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Greg Laurie
Greg Laurie (1952–present). Born on December 10, 1952, in Long Beach, California, Greg Laurie grew up in a turbulent home with his single mother, Charlene, who struggled with alcoholism and had seven marriages. At 17, he converted to Christianity in 1970 after encountering Lonnie Frisbee, a Jesus Movement evangelist, on his high school campus in Newport Beach. Drawn to Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, he was mentored by Chuck Smith, beginning to preach at 19. In 1973, Laurie founded a Bible study in Riverside, California, which grew into Harvest Christian Fellowship, now one of America’s largest churches, where he has served as senior pastor for over 50 years, reaching thousands weekly across multiple campuses and online. His Harvest Crusades, launched in 1990, have drawn over 10 million attendees globally, with 550,000 professions of faith by 2023. Laurie hosts the nationally syndicated radio program A New Beginning and the TV show Harvest with Greg Laurie, and has authored over 70 books, including Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon (2019), Billy Graham: The Man I Knew (2021), and Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus (2022). Married to Cathe since 1974, they have two sons, Christopher (died 2008) and Jonathan, and five grandchildren. Laurie’s ministry emphasizes evangelism and cultural engagement, surviving a 2020 COVID-19 diagnosis. He said, “The Gospel is the best news ever, and it’s meant to be shared.”
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Greg Laurie emphasizes the danger of losing sight of God amidst the busyness of Christmas celebrations, drawing attention to the story of a mother and her child getting caught up in the material aspects of the season. He highlights how many can easily forget the true meaning of Christmas, focusing on worldly symbols rather than the birth of Jesus. Laurie reminds listeners that while we may lose sight of God in our lives, God never loses sight of us, always present and attentive to our needs.
Not Presents, but His Presence
And so the Lord says, “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” - (Isaiah 29:13) I heard the story of a mother who was out Christmas shopping, frantically trying to get everything done. She had her small child with her, but for a moment, she lost sight of him. In sheer panic, she started retracing her steps and found him with his nose pressed against the glass of a store display, looking at a manger scene. The boy said, “Mommy, Mommy! Look! It is Jesus in the hay!” “Let’s go,” she said, as she took him by the hand and led him away. “We don’t have time for that.” Exactly. That is the whole problem with this time of year that we call Christmas. We can be so busy celebrating Christmas that we forget all about Christ. In a sense, we can actually lose God in the midst of it all. We can very easily lose God in the so-called celebration of Jesus. For many, the Christmas story is the one about Scrooge being visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past, or maybe Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, or Frosty the Snowman or Santa Claus. But technically, can we lose God? No, we really can’t. You can’t lose someone if you know where they are. If you know where they are, then they are not lost. But you can lose sight of someone. And some have lost sight of the Lord in their lives, especially at this time of the year. Maybe you’ve had the experience of talking with someone who was checking their texts or updating their social media as you’re trying to tell them something important. God never does that. God is never disinterested. God is never distracted. And even if we forget about Him, He never forgets about us. Christmas is not about buying presents; it is about His presence in our lives.
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Greg Laurie (1952–present). Born on December 10, 1952, in Long Beach, California, Greg Laurie grew up in a turbulent home with his single mother, Charlene, who struggled with alcoholism and had seven marriages. At 17, he converted to Christianity in 1970 after encountering Lonnie Frisbee, a Jesus Movement evangelist, on his high school campus in Newport Beach. Drawn to Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, he was mentored by Chuck Smith, beginning to preach at 19. In 1973, Laurie founded a Bible study in Riverside, California, which grew into Harvest Christian Fellowship, now one of America’s largest churches, where he has served as senior pastor for over 50 years, reaching thousands weekly across multiple campuses and online. His Harvest Crusades, launched in 1990, have drawn over 10 million attendees globally, with 550,000 professions of faith by 2023. Laurie hosts the nationally syndicated radio program A New Beginning and the TV show Harvest with Greg Laurie, and has authored over 70 books, including Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon (2019), Billy Graham: The Man I Knew (2021), and Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus (2022). Married to Cathe since 1974, they have two sons, Christopher (died 2008) and Jonathan, and five grandchildren. Laurie’s ministry emphasizes evangelism and cultural engagement, surviving a 2020 COVID-19 diagnosis. He said, “The Gospel is the best news ever, and it’s meant to be shared.”