Greg Laurie


Greg Laurie is an American evangelical pastor, evangelist, and Christian author 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.

Early life and education

Greg Laurie was born in 1952 in Long Beach, California. He was raised by a single mother who was married seven times in total. He worked as a newspaper boy for the Daily Pilot in Orange County, California. Laurie was not raised in the Christian faith or a church environment; in 1970, when Laurie was 17 years old, 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.

Career with HCF

In 1973, Laurie began a home Bible study in Riverside, California, an opportunity given to him, at age 20, to lead 30 people under the mentorship of Calvary Chapel pastor Chuck Smith. The group quickly grew in size, and Laurie founded the Harvest Christian Fellowship in that same year, in Riverside, where, 50 years later, he still served as senior pastor. In 1990, Laurie founded the Harvest Crusades, an organization that hosts large-scale evangelistic events around the U.S. 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 watch a crusade live in a church or other venue via high-quality Internet streams and satellite feeds".
As of June 2017, Harvest Christian Fellowship was maintaining its ties with "the Calvary Chapel association of evangelical churches". In June of that year, Harvest "officially joined the Southern Baptist Convention" 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. 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. 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 goals of 'national revival' and a 'great awakening'. Even with the new affiliation, Lurie "vowed to continue working with Christians from 'nearly every other denomination'".

Harvest at Home

When all California churches were forced temporarily to shut their doors because of COVID-19, Harvest Christian Fellowship and Greg Laurie started the online church program "Harvest at Home", which 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.
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."
As of 2023, Harvest at Home continued to be one of the most widely watched online church services in America, with average viewership of over 100,000 in that year.

Other ministry responsibilities

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.
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. 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.'"
Laurie has served on the board of directors for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. He has served as a chaplain for the Newport Beach Police Department for over 25 years. He also became a chaplain for the Costa Mesa Police Department in 2013.

Controversy

In 2025, lawsuits were filed against Laurie and Harvest Christian Fellowship, with regard to child rape and sex trafficking allegations at an orphanage in Romania.

Media

Published works

As of 2024 Laurie has written more than 70 books.
  • Note, David Allen Books-Kerygma Publishing appear to be the publishing arm of Greg Laurie's ministry, and is thus
  • Note, Google Books indicates the Publisher as Simon & Schuster, at odds with the publisher appearing in the front material excerpt provided.

  • Films

Laurie's 2018 autobiographical book, Jesus Revolution, written with Ellen Vaughn, was adapted as a feature film in 2023. 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.
Laurie has produced or written several films, including;
  • Lost Boy.
  • Hope for Hurting Hearts.
  • Steve McQueen: American Icon.
  • A Rush of Hope.
  • Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon.
  • Jesus Revolution.

    Other media

Laurie's sermons are featured on the syndicated half-hour daily radio program, A New Beginning, broadcast on over 1,100 stations worldwide. A New Beginning is also featured as a Christian podcast, available on iTunes.
Laurie has also a guest commentator at WorldNetDaily, and as of this date, appeared regularly in a weekly television program called GregLaurie.tv on the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Awards and recognition

Laurie's The Upside Down Church, won a Gold Medallion Book Award in the "Christian ministry" category in 2000.
As of 2023, Laurie is reported to have been given two honorary doctorates, from Biola University and from Azusa Pacific University.

Personal life

As of 2024, Laurie resided in Newport Beach, California, with his wife, Catherine ; the couple had five grandchildren.
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.