Revival Ruiner

It inhibits spiritual growth and slams on the brakes of any revival.

It’s the bane of every revolution, especially spiritual ones.

It seeks to the status quo, caters to the comfortable, and discourages the radical.

It may be one of the tree primary reasons the church retreats behind it’s stained glass walls of irrelevancy.

Fear!

Oh, you can’t do that. It’s never been done before.

We don’t know what would happen if we tried that!

My memories of the Jesus Movement revival impress me that fear had nothing to do with it.

We were so young in Christ that our faith was still refreshingly bold and courageous.

Until the church tamed us. Then we became just as fearful as the rest of ‘em…and just as ineffective!

Fear freezes faith!

A lot has happened since thousands of us 60s radicals trusted in a Carpenter from Nazareth and became a movement the world could not ignore–the Jesus Movement.

But what hasn’t happened is another revival. In my new book,Reborn to Be Wild, I challenge every Jesus Movement convert and all Christians who want to see another movement by Jesus to return to our Jesus Movement roots.

If you’re from my generation of Jesus Movement radicals or if you think your heart is radical enough to ask for revival, today is a very real indicator of just how much you mean it.

Forty years ago I remember connecting the dots between Thanksgiving and my newfound relationship with the Lord Jesus. For the first time in my life I knew what I was thankful for–mercy, grace, and blessings–and to Whom I was offering thanks–the God of the Bible who sent His Son to die for my sins. I was a counterculture follower of Christ. Thanksgiving wasn’t about food and football anymore, it was about humility and worship.

It’s time for a Jesus Movement checkup. What and Who were the focus of your day yesterday? And today, are you being swept along by our materialistic culture’s only followup to a day of physical engorgement–a day to engorge our materialistic appetites?

Just how black is your black Friday? Your answer to that will tell you a lot of whether your heart is truly ripe for revival.

“Because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:21-22).

We Christians have studied it, analyzed it, written about it, and argued over it. But what most of us have never done, is live it. So we just keep babbling on, as if we really knew something about it.

Revival.

I’ve been listening to the theories and advice of the so-called experts for over forty years. And I’m unimpressed, because I know something that they don’t. I know what it feels like to be a part of a genuine revival. I was a part of the last great revival in America. The Jesus Movement of the late 60′s and early 70′s.

I don’t have to wonder what it would be like. I was there. I didn’t meet Jesus in a church–I met Him on the streets of Bakersfield, California.

The Jesus Movement spilled over the San Gabriel Mountains from Southern California and into our Central Valley and thousands of us found meaning in life in the words of Jesus of Nazareth. Up and down the state–from the beaches of SoCal to the campuses of UCLA, Berkely, and Chico State, millions of the most angry and rebellious generation in US history became revolutionaries of a different sort. Spiritual revolutionaries, consumed by our devotion to Jesus Christ.

But here’s the question that haunts my soul:

Whatever happened to the Jesus Movement?

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Where did the term Jesus Freak come from?

Jesus freak was a slanderous term they called us in the Jesus Movement of the 60s and 70s. It came from two sources. First, the secular culture we came out of–the radical counterculture of the 60s–called us Jesus Freaks. Second, the institutional church–the religious hall monitors who rejected us because of our long hair and rock music–called us Jesus Freaks.

And guess what? We didn’t care. If a freak is someone who is radically different from all others, we wanted to be freaks for Jesus.

So we embraced it.

Who were the first Jesus Freaks?

We weren’t the first Jesus Freaks. It all began with Twelve Jesus Freaks that Jesus called His disciples. They were freakishly committed to Him and abandoned themselves to His care.

Oh yeah, and one more thing, they turned the world upside down for Jesus!

Are You One?

A Jesus Freak, I mean. If you’re a Christian, you should be. When people talk about your life they should be talking about your freakish devotion to Him and your freakish faith in Him.

Ted and Jo Stone

Paul introduced himself to the Romans with these words, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ….”

The Apostle of grace wanted to get one thing straight with the sophisticated, dominating Roman mindset: In all of his years of studying the Scriptures, conversations about Jesus, leading the church and planting churches, debating with doubters and enemies of the faith, writing epistles and delivering sermons, he remained focused on the central truth of Christianity—the Good News that Jesus gives eternal life freely to all who believe (Romans 1:16-17).

A few days ago I spoke at my Jesus Movement pastor, Ted Stone’s memorial service.

The temptation at such an event is always the same. “Everyone here’s not only a Christian, but in this case, mostly mature believers with thorough knowledge of the Bible,” I thought to myself. “Maybe I should go deep and do something from the Psalms that would comfort them something new and different about the grieving process.”

I’m so thankful that I decided, as always, that there’s just no better news than the gospel of Christ.

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Ed on Harvest Show from Ed Underwood on Vimeo.

My latest book about the Jesus Movement is now available at Amazon. Here’s a taste of what it’s about:

“Too Old, Too Sick, and Too Tired” from Whitestone Media on Vimeo.

When I first met the real Jesus in the 60s revival–the Jesus Movement–I was impressed with His self-control.

I’m not talking about His ability to somehow throttle His emotions while walking on earth the way the fundies picture Him, all buttoned-down and loafered-up with no excesses.

I’m talking about God controlling Himself in the way Jesus did when Satan tempted Him in the wilderness or when His enemies asked Him for a big rocket across the sky miracle.

If I were God, I’d show those people what for.

I’d turn the whole mountain to bread and then throw it into some lake that I had turned into a bowl of chicken noodle soup. “Okay, Satan, my man, how about that?!”

“Okay you dirty little Galileans. All these miracles you’ve already seen aren’t  enough to convince you? Then how about some fire and brimstone to heat this argument up a little. What do you think of me now?”

That’s what I would of done.

But of course I’m not Jesus. I’m not God in the flesh. I’m not the Friend of Sinners who never gives people what they deserve. He just loves them and lays down His life for them.

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