An 85 year old man was so moved by the hit Christian movie Jesus Revolution that he took part in the biggest water baptism ever seen in the United States.
The event was organised by Harvest Christian Fellowship’s Pastor Greg Laurie who helped baptise 4,500 people into the Christian faith last weekend. It surpassed the 4,166 baptised at a similar event held last month. Both took place at Pirates Cove, a beach just south of Los Angeles.
Pastor Laurie told Faithwire: “It was really overwhelming. There was a line of people a half mile long to get into the cove, because we have just one staircase. So, we have to take people down, baptise them, send them back up and have more people come down, and so it’s logistically really challenging.”
Pirate’s Cove was also the site of mass baptisms at the height of the Jesus Movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Greg Laurie and his wife Cathe were among those baptised there at the time. Their salvation story is told in the Jesus Revolution film which is about the great revival brought on by the movement at a time when young people were struggling for meaning in their lives and turned to Christ in droves.
Pastor Laurie explained to Faithwire how he first noticed the elderly man: “At one point, the line really got slowed down because an older couple was taking longer to get down the stairs. But when we met him, his story was so amazing because he watched the movie at 85 years old and accepted Jesus into his life. His family said, ‘We never, ever thought he would come to Christ.’”
The Harvest Church founder said the man “was not a believer” before seeing the movie, but that he accepted Christ afterward, and then headed to Pirate’s Cove to publicly affirm his faith in Jesus. He added that his commitment to faith and baptism shows “It’s never too late. Never give up on people. Never stop praying for people.”
Earlier this month Greg Laurie saw nearly 7,000 new Christians dedicate their lives to Jesus at his Southern California Harvest Crusade. He plans to hold another mass baptism next month. His Harvest Church’s mission is To know God and make Him known.
The popular pastor is elated by the success of Jesus Revolution which has grossed around A$80 million in the US alone and appears set to be a box office hit across Latin America and in many other Christian countries. “I never thought we would have the kind of response to this movie that we’ve had, and it’s going all around the world now,” he said.
He urges Christians to keep praying for revival so that what’s happening in Pirates Cove will spread across their nations.
