Wednesday Night Harvest (Christian Smith)

Wednesday Night Harvest was born in the early ’90s after Ed became a born-again Christian. A small revival had started in the church, where he was invited by his friend David Perrigan. Eventually, I also chose to follow Jesus Christ.

Inspired by the Harvest Crusade, three young individuals – Christian Smith, David Perrigan, and Ed Melendez – took up the challenge to become “Radical Christians” and start a ministry for God through outreach. They combined their gifts and talents to create outreach for the community of Norwalk, California.

Christian, Dave, and Ed approached pastor Kyle Ermoian of The Disciples of Christ in Norwalk with the idea of an outreach service for Wednesday night, modeled after the outreach services of Calvary Chapel’s Harvest Crusade. Kyle agreed to their proposal and allowed the use of the church sanctuary for their services.

The first step was to put together a team of people to oversee the new ministry and outreach. This included a speaker/pastor to give the message, prayer warriors to pray for the service, and a worship team to oversee the music.

Christian Smith oversaw outreach as the ministry’s working teacher/pastor, while David Perrigan led and oversaw the worship team. The worship team had several regular faces leading the music, including Kelly Buckner, Jeff Simpson, Alan Simpson, and many others.

The outreach attracted many regular listeners who diligently attended each Wednesday to hear about Christian’s work and to hear music from the worship team. Those familiar faces included David Brown, Crystal Michelle von Lewis, Michelle Collins, Stacy Monfort, Melanie Black, William Perrigan, Vicky Perrigan, Bob Chapa, and many others.

It was a time of innocence, discovery, and experimentation. There was no rule book, just the Good Book, and it was a time when God’s hand was certainly at work.

Looking back, we can see how God was working out His perfect plan. All glory be to God!

I hope you enjoy this week’s Flashback Friday selection.