Source: Harvest, July 11, 2023
On July 8-9, Harvest Christian Fellowship facilitated more than 4,500 baptisms at Pirate’s Cove in Newport Beach. The same body of water was used for baptisms during the Jesus Movement in the 1960s and 70s.
People gathered from across the country with lines wrapped around the seawall in what Harvest is calling the largest baptism in American history.
“On the day of Pentecost, after Peter preached, we read in the Bible that 3,000 people were baptized,” said Pastor Greg Laurie. “At Pirate’s Cove, we are looking at a baptism of biblical proportions.”
Laurie and his wife Cathe were baptized at Pirate’s Cove nearly 50 years ago. The cove was also used as a filming location for the Jesus Revolution movie.
According to Laurie, the 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 follows the Southern California Harvest Crusade where 230,000 people packed out the Honda Center in Anaheim [or] watched online, and 7,000 made proclamations of faith in a two-day worship experience.
“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.”
See the full press release with pictures. It mentions that Jesus Revolution will be available for streaming on Netflix at the end of the month; you can already stream it through some other services.