Okay, I keep dancing around this, but I’m not going to let it go. Blame it on my wife, Marti. She’s been saying something’s coming for some time now and I’ve been going, “Sure, sure.” But have you noticed how anyone who has either become a Christian during the Jesus Movement or experienced any kind of ministry during that time, cannot stop thinking about it? Like the scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, where Richard Dreyfuss builds a model of a mountain in his living room and doesn’t know why — he just had to do it? Why does the Jesus Movement sit in the living room of anyone who experienced it? This is not ho hum, time marching on. Nor is it just a bad case of nostalgia. No … something really happened, and something’s coming back, and you can think I’m nuts, you can humor me, or you can join me, but that’s where we’re going.
It’s a little like the early church — something came out of nothing. Suddenly there were believers everywhere and a church. It wasn’t church planting, it just happened. It didn’t fit into any existing structure; it built its own. One day it wasn’t here, and then the next day — one day after Pentecost — there it was. Yes, the Jesus Movement was like that, and I’m not just inflating my memory. This is why, by the way, the Jesus Movement relied so much on the early church to explain itself. This is why we baptized peopled in public, why we found elders to lead the church, why we found people with gifts of apostleship, evangelism, prophesy, and pastor-teaching, and sent them off to do their jobs without anything but their Bibles. We were crazy. We were nuts. We were drunk on the Holy Spirit and in love with Jesus.
But it didn’t take long for the structure to settle in around everything that was going on, and soon the structure was dictating what to do. The church started to operate outside in instead of inside out. Eventually the church and the Christian subculture swallowed up the Jesus Movement, but we never went away. Nor did we buy into the system.
This is why so many of the musicians who sprang up in those early Jesus Movement days are still doing what they were doing fifty years ago, they’re just doing it on a small scale while waiting for something big. They’re just hanging around the mountain. They don’t know why; they can’t help it.
And finally, this is why we’re connecting with the millennials. Because they are the ones who will lead the next revolution. They haven’t bought in either, perhaps for different reasons, but they are holding out for something new. They don’t know what; they just know the current incarnation of the church isn’t it.
So what does this mean for the rest of us? It means we hold fast to what we believe, hold lightly to everything else, watch for the appearance of the Holy Spirit, and encourage those younger in age and faith to join us as we prepare for what God is up to.
John Fischer The Catch 
What is God up to? I don’t know but it has to be something. I think that apart from a new Jesus movement, the number of Americans who claim to be Christians will shrink. I think the Jesus movement that began in the 60’s was a reaction to the complacency and hypocrisy of the church in the 50’s. Lucille Ball couldn’t say the word “pregnant” on TV and it was a sin to watch Elvis shake his hips, but it was OK to smoke cigarettes and be a racist.
Today, there is a similar backlash against modern Christianity which seems to be saying it’s OK to not care about your neighbor in need but you’re considered very spiritual as long as you’re anti- (fill in the blank with some supposedly terrible sin) and support legislation against it. I pray for the Holy Spirit to flood the younger generations with the Truth and Light. Then their battle won’t be with the older generation who doesn’t get it. Quite the opposite. Those of us who remember the Jesus movement will be all in.
Amen, John. Well said.
What is God up to? I’m not sure… Yet often think as the apostle John wrote: (I believe somewhere in Revelations) “Even so Lord Jesus, come.” I’ll add “and straighten this mess out.”
Yes, thank goodness He will do that. However we have a job to do until then. We are His hands and feet and heart in the world until He comes.
Yes & Amen and it sometime is a great pleasure to be used by and for Him!
I believe whether your real young or not. Faith is always so important and don’t lose it. All of us have challenges but, having strong faith no matter what will help keep us strong during those challenges. I work at Nellis AFB Las Vegas Nevada. Right now going through a sticky situation. I was hurt on the job awhile back and have seen some doctors and I am doing physical therapy on my shoulders. I tore some muscles doing a simple function awhile back on the job. I have been on leave but, leave is running out. I have two more weeks of therapy after sessions today and Friday. My job is very physical and I will go back to work tomorrow but, I am not quite there to do what I did before. Also, if I got a statement from my doctor or therapist for light duty don’t know what would happen. I cannot take anymore leave except for a couple of days a week for therapy because its just about gone. I have spoken to someone at HRO office which is over Air Force Non Appropriated Funds workers and he made copies of some of my paperwork I had yesterday. I cannot go and apply for disability just like that because this is something with the Air Force. This worker did advise getting a statement so not to be pushed too hard at first. I have a phone appointment with my doctor on Friday morning early just before going to physical therapy to see how I am doing. Well, I guess this comes back to a saying that has been around since the beginning. Let God deal with tomorrow and just do what you can. Take care, and God Bless.
I am sending your comments to our prayer warriors. We will hold you up. The Lord will give you what you need both in wisdom and in strength.
Let me plz make a suggestion to consider using a few drops of an amazing product DMSO on the area that causing you pain. I heard about it from my brother-in law that was a contractor in the Military in the Middle East as a Dog handle, which is a skill he learned while being a Police Officer. Anyway b/c of the pull on his shoulder he needed surgery & a physical therapist over there told him about it.
Consider Goggling DMSO to learn about it.
I fell in the shower & hurt my shoulder months ago b/c of a stroke I had many years ago & I’ve been using it for a few times per weeks when my home health care aide can put it on the shoulder I fell on, seeing how I am only one handed and can’t put it on myself. And the results have been great!
Hopefully & prayerfully it will help you!
I tried to confirm but, the computer would not allow me to do the confirm. I have been doing what you advised last year to get the daily message by going to the sight. Thanks for all you have done and pray for my family during this time to stay strong. Take care, and God Bless.
Father, please bless Toni and her family with your Peace and assure them that everything will work out according to Your lovingkindness.
May they gain confidence in Your wisdom and counsel as you guide Toni through the bureaucratic processes and future doctor visits.
Please heal Toni in a manner that might be deemed “miraculous” by non-believers so that all eyes will be turned toward You and Your grace, mercy and love that is available to everyone.
Amen.
Shalom, Peace…
Love to add an Amen!