I suppose as you get older you become nostalgic for the “good old days,” whatever that means. Shirley and I became Christians during the tail end of the “Jesus Revolution,” though we didn’t know there was a Jesus Revolution happening in December 1974 when we finally hit rock bottom in our lives and surrendered to Jesus.
Prior to our encounter with Jesus, totally unbeknownst to us, a spiritual move of God had already begun in the U.S. Even Billy Graham recognized what was taking place. What led to this “revolution”?
America had been at war in Vietnam for years, and racial unrest led to riots in major cities. Then came Watergate; the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; the hippie movement in California; and sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. Many of the youth of America were without a purpose.
In the midst of the emptiness, a generation was trying to fill their lives with things that did not satisfy. Then Jesus entered the scene. The term “Jesus Revolution” was actually coined by TIME magazine. On the cover of its June 21, 1971, issue was a rendering of Jesus and the Jesus Revolution theme.
The 2023 movie “Jesus Revolution” is a fairly good retelling of the movement. Kelsey Graham played Pastor Chuck Smith, who founded Calvary Chapel. Calvary Chapel spread across California and eventually the country. The success of Calvary Chapel came from the fact it embraced “those kinds of people” that many other churches didn’t want in their buildings.
My brother Ron and his wife Lynne became Christians about a year after Shirley and I did. As kids, we went to a mainline denomination, so Ron and Lynne began attending a traditional church. Being excited about serving Jesus, they jumped in and helped everywhere they could. Unfortunately, the pastor was not the least bit happy with their “religious zeal” and asked them to leave and find a better fit for their passion to serve Christ. (You can read Ron’s devotionals in The Patriot Post every Friday.)
Ron was still in the Marine Corps and ended up in a Calvary Chapel fellowship. I believe he and Lynne enjoyed the movie when it came out, but having been there in the early days, Ron said Kelsey Graham is no Chuck Smith. I never met Pastor Chuck, but I had hundreds of cassettes of his teachings on every book of the Bible.
The movie also followed the conversion of a young man by the name of Greg Laurie, who came to Christ and was mentored under the ministry of Pastor Chuck. I heard Laurie preach shortly after Ron and Lynne became Christians while visiting their church in California. Not that Greg made an impact on me way back then, but I remember his message, “The Danger of Looking Back,” on the perils of “backsliding.” I can still tell you his sermon points and even used them in some of my messages.
I look back on where we’ve come from — our spiritual roots, if you will — because our ministry actually began in 1975 as a result of the Jesus Revolution. But can it be repeated? That’s the question we face today.
In the 1970s, it was all about sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. Today, I see the same emptiness that I saw back then. Drug addiction, sexual addiction, and rebellion against authority are still with us. But here’s the good news: Jesus has neither left us nor forsaken us. Next week, we’re going to dive into what the new “Jesus Revolution” could look like.
Something to hope for!
Semper Fidelis
