California pastor Greg Laurie suggests it may be the largest mass baptism event ever.
Jesus Revolution, which brought in $52 million at the domestic box office during its theatrical run earlier this year, tells the story of America's last great revival from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Set in Southern California, it features an iconic scene of large numbers of hippies and other members of counterculture groups getting baptized at Pirate's Cove beach.
Among them was then teenager Greg Laurie, who wrote a book by the same title a few years ago that formed the basis of the movie. Now 70 years old and the long-serving lead pastor at Harvest Christian Fellowship church in Riverside, CA, he put on an enormous baptism event of his own over the weekend at the same location.
He was joined by the film's co-writer/director Jon Erwin and producer Kevin Downes - both committed Christians - and thousands of people who came to be baptized: 4,500 of them according to a social media post that Laurie put out. In it, the pastor stated that "This may be the largest baptism in American history, maybe world history."
The movie's social media pages also featured posts about the event and stated it is "Amazing to watch the Jesus Revolution continue." The film is currently available to purchase on DVD and in digital format and will be coming to the Netflix streaming platform on July 31st.