Remembering the Jesus Movement

[Guest power2u]

History of the Jesus Movement

For more information on the Jesus Movement, order "The Jesus People Movement: An Annotated Bibliography and General Resource" - now available.

By most accounts, the Jesus People Movement began in 1967 with the opening of a small storefront evangelical mission called the Living Room in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury district. Though other missionary type organizations had preceded them in the area, this was the first one run solely by street Christians.

Within a short time of these first stirrings a number of independent Christian communities sprang up all across North America. In Seattle, the Jesus People Army was born in response to a vision experienced by evangelist Linda Meissner, who had seen an "army of teenagers marching for Jesus." On the Sunset Strip, evangelist Arthur Blessitt opened the His Place nightclub and coffeehouse as a 24 hour way station for youth. At the University of California at Berkeley, Dr. Jack Sparks and some other members of Campus Crusade decided to begin a countercultural outreach program called the Christian Liberation World Front (CWLF) directed towards reaching campus radicals.

The ensuing groundswell of activity spawned a number of other developments as well. Realizing the need to open their churches to the hippie generation, many conservative pastors recruited hippie liaisons to their ministerial staff. Both Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel (in Santa Ana, California) with the recruitment of Lonnie Frisbee, and Lyle Steenis of Bethel Tabernacle (in Redondo Beach) with the recruitment of Breck Stevens found their churches radically transformed in the wake of their decisions.

In order to proclaim the message of the gospel, hippie Christians simply adopted existing forms of communication. Mirroring the development of underground newspapers such as the Berkeley Barb, in 1969 evangelist Duane Pederson began publishing the Hollywood Free Paper as an evangelistic tool. Jesus papers with names like Right On!, The Fish, Street Level, and Cornerstone became a fundamental component of each street Christian community.

Another development was Jesus Music, the controversial combination of rock music and the gospel as one of the most effective (and subsequently lasting) institutions of the revival. Artists and groups such as Ron Moore, Love Song, John Fischer, Larry Norman, Randy Matthews, Agape, and the All Saved Freak Band are just a few of the performers that felt the need to communicate spiritual truths through a popular medium. Christian coffeehouses and Jesus rock festivals emerged as the music gained momentum as a popular alternative to the mainstream industry. Contemporary Christian radio shows sprang up as did magazines devoted solely to monitoring the fledgling Jesus Music scene. While many conservative church-goers lamented that Jesus Music was a spiritual compromise, these pioneers maintained that they were combating the negative influence of mainstream rock music. In an attempt to develop an apologetic for their evangelistic efforts they echoed the sentiments of reformer Martin Luther when he asked "why should the devil have all the best tunes."

Adding to the excitement of the era was the sense that the revival was a foreshadowing of the impending apocalypse. Hal Lindsey's runaway best seller The Late Great Planet Earth hit upon a deep seated nerve in the public with his combination of biblical prophecy and news events. Lindsey based much of his writing on the premise that the re-establishment of Israel as a nation was a prominent signal that the "countdown to Armageddon" had begun. Coupled with this end times theology was a premillennial doctrine concerning the "rapture of the saints" which taught that prior to the rise of the Antichrist and final war believers would be "raptured" (or 'caught up') to escape a time of tribulation perceived as being foretold in the Book of Revelation. Jesus musician Larry Norman's haunting song "I Wish We'd All Been Ready" touched on this theme:

Two men walking up a hill

One disappears

and one's left standing still

I wish we'd all been ready

The revival also spawned a number of extremist groups such as the Children of God, The Alamo Foundation, and the Way International. Although at first accepted and welcomed as more militant and committed street Christian groups, as apologetic ministries such as the CWLF's Spiritual Counterfeits Project rose to expose doctrinal deviations, these groups were branded as heretical.

