God's Forever Family by Larry Eskridge

God's Forever Family by Larry Eskridge

I love reading books on recent history, and this one was no exception. It is a history of the Jesus movement in the USA in the 1960s and 1970s. It is written in an accessible way by an academic from his PhD thesis, and is fascinating, funny, a little repetitive but always interesting. Larry Eskridge argues that the Jesus People movement is one of the most significant events in the American church scene in the twentieth century, not only for the impact it had on America's 'flower power' hippies, but also for its legacy in the Christian subculture.

He shows how the Jesus People played the key role in the development of the Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) scene, now a multi million dollar business in the US, with artists such as Larry Norman, Keith Green, Love Song and 2nd Chapter selling hundreds of thousands of albums and breaking out of the counter culture into the evangelical mainstream. Eskridge argues that the modern praise and worship movement, with its simple words, chords and melodies can trace its roots to the folk songs and choruses of the early Jesus People. At first this music was tolerated at best in the churches as they attempted to integrate the hippies who were coming to faith in their thousands, but now it is the standard fare of most evangelical/charismatic churches in the Western world.

Also fascinating are the church movements that sprang from the Jesus movement. Chuck Smith, the founder of the Calvary Chapel group of churches, was one of the most influential leaders for the Jesus People, combining many of the key elements of the Jesus Movement: an emphasis on the literalist teaching of the Bible as central for every Christian, a laid-back, come-as-you-are churchmanship, simple songs and choruses, charismatic experience, Journey Into Life-style evangelism, and dispensational eschatology (Hal Lindsay's book The Late Great Planet Earth was the most-read book among the Jesus People, second only to the Living Bible). From Calvary Chapel, the Vineyard movement emerged led by John Wimber, with a greater emphasis on the charismatic gifts but similar to Calvary Chapel in most other ways. The worship songs that emerged from Calvary Chapel (Maranatha Music) and the Vineyard would spread around the world and their influence is everywhere now in the songs of Matt Redman, Martin Smith, Tim Hughes and many others.

There are lots of laugh out loud moments when describing how the hippies encountered evangelical Christianity, like one guy preaching the gospel while smoking a spliff and completely naked (this was because he was preaching in a nudist commune), or the discussions as to whether it was ok to do LSD in Bible study! To give you a taster, one chapter is called 'Jesus knocked me off my metaphysical ass'. There are lots of other interesting nuggets, like the fact that the Christian subculture with Christian music, Christian books, pencils, mints, badges, t-shirts ('witness wear'!) and bumper stickers was pretty much created by the Jesus People (they will have to answer to God for this sin!).

If you are interested in the Christian Contemporary music scene, the Vineyard and Calvary Chapel churches, the evangelical Christian influence on the American counter-culture of the 60s-70s, communal living, revivalist youth movements or you just like a good real life story well told, get this book. It is quite long but worth the effort. The only thing I would have added is a 'what are they doing now' chapter, I would have loved to have found out how long the radical living lasted for, especially in some of the more extreme groups who became cult-like and highly controlling. What are they doing now? Did they come back into the mainstream? Did the lose their faith, or just their radical edge? Are some still living communally now? Aside from these questions, this is a recommended read.