Radical Revolutionaries

I was part of a very special team of revolutionaries God chose to take a culture by storm–thousands of us at the center of the last great revival of American history, the Jesus Movement.

But to understand our revival, you have to know more about us, my generation. I graduated from high school in 1968.

It was one of the most tumultuous and decisive years in American history. For twelve months America stood at the crossroads of who we always were and who we might become. The anger of the streets turned to rage in 1968.

I was right in the middle of it. Our brothers were dying in Vietnam and our sisters were burning their bras. We had no idea what we were for, but we were against just about everything. And we took to the streets with revolutionary fervor.

And Then We Met Him

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IXTHUS!

First century Christians embraced the Greek spelling of the word fish as the symbol of their movement. They saw in the five ordinary letters of that everyday word–iota, chi, theta, upsilon, sigma–the first letters of the confession of our faith: Jesus, Christ, Son of God, Savior. Early Christians used the symbol of the fish to identify one another during the vicious persecution of the Roman Emperor Nero. We display it proudly as our reminder of their revival and our identity in Christ now, 2,000 years later.

ONE-WAY, MAN!

If there was a symbol of our revival it was the One way street sign. We pasted One way bumper stickers to our cars, posted One way signs in our dorm rooms, and wore One way t-shirts with images of the cross or Jesus in the background. We saw in the message of that ordinary road sign in every city–One way–the bold and uncompromising claim of our faith: Jesus is the only way to heaven. Call us naïve; call us insensitive; call us politically incorrect, but we took Jesus’ simple sentence in John 14:6 literally: ”I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by Me.”

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Who were these “Jesus People”?

When the Jesus Movement started, it wasn’t very impressive. I know; I was there. Ours was a simple formula: one friend telling his or her friend about their best Friend, Jesus Christ.

• Two students on a SoCal beach telling people about Jesus.
• A few kids stuffed into a living room on a Tuesday night listening to a Young Life guy talk about Jesus.
• A “jeans and t-shirts” Bible study at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa.

That’s the way it is with revival. Most people miss it. Especially religious people. It’s been that way from the very beginning.

Two guys in a remote corner of the world nobody notices take a walk with a man whom their friend had barely introduced to them the day before. One of them hurries on ahead to tell his brother about this man. On their way to an even more obscure place with this man, two more join their group-that makes five followers and one leader.

You can read the story in John 1:29-51. If you’re careful to read it with honest eyes and the discipline to stop your mind from running ahead of the familiar story, it’s pretty incredible. A small group of unimpressive men, who had been following a weirdo named John, are now walking the trail north to Galilee with a young upstart from Nazareth.

That’s no way to start a church!

If you were a church growth expert selling books today, you would have to reprimand the Son of Man for His naivete. “This is no way to start a church! You’re heading in the wrong direction with the wrong type of people. No one’s going to listen to these unimpressive guys! Hurry, before it’s too late; turn back to Jerusalem. Our studies show that those neighborhoods are far more ready for religious teaching. You have no money, no reputation…you don’t even have a place to sleep!”

Jesus started the church in the same way God always does His greatest work–surprisingly humble and everyday. God delights in turning history on unnoticed events and founding His greatest works on the shoulders of insignificant people.

God’s beginnings never make the evening news or the front pages of the papers. Every time He does something big the religious experts and learned prognosticators of the day miss it. I’m pretty sure that whatever Jesus is doing today has very little to do with what they’re talking about on CNN, MSNBC, or FOX News.

I wonder if it has that much to do with what we’re talking about in the Christian community right now? Church history answers that question with a painfully honest, “Probably not.”

Do you know what Jesus is doing?

Jesus is always doing something, but it’s rarely what we think He’s doing.

Back then, in the Jesus Movement, He was starting a spiritual revolution with a bunch of radicals the church refused to embrace. I pray those of us who were a part of that revolution won’t miss the humble beginnings of God’s great works today.

So the next time some Christian leader tries to scare you with “alarming trends” in society, impress you with the latest “can’t miss” theory on the spiritual life or convince you to get on board with “the biggest thing” God is doing right now, remember the humble beginnings of the church.

Five men nobody knew, on a road to nowhere important, following a Carpenter from Nazareth to a destiny greater than the Roman Emperor.

Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have-right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start-comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31, The Message)

A Very Short Blurb to Get You Thinking About a New Spiritual Revolution!

I trusted Christ on a Sunday evening on the curb in front of our Young Life leader’s home.

The next Tuesday I was part of the “leadership team” of a local high school Young Life club.

I didn’t know the Bible had books, had barely memorized John 3:16, and hadn’t been to church yet.

