The Jesus Movement and the Assembly

[outdeep]

Nancy's article on the Jesus Movement is excellent.  It may be found at:

http://www.geftakysassembly.com/Reflections/JesusMovement.htm

The piece does an excellent job of putting the Assembly into its historical context.  Though I was not one of the Hillcrest Park originals, I am old enough to have caught the tail end of the Jesus movement.   The promise of "reality, not religion" as well as as the desire to be "on fire" for Christ (the popular youth word "extreme" wasn't utilized yet) was a compelling draw to this group of folks who took their Christianity seriously.

Give it a read and let me know what you think.

-Dave

[Mark C.]

Hi Dave!  

  I trust you weren't too badly blown around by the hurricane?

   I have read the article by Nancy and agree it provides an excellent context for understanding how a bunch of hippies so easily got caught up in the GG led Assembly.
   Ronald Enroth got his start in sociological studies by looking at Christian hippie communes of that era.  I believe some of his earlier books discuss his observations ("Lure Of The Cults").
   In my hippie days I did have some experiences with just regular old hippie communes and they were terrible places, because there was absolutely no discipline among them.  It was kind of a "Lord of the Flies" scenario where the dominant and lazy ran roughshod over the more "intellectual" and disciplined types and eventually tore the communes to bits.
   The Christian versions often repeated the same mistakes, as only a few would do any work.  This need for "government" gave GG a golden opportunity to bring in his view of "The House Of God".  Only the "serious" believer with "total commitment" was allowed in GG's homes.
   It was great to see such a high level of responsible behavior after living in anarchy, but we went from one extreme to another.  A gradual easing into a more disciplined life and then instruction on how to discipline one's self, without someone else constantly telling you what to do, could have been more helpful.  However, in the Assembly we were never allowed to mature into adult believers who could make their own decisions before the Lord.
  GG used to remark that some of the parents of these hippies liked them better when they were doing drugs vs. when in the Assembly.  Both conditions revealed unhealthy extremes, and in reality I think the parents would have been happier with something in between where they would have been able to see their kids sometimes.
  I don't believe God's idea of the church is to be some kind of boot camp where we pound discipline into the members via outward pressure to conform to the group.  Individual dignity was a threat to GG, but it is our inheritance in Christ!
   Grace liberates the individual to discover and follow God's will for one's life;  behavior controls (legalism) brings into bondage, and so it becomes an abusive force against God's true intention for the believer.
 
     GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH

                              God Bless,  Mark C.

[Nancy Newswander]

Mark and Dave:

I just want to make a couple of comments here.  First, about writing the research paper.  I wish everyone that has left the assembly were enrolled in an English Comp class to do a research paper.  Reading and investigating on a strict time table (I took the class during summer school, so the schedule was brutal) was someting that I would have never done on my own.  

Once I got past being blown away with how snuggly the assembly fit into the definition of a cult-like abusive church, I started to go a little deeper.  

Visiting web-sites about the Jesus Movement was a blast from the past for me.  I don't think the young men and women that post on the BB can appreciate what it was really like back then.  But it brought back all the memories of campus revival meetings, and tent meetings, and people discussing being ready for the end of the world, and being "high on Jesus".  What a significant time in history - and I was a part of it!

But for me, ever since leaving the assembly, I have been haunted with the question of why - why didn't I leave a long time ago.  Every time a new set of red flags would come up, or I'd buck heads with Betty, or George would bulldoze somebody in front of people (and these red flags existed a long time before all of the relatively recent gunk) - why didn't I get the heck out of Dodge?

Then, the research paper starting helping me to see all the dynamics of wanting to be serious for the Lord, and wanting to not compromise, and wanting to be "sold out" for Jesus.  "The Establishment" and our parents were old and stale, but commitment to the assembly was new and vital.  For those of us that are at least 45 years old, the affects of the Jesus Movement had an indelible impact upon our choices and thinking.  

Anyway, that's my two cents.      

[outdeep]

I came to Christ in around 1973 when I was in Junior High School.  My dad was Jewish and agreed with my mom that we would be raised Catholic.  Though we went to Catholic church occasionally, we were basically raised in secularism.

My brother led me to Christ via the Four Spiritual Laws.  Since I could not go to church, I "discipled" myself by reading all of Dr. Bill Brights Transferable concepts.  He spoke often of joining the great commission and I prayed that I could.

I also read popular Bible prophecy books such as Hal Lindsey and Salam Kirban (the forerunner of todays popular "Left Behind" series only back then, they weren't mere novels - we really believed this stuff!)  Not to forget, of course, discussion over the popular "Thief in the Night" flicks and Issac Airfreight "Rapture Airlines" routines.

By the time I got my freedom - got into Junior College - I was ready.  I mean, really ready to find a Bible Study and get on with Christ.  Through a few misdirections, I ended up at a book table with Tom Vessy and Wes Cohen.  

My committment to the Assembly grew gradually over the next few years - not because I was dragging my feet, but my parents attempted to hold me back (I was immature, so moving out of my house was not something I was immediately ready for).

