Article #1

Jesus People Caught Many By Surprise - Part I.
The Endeavour April 1995, 3-4.

Over 25 years ago, the advent of the Jesus People caught by surprise. On the heels of the 'Death of God' pronouncement in 1966, a new brand of street Christian emerged from the midst of the North American hippie scene. Clad in bell-bottoms and clutching leather-bound Bibles, the Jesus freaks gained worldwide exposure garnering attention on the covers of Time, Newsweek, and Look magazine. The ensuing Jesus Movement still remains a neglected story of the 1960s.

Historians remember the decade as an era of transition.Variant stresses added tremendous tension to the increasing maelstrom of dissatisfaction. Many voices clamored in the marketplace offering utopic solutions and catching the ear of the young dissidents. Centers of protest sprang up over night as the counterculture became the vehicle through which the doctrine of self-experimentation and social disenchantment were promoted.

The appearance of the Jesus People can be traced to California where in 1967 the Living Room coffeehouse was opened as a mission to the Haight-Ashbury district’s inhabitants. The storefront was frequented by a number of soon-to-be famous individuals. Charles Manson came in frequently to argue that he was both Jesus and the Devil incarnate while Janis Joplin and a quirky Robin Williams came by on occasion.

Other early missionaries included Arthur Blessitt’s ministry to Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip district. The His Place nightclub became a 24 hour home for wayward youth.
Blessitt's antics, most notably his hip sloganeering of Christianity – “Why don't we drop a little Matthew, Mark, Luke and John” - quickly won him the affectations of the youth even though the established church watched on uncomfortably.

Linda Meissner, member of evangelist David Wilkerson's Teen Challenge group in New York City, shared of her vision for an army of believers to the churches in Seattle. The overwhelming response resulted in the Jesus People Army, a networking of coffeehouses and Christian communes all geared towards the common goal of evangelization.

One of the more charismatic personas to emerge from the Jesus People scene was Lonnie Frisbee. Hearing the 'call of God' in a California canyon, Frisbee believed that God wanted him to preach the gospel before the children of counterculture. He was first involved at the now famous Calvary Chapel church where crowds of over 2,000 enthusiastic teenagers came to hear him speak. Frisbee's pictures are displyed throughout the excessive media coverage in 1971.

Lonnie Frisbee’s influence was not limited to Calvary Chapel. His influence also propelled John Wimber, the present-day force behind the Vineyard Churches, into the “signs and wonders” ministry. The charismatic hippie's manner was best described as being a combination of pentecostal fervor and mysticism yet his influence on the present charismatic resurgence (Toronto Blessing) has yet to be fathomed. As the Reformation had Luther, the Awakenings had Whitefield and Edwards, so too the Jesus Movement had Lonnie Frisbee.

Though spontaneously beginning on the West coast, the Jesus Movement, as it was later dubbed, quickly spread to other parts of North America. By the time the movement had gained national exposure, Jesus communes and coffeehouses had spread throughout the 50 states and ten provinces. Time magazine named Jesus Christ their man of the year for 1971 and Elton John's hit song “Tiny Dancer” spoke of “Jesus freaks out in the streets.” While membership in mainline denominations continued to plummet, evangelically conservative churches began to grow.

The Jesus People were a curious lot, perhaps the most paradoxical element to emerge from the counterculture. Using the cultural jargon of their contemporaries, they expressed a portrait of Jesus that was easily communicated and received. The central image of Christianity now became the first hippie revolutionary, a man who spoke his mind but was misunderstood by his peers. Historic faith met counterculture in a manner that made some straight Christians look on with disdain.

Rock music was a natural medium through which faith was conveyed. The Contemporary Christian Music industry was birthed from thie wedding of gospel to a 4/4 backbeat. The biblical book of Acts provided solid proof that Christianity implied community. Thus, over 800 Jesus communal houses were established between 1967 and 1972. The underground paper, a staple of countercultural communication, was utilized as a tool of evangelism. The Hollywood Free Paper and Right On! had publication runs of over 200,000 copies per issue. The innate tension between spirit and tradition added another chapter to its long history.

In 1973 the hippies receded from the forefront of North American curiosity. Because the movement was dependent on the counterculture for its enigmatic trappings, the Jesus People began to take care of their existing members versus aggressive evangelization. They began to internalize and in many cases assimilate into the larger evangelical scene.

Much has been said about the decade, not much of it positive. Though many searched for truth, the results were often devastating. In their book, Second Thoughts: Former Radicals Look Back at the Sixties, former radicals Peter Collier and David Horowitz offer a bleak retrospective. Their thesis blatantly states that youthful excess had offered more problem than solution. Twenty years later the authors trace the legacies of members of various radical groups; the Black Panthers, the Weatherman, student protest groups and the leadership of the anti-Viet Nam sentiment. Their conclusion was that the counterculture had proved to be disastrous for many stating, “it was not what we had said that was wrong, but the fact that we had said it at all.”

Though many viewed conversion with rank skepticism, Jesus in lieu of some other of the counterculture's many vices, the story of the Jesus People offers an interesting microcosm which need to be included in the fragmented enigma of the decade.

The legacy of the Jesus People is much more than simply another California fad as has been stated by many religious historians. The movement spread into many countries in its wake and has continued to have a profound influence within the North American evangelical subculture.