Sports Spectrum

Dallas Cowboys' AT&T Stadium hosts 35,000 people at Harvest America event

By Jon Ackerman Jun 12, 2018
(Photo courtesy of Twitter @ HarvestAmerica)

AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, plays host to numerous big-time events each year. In addition to Cowboys games, it is home to the Cotton Bowl each year, it recently hosted the 2018 NFL Draft, and coming soon the stadium will feature FC Barcelona vs. AS Roma (July 31) and Taylor Swift (Oct. 5-6).

On Sunday night, the featured event was Harvest America, one of the largest evangelistic movements in the country. More than 35,000 people gathered at AT&T Stadium, with more than 100,000 people viewing the event online, according to Harvest America.

Two years ago at the same location, Harvest America became the largest one-day evangelistic event in American history, with more than 90,000 in attendance at AT&T Stadium and more than 350,000 online viewers. Sunday’s event marked the largest live radio broadcast audience, as more than 800 radio outlets carried the event along with the 100,000-plus online viewers.

Founded by pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, Calif., Harvest America describes itself as “the coordination of hundreds of churches around a live broadcast site and thousands of host locations across the nation coming together on one night to bring the life-saving message of the Gospel to their community through a large-scale evangelistic outreach.” Each event features music from top Christian artists as well as a message from Laurie.

Musical acts Trip Lee, Tedashii, KB, Switchfoot, David Crowder, Phil Wickham and Chris Tomlin took the stage on Sunday. Levi Lusko, the lead pastor of Fresh Life Church in Montana and Utah, spoke to the crowd in addition to Laurie.

One topic Laurie touched on was suicide, noting the recent news of television personality Anthony Bourdain and fashion icon Kate Spade taking their own lives, and that 45,000 Americans took their lives last year.

“There is someone who loves you and someone who values you. And He’s called Jesus Christ,” Laurie told the crowd, and he then quoted Jeremiah 29:11, which reads, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'”

After the event, Harvest Ministries learned of a young suicidal girl in the audience.

“Her arms were scarred from multiple suicide attempts. She was getting ready to leave after the event started, but when she heard Pastor Greg tell suicidal people that there was hope in Christ, she stayed. At the evening’s close, she walked forward and made a commitment to follow Jesus. Let’s remember to pray for her and the many others that came to Jesus last night across America.”

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