Though the revival had progressed for four years, the mainstream media did not really focus on the story until 1971. Though Christianity Today and Christian Life had followed the story from its beginnings in the Haight Ashbury, it wasn't until 1970 when articles about 'street Christians' and 'Jesus freaks' appeared in Time and Commonweal. The major breakthrough came in February 1971 when Look magazine printed a story that anyone had described it as anything more than a local California event. This article spawned a virtual cottage industry of press articles, denominational ruminations, television exposes, and films all detailing various facets of what was now being called a "movement." Ocean baptismal services, exuberant prayer meetings, long-haired evangelists, and Jesus rock musicians were portrayed throughout national magazines like Time, Newsweek, Life, Rolling Stone, and U.S. News & World Report. In 1971 the Jesus People were the religious event of the year while ranking third in Time's story of the year poll. Alongside the emergence of Black Panthers, hippies, Yippies, Diggers, student activists, Weathermen, and women's liberationists, the 'Jesus freak' was certainly the most curious social phenomena of the late 1960's and early 1970's.

Although the media's interest in the movement waned by the end of 1971, there was much evidence that the revival was still going strong. The Jesus People USA, an offshoot ministry of the original Seattle Jesus People Army, would soon find a home in Chicago ministering to street youth. In 1972 Campus Crusade organized Explo '72 in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas where many of the movement's top performers were invited to sing. In 1973 former Calvary Chapel pastor Kenn Gulliksen was just starting a string of Bible studies that would culminate in the Vineyard churches.

With Watergate and President Nixon's promises to end the war in Vietnam dominating the front pages, the counterculture receded thus removing the mission field that the revival had targeted. Where previous efforts of evangelism had been as simple as playing a guitar on a street corner for a group of spiritually interested hippies, the cynicism born of societal fears towards "cults" and their "brainwashing" techniques made evangelism a less fruitful endeavor than it once had been. As the counterculture came to an end, Jesus People groups either disbanded, institutionalized as churches, or stubbornly clung to their countercultural roots. Though the Jesus People Movement had effectively ended by the mid-1970s, there were still a host of churches, parachurch organizations, apologetics ministries, converts, Jesus musicians, independent evangelists, and missionary workers that had been funneled into Protestant and Catholic denominations of all theological skews.

Though the Jesus People Movement remains relatively neglected by mainstream and religious historians, its influence throughout the church was influential. It is our hope that through your participation on this page that we can offer insightful analysis of this period with the knowledge that historical reflection is an important part of our Christian heritage.

David Di Sabatino

Mississauga, Ontario

[Jedi4Yahweh]

Yeah the Church that I am in going to is birth out of the Jesus Movement back in the 70's.

[Guest power2u]

"The Jesus Movement - Singing A New Song"

by Larry Norman

The Jesus Movement took the gospel to people who wouldn't come to church, and primarily to people who wouldn't be welcome in church; dropouts, prostitutes, thieves - exactly the sort of people that Jesus went looking for. In fact, the Jesus Movement itself wasn't even welcomed in church. Many were converted pot-smokers and leftists with long hair who wore bluejeans without the compulsory necktie, or even worse, torn, tagged clothes. But like books that don't seem to match their covers, the miracle of salvation had set their souls on fire and they wanted to share it with their brothers and sisters. It started, perhaps, at Richard's Christian Halfway House for runaways, where my younger sister stayed, or perhaps on the Berkeley campus of the University of California where Hubert Lindsay preached on the "free speech steps" in front of Sproul Hall. He was hospitalized several times with ribs broken and teeth kicked in by students who beat him up, but he would always reappear, a few days later, preaching Jesus' love and forgiveness to his assailants. "Holy Hubert," with his gap-toothed smile, became a familiar visual testimony on the radical campus.

The roots of the Jesus Movement stemmed from a strong desire to redeem the unlovable, the outcasts. During my high school years, as well as earlier, I began witnessing to kids, but they were awkward attempts, to be sure. Even during my band days at Capitol Records, I would witness to my "fans" who came to hear me play and on Sundays i held meetings on the lawn near the quad at San Jose State College. I lived near the campus and people were free to knock on my door any time. When I left my band in 1968 and moved to Los Angeles, I didn't feel awkward about witnessing anymore - I felt directed. I chose my ground and worked my beat. I walked up and down Hollywood Boulevard several times a day; at first alone, then with Richard Gerstle and later Sarah Finch, witnessing to businessmen and hippies, and to whomever the Spirit led me. I spent all of my Capitol Records' royalties starting a halfway house and buying clothes and food for new converts. Each Friday and Saturday I borrowed cars and drove almost 150 miles to pick up certain kids and take them to a church in a home in Santa Ana. Our meetings usually lasted five hours on Friday and eight hours on Sunday. Years later, I started a Bible study in my own home which grew into over 300 Vineyard Fellowship Churches, as has Calvary Chapel churches. This was the collective spiritual commitment of the times in which we found ourselves, and one by one, we found each other.

