A few years ago, my friend Greg Laurie (senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship), along with Ellen Vaughn, wrote a book called Jesus Revolution: How God Transformed an Unlikely Generation and How He Can Do It Again Today. Rarely have I read a book so entertaining, informative, and spiritually significant. I relived many formative historical events of the 60s and 70s—Jesus transformed my life when I was an unchurched fifteen year old about to start my sophomore year of high school.
Now the book has become the basis for a new movie by the same title. Many people have told me they have seen Jesus Revolution and were very moved by it. Greg shared a preview of the movie with me a while back, and I really appreciated it. I believe there are people whose eyes will be opened to Jesus through Jesus Revolution. (Find out where and when it’s playing on their website.)
Through reading the book and watching the movie, I learned new things about the Jesus Movement, which I believe was a powerful—though of course imperfect—movement of the Holy Spirit. In fact, many of us older people you know likely came to Jesus either in the center of or on the fringes of that Jesus Revolution. It makes me long for and pray for a New Jesus Revolution that would sweep over many people in our culture and in the world, people both young and old.
Here’s the movie trailer:
Over the years Greg Laurie has become a dear friend. He first contacted me after his son Christopher tragically died in 2008. Since then, he has invited me to speak several times at the churches in Riverside and Orange. Once when we were both speaking in Maui, we met up and had a glorious time together with his Cathe and my Nanci.
Greg has a great passion for evangelism and is also a student of the Scriptures whose ministry is Christ-centered. Since Christopher’s death, their suffering as a family has been great, and Nanci and I have seen in them a depth and dependence on Christ. Harvest felt like a second home for us, and we were glad any time we were able to visit.
Greg and I were recently texting about the movie’s effect on people. One of those people is actor Kelsey Grammer, who plays Pastor Chuck Smith. This interview with him is touching:
Also see this article in which Kelsey talks about his faith in Jesus. And on his blog, Greg talks about what was fact and what events of the film were condensed, altered, or rearranged for sake of storytelling.
