July 21, 2005

FOCUS ON FAITH

God at work

Almaden’s Harvest Evangelism to hold weeklong conference to celebrate 25th anniversary

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

A longtime Almaden resident who began an interdenominational religious movement more than 25 years ago will be the host of a weeklong conference next month aimed at helping Christians incorporate spirituality into the workplace.

The Rev. Ed Silvoso is founder and president of Harvest Evangelism. He’s lived in Almaden for more than 25 years.

The Rev. Ed Silvoso, a native of Argentina, will be the keynote speaker of Harvest Evangelism’s Light the Bay II Transformation 25th anniversary celebration Aug. 6, 11-13.

Silvoso is founder and president of Harvest Evangelism, a Christian nonprofit organization that works to empower church and business leaders to develop effective prototypes of complete spiritual and social transformation of communities.

The conference, expected to attract about 600 people, will feature a day of intercession Aug. 6, from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a prayer cruise that will sail from Pier 33 in San Francisco.

Five days later, on Aug. 11, the conference will feature a prayer rally at 7 p.m. at Harbor Light Assembly of God church in Fremont. Admission is free to the rally. On Aug. 12, from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., several Harvest Evangelism leaders will train participants to change the marketplace environment through their faith and the power of prayer, regardless of position or occupation, again at the Harbor Light Assembly of God church, 4760 Thornton Ave., in Fremont.

On Aug. 13, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., the conference will feature a Christian business and ministries expo at the Santa Clara Convention Center, 5001 Great America Parkway, in Santa Clara, where Christian businesses and ministries will advertise business and employment opportunities and energize ongoing transformation in the workplace. Some of the conference’s speakers include Hawaii’s Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona as well as other respected public and private sector leaders.

“We want to help people love Monday as much as Sunday by discovering that God cares for what they do,” said Silvoso during a telephone interview. “We want people to know that God is available the rest of the week. We want people to understand that God is deeply interested in their success.”

Silvoso began his ministry in 1980 after being diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, an incurable disease similar to multiple sclerosis. After moving to the Bay Area to undergo treatments at Stanford Medical Center, he believes intercessory prayer miraculously cured him. During this time he was married and had four daughters; the youngest was 2 years old.

With his wife, Ruth, he left the Palau Team, another evangelical ministry group, and had a dream where he saw himself starting Harvest Evangelism. Since beginning the movement, he’s written four best-selling books published by Gospel Light, one of the top Christian publishers. His book, “Anointed for Business,” is the text for the conference.

“I have seen the power of God in my life,” Silvoso said.

Harvest Evangelism has about 80 full-time missionaries in San Jose and in other parts of the world. It teaches that Jesus Christ came to the world to save humankind but also nations, communities and those in the marketplace.

“We can believe in a change in the spiritual climate of a region that translates in a complete and total change of society,” said Harvest Evangelism missionary and chief intercessor Ted Hahs.

Harvest Evangelism has a network of intercessors—those especially called to pray—representing 13 counties around the San Francisco region, from Mendocino to Stanislaus counties.

Hahs, 34, joined the organization in 1996. He had learned about Harvest Evangelism from his home church in Hesperia, Southern California, which supported the movement.

In 1990, he participated in one of Harvest Evangelism’s international crusades to Resistencia, Argentina, where a spiritual revival is said to have occurred and continues to occur with thousands of people turning their lives over to Christ.

“We believe that Jesus Christ came to save not only individual souls, but to seek and to save that which was lost,” Hahs explained. “We’ll work with anybody that’s committed to the transformation of the community. Our roots are evangelical but we’re building bridges with all denominations.”

Like Silvoso, Hahs pointed out that early leaders of Jesus’ church weren’t leaders in the established synagogues, but were leaders in the marketplace with some working as fishermen. They noted the apostle Matthew was a tax collector; the apostle Mark was a retired millionaire; the apostle Paul was a tent maker and that Jesus was a well-known carpenter running a successful family business that supported his family.

The Rev. Ed Silvoso speaks during a religious ceremony in Argentina when Harvest Evangelism formally presented members of the Argentine congress containers of medical equipment donated by Christians in the international community. Photo courtesy of Harvest Evangelism.

“We’ve understood the call of God into the so-called pulpit, but God has called us into the marketplace. We need to go in and believe that the Spirit of the Lord will go with us and be agents for transformation in the marketplace. His spirit wants to be with us and He can help us with every day deals … we can pray and ask God for supernatural intervention.”

The movement also points out that Jesus’ miracles were marketplace miracles such as the one in the New Testament’s book of John when the bridegroom ran out of wine for his thirsty guests and Jesus turned water into wine at the request of his mother.

Hahs also cited the miracle of catching fish in which Jesus told his disciples to throw their nets on the right side of the boat and when they did they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish caught.

According to the Barna Research Group, one of the leading Christian research institutes, Christians are leaving the church because they don’t feel connected to what’s going on Sunday and are trying to connect to God in other ways, Hahs said.

Like Harvest Evangelism, other organizations have began to sprung with the same ideology such as Marketplace Leaders, Christian authors such as Rick Hereen, who penned, “Thank God It’s Monday.”

“We’re not talking about going in with the Bible to shove it down people’s throats,” Hahs said. “We’re talking about Christians becoming engaged and tapping into the resources that God has to bring transformation. We’re talking about a God who loves them intimately and who understands what they’re dealing with day to day. We’re talking about a God who doesn’t see a divide between the secular and the sacred and who doesn’t say they have to give up who they are and wants to come into their world to help them succeed.”

For more information on Harvest Evangelism, 6472 Camden Ave., Ste. 110, San Jose, Calif., 95120, (408) 927-9052, or to register or learn more about the conference please log onto www.harvestevan.org, or call 1 (888) 852-9268.