This is not so much a movie review as a movement review, and a moment remembered. Let me explain:

Background:

Back in 1971, probably in the autumn, when I was 15 and my brother (Geoff) 17, my family was deeply invested in Folkestone Baptist Church in the south of England (my parents had been committed members since moving to Folkestone in 1952).

The church was fairly well attended and a visible presence in the center of town. We had an active youth group, centered around the leadership of Dick and Nan Douglas, who ran The Missing Link Christian bookstore around the corner.

In general, however, Folkestone Baptist Church was a little too staid, and settled; we were looking more “establishment” than “New and Living”, more “square” than “hip”, more “yesterday” than “now”. England was increasingly not going to church, and we knew we were missing far too many people – especially young ones.

Jesus People:

My parents never lost hope in Folkestone Baptist; they continued to attend and be involved on every level. But they widened their circle of Christian friends to include people caught up in the deeper spiritual life of the Charismatic Movement of the early 70’s. They embraced the movement’s renewed commitment but rejected the divisiveness that often came with it.

Because of this, mum and dad met Dr. J. Rodman Williams. Rod, who was a Presbyterian minister and professor at Austin Seminary at the time, was on a speaking tour of the U.K. My parents hosted Rod and his wife Jo for a few days when they traveled to Kent.

During their stay we had a couple of evening prayer meetings at our home, and I will never forget the depth of spiritual connectedness we all experienced. It was powerful, especially for a 15-year old soaking up everything around him like a sponge.

It wasn’t just the contagious passion of Rod and Jo, and it wasn’t because I didn’t already know God, love Jesus, and experience the presence of the Holy Spirit. It was the power of what happens when we are together in community with other people who – quite simply – are not held back from God by the social conventions that sometimes leave little room for love and passion and vulnerability and healing…

In other words, sometimes there is too much tradition and religion between people and the God religion is supposed to help us meet.

Jesus Movement:

Anyway – and I know I am not explaining this very well – we got to know Rod and Jo quite well for those few days and their passion for Jesus impressed me. (The same passion for Jesus and commitment to the Good News I found in Rebekah just a few years later, and that fueled the vibrant ministries we always enjoyed together)

One day Rod pulled a magazine out of his briefcase and said, “Have you seen this?” It was the June 21 TIME magazine, including the cover article the “Jesus Revolution” movie is based on.

“This is the Jesus Movement and it is huge in America,” Rod said. I kept the magazine for several years before it got lost in some move.

After that I kind of embraced the “Jesus Freak” idea. I wore a leather cross with my school uniform. I made “ONE WAY” signs and put them all over the place. I started inviting more of my friends to church.

What I learned was that – regardless of the drugs and the despair and the lostness of the hippie experience in 1971 California – we are all addicted to things, both material and ideological, that keep us from engaging and sharing the radically beautiful love of God in Jesus.

This is a challenge we all face every day.

What the world needs now – and it seems like more than ever – is an understanding that Jesus is always a revolutionary. Jesus is always inviting us to follow his way of openness and forgiveness and love.

If we just remember that, if we keep our doors wide open and our exclusionary prejudices out of the church, and if we wore the radical love of Jesus on our sleeves… then TIME is, soon, going to have to write another cover article.

 “Jesus is alive and well and living in the radical spiritual fervor of a growing number of young Americans who have proclaimed an extraordinary religious revolution in his name. There is an uncommon morning freshness to this movement, a buoyant atmosphere of hope and love along with the usual rebel zeal.”

Mayo Mohs: responsible for TIME magazine’s religion section in 1971.