Three weeks later I was leading that Young Life Club. I’m sure I spouted about 20 heresies a week, said some things that my Young Life leader wished I’d never said, and made a lot of churchy people mad.

But I did it; the Lord grew me; and a lot of kids came to Christ.

If you want to see revival, you have to take risks. Like trusting the Holy Spirit to work powerfully in brand new believers.

Do you have a Jesus Movement memory like this?

In 1967, I was a junior in high school, devoting my life to everything and anything radical. I had gained a cool reputation as a campus rebel and loved everything about that role.

Every authority figure in my life either worried about me, or hated me, or both. I could care less, because in my mind, I was just beginning. They hadn’t seen anything yet.

And I wasn’t alone. There were dozens of us in my class, hundreds in the school, thousands in our city, and millions of us around the nation. We were the angry radicals of the 60′s, and our motto was, “don’t trust anyone over 30!”

My only goal in life was to live hard, do something radical, make my mark, and die young. Life didn’t make sense, so screw it. In my nobler moments, I thought I wanted to be a part of a revolution, maybe. Like the Beatles and Dylan were singing about.

What I didn’t know, what I couldn’t know, because I never went to church or even wanted to, was that God was sparking a revolution of a different sort. A spiritual revolution led by a few visionaries for Christ. When they looked at us, they didn’t see a bunch of worthless riffraff. They saw a mission field–desperately hurting students whose world was falling apart.

And so, while I was raising hell on the streets of Bakersfield, California, they were claiming Jesus’ promise that the gates of hell would not stop His church.

They were praying for me, even though they didn’t know me.

What I didn’t know was that God’s answer to their prayers would change my life.

What they didn’t know was that God would answer their prayers in greater ways than they ever imagined.

He would send a revival. They would call it the Jesus Movement.

I remember the Jesus Movement. I was there.

Have you ever heard yourself saying something and immediately wondered how you ever said anything so stupid? Worse than that, have you ever said something that exposed something in you that made you sick of what you had become?

This happened to me a few years ago. When I realized what I was actually saying, I felt like I was going to throw up.

I was agreeing with another theologically trained church leader about the excesses and dangers of the emerging church when God’s Spirit broke in with this rebuke, “You sound just like the church leaders who shamed and discouraged you back then!”

Back then, when I was part of an extreme movement of younger Christians.

Back then, when our hearts were full of unusual ideas about Jesus and His church.

Back then, when we were the ones church people were talking about in sentences full of mistrust and shame.

Back then, when a generation bent on rebellion and destruction found peace and a reason for living in the teachings of a Carpenter.

Back then, when we were the revolutionaries God’s Spirit was calling to a radical commitment to Jesus Christ.

Instantly my heart was as disgusted by so much of what we had become as it was pulled by all that we were then.

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Jesus’ Command

In Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus tells every Christian exactly what He wants us to do, “Make disciples of all the nations.”

It would seem that any theory of church growth, any mobilization of God’s people, any desire for revival would begin with making disciples.

Is your heart longing for revival?

Do you want to change your world, your nation, your community, your neighborhood, your church, your family?

What if we just did what Jesus said? What if we just started making disciples–maturing followers of the Lord Jesus?

What If?

You make disciples—the church must take responsibility for its role in revival to make disciples of all nations.

• What if you told some people you told about Jesus that you would love to meet with them for breakfast once a week, or they came over for dinner, or two or three of them agreed to come over to your house or meet in a conference or break room at work or school weekly?
• What if you asked them to tell their own story about Jesus so that they could get to know one another better?
• What if you asked them how you could pray for them, and if they knew anyone who needed Jesus?
• What if they said yes, and you showed them how to tell their friends about Jesus?
• What if their friends believed in Jesus and suddenly you were hosting a “minichurch” in your home or at your workplace or school?

A Very Short Blurb to Get You Thinking About a New SpiritualRevolution!

I trusted Christ on a Sunday evening on the curb in front of our Young Life leader’s home.

The next Tuesday I was part of the “leadership team” of a local high school Young Life club.

I didn’t know the Bible had books, had barely memorized John 3:16, and hadn’t been to church yet.

Three weeks later I was leading that Young Life Club. I’m sure I spouted about 20 heresies a week, said some things that my Young Life leader wished I’d never said, and made a lot of churchy people mad.

But I did it; the Lord grew me; and a lot of kids came to Christ.

We knew little, but believed much. And the Lord used us to bring revival!

If you want to see revival, you have to take risks. Like trusting the Holy Spirit to work powerfully in brand new believers.

Do you have a Jesus Movement memory like this?