Greg Laurie’s “Jesus Revolution” movie has debuted to packed theaters nationwide, including Grand Junction. I went to the Preview Showing on Wednesday night.
“Jesus Revolution” tells the story of how Greg Laurie became a Christian through the ministry of Calvary Chapel pastor Chuck Smith and a hippie preacher named Lonnie Frisbee. It also shows (briefly) the birth of the seminal Christian band Love Song.
I became a Christian in 1971 thanks to the Jesus Movement. As a 14 year old, I had lost interest in church until some college students came home for the summer and did the Sunday service.
They talked about the End Times and the Second Coming. I had never heard of this, and I had never met people who really believed the Bible and said that Jesus could actually return tomorrow!
One of my friends got a copy of an album by Love Song, which we played over and over. Love Song became the forefathers of what is now called Contemporary Christian Music. And Chuck Smith started a music label called Maranatha Music, which produced much of the original “Jesus Music” for a hungry nation of young believers.
In my hometown, we began a Bible study and someone obtained copies of the “Hollywood Free Paper,” with exciting articles and cool artwork, started by Jesus People in California.
I had “One Way” posters and buttons. My best friend went to EXPLO ’72 in Dallas, a huge evangelism conference sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ that culminated in a concert for 180,000 students that featured Love Song and Johnny Cash and Billy Graham!
When I got to college, I was discipled by Dave Horner, whose older brother Bob had been on staff with Campus Crusade in Berkeley during 1967’s “Summer of Love.” Bob Horner and Michael Omartian started a band which stood on the steps at Berkeley and played songs that Omartian had just written about Jesus. (Omartian became one of Hollywood’s most respected music producers.)
Today, KJOL plays several songs from those early Jesus Music days: Love Song, Keith Green, 2nd Chapter of Acts, Petra. You’ll hear them featured as KJOL Classics.
And today’s “praise and worship” music is the direct result of God working in the hearts of people who became Christians in the 1970s and started singing about Jesus.
(“Jesus Revolution” is showing at the Regal Canyon View and The Picture Show in Grand Junction.)