In those early days, we had no money, no organizational skills, no community support for our work; only a desire to preach and protect, to rescue those who were lost in the haze of drugs and confusion and seemed indifferent to the traditional church. But who needed money for miracles? Jesus could and would provide all of our needs. Arthur Blessitt opened a drug-assist crash house on Sunset Strip and called it "His Place." Little by little, we all came to know each other and to offer assistance in any way we could to one another's ministries.

After witnessing out on the streets for a time, I got used to hearing kids call me a "Jesus Freak." Soon I learned to accept it as a term of endearment or at least of deference, since anyone who walked the boulevard each day was soon identified by their "thing;" whether it was drug dealing, hustling, or preaching. But the Jesus Movement was such a spontaneous, silent tapestry, that only God knew He was weaving it Few of us even realized we were part of it when the press announced that it had uncovered a new bohemian youth subculture: "The Jesus Revolution".

One morning while I was out on tour and asleep in a motel somewhere in the Midwest, I received a phone call from Time Magazine. I thought the call had something to do with my music on Capitol Records since the reporter mostly asked me questions about my music: When did I start writing it? Why did I write it? And did I know of any other singers who had the same message? Then he abruptly slid thanks and good-bye. I went back to sleep and didn't think anymore about the conversation. Two or three weeks later, I was surprised and excited to read something about a Jesus Revolution going on in America. I was somewhat confused and a bit disappointed to find out that it was only us they were writing about I was even skeptical, thinking it was merely an invention of the press looking for the sequel to some previous "revolution." I thought they must be scrambling for an early clue to the new direction, you know, the "what-is-our-youth-into-now?" kind of journalism chronicling beatniks, folk music, the Beatles, drugs, draft card burning, flower power, the sexual revolution, the cultural revolution, and now the Jesus revolution. It was hard to imagine that our isolated efforts might be part of something bigger that was happening in other cities across America, and that those of us who had felt the church wasn't going far enough, had simply stepped forward and gone the distance by ourselves.

Jack Sparks published an underground newspaper in Berkeley called Right On! to speak to the political radicals and socially discontented. Chuck Smith set up a big tent in Costa Mesa and reached out to the unaffected middle class teens behind the "orange curtain" and Disneyland world of lower Southern California The Salt Company coffee house started up behind Hollywood Presbyterian Church and soon there were larger, free concerts at the Hollywood Palladium. The Hollywood Free Paper was handed out on street corners to tourists and runaways who were streaming into California, hoping to catch the last rays from the Summer of Love, not totally extinguished by Altamont.

Historically, music has always been a part of every Christian revival. For many years, I felt rather alone as 1 sang my songs and tried to use my music for God. Year after year, church folks had told me that what I was doing was very wrong; that God and rock music did not belong together. I didn't know if they were right, but I really wasn't that concerned. I had lived in San Francisco, in a black neighborhood, where ethnic music was prominent I was trying to sing "black" music and my grandfather had a collection of old 78's that featured black artists, so this had a big influence on me as well. Mahalia Jackson, a black gospel artist, had a daily television program featuring her music which my grandfather and I liked to watch. By 1952, I had started playing the ukulele and singing some of these black gospel songs and by 1956, we had moved to a different neighborhood and I started writing my own songs.

When I first heard rock 'n roll, it seemed to me that Elvis was trying to steal the music of the black church in his songs. So, I decided to steal it back. I began to perform publicly, first at school, then church, and then more widespread. Sometimes I felt like an outcast - a musical leper. I had started a band and ended up on Capitol Records and was surprised once when Paul McCartney walked up to me and started discussing my music. Knowing that people were listening to my songs made me strive even harder to get the "message" out. My attempt to get more Christian songs on my albums resulted in my getting total control over my third album, Upon This Rock, and then I was dismissed from the label after its release. For almost fifteen years I had felt like an army of one, but suddenly there was Jesus music everywhere.

