The Nor Cal Roots of the Jesus People Movement
Written by Pastor Ryan Rindels
For those who watched Jesus Revolution, starring Kelsey Grammer and Jonathan Roumi, which recounts the beginnings of the Jesus People Movement (JPM), the film features the unlikely pairing of established Pentecostal pastor Chuck Smith with hippie street-preacher Lonnie Frisbee in 1968. Smith’s willingness to accommodate the style and preferences of young hippies—at the request of Frisbee—led to many conversions and the consequent invigoration of evangelical Christianity in the U.S.
While doing recent research on the JPM, notably, Larry Eskridge’s God’s Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America (2013), I discovered that a year prior, a similar series of events unfolded in Northern California. A certain Liz Wise began attending the First Baptist Church of Mill Valley in 1964. Raised in Auburn, Liz’s family attended the First Church in town. Though she made a decision for Christ at Camp Gilead (Sonoma County) as a young girl, Liz was not walking with the Lord when she married Ted Wise in 1961. Ted and Liz participated in the free spirit “beat” culture, interested in art and experimental drug use, and centered in the Bay Area.
Resistant to attending church for a variety of reasons—including an extramarital affair he was having—Ted eventually changed course. After returning from First Baptist each Sunday, he claimed his wife “came back just glowing.” Upon reading the New Testament, the previously hostile Ted was impressed by the person of Jesus, concluded that he was God, and was converted.
A remarkable dimension to the Wises’ story is that they occasionally used drugs (LSD and Marijuana) for some time after their conversions. In fact, for many hippie Christians, letting go of drugs took time. Some even claimed it made others open to listening to their evangelistic appeals!
John McDonald, the pastor of First Baptist Church of Mill Valley, had to do a tight balancing act of supporting the Wises and placating established, conservative church members. McDonald claims he lost half of his congregation because of the hippie converts. In one funny episode, McDonald let Ted Wise lead a Wednesday night prayer meeting, but as Eskridge describes,
Wise had other ideas, however, and decided to turn the prayer meeting into a thumbnail seminar on contemporary youth and the appeal of exotic new religions. For audiovisual aids, he brought in several copies of the Oracle and the Berkeley Barb, as well as a record player to play Bob Dylan songs that spoke contemporary philosophical and/or spiritual quests.
Contemporary readers may have a hard time understanding how radical a presentation like this was to a traditional Baptist church in the 1960’s. A friend of Wise who was present recounted that after Ted finished his session, not a single congregant spoke a word. McDonald got an earful from concerned church members, but he worked hard to encourage the neophytes without alienating his staid, mostly middle-aged supporters.
The Wises and other believers began doing evangelistic outreach in San Francisco (McDonald accompanied Ted and was impressed with his cross-cultural effectiveness). Lonnie Frisbee’s early street preaching career began at this time, a year before he met Chuck Smith.
I was struck by the fact that our nation’s last major revival (ca. 1967–1972) began in Northern California and that an unknown Baptist pastor provided support and discipleship for raw and messy new converts. In all fairness to First Baptist of Mill Valley, the church did have members who financially supported the Jesus People in their midst in various ways.
We pray for revival, but what are we ready to support new Christians in all the ways we can and should? This is no easy task, but obedience at the cost of discomfort is a small price to pay when we understand that angels rejoice in heaven over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:10).
Perhaps this remarkable account can prepare us to this end.
[1] God’s Forever Family, 27. The content of this story is on pp. 10–28.
