“In the 1970s, Greg Laurie and a sea of young people descended on sunny Southern California to redefine truth through all means of liberation. Inadvertently, Laurie meets a charismatic street preacher, and a pastor, both of whom open the doors to a church for a stream of wandering youth. What unfolds is a counterculture movement that becomes a great spiritual awakening in American history.”
This is not some “cheesy” low-budget movie, but rather a first-class film produced by Laurie, a nationally known evangelist who fills stadiums yearly in California and has worked closely with Billy Graham.
The movie stars award-winning actor Kelsey Grammer, of “Cheers” fame, and Kimberly Williams Paisley, star of Father of th
e Bride and wife of singer Brad Paisley.
Revisiting a Move of God
If you are over 50, you probably remember it. If you are under 50, you may not know much about it. But watch what God did then and wants to do again today.
In the midst of a very turbulent and discouraging time in our nation’s history, God intervened in a supernatural way during a five-year period from 1968 to 1973. A grassroots spiritual movement burst forth on the scene with a soft explosion that revolutionized millions of lives. This came to be called the “Jesus People Movement.”
A Christianity Today Book of the Year was God’s Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America, by Larry Eskridge. In that book Eskridge says that “the Jesus People Movement was one of the most important American religious movements of the second half of the 20th century” and that “it must be considered one of the formative powers that shaped American youth in the l
ate 1960s and 1970s.”
In the midst of our daily barrage of disturbing and depressing developments, we desperately need something like this film to stir up memories of a time when God’s fire fell upon our nation.
Rewind the Tape
The 1960s was an unsettling time of cataclysmic change in America: President Kennedy was assassinated; prayer and Bible-reading were banned from public schools; the so-called British Invasion played a major role in bringing rock ‘n’ roll, unrestrained sexual activity, and drugs to America; and the anti-war, women’s lib, black power, and gay movements exploded onto the scene. When Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated, Time magazine declared 1968 to be, amid student riots and burning cities, the “knife blade that severed past from future.”
Rebellion and cynicism abounded. A hippie-and-drugs counterculture blossomed as American youth were seduced —
even as they are today by the “progressive” Democratic Party and the radical LGBTQ, BLM, and “woke” activists. I know this firsthand, because I was there myself, pounding away on my drums for a Cleveland rock band called The Lost Souls. Like scores of other naïve youths, I was spiritually lost and in need of God’s saving grace.
Even as Barry Maguire sang his song “Eve of Destruction,” something unexpected happened: Smack dab in the epicenter of California’s hippie subculture, the Holy Spirit began drawing bummed-out youth to a genuine encounter with Jesus!
As scores of gullible guys and gals grabbed their love beads, put flowers in their hair, and fell in line behind Pied Piper Scott McKenzie (“If you’re going to San Francisco/you’re gonna meet some gentle people there … all across the nation/there’s a whole generation with a new explanation/people in motion …”), God started intervening.
Multitudes of young people got radically converted and set free from drugs, sexual immorality, homosexuality, and d
eception!
Jesus Revolution
New converts began enthusiastically pointing their one-way finger heavenward and hitting the streets to tell others about a living, dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ. They were baptized — many of them in the ocean! They swayed to new forms of music and found themselves gathering informally in coffeehouses, where they shared testimonies about the living God.
Like wildfire this move of God spread across the country before — imagine this! — the advent of cell phones, computers, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media.
God put a burden upon young people to reach their generation. He instilled in them a hunger for His word, evangelism, and genuine community. There was a spontaneity and simplicity in the come-as-you-are gatherings.
New and innovative expressions of art were displayed through Jesus newspapers, posters, bumper stickers, T-shirts, jewelry, and buttons. Rock and folk music creatively communicated to curious crowds. God had intervened and was at work to rescue a generation that Satan was trying to destroy.
Birthing Time
Influential ministries like Calvary Chapel, The Vineyard, Willow Creek, and Jesus People USA, as well as outdoor Jesus festivals that drew tens of thousands, were birthed. Contemporary Christian music was launched.
Musicals like Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell were born. Leaders like Laurie, Steve Strang, Mike Bickle, Dr. Michael Brown, Bob Weiner, Rick Joyner, Arthur Blessitt, Phil Keaggy, Andre Crouch, Keith Green, and Larry Norman emerged.
I was converted in 1969 and aligned myself with young people who had been radically saved. Starting from a handful of attendees in a home, a ministry was launched that grew within a few short years to upwards of 2,000 weekly — only 15 minutes from the White House!
Cars lined the streets outside the facility, and people arrived early to get a seat. A senator, the son of a Supreme Court justice, and a young messianic Jew named Sid Roth all sat in the crowd.
At that time a publisher challenged me to write my story, which I did in the book Clap Your Hands! When it became a quarter-millio
n bestseller, I knew I was truly part of something supernatural. Listen to it free as an audiobook, at larrytomczak.com.
Campus Crusade for Christ held a massive event in Dallas called Explo ’72, and 85,000 Jesus people attended the five-day event. The all-day Saturday closing session, featuring Billy Graham and Johnny Cash, drew a crowd estimated at 180,000.
Capturing a Nation
The Jesus Movement landed on the cover of Time magazine, which featured an eight-page positive report! In Eskridge’s book, he mentioned amazing stories from The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and Life. “In many ways, the advent of the Jesus People must have seemed like an oasis in the desert of several years’ worth of distressing news about the younger generation,” he wrote.
We need this today! It’s time for another Jesus Movement, but in a way that will be uniquely God’s, and, we can hope, a precursor to a Third Great Awakening in America.
Here’s the deal: There’s no question we are reaching a tipping point. May we pray with desperation like the prophet Habakkuk for a fresh visitation from Almighty God, and may He use this movie to stir our hearts.
Watch for it in your nearby movie theater!
LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, LORD. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy (Habakkuk 3:2).
Written by Larry Tomczak, IFA (Intercessors of America)
Board Member | February 18, 2023
View the Movie Trailer Here