Many young people became Christians and began to express their faith in simple songs. Ten years before, gospel music was written by grown-ups like Ralph Carmichael and Tedd Smith and George Beverly Shea Now it was being written by kids! Ron Salsbury had come to one of my concerts and then started J.C. Power Outlet. Freddy Caban also started a band and I took Ron and Fred into the studio with me. I was happy to help almost anyone, hoping to increase the number of messengers in this musical "army." later, Randy Stonehill came down to Hollywood and began his spiritual journey. He came into the recording studio with me and I also brought him on stage as a guest artist whenever I did local concerts. I certainly didn't feel alone anymore. As the movement began to spread, religious leaders were being questioned. Hilly Graham had at first raised a cautionary voice regarding its validity. Writers had started investigating to find out if it was truly authentic. Television reporters came around wanting interviews. I didn't know if this was good or bad and I certainly knew God didn't need publicity to accomplish His work. I began to worry about the possible effect the media might have on the movement.

When I was invited to appear on a television show. I invited a group named The Gentle Faith to do the interview with me so I wouldn't look like some religious rebel, walling down my own road. Though the spotlight was on me, I wanted to share the media glue, so I planned to take this group into the studio when I got back from ten days in New York. To my surprise, only Henry Cutrona was there when I returned; the other two had completely fallen away and nothing anyone said could bring them back. I was so shocked and became concerned about helping other artists record because instability was becoming 1 big problem. More and more "baby" Christians were standing up and then falling down under the sleight weight of their music. Randy StonehiII disappeared from the scene for almost four years before a newly converted Keith Green helped resurrect him. Danny Lee died from a drug overdose in a Hollywood alley after two albums on RCA. It really hurt me when the little blonde girl walking beside me on a Christian match to City Hall (on the covet of the album, Bootleg) told me she was no longer a believer when I bumped into her two years later. It wouldn't surprise me to find out now that she is involved in a Christian ministry, because such is the redemptive power of Christ The Jesus Movement was not a post-hippie fad. It was 1 real-life revival; a rollercoaster of births and deaths and rebirths.

By 1972, Billy Graham had embraced and encouraged the Jesus Movement publicly and in his writings. Dr. Bill Bright's Campus Crusade for Christ sponsored "Explo '72" at the Dallas Cotton Bowl for five nights of music and crusades attracting 85,000. A Saturday concert in the open air at the raceway drew nearly 200,000. Johnny Cash, Love Song, Andrae Crouch & The Disciples, Armageddon Experience, Randy Matthews, myself, and others performed. Later, Dr. Bill Bright offered a free album of Explo '72 music. Manufactured by Creative Sound Records, over 170,000 record albums were sent to respondents to Campus Crusade's television outreach. let the arguments against Christian rock music rage on; we were focusing on higher things. The throngs seated that day would continue the rippling effect through the American culture: some as ministers, businessmen, some as mothers and fathers.

The Jesus Movement was not a pastoral, pastel moment in American church history, but rather it was, and is, a life and death matter. Some feel that the purity of the movement was co-opted by the church, which did manage to get many of these young converts into nice clothes and a short haircut. Some feel that the innocence and genuineness of the music was compromised by record companies, pressuring and sanitizing the artists' music, and by the CCM charts providing a national measure for sales which disturbed the individual musical shape of each isolated community.

