I am over talking about the Jesus Movement strictly in the past tense, as if Jesus stopped moving. Of course He didn’t. Never has. The Jesus Movement is wherever Jesus is moving, and one place that is happening is in and through you and me. Wake up.
We are providing over the next few weeks a new way of looking at a time and a generation that laid the foundation for today’s Christianity.
As the leader of this Catch community, I am suggesting an adventure of a lifetime for those who witnessed a movement that blew fresh air through the Church and society in general. I am suggesting we create, with a new relevance as older, wiser pioneers peering into a new frontier, relationships with those in their twenties and thirties who are currently undergoing the same societal stresses and asking many of the same questions we asked. Together, young and old, we will offer a Christianity yet to see the light of twenty-first century day.
There are two characteristics of the Jesus Movement that set it apart as a legitimate spiritual awakening on the level with other major spiritual movements in the history of western civilization like the Great Awakening and the Reformation. 1) There was no central organization in control; and 2) it happened simultaneously everywhere (U.S., Canada, Europe, South Africa). Taken together, these two characteristics tell us one thing: This was the Holy Spirit’s doing. There is simply no other explanation.
Jesus is the source of unity among believers. He was that fifty years ago in the Jesus Movement and He is that today as the next generations peers into a new frontier. When divisions and denominations exist in the church, it’s because we have made something else more important than Jesus. We have allowed some doctrine or some practice or some particular belief to become a barrier to unity. So we hunker down in our partisan group and cut ourselves off to the Jesus that exists in the lives of those believers who don’t hold to our particular bent.
I am gradually learning to listen to my 22-year-old son. I am learning to respect his insights instead of thinking that I am the one who needs to bring him around all the time. It’s a big stretch for me. He says things differently than I would say them so I have to weigh carefully what says lest I miss something important. Ever since he said he had my back in reaching the younger generations I am taking him seriously. Like when he brought up yesterday about knowing the warmth of Jesus in our hearts. I suddenly realized what a beautiful expression that was of what it feels like to have a relationship with God through Jesus.
We need more of Jesus and less of everything else.
By “everything else” I mean just about everything one could think of in relation to Christianity or religion that has little or nothing to do with Jesus, or that takes away from attention upon Him. We are seeing a lot of these things today, just like we did back when the Jesus Movement got everything focused back on Jesus. Today we are focusing on things that lead us away from Jesus like celebrity, morality, political power, empire-building, worship music (that worships itself or its performer(s), social action (not done in the name or the power of Jesus), Bible study (for its own sake), numbers (for the sake of success), and success (for the sake of numbers).
We need more of Jesus and less of everything else.
The Jesus Movement happened because it was all about Jesus. It would not have happened any other way. Jesus united Christians everywhere, and labels fell away. It didn’t matter your background, your denomination, your worship style, your age — if you loved Jesus, that was all that mattered. Often people’s hang-ups about Christianity are because of bad experiences with the church or with other Christians, but this movement circumvented that by simply being about Jesus, and most people are at least curious about Jesus.
My 22-year-old son is scared. Like most Millennials, he has a global perspective largely shaped by the internet, and that perspective is not a good one. We live in a time of great uncertainty. Political unrest, division, authoritarian world leaders vying for control, economic instability, massive inflation, global warming, lies and conspiracies everywhere, world hunger, water shortages, fires and floods, hackers stealing our privacy, loss of credibility, fear and loss of hope. The famous line from Dante’s Inferno at the gates of hell, “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here,” seems to apply as much to stepping into an average day today as it does to crossing the line into the underworld.
It began with fraudulent charges on my credit card. I say “fraudulent,” because I first approached Marti who was insulted by my accusation. She concluded our argument with “Fine,” which means she cannot be bothered with the issue any longer because she has something else to do.
by MartiFischer
We find ourselves in the middle of an unraveling period, maybe even on the brink of a crisis. How we respond has everything to do with whether we are alive in Christ or just dabbling in life. There are no other options — in or out; alive or drooling.
John Fischer The Catch 