The Jesus Revolution?
Last night Donna and I saw The Jesus Revolution. Aside from the inevitable artistic license and narrow focus (the Jesus Movement was by no means started by Calvary Chapel alone, but it got the most publicity because of the Time article, Love Song and Lonnie Frisbee), the movie was not a bad depiction of what the Holy Spirit did 50 years ago that changed the American church. More personally, it depicted the roots of a movement that spread across the U.S., eventually bringing both Donna and me to Jesus.
As you might expect, this was, for us, an emotional experience. Among other things, it reminded us of the heady days of counter-cultural response to the Lord. It caused us to re-live many of the experiences we have had in ministry over the last 50 years. And it caused us to ask God to do something like this again!
In the early 70s America was going through a cultural revolution on a scale so broad that is hard to imagine for those who didn’t live through it. It affected family life, politics, music, relationships between members of different races, and sexual values. It caused many in my generation to ask hard questions because we realized there was so much hypocrisy and dishonesty in our culture—and in churches–what we called being “plastic”. We wanted something real, and we were willing to look everywhere for it.
Enter the Holy Spirit, confronting many of us with the gospel of Jesus, even as we were finding that our counter-cultural rebellion was, in many ways, just as plastic as the world we were rebelling against.
As we embraced the gospel and strove to live authentic Christian lives, we entered established churches. Sometimes with grace and sometimes with a sledgehammer, we tried to bring this authenticity to the American Church. The result is what has been known as the Renewal movement, which produced the church growth movement—the rise of the megachurch culture.
I found myself weeping at the way so many have gradually slid back to a cultural Christianity that has few answers for the lost people of today. I wonder how we would have felt 50 years ago about a Christian culture that seems to worship attendance, large buildings, and personalities.
But then I remembered that God has always allowed us to stray from our focus on Him, only to call out to Him when we realize what we have done. And He has always—ALWAYS—been willing to hold out his hands and envelop us as a loving Father when we come back to Him. We need a Jesus Revolution again. It will look different than it did 50 years ago. But in many ways, it would be the same. It would focus on Jesus, not buildings, or politics, or culture wars. It would focus on telling individuals who are searching for God in all the wrong places that He hasn’t gone anywhere, and He loves and forgives them right now! It would call us back to a ministry that isn’t worried about the ramifications of radical decisions on attendance, budgets, and buildings, but simply wants to be faithful to the King!
And it will involve those of us who know the Lord being willing to lay everything on the line to serve Him in whatever way He calls us to do. To reject plastic faith and be real, accepting His call to minister to the people in our society who need it the most.
What do you say? Up for a little revolution?