The real Jesus Movement of course, started twenty centuries ago when Jesus' life, death, and resurrection created the opportunity for everlasting life in His presence, which is the fulcrum point of Christianity. After all that Jesus has given to us, Christianity is not about living in a nice, polite society. or at least it shouldn't be. We should not merely fellowship in our warm, safe buildings, but also go out into the cold, unsafe world, witnessing to others and affecting change in our society. For example, there are enough Christian families in America to take all of the homeless off the streets, should they be so led by God to do it and if it were a true solution to begin with. Certainly feeding the poor remains 1 logistical quandary but, nonetheless, a Biblical mandate. Meanwhile, if some think the Jesus Movement has ceased in America it has certainly spread to other countries like Africa and Russia and into other parts of the world, using ordinary men and women, boys and girls, and music. I have heard it, and in some cases seen it, having gone there to be a small part of it. God might use anyone who makes himself a servant, no matter how incomplete the vessel. Sometimes I have felt like "the chief of sinners among absolute beginners, trying to die the daily death; falling down in loneliness, rising up in peacefulness, learning from breath to breath." The Jesus Movement in America does not have to be over. I can almost feel its resurgence within; that somewhere there are young boys and girls who are angry about the complacency they see in their churches, and are offended by the slick, indifferent Christian music on their local gospel radio stations. I can even imagine their praying together that God will use them to reach their schoolmates and shake up their community. I believe that they ate practicing on their instruments and learning how to write songs which express their desire to see others come to the cross and be "reborn" to a new life. I am praying for them, for their strength and vision, and for their music to be heard.

[Fr Chuck]

I was in the "Jesus Movement" we had a downtown coffee house, had a large trailer bed that was used in a field for a stage for weekend performaces.

I remember the songs more than anything. ( and alot of funny clothers)

It was a wonderful time of Christianity and freedom of worship.

Chuck

www.servants-of-the-good-shepherd.com

[Guest power2u]

http://www.bronik.com/sunday19740106.html

Check it out

[Eternally Striving]

This movement spawned Christian rock, and for that, I am grateful.

Plus, JPUSA puts on Cornerstone Fest...of which, I'm even more grateful.

Edited October 7, 2004 by Eternally Striving

[Kabowd]

This movement spawned Christian rock, and for that, I am grateful.

Well..that just proves it was evil!!!

[Guest Thomas I believe]

Hi Power2u, Well i was born in 1960 so i do rememeber the Jesus movement. What A great diversity God has in ministering to all the people. I rememeber hearing about it on the news and stuff, rallys etc uprisals from people who had'nt accepted God . At that point in time i was not saved yet. But today i would be proud to be called a Jesus freak. I love my Lord as we all do and would not duck or hide from any comment. Jesus is the answer to everything and thru the movements of witnessing no matter what they are Lives and souls are brought to the Cross. Praise God for that !! Sincerely , Michael

[Jedi4Yahweh]

This movement spawned Christian rock, and for that, I am grateful.

Plus, JPUSA puts on Cornerstone Fest...of which, I'm even more grateful.

Hi,

Christian Rock did not have anything to do with the Jesus Movement.

It was the Vineyard style music that came from the Jesus Movement. Most traditional Church's shunned this movement because most of the members were ex-hippies and ex-drug addicts, long-hair, bell bottoms, etc.. The traditional Church's were telling them to reform or leave. So they left and formed what is called the Jesus Movement. This movement spread far and fast across America and Canada Millions were radically saved. The Jesus Movement did not have your traditional old fashioned hymnal choir style music it was more personal and instrumental much like what you see today in contemporary praise and worship.

Today you can still see the effects from this movement. Vineyard and Calvary Chapels are still spreading across America today and are the fastest growing Church's in the USA.

These Church's are very untraditional the Pastor wears comfortable everyday clothing and not your traditional "look-at-me" suit and tie. Actually they highly discourage people from dressing up because it gives the false impression that God looks on the outside and not the heart. Everyone feels comfortable and at home there. During the week the church splits up in the home based ministries where people get to use their gifts that God gave them to teach and minister. Most of the people look forward the the home meetings more then they do the Friday night and Sunday meetings.

I highly recommend finding a local Vineyard Church in your area and if your not into the charismatic gifts and stuff there is also the Calvary Chapel which is much of the same but very seldom use the gifts.

God bless,

[Eternally Striving]

Christian Rock did not have anything to do with the Jesus Movement.

Uh...so why did they call it Jesus Music, then? Larry Norman, and 2nd Chapter of Acts come to mind as musicians that were involved with that movement...

In addition, JPUSA formed out of that movement, and they do in fact host Cornerstone Music Fest, which is very much Christian.

I'm confused.

Edited October 8, 2004 by Eternally Striving