Jesus People Movement in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013)

book reviews 477

Larry Eskridge God’s Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013). xii + 386 pp. $38.50 paperback

It is rarely discussed in the annals of American Christian history, but the “Jesus People” phenomenon of the 1960s and 1970s was more than an eccentric, pass- ing fad. Its limelight lasted less than a decade but its legacy is manifest, in decisive ways, all over the 21st-century evangelical landscape. This observation constitutes a thesis for God’s Forever Family, and Larry Eskridge defends it with an impressive collection of interviews, archival resources, and surveys. In particular, he uses the Jesus People movement to create a compelling back- ground for present-day evangelical youth culture and for Contemporary Chris- tian Music (ccm). Eskridge begins his narrative near San Francisco in the mid-1960s, where a small circle of bohemian, newly-converted Christians began to testify in the midst of their free-spirited, “hippie” community. Sponsored and guided by Christian leaders from “straight” churches, this modest initiative established a successful storefront ministry in the Haight-Ashbury district and expanded to other nearby locations. Further south, similar projects produced similar results for ministers such as David Berg (in Huntington Beach) and Chuck Smith (in Costa Mesa). Smith, in particular, empowered musically-gifted Jesus People to record and perform, and thousands of young people were drawn to the concerts at Calvary Chapel. Though it began in California, “God’s Forever Family” was never centralized: Eskridge traces multiple threads of the story in Seattle, Milwaukee, Chicago, Fort Wayne, New York, Atlanta, and other cities. Some of these ministries were planted by Jesus People from the West Coast; others, however, appeared like a “seemingly spontaneous eruption” (94). The movement’s growth was sensational and dramatic: in 1971–1972 it received extensive coverage in news magazines (like Life, Time, and Newsweek) and on major television networks (like nbc and cbs). It became a persistent topic in Christianity Today, and with the imprimatur of Billy Graham it gained widespread approval in places far removed from San Francisco. “If California was the home of the Jesus Movement in 1970,” says Eskridge, “by 1972 and 1973, the Jesus People’s center of gravity had shifted eastward to the Midwest” (146). Widespread acceptance, however, brought dramatic revisions to the original, edgy ethos of the Jesus People. The flourishing movement still seemed “groovy,” but there was nothing strikingly psychedelic about the thousands of Christian teenagers who read The Living Bible, listened to Phil Keaggy, and wore Jesus T-shirts. Eskridge describes the explo ’72 youth conference as the

“high water mark of the Jesus Movement” (169); for him, however, it also illus- trates how the movement had evolved since its inception. “What had begun as a genuinely counterculture-based spin on traditional evangelical Christianity among the nation’s hippies,” explains Eskridge, “had evolved into a widespread movement featuring younger, teenage kids, particularly the children of Amer- ica’s conservative evangelical churches” (178). Even the hippie phenomenon became a common part of American life, and lost its avant-garde connota- tions. God’s Forever Family “came of age” as its leaders committed themselves to youth ministries in established churches. The movement faded from public attention. It left a deep impression, however, on evangelical churches, and it absolutely transformed the evangelical musical heritage. Eskridge describes the powerful, definitive role that music played among the Jesus People (209). He narrates the origins of Love Song, Larry Norman, 2nd Chapter of Acts, Keith Green, Petra, Resurrection, and many others who were formed by the movement. These artists embodied the Jesus People, and their abiding presence in present-day evangelical culture can be directly attributed to those beginnings. Eskridge draws convincing connections with today’s dynamic ccm industry, and he discusses the development of “praise music,” largely driven by Chuck Smith’s Maranatha! Music Corporation. Through music, the Jesus People have exerted a forceful influence that was never diminished by the purported demise of the movement. Aside from musical adaptations, the Jesus People also inspired American evangelicalism to focus creative energy on its youth population and on cultur- ally-sensitive evangelistic methodologies. Music has been integral to this pro- cess, but this book also describes the development of “New Paradigm” churches (like the Vineyard Fellowship) and “seeker-sensitive” megachurches (like Wil- low Creek). They are, says Eskridge, the progeny of God’s Forever Family. Bill and Lynne Hybels, for example, found the music of the Jesus People to be a cat- alyst for their original ministries, even before Willow Creek. With this kind of observation, Eskridge argues that the movement was more than a short-lived fancy. It is strange, however, that he has told this story, which overlapped so much of the “Vietnam Era,” without reference to the Vietnam conflict itself. This is particularly true for a movement that derived so much energy from Haight- Ashbury and the anti-war hippie culture. Eskridge explains that the Jesus Peo- ple had strong apocalyptic predilections (85–87) and were not engaged with “Establishment” politics. But we are left to wonder: what did Jesus People say about the war? Eskridge, of course, cannot cover everything, but this particular omission is puzzling in a story that seems, in all other respects, to be told so completely.

PNEUMA 36 (2014) 457–512