Greg Laurie, senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship, joined thousands of pro-lifers in Washington D.C. on Friday (Jan. 19) at this year’s March for Life—an annual event where people gather together to march against the practice and legalization of abortion.
Laurie, with his wife Cathe at his side, led thousands of marchers in prayer.
“I’m so proud of all of you coming out on this very cold, snowy day in our nation’s capital to speak for those who have no voice,” Laurie told marchers. He explained that the March for Life is very personal to him because he was conceived out of wedlock after his “mother had a fling with some guy in Long Beach” and could have easily had been an abortion statistic in the 1950s.
“Thankfully, my mother carried me to term and I was born,” he said.
Laurie then shared testimony of how he came to know Jesus. After searching for the “meaning of life,” Laurie said, he came across a group of people at his high school who were known as “Jesus Freaks,” who peaked his interest. Laurie said that led him to receive Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior after hearing a young man give the gospel.
“The Gospel means good news,” Laurie said. “It’s a simple message that we’re all separated from God by our sin, but God loved us so much that 2,000 years ago, he sent his Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sin, and then he rose again from the dead.” Therefore, Laurie added, “if we will turn from our sin and invite Christ into our life, we can know with certainty that we have eternal life.”
While acknowledging that many in the March for Life crowd were followers of Christ, Laurie didn’t want to assume that everyone had heard the good news before, so he led everyone in a prayer of salvation.
“I wanted to just pray with you for a moment, just in case there’s someone within earshot, someone here that is not certain that if this were their last day on earth, that they would go to heaven because we don’t just care about being born—that’s very important to us,” Laurie said. “But we want you, as Jesus said, to be born again and have eternal life.”
Laurie followed up his prayer of salvation by praying for those who were about to march and asked that God might bring a “revival” and that the church would “be there to support” the mothers who choose to give life to their children. He concluded by leading everyone in the “Lord’s Prayer,” which is found in Matthew 6:9-13.
