Who wants to do that?

As I read through the New Testament I notice that not one of the disciples “aged gracefully.”

They aged full of the grace and truth of their Lord.

And they didn’t calm down as they got older.

They became more radically committed to their Lord.

I’m a radical from the 60s who found Jesus in the Jesus Movement.

I’m 62, but I don’t want to age gracefully.

Don’t Age Gracefully!

Let the pagans age gracefully.

Let the churchy age gracefully.

Who wants to buy an airstream trailer and see sites? Or blow out our aortas in Palm Springs or Sarasota?

I want to run this last lap for Jesus with all my might.

How about you?

Question: Is your heart still radical for the Lord Jesus?

If it is, determine not to “age gracefully.”

This is an excerpt from my book about the Jesus Movement, Reborn to Be Wild:

I had been attending Fruitvale Community Church for just a few months when it happened—my first over-the-top worship experience. Since I knew nothing about Jesus before I believed in Him, Ted’s sermons unfolded the wonder of new life in Christ every Sunday. But this particular Sunday was special.

Ted taught on the rapture—that future event when every living Christian would meet Christ in the air. I remember thinking, You’ve got to be kidding me! This just gets better and better. Jesus is the only way to heaven. He loves me. He died for me. He gave me new life. And now you’re telling me that He’s coming from heaven to get me?

And then Ted’s wife, Jo, sat at the piano and started to sing.

The market place is empty,

No more traffic in the streets.

All the builder tools are silent,

No more time to harvest wheat.

Busy housewives cease their labors,

In the courtroom no debate.

Work on earth is all suspended

As the King comes through the gate.

I could see it in my mind’s eye. Suddenly nothing mattered because Jesus just showed up. I remember thinking Jo sounded like an angel when she sang the chorus:

Oh the King is coming,

The King is coming.

I just heard the trumpet sounding

And now His face I see.

Oh, the King is coming,

The King is coming

PRAISE GOD,

He’s coming for me!

This was all too wonderful to take in cognitively—I could only stand and sing and cry. Not only is Jesus the only way. Not only is Jesus the King. Not only is He coming back to make things right. He’s coming back for me. Jesus was coming back for me, and I needed to get to work for Him.

I don’t think it’s an accident that our revival occurred during a time when the church and the world seemed preoccupied with biblical prophecy. Everyone, Christian and non-Christian seemed to be asking questions about the return of the Lord. Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth was the largest selling nonfiction book of the 1970s, and we virtually memorized it. Citywide prophecy conferences sprouted up in every major metropolitan center. Little Israel was back in the Promised Land, and the only explanation for her amazing victories in the Six-Day War of 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973-74 that made sense was the prophecies of Daniel, Isaiah, and Ezekiel.

You may believe that prophecy is irrelevant today and feel that the church should be about the more immediate needs of humanity, but it seems reasonable to ask if there is any connection between prophetic teaching and revival.

It’s impossible to separate the explosive growth of the church in Acts from its prophetic hope. The early Christians who turned the world upside down for Christ hoped in Jesus’ coming. And so has every revival generation since. I know ours did.

Question: Do you have a Jesus Movement memory of when you first believed your King is coming?

60s

I met Jesus during a revival–the Jesus Movement of the 60s and 70s. We didn’t know we were part of a revival. I suppose the ones His grace reaches in a revival never do.

All I know is that the love of Christ ran me down and overwhelmed me so that I had to tell others about my Savior. And I wasn’t alone, there were thousands of us.

You would think that the institutional church would have embraced us. They didn’t, and here’s part of the reason why–we were talking about something that went beyond mere moralism.

Being Good for Jesus

Most of the church people who resisted us had grown up listening to shaming sermons about being good for Jesus. Their God was for moral people and against sinners. They were caught up in a system that told them they were one of the good people, the moral people. If they gave money to the church, attended regularly, and managed their sin better than ordinary people, they were “good.”

But we came proclaiming a radical message of grace. We had no illusions about our goodness apart from the One who washed us from our sins in His own blood. Our lives pulled them toward the power to break the chains the of moralistic religiosity that enslaved them. Most stepped back from that threshold, and returned to their placid pews.

That’s just the way revival is. It doesn’t wait for those who must have all their theological loose ends tied up, who think that the grace of God is for other, “bad” people.

So if a revival hit the streets today, would you see it and embrace it? Or would you miss it and talk about its participants in self-assured sentences that expose the emptiness of your soul?

One of my most earnest prayers is that the Lord would not let me settle for less than all that He wants to give me by His grace. It’s the best way I know to guard my heart against the grace-killer of religious moralism.

Question: How about you? Do you fear settling as much as I do?

In my book, Reborn to Be Wild, I document the six lies we believed that derailed our revival–the Jesus Movement of the 60s and 70s.

We were reaching the most angry and radical generation in American history with the grace of God. The Spirit’s momentum and spontaneous spiritual joy of our movement were compelling.

Then, we “got religion,” went “churchy,” and started listening to those who wanted to capture our energy and tame us.

They succeeded; we failed.

In in a few years, our revival was over.

Do you remember the Jesus Movement? If not, have you too believed religious lies that stopped the momentum of either a personal or a community revival?

What stopped you? I bet it was one or more of the same lies that sidetracked us. Satan is effective, but he’s not creative. He just rolls out the same old lies and Christians of every generation buy in.

January, 1971

I married my Jesus Movement sweetheart, Judy, in 1971. Since then, our relationship with the Savior has defined our life.