Finally, in 1982, after college, I found myself in a brothers house.  I had arrived.  I reached full committment.

As Mark pointed out, George did meet a serious need in the Jesus Movement, to an extent.  I remember the story in "No Compromise", the  life story of Keith Green, where Keith was trying to witness to someone.  In the middle of the conversation, a fellow "brother" ran out of the house completely naked and jumped into the pool shouting, "Praise the Lord!"  The witnessing conversation kind of ended right then.

This, too, was the Jesus Movement.

George's homes did provide needed life skills -leaning to bathe daily and making meals, dress respectfully and balance the checkbook.

However, a couple of ironies did not escape me.  First, the fact that I could miss my quiet time for a week without anyone caring yet woe be unto me if there was a speck on the refrigerator.  Second, when do you ever graduate?

I had visions of single sisters in their eighties going about in their with walkers in their "senior training homes" consequencing each other for missing a speck on the refrigerator.

When was George going to train us to be preachers and teachers like him and give us practical ministry opportunity?  I understand that faithfulness in little things shows our character for larger things, but when do we get beyond making dinner, and chair setup and specks on the refrigerator?  After all, we joined this thing to serve Jesus.  Do we really believe Betty's redefinition that the faithfully cleaning the refrigerator speck is as good as it gets when it comes to serving Jesus?

Today, I think the challenge is to take the idealism we had as youths, temper it with our middle age experience and maturity while guarding against falling into complete cynicism.  

-Dave

P.S.:  I just turned 44, so I guess I am merely a "Junior Jesus Movement" person.

[Tony]

Hello,

   I have found this topic very interesting and it has brought back some early memories in my life.   Being in the Midwest, we were about 5-10 years behind the West Coast.   I was an usher at the St. Louis Arena in 1979 when the "Jesus '79" conference was held.    I was fascinated at the many different types of people who were there.   But, what really fascinated me were the groups of long haired, tattered bell bottomed folks who were raising their hands and hugging and praising God.   And, I was fascinated by the message I kept hearing, "Come as you are!"   The thought of a relationship with God was so foreign to me so I began talking with some of these people.
  Two years later, I found out I was going blind and felt that this was a good time to get that relationship going.   Some of the same people whom I had encountered were ready to take me to meet people who could "make we whole!"   I didn't realize that this meant that I had to have my blindness healed to be whole.   I was ridiculed for my lack of faith and told that even if I had a little faith I could move a mountain, so I obviously didn't even have a little faith.   When I asked one of them to move a mountain I was told that this was figurative and that I needed to understand before I spoke up again...hmmm, I can remember thinking, Whatever happened too, Come as you are!   I turned completely away from this *God* as I didn't think that He made any sense, or at least those who were "enlightened" didn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

  I am thankful that 9 years later, when I was very close to ending my life, that I heard His call to "Come as you are!"   I recall screaming  to Him while sitting on my living room floor..."HERE I AM, DO WHATEVER YOU WANT!!"   I now know today that He heard my cry and He answered me and He DID make me whole!   For I know that I once was blind, but now I see!

God Bless, Tony Edwards

[outdeep]

Yikes, Tony, that is quite a story.

The Jesus Movement was indeed characterized by passion, sincerity, and immaturity.  Its what made George's structure and experience ("on my knees before an open Bible for 25 years" at that time) so attractive.

The critisizm in the Assembly around 1978 about Calvary Chapel (the main one was down the street from my Junior College) was that they were shallow.   I have since learned that Chuck Smith and his staff were not shallow.  They were dealing with a very large problem of attempting to shepherd thousands of hippies that were coming to Christ.

George helped.  Sort of.

P.S.:  I remember one incident in the 1980's when I met a gal who proported that all Christians should speak in tongues.  When I attempted to show a verse indicating that even Paul believed that not everyone had every spiritual gift, she replied, "Are you a baby?"  I was a bit taken aback until I figured out that she was saying that I was too immature to receive the gift of tongues.

[BeckyW]

Tony, Dave, Nancy and all,
Having just read Dave's "Who's Your Daddy" on the main web site I want to say something here.
The lack of spiritual examples in our homes definitely left Phill and me, even as young adults(mid-20's), vulnerable to someone of George's age who seemed to know the Bible so well.  Now, we loved our fathers when we encountered the assembly, but one of them dismissed the Bible as literature and the other wouldn't talk about it at all.  We did an informal count of those assemblyites whose family situations we knew personally and found this was fairly common.  Or the assemblyites perceived their families as 'shallow Christians'.  Or the fathers were absent, whether physically or emotionally.
We contrasted this with two young men we knew from campus outreaches over the years.  One was never vulnerable at all to the corporate assembly anchors because his father knew and loved Christ and served in their church.  The other was more at risk but his father told a campus worker on the phone, "Stay away from my son, you are causing division in our family."
In both cases, fathers were there for their sons.
Give me shallow and honest over deluded, and deceptive, any day.
And after all that's come out I would like to ask them define 'shallow' for me now anyway.  
BW