Ever since the blockbuster Jesus Revolution movie, there has been a massive increase on the Internet with people remembering or checking out the 1970s Jesus Movement. Barna Group research is showing that for the first time in a long time, younger adults, particularly men – Gen Z and Millennials – are now the most regular churchgoers, outpacing older generations. Pastor Greg Laurie, who produced the Jesus Revolution movie, has recently had so many people attending his Harvest Crusade in Anaheim, CA, that the fire marshals intervened twice. The first time was to block any more entering the Angel stadium and the second was to block any more people from coming forward to receive Christ. In all, 45,000 attended with 200,000 watching online, and 6,500 giving their lives to Christ. There is also a powerful UniteUS movement on college campus where thousands of young people are giving their lives to Christ, culminating in mass baptisms.
Much of this is reminiscent of the time of revival that many of us lived through in the Jesus movement. In 1972, hundreds of Jesus people in the Resurrection Coalition reached out to drugged-up youth at the Easter Be-in held at Vancouver’s Stanley Park, offering free food, music bands, evangelism, and beach baptisms. We were so young in our faith that we were fearless. During the Jesus movement, we were attracted to beach evangelism and baptisms, Jesus marches, and coffeehouses. The dynamic worship for Jesus with the new Jesus movement music was very gripping. The late Len Sawatsky, one of the first Regent College students, led hundreds of youth to Christ in 1971-72 through the Sonlite Coffeehouse at Trinity Baptist in Vancouver.
The Jesus movement inspired us to create our own tracts in the local High School Graphics shop which we distributed to other students at our High School Christian concerts. The late George Malone from Texas, studying at Regent College and working with IVCF at UBC, preached the gospel openly to our fellow students during a lunch time concert. Many of us had only been born again for a month or so. But we were so passionate to reach other youth for Jesus.
After bringing in the Mennonite Brethren-based band Sound of Light with Larry Nickel to our church, we were inspired to start our own Jesus Movement band called Morning Star. A mini-youth revival began in our local St. Matthias Anglican Church when we started sharing Jesus.
As the Jesus Movement was very interdenominational, doors opened for our band to minister musically in coffeehouses, churches, and youth conferences in many denominations including Baptist, Pentecostal, Anglican, Mennonite, and United churches. Ed became the editor of a Youth Unit newsletter reaching almost 900 Anglican youth at its peak in the 1970s.
Our Morning Star band in Vancouver, BC, Canada existed from 1975 to 1980 when we completed our album Sanctuary Tapes. Our Morning Star band even got special funding one summer to travel throughout BC singing at coffeehouses, churches, and outdoor concerts.
We also hosted many concerts through our organization, Livingstone Productions. These happened at the John Oliver Auditorium, PNE Gardens, and later packing out the Queen E Theatre with the Larry Norman Band. We were initially inspired to do this after attending a local concert by The Way from Calvary Chapel in LA.
One of the first musician that we brought in was the late Tom Howard. We later brought in Randy Stonehill, Larry Norman, John Michael Talbot, Randy Matthews, and the Daniel Amos Band. For two years, we hosted an open-air Living Waters Music Festival at Kits Beach, using local bands, including the well-known Servant band. Through Livingstone Productions, we produced a series of TV specials held at the Vancouver Planetarium.
Remarkably, Tom Harrison, the Rock music reporter for the Vancouver Province newspaper attended. He wrote up a three-page article on our Randy Stonehill/Daniel Amos Band concert involving 2,000 youth.
Might the upsurge in youth attendance and baptisms now be a sign of a fresh Jesus movement? Those of us who lived through the Jesus revolution revival long for a fresh outpouring, especially upon the younger generation. While we can not make revival happen, prayer helps us prepare our hearts so that we don’t miss revival when God sovereignly causes an outpouring. In our messed-up Canadian culture, we are in a desperate needing for a deep awakening. Will you join us in praying for a fresh Jesus movement?
Books by Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird include God's Firestarters; Blue Sky, a novel; and For Better, For Worse: Discovering the keys to a Lasting Relationship. Dr Ed’s newest award-winning book The Elisha Code is co-authored with Rev. David Kitz. Earlier books by Dr. Ed include the award-winning Battle for the Soul of Canada, and Restoring Health: Body, Mind, & Spirit.
A wonderful overview. Let’s do a book and cover all this in more detail. Quite an amazing time in our history. So thankful to God for drawing us to Him and to each other.