In that same year, Barry McGuire, an iconic folk/rock musician of our day trusted Christ.

January, 2009

Thirty-nine years later our good God intersected our lives on a great anniversary celebration. Judy and I went to dinner in Old Town Pasadena with Bob and Wendy Noonan. Bob’s a Jesus Movement convert and a great friend. He and Wendy then treated us to seats at Barry McGuire’s “Trippin’ the Sixties” concert.

Trippin’ the Sixties

In the process of writing the book about our revival, the Jesus Movement, Reborn to Be Wild, I’ve met many of the musicians, including Barry.

Barry’s teamed with John York–originally with the Byrds–and they play the tunes of the 60′s. It’s a killer concert, but what struck me were the stories Barry told about the rock stars of our day and how these songs came about.

Rescued by Jesus

Barry’s heart still breaks over the sixteen friends he lost in the craziness of our lives back then. He, like us, was rescued from all that by the Lord Jesus Christ.

The morning after that concert Judy and I had breakfast at our favorite place and talked about how different our lives would have been if Jesus hadn’t run us down and overwhelmed us with His love.

One thing about those of us who consider ourselves Jesus Movement rockers: We have no illusions about our sinfulness. Jesus rescued us from death.

Question: Do you remember the day Jesus rescued you from death?

Christianity is all about releasing the selfless love of Christ from our lives, individually and corporately.

It’s not about getting more out of life by demanding; it’s about getting the most out of life by giving.

Selfless service isn’t easy; in fact it’s impossible apart from the life of Christ in us. The Jesus Movement connected some visionary leaders’ hearts to ours–the angry radicals of the 60s. Their supernatural compassion for the left out and left over pockets of our world was their spiritual and worshipful expression of their new identity in Christ.

Before you and I can talk about serving Christ and extending His grace to this world, we need to think about its source—our redeemed heart.

It’s time for church leaders stop using shame and manipulation to make people do what Christ says.

If we ever want to see revival again, we need to build communities of faith that know the joy of doing what Christ says because their redeemed hearts want to.

Oh yeah; that will take grace.

Question: You ready to risk it?

Faith!

My thoughts on faith from my book about the Jesus Movement coming out this summer, Reborn to Be Wild:

The Message that Saved Us

In the Jesus Movement, we never doubted that faith in Jesus was the only eye-opener for blind souls. Our message was simple,“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).For most of us, that was all we knew, but it was more than enough to connect our friends to God’s grace. It was the message we believed and the message we took to the streets. It was the message that changed our lives: Christ died for your sins and arose. Believe in Him and He will give you eternal life.

The Stories We Told

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A Jesus Movement Herald: Prof Hendricks

Recently I spent an hour with a man who motivated many of us during the Jesus Movement and one of the most important men in my life–Professor Howard Hendricks. I was in Dallas for a few days and scheduled some time in his office at Dallas Theological Seminary.

Prof has had a lot of health problems over the last few decades. On the outside he’s obviously not the dynamo I remember quickstepping across campus from one classroom to another where he kept us spellbound with the most effective teaching I ever sat under.

Back then, his energy seemed limitless, his strength seemed unrestricted, and his mind undiminishable.

It was obvious to me that my beloved mentor’s steps have slowed a little and his thoughts take a little longer to connect now days.

But I’ll tell you what has not changed: His passion for the Lord Jesus and his plans to serve Him.

As he walked me through the department he built at the seminary, the fire in his heart to make a difference for Jesus by mentoring the next generation burned brighter than ever before. I remember thinking, “Prof sounds like he’s planning on serving Christ for another 100 years!”

My next thought made me give him a huge hug. “This is the way I want to go out!”

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If you have to ask what I mean by “cool,” you probably weren’t a part of the Jesus Movement. To me a “cool” person is someone who gets “it,” whatever “it” might be. What made the Jesus People cool was that we got Jesus. We didn’t get religion, we didn’t get the institutional church; we got Jesus. And we especially “got” how  Jesus was relevant to our culture.

If that definition of cool doesn’t push your button, then you probably shouldn’t read on. But if it does get you excited, here’s my list:

Seven Ways To Stay “Cool”

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Remembering the Sixties

A few years ago I spent a fascinating afternoon with Barry McGuire. If you were around in the 60s, you remember him as the rebellious troubadour who was with the seminal group, The New Christy Minstrels, hung with the likes of Bob Dylan and John Sebastion, and wrote the iconic song of the decade: Eve of Destruction. Eve was a grave, prophetic warning of the coming collapse of the world.

Remembering the Jesus Movement

What you may not know is that Barry met Christ right in the middle of the mess of his life that usually follow rock and roll success. Barry was the McGuire in the famous line from the Mamas and Papa’s Creque Alley, “McGuinn and McGuire’s just a getting higher in L.A., you know where that’s at….”

Like the rest of us who were a part of that revival, Jesus delivered him from the desperate emptiness of our generation.

What a privilege to hang out with Barry and his bride, and talk very little about music and memories, but a lot about Jesus and hope. He’s still walking with Jesus, but not too impressed with what became of our revival.

Neither am I, so we had a lot to talk about. I wrote an entire book about our sidetracked revival: Reborn to Be Wild.

Questions: Are you a fed-up-with-church-Jesus Movement-rocker who is still walking with Christ? Are you tired of doing church stuff that doesn’t matter to Jesus?

I’d like to talk with you too. Write me.