Gabriel Swaggart Rallies
“When God called my grandfather to world evangelism, he didn’t just call my grandfather and my grandmother; He called this entire family.” – Gabriel Swaggart
Gabriel Swaggart Rallies are soul-winning campaigns designed to reach the lost with the gospel of Jesus Christ. These one-night events offer the saved and the unsaved an opportunity to experience Spirit-filled worship and respond to the anointed preaching of God’s Word.
Accompanied by singers and musicians from Family Worship Center, the home church of Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, Pastor Gabe is taking the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified to people in major cities throughout the United States, as the Spirit leads.
The Gabriel Swaggart Rallies are an extension of the 60-year-old world ministry that was started by Brother and Sister Swaggart. These rallies serve as one more outreach in the ministry’s mission to win souls to Christ and see believers filled with the Holy Spirit, healed, and restored to a right relationship with the Lord.
HOW THE RALLIES STARTED
In the summer of 2014, Pastor Gabe said that the Lord began dealing with him about holding rallies in cities across America.
“Once I had confirmation from the Lord that this was the direction He wanted me to go, I immediately began discussing it with my family,” he said. “My grandparents, who blazed the trail with their national and international crusades in the 1980s, have been invaluable to Jill and me in the planning of what I consider a bridge from their crusades to our rallies.”To organize events of this size and magnitude, Pastor Gabe assembled a handful of experienced staff members from the ministry.
Caleb Berg, who runs the ministry’s print shop and organizes major events for Crossfire Youth Ministries, including the International Youth Conferences, was selected to be Pastor Gabe’s director for these national rallies.
Berg said he and the staff are continually amazed at what the Lord is doing through this effort. “All the time we put into the planning, traveling, and actually pulling off these rallies is worth it when we see the people coming through the doors. Even more so, as each rally goes on, we see how God is truly touching the people. That’s what it’s all about for us: people hearing the gospel and seeing it change their lives forever.”
THE FIRST FOUR EVENTS
To date, there have been four rallies in 2015─Birmingham, Alabama; San Antonio, Texas; Lakeland, Florida; and Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Brother and Sister Swaggart attended the first rally in Birmingham. Later, in his “From Me To You” column in The Evangelist, Brother Swaggart wrote about it:
“The music was absolutely exceptional, and Gabe’s message was exceptional,” he wrote. “Souls were saved, lives were changed, and above all, the gospel of Jesus Christ went out that night to everyone who was there. It was music such as most had never heard before, and it was preaching such as most had never heard before. Above all, it was the moving and operation of the Holy Spirit that most had never seen before.”
Audience members attending the rallies claim that the Spirit of God moved in a mighty way and that the Message of the Cross is the message that America needs. They describe their rally experiences as “amazing,” “powerful,” and “nothing better nowhere, ever.” With the high numbers of people receiving salvation and the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the ministry staff anticipates much larger crowds in 2016.
Pastor Gabe said that involvement by local pastors also seems to be helping their local churches.
“Pastors who have helped us in our previous rallies have gained families in their churches as a result of being a part of these rallies,” he said. “People who attend our rallies are from that select city and the surrounding areas, and they don’t necessarily have a home church or a church that preaches the Message of the Cross.
“But when they come to a rally and see that there are churches in agreement with the Message of the Cross, that still believe in that Old Time Religion, and that still look to Jesus Christ and Him crucified, they will consider attending those churches.”
VOLUNTEERS ARE BLESSED
Chad Mansur, who serves as the Gabriel Swaggart Rally volunteer and guest coordinator, corresponds with pastors in the cities selected for a rally and with others who just want to help. He said that for things to run smoothly, each rally requires about 40 volunteers.
“We can always use help,” Mansur said. “We’re going to a city we don’t know and a new venue, and we can only bring so many from the ministry. We need people who can work as greeters, ushers, and random needs for a meeting of this magnitude. If you want to volunteer, it will be a blessing to you, and you’ll get to meet some great, great saints of God.”
Ashley and Phillip Vaughn volunteered for the San Antonio rally. Ashley said she wanted to volunteer because Pastor Gabe “preaches the Cross and only the Cross, and I know he will touch millions with his rallies.”
Phillip said, “I knew when Gabe started preaching, the power of the Holy Spirit would hit that place like an earthquake, and I wanted to be a part of it.” He went on to relay how, days before the rally, he felt led by the Holy Spirit to invite a certain person who needed salvation. “However, the Lord didn’t tell me that when Gabe gave the altar call, He would save my aunt, uncle, brother, and sister-in law as well!”
Steve and Sharolette Pennington have volunteered at all of the rallies and said the audiences in each city have been diverse. “The altar calls have been tremendous, with tears, smiles, shouts, and immediate changes in the countenance on faces of people of many races and ages. Once the people are seated, there seems to be no strangers present at all, just fellowship as if at a long-awaited family reunion.”
Pastor Gabe said the rallies were designed to be inclusive — not geared toward any specific age group – and open to all people.
“These rallies are soul-winning campaigns,” he said. “Their main purpose is to call sinners to Christ, and we have seen scores of people— young and old and of all demographics and races — come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.”
THIRD-GENERATION EVANGELIST
Although Pastor Gabe has preached in other churches outside of Family Worship Center, these evangelistic rallies are a different type of venue for the third-generation Pentecostal preacher.
In addition to his studies at World Evangelism Bible College & Seminary, Pastor Gabe is a lifelong student of his father, Rev. Donnie Swaggart, and his grandfather, Rev. Jimmy Swaggart.
“I knew I was called to preach at 8 years old,” Pastor Gabe said. “It hasn’t always been an easy road, but it has always been – every day – an honor to continue in the call God has placed on our family. I like to say that this newest ministry outreach – these rallies – are meetings that have been 60 years in the making.”
At age 36, Gabriel Swaggart is now an associate pastor of Family Worship Center, where his responsibilities span the entire scope of operations at the ministry, from administration to the inner workings of the SonLife Broadcasting Network, which airs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to a potential audience of 2 billion viewers.
Pastor Gabe’s television ministry includes Generation of the Cross, a one-hour program designed to meet the everyday challenges that Christians face with Bible-based answers. He also hosts Living Waters, which highlights the music of Jimmy Swaggart and other vocalists and musicians associated with the ministry.
For the past 13 years, Pastor Gabe has also served as the youth pastor of Crossfire Youth Ministries. Each summer, Pastor Gabe and his wife, Jill, host Crossfire’s annual International Youth Conference, which draws thousands of young people to the five-day event and is also shown live on SBN.
The next round of cities and dates has already been selected for Gabriel Swaggart Rallies in 2016. For more information about current and future rallies, please visit http://www.gsrally.org
“What God started with my grandparents, and with my grandfather, He’s not finished yet,” Pastor Gabe said. “He’s going to use my dad and me to carry on that legacy. And I think that we all feel that responsibility of carrying that mantle and carrying the responsibility of Jimmy Swaggart Ministries. The mandate that the Lord gave to my grandfather, he’s also given it to us.”
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