A meeting with a message

SOUL FOOD

I sat in a Los Angeles stadium with my family one weekend more than

30 years ago and listened to Billy Graham preach the Gospel at one of

his legendary crusades.

Graham was dapper in a suit and tie. My mother, my father, my

sister and I were dressed in our Sunday best, like everyone else I

could see in the vast crowd.

Women wore dresses or a skirt and blouse, nylon stockings and

heels. Many wore hats and smart, white gloves. Men wore suits or a

coat and tie. Girls wore shiny patent leather shoes over neat, white

ankle socks. Boys wore polished oxfords and pressed trousers and a

crisp, starched shirt.

At the end of the evening when thousands poured forward to commit

themselves to Jesus Christ, I longed to go with them but I stayed in

my seat. To have marched down those steps with the others that day

would have been a game of pretend, fooling neither God nor myself.

I didn’t grasp Graham’s message: It would be years before I would.

But it captured my imagination. It took root in my mind and my heart.

Two weekends ago, Greg Laurie and Harvest held the 14th annual

Harvest Crusade at Edison Field. Over the course of the three-evening

event, 106,000 poured into the stadium for what one reporter dubbed

two years ago, “a bang up, new-fashioned revival.”

In so many ways it wasn’t the crusade of my youth.

Added to its annual Saturday night youth program, Harvest Jam,

that this year featured bands Delirious? and Audio Adrenaline, there

was a new youth event, Summerfest, with a champion, freestyle

Motocross exhibition; a skateboard exhibition; music by bands Sonic

Flook, Kutless and The Elms; a sports zone and a kids zone.

On Sunday night, I as sat above the third base dugout at Edison

Field, men, women and children arrived in jeans, T-shirts and

sandals, shorts, tank tops and flip-flops. Many brought coolers of

sodas, chips and fruit. Others sipped sodas and munched on popcorn or

hot dogs bought from the stadium’s concessions.

Several large-screen monitors broadcast the events on stage:

worship music sung by a 1,000-voice choir assembled especially for

Harvest 2003, the band Mercy Me, Lenny LeBlanc, Crystal Lewis, Tommy

Walker and Marty Goetz; inspirational and Gospel messages, sprinkled

with humor, from pastor Chuck Smith, author and speaker Max Lucado

and Greg Laurie.

Laurie teased Smith about running for governor. “It would be The

Terminator against The Sermonator,” he said.

In the seats around mine, families with small children sang along

to the worship songs, raising their hands in praise. Moms and dads

listened, absorbed, to Smith and Lucado and Laurie.

“If your problems are too great it’s because your view of God is

too small. If your fear of the future is too great it’s because your

understanding of the one who controls your future is too small. If

your guilt is too great it’s because your understanding of God’s

great, immeasurable grace is too small,” Lucado told the crowd. “Lift

your eyes off the storm and look into the face of your [heavenly]

father.”

It wasn’t the crusade of my youth but its message was the same.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” [Romans

3:23] And “the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal

life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” [Roman 6:23]

Andrew Russell, missions and assistant pastor at Calvary Chapel

Huntington Beach, said, “Our focus is on the Gospel of Jesus Christ,

getting people to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.”

Russell, whose wife committed her life to Jesus Christ at a

Harvest Crusade a few years before she and Russell met, describes his

commitment to Harvest as passionate.

He has worked with the Harvest crusades for 13 years doing

anything from setting up equipment to counseling new believers at the

end of the evening. This year he was a regional coordinator for

Harvest 2003, working with 179 of the churches that participated in

Harvest 2003, including more than a dozen in Huntington Beach.

“I see the results,” Russell said. “It’s awesome to see the Lord

working.”