Beach, California
- Writers from Long Beach, California