2010 Southern California Harvest with Greg Laurie

If we’ve learned anything in 20 years of holding evangelistic events, we’ve learned this: It’s all about relationships!

Most people would assume that large–scale evangelism begins with booking big arenas, popular music, and a well–known speaker. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg! What’s below the surface is what makes for effective evangelism—people praying for people, people talking to people, and people trusting in the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That’s true for all age groups, which is why Harvest developed what is now known as the SWAT team. It stands for Students With A Testimony.

It began when handpicked students from our High School Ministry started coming with us on our Harvest Crusades trips, invading the streets of the communities where we held events. Their mission: Talk to people about Jesus and invite them to the event.

What we discovered was that hundreds of people were open to their invitations, but many of them were even more interested to talk about what it meant to be a Christian, right there on the street. Before long, it wasn’t unusual to see more than 100 people respond to the gospel and pray to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior after a conversation with one of these young people.!

As great as that was, we began to think, “Why should our church and high school and college ministries get the blessing alone?” So, we came up with G3. It stands for Gideon’s Army of 300.

The goal is to develop an army of 300 or more young people in high school and college ministries where a Harvest Crusades event is being held to hit the streets with the gospel. We send in our experienced SWAT Team leaders, months before the event, with the purpose of instructing youth pastors and students on how to effectively do street outreach and how to develop their own SWAT teams. Then, by the time the Harvest Crusades event begins, we’ve got students in the streets, in the malls, on campuses, and in the local parks praying, passing out flyers, and leading people to faith. That’s the church in action!

Leading this army is the director of our SWAT outreach and High School Ministry, Steve Wilburn. A gifted evangelist himself, Steve has a passion and the tools to help any high school or college student learn to stand strong in the faith and bold in our message.

It’s my hope and prayer that your church will get on board with G3! I guarantee it will infuse your student population with a power, passion, and joy!

In Jesus,

Greg Laurie