The Jesus Movement

I haven't had much to do recently, and so I started searching the internet a bit. After looking up the history of butter and learning all there is to know about Guy Hawkes, I started looking at church websites, another hobby of mine. After going to the usual church sites I frequent (to read various church bulletins and what-not) I stumbled across Calvary Chapel's website and started to read about the late 1960's / early 1970's "Jesus Movement."

In case you don't know, the "Jesus Movement" was movement that started in Southern California and spread across the United States that was a bit of a "revival," reaching out to younger people in the hippie and drug culture that was starting to permeate Orange County. Led by Chuck Smith and then others, the couple-year movement gained national media attention and really was the start of the modern-day "megachurch."

In my brief study, I realized that the "Jesus Movement" was not without its flaws and flawed people, and that some of it bordered on the Pentecostal and Charismatic which I do not agree with. But it helped change the face of Christianity, and many of the generation of my parents came to Christ as the result of the direct or indirect infleunce of this movement.

That started me thinking about how my desire to desparately "Jesus Movement" in this generation. That led me to ask myself, "what would a Jesus Movement now look like?" The answer, at least from perspective, is very complex.

In the 1960's and 70's, counter-culture was all the rage. Young people were lashing out against the government, against their parents, against the so-called "establishment." All of these groups, they felt, had done nothing but lie to them. They had left them in a world that was in chaos, admist war and uncertainty. The ways of their parents had obviously failed, and they were seeking anything that would provide them with the truth.

The modern-day youth generation, however, is drastically different, at least in appearance, from that group of "lost" people. I can only speak from personal experience, but my generation doesn't hold the same grudge against our parents that others have. For the most part, we get along with them, admire and respect their accomplishments, and in many ways aspire to provide for our kids the same quality of life that our parents provided for us.

We, for the most part, are spoiled. Since day one, we have been given everything that we have ever wanted or could ask for. We have been raised in affluence and have embraced it. We dress in expensive clothes, drive expensive cars, and buy expensive things. We are a consumer society bent on always looking good and feeling good. We are pampered, constantly told how gifted we are, and afforded all of the luxuries we want. We abhor feeling left-out and outcast, and do whatever we can to "fit in" with society. We are used to "having it all" and work hard to maintain that.

What is the most surprising about my generation, I feel, is the fact that most of us have been raised with and have been accepting of a particular faith. Many of us have been raised in the church and born to believe in God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and everything else. We have gone to church most Sundays for our entire life, and, in fact, remember those times fondly--if not even yearning for a return to those times.

We actually are a generation of believers. Although many leave the "church life" when we get to college, we still attend--often without fuss or fight--when we're back at home on a weekend. And we're not really that against going on a Sunday if a friend invites us. Many, still, even go to church on a semi-regular basis in college, it being an accepted start to the week. We attend Bible studies during the week, and keep the Bible as a book in our collection. And if someone mocks Christianity in a conversational setting, we often times come to its rescue, if only with a "hey, man, that's not very cool."

But our Christianity is not the one of old. We have adopted a new brand of Christianity that is best described as "consumer Christianity." It is Christianity via Madison Avenue rather than Jersalem. Christianity with a Prada purse--or with a Jack and Coke.

We champion--and know by heart--the promises of the Bible. The promises of salvation, of forgiveness from sins, of freedom from worry are all ones that we quote, well, religiously. Christianity is a convenient thing that "fits" into our lifestyle. For a generation that has been raised with schedules, with planned activity after planned activity, Christianity fits neatly on a Sunday morning, or, if we're super religious, a Wednesday night, too.

If anybody asks us, we're saved, no doubt. "But," and this is the key, "but we still have a long way to go."

My generation is a generation that wants it all, and we have constructed for ourselves a faith that grants us that. It is a faith of forgiveness without the repentance. It is, as one of my friends says tongue-and-cheek, a faith that prays "Forgive me, Father, for I will sin." Gone is the faith that requires a radical change in lifestyle, or giving it all and following Christ, and instead we have a faith that ensures us salvation while allowing us to carry out our own desires and ambitions.

