American pastor Greg Laurie on Tuesday said 1.8 million people watched Harvest’s A Rush of Hope, a virtual crusade, with 16,000 making professions of faith for Christ.

Laurie wrote to his social media followers:

“We have a lot of bad news right now, I thought you all could use some good news!”

Laurie, senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship, is the host of the one-hour movie, which was to serve as a virtual crusade, and features clips from three Erwin Brothers films and performances from Christian artists For King and Country, MercyMe and Jeremy Camp.

It streamed for free over the weekend.

The film answers “life’s greatest questions,” as Laurie put it. Laurie said in a Monday social media video, referencing the viewership:

“We’re breaking every record we’ve ever set in our history,”

The movie streamed for free Labor Day weekend. Laurie called the Labor Day screening “phase one” in the Rush of Hope campaign.

Phase two, he says, involves purchasing “television time for next weekend and beyond.” He asked Christians to donate money to help get the film on TV.

He said:

“We want to go into markets where we’ve never been before, in the areas we’ve never visited before with this powerful message of the gospel,”

Laurie, at the beginning of A Rush of Hope, compares life to a movie. The backdrop for the film is a drive-in theater.

Laurie says in the film:

“Life is like a movie. It has a beginning, middle and end — full of surprises, twists and turns, storm clouds and darkness,” .
“But beauty and light still exist. We all have questions about this movie that we’re in. Is this movie a tragedy? Is it a love story? Is it a comedy? Can we win in the end?”

Laurie says his life “has followed all the plot twists of the greatest movies.”

He says at the beginning of the film:

“Over the next hour,” , “I’m gonna take you on a journey through three incredible movies.
You’ll hear from some of my favorite artists. So join me as we explore the meaning of life and what happens after we die. We all need a rush of hope.”