Lessons From The Jesus Movement



Jesus Movement baptism at Corona del Mar, CA beach - Calvary Chapel Church



"It only takes a spark to get a fire going,
And soon all those around can warm up in it's glowing,
That's how it is with God's love - once you've experienced it,
You spread His love to everyone - you want to pass it on..."

If you know these words, you might be a Jesus Person! The words above, written by Kurt Kaiser, are the lyrics to a song that became immensely popular near the head of the Jesus Movement in the early 1970's. The Jesus Movement or Jesus Revolution as some preferred to call it was a phenomenon that arose out of a stoic period in US church history - a period which was severely affected by the hippie and drug/thug counter-cultures. Hippie rebellion, drug proliferation and gang membership was flourishing among the youth culture and the local church had turned the other way, wanting little to do with a group of people whom they deemed to be "undesirable".

One-on-One Street Evangelism

God, however, did want something to do with them and in the late
1960's, street ministries targeting the hippie subculture exploded - literally simultaneously - up and down the west coast of the United States. As the movement began to spread and produce new born-again converts, local churches began to swell with an influx of these curious "undesirables" - most who were invited by hippie friends who had recently become new Christians. Whether the churches wanted it or not, an immense ready-made mission field had literally materialized in their own back yards.

Some churches embraced the Jesus people - others refused. One church that chose to open its doors and actively minister to and disciple these young seekers was Calvary Chapel under the leadership of Pastor Chuck Smith. Pastor Chuck wanted very much to minister to these people and did so by enlisting an "on fire" hippie convert named Lonnie Frisbee as Youth Pastor. The resulting response was phenomenal as the following testimony from the book "The Jesus People" by Ronald Enroth illustrates:

"An older member of the church told us that as many as 150 converts are added to the church weekly. Pastor Smith told a TV audience that upward of five hundred young people a month are baptized in services held at nearby Corona del Mar beach.

Sunday morning services are held in triplicate, with Smith speaking at all three. Attendance at the first two services is four or five hundred. the eleven o'clock service regularly overflows into an adjoining outside patio. To get a seat inside the building on Sunday night, the would-be worshiper is advised to bring his supper in a sack and stake out his sanctuary spot well in advance of the 7:00 p.m. starting time. The seating capacity of the main sanctuary is approximately 425, and on Sunday night the overflow patio crowd of several hundred sit on backless benches under the open sky or stand around the edges of the assemblage.

The midweek Bible studies are a fire marshal's nightmare and a Jesus Freak's dream. Not only are the pews packed with the faithful, both the aisles and any other available spaces are filled with young bodies, many of whom sit cramped for an hour or more before the service begins reading their Bibles..."

The short (and very rare) video below is news footage of part of an actual Calvary Chapel service being led by Youth Pastor Lonnie Frisbee:

Another notable "hip church" example was Bethel Tabernacle in North Redondo Beach, CA.  Bethel's Jesus Movement experience started when recently-born-again hippie Breck Stevens visited the church, liked what he heard and asked the pastor, Bro. Lyle Steenis if he could bring some hippies to the church to hear the gospel.  The following is the result:

"He brought twenty-one long-hairs the next week, and at the end of the service all of them came forward to receive Christ. This marked the beginning of a new era for this old-time Pentecostal church and was a turning point in Steenis' twenty-five-year ministry. Hippie types started to stream into the little white church, but the adult congregation did not rise up and call them blessed. In fact, some of the members went out into the parking lot and tried to run them off. The pastor sided with the hippies ("I'll whip the next guy who tries to run them out") and announced to his congregation:  "Those doors swing both ways. If you don't like what's going on here, you can leave the church." More than two hundred adults did just that. As Stevens tells it, they were "gospel-hardened" and didn't have a "burden for souls." Not hippie souls, in any event.

The young people kept coming, twenty-five to a hundred per night. In a few years' time thousands have encountered the ministry of Bethel Tabernacle. Between five and thirty youth are converted at every service..."

Because Christians in numerous locations acted upon a Spirit-inspired burden for wayward youth - literally hundreds of thousands of people from all over the US and Canada made professions of faith in Jesus Christ - all of this over a quite short period of years.  The fruit from this spiritual awakening has now most certainly reached numbers in the millions.

Our Kevin and Nancy LP

So, who is our current hippie sub-culture? Do we have a Spirit-given burden for them? Would today's churches be willing to risk losing "non-burdened" members to add new members to the body of Christ? In our hyper-busy lives, will we allow time for a current-day Jesus Movement?  The Jesus Movement had time for me and my brother, as we are born-again products of the ministry of a hip young couple of traveling Jesus People named Kevin and Nancy. They worked with our church youth over the course of a weekend - preaching, singing and playing guitar, flute and Hammond organ... all toward the goal of seeing souls transformed - lives changed.  My brother and I have a signed "Kevin and Nancy" vinyl record complete with our born-again birth-date from that transformational night in 1979.  I am forever grateful that that a couple of selfless, born-again hipsters took time to minister to us.  The Lordship of Jesus has made all the difference in my life and in the lives of my wife and children - and we would like for others to experience what we have.

"That's how it is with God's love... once you've experienced it.  You spread His love to everyone.  You want to pass it on." 

Do you have a Jesus Movement story or testimony?  Who do you think our main mission field is now?

His,
Mark