The Jesus Movement
Never heard of the Jesus Movement?
One of the coolest things about our revival is that the institutional church absolutely missed it. Domesticated Christendom of the 60s and 70s was busy doing other things, that that really don’t matter to Jesus Christ.
I was there, right in the middle of it. That’s how I learned about Jesus and His Way. We didn’t make much news on earth, especially in the literature clueless church leaders were reading. But we were making big news in heaven. Thousands of us, the most angry and confused generation in American history, came to faith in the Lord Jesus and began to walk with Him.
When did the Jesus Movement happen?
You could probably google “Jesus Movement” and find a few sites dedicated to a more analytical historical analysis of our movement. Actually, the Wikepedia account is pretty accurate.
I know; I was there. I graduated from a California high school in 1968. The Jesus Movement had just begun in 1967 in cities across America. It started in the hearts of a few visionaries God moved to reach the emerging counterculture of the 60s.
The war in Vietnam had become the source of this counterculture’s anger and radicalism. So when the war ended and the counterculture lost its momentum, the Jesus Movement lost a lot of its identity by the mid-seventies.
The Epicenter of the Jesus Movement
The Jesus Movement was fueled by the energies and passions of high school and college students who grew up in non-Christian homes. The meaningless of life in the 60s and 70s left their hearts ripe for Christ’s message of grace. Their radical ways made them perfect candidates for revival.
Those of us who were a part of it knew that our revival’s epicenter was Southern California. From the exciting campus of UCLA, the radical streets of Hollywood, and the carefree beaches of LA and Orange counties, the gospel went out.
Through the efforts of courageous leaders, the revival spilled over the mountain ranges of SoCal south, east, and north into the rest of California. And from there, to pockets of radical believers gathering throughout the USA and even overseas.
Want to Read More?
Here’s a link I’ve found helpful and accurate: http://www.one-way.org/jesusmovement/
Whatever happened to the Jesus Movement?
That’s the question I try to answer in my book–Reborn to Be Wild. We were an army of sold-out follwers of Jesus Christ. Though our impact has been substantial, it’s nothing like it should have been. I believe the church can learn a lot from us. Not only what we did right, but what we did wrong.