And so we get drunk on a Saturday and appear in church on a Sunday. We engage in lewd acts of premarital sex on Friday night that we feel bad about Saturday morning. We promise to "change" and to "refocus" on what is important every Sunday night before the week starts--and then surround ourselves with--and even seek out--temptation on Thursday. And we bring a beer to the Wednesday night Bible study so we can get started on our partying early.

Mine is a generation that has lost its way without knowing it--and is in danger of never finding it again.

Now I need to say that by no means am I judging my generation as a generation that is unsaved. I do not and I have no right to question the salvation of anybody who says that they have received Christ as their savior. I believe firmly that if you "confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you shall be saved" (Romans 10:9). And I always take people at face value--and if they said that they have received Christ, then I have no reason to doubt that they have.

But I cannot imagine that the lives that many out of my generation are living is the life that Jesus intended. I cannot believe that this is what he had in mind when he said "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matthew 16:24). And thus my generation desparately needs its own "Jesus Movement."

But again, what would that look like?

I believe, like any revival movement, that the new "Jesus Movement" would start with a revival of the heart. I think many have turned away from the Christianity that Jesus has in mind because we never truly have witnessed what that's like. We have received everything that we ever wanted from our parents. We have never been in want. And as long as we're able to keep on feeding our desires with the latest and greatest, we never even get a chance to realize that the one thing we really are missing, that which will truly satisfy us, is Christ and Christ alone. Having never been in want, we don't know how needy we really are, and any of the "holes" we really do have, we cram our own customized faith in there to give our life meaning--cramming Christ in the corners, if you will. We fool ourselves, therefore, into thinking that we are truly "Purpose Driven"--without ever being "Spirit Led." And the first cannot occur without the second.

A "Jesus Movement," then would have to be different from those in the past. It wouldn't take the form of traditional evangelistic meetings, with an "altar call" at the end of the meeting. My generation won't respond to that--we've already all done that. It would have to begin in the Church, but a radically changed church. Sermons today are too easy for the current "consumer" Christian to attend church without being changed. They are focused on feel-good "universal" messages that anyone can relate to. "Want to have a better marriage? Well, be nicer to your wife. Spend time with her. If you're a Christian, that's a plus. But no matter what, do these five things and stuff will be better."

Instead, churches would need to refocus on Christ. On who He is, on what He did, and what He still does for one's life. It would have to realistically deal with the struggles of a Christian life, Christ's suffering, and our suffering as a result of being a Christian. And it would have to deal with the hard sayings of Christianity--the ones we tend to gloss over in the modern day faith, such as denying oneself, taking up the cross, and deciding to leave everything behind to follow Christ. Church would have to be reformed and resist becoming the comfortable houses of affirmation that they currently are. Sin will need to be discussed frankly and truthfully, and the punishment of sin openly and honestly.

In the end, Church will have to refocus on what its aim should be all along--to form true disciples of Christ rather than passive observers of His ministry.

This will ultimately require the modern-day Christian to make a choice every Sunday--am I serving Christ or am I persecuting Him? Am I hammering home His truths in my life--or am I hammering another nail into the cross? In other words, am I cultivating a deeper relationship with him?

One thing I know about my generation is that it is one of fitting in. And if the most influential of my generation start truly giving their lives to the Lord, then this whole revival will spread like wildfire. If the trendsetters of an organization start setting a trend for Christ, a whole organization will be transformed. And if people are truly turned on to the power of the transformation of Jesus, there is no stopping where it will lead.

My generation is a gifted one, one that God has blessed with many talents. All we need is a spark to get started. Let us start reforming our churches, refocusing our ministries, and repurposing our message to glorify the One who is owed all the glory. Let us all make our decision for Christ, first, and cause others to rethink theirs. Let us be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

Let us move for Jesus--and let the Jesus Movement begin.