Pastor Greg Laurie, of Harvest Christian Fellowship, held a baptism on July 8 at Pirates Cove Beach, the location of the “Jesus Movement” baptisms in the 1960s in Corona Del Mar, Calif., and more than 4,500 people showed up to participate.

Author of the memoir Jesus Revolution the movie is based on, Laurie previously said, “In America, we’ve had four great spiritual awakenings. The Jesus Movement was the last. I feel like we’re overdue for another.”

An estimated 20,000 people came from all around the National and World to witness the beachside event and Laurie said on social media, “There was a line of folks waiting by the seawall for hours.”

A Jesus Revolution Rises

“We’ve never had a baptism like what happened yesterday,” said Laurie. “This may be the largest baptism in American history, maybe world history. God Knows, but it was AMAZING!”

“We give Him all the Glory!” Laurie added, “It reminds me of what happened on the day of Pentecost. ‘Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all’” (Acts 2:41).

Laurie and his wife Cathe were baptized at Pirates Cove nearly 50 years ago. The cove was also used as a filming location for Laurie’s Jesus Revolution movie.

According to Laurie, the “Jesus Revolution” movie demonstrated “the power of baptism and more significantly, what salvation looks like visually. By watching someone get baptized the way it was done in the film it really conveyed what conversion can look like. It really resonated with a lot of people.”

The baptism followed the Southern California Harvest Crusade where 230,000 people packed out the Honda Center in Anaheim and watched online, and 7,000 made proclamations of faith in a two-day worship experience with performances from Christian artists Phil Wickham, Chris Tomlin and singer Taya among others.

“There is no question that pretty much everyone at this Baptism saw the Jesus Revolution Film,” said Laurie, “So many said they were so inspired by it they wanted to be Baptized at Pirate’s Cove.”

Jesus Revolution is one of the highest-grossing faith-based films of all time. The movie is playing in theaters around the world and is now available for streaming on Netflix. (photos courtesy Harvest Christian Fellowship)

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