I think that in the distant future, historians interested in Christian history will look back at what's called the "Jesus people" movement and identify it as a turning point in history overall.
Why do I say that?
Not because of the elements connected to what happened, as most of them fell by the wayside and very little is left today from the experience. While there are people who do connect it with some ongoing Churches today, overall it has largely been neglected or misunderstood as to its importance.
What were some of the characteristics connected to it? Community, innocence, passion, spontaneity, little leadership, creativity, ordinary people, communalism, excesses in some cases, organic, simplicity and short-term thinking, among many other things.
While much of that is important, it's not what makes the experience significant. What makes it significant is that God Himself initiated the move; it was happening outside the institutional church and institutional leaders. That's one of the reasons when many have commented on it throughout the years, much of the excesses are mentioned, rather than the tremendous strengths involved as well.
As a matter of fact, when the institutional church finally caught up with them, the impetus was winding down, and the 1972 event called Explo 72 was probably the final nail in the coffin. At that event none other than Billy Graham and Bill Bright played significant roles in the meetings which attracted tens of thousands.
A lot of believers have felt that the watering down of the message and institutional church leaders influencing the naive new believers into wearing the right clothes and hair lengths (outward appearances) took the focus off of the simple love of Jesus they had been centered on.
The point I want to bring up though is one of the major reasons the movement stalled and failed, and what we can learn from it.
Primarily it was a victim of its own success. When it became public knowledge and the media began to cover it, it was doomed to failure.
This is important because it's far better when important change like this happens that believers can grow up in relative anonymity until God may choose to reveal Himself through them at the right time - if ever.
Very few believers can ever handle publicity or fame, and shouldn't really have to. Yet the media world we live in makes it hard to grow up spiritually in obscurity.
And if we do happen to become known, we start to think it's the Holy Spirit moving, when in fact it can be the very opposite. As Paul said, he was little known but well known. We need to be the same way. The church may know us, but we won't be popular in the world, and neither should we be.
It's far better to grow and live life in Christ in a quiet and peaceable manner, than it is to become well known and untold pressures put upon us.
There are ways to make an impact without becoming famous or important in our own eyes. The costs of becoming visible in the climate we live in is far too much of a price to pay.
Even so, we will be tested as to our foundations and commitment to the eternal purpose of God lived in us. It's hard enough to do it in everyday life, let alone adding fuel to the fire by allowing ourselves to be put under the type of scrutiny and opening ourselves up to all the people with agendas out there.
We need to be careful how we hold our stewardship of the eternal purpose of God. It's far more profitable to grow and learn spontaneously by the Spirit of God over a long period of time, than use the old methods of trying to increase through our own strength, strategies and plans, thinking we're called to do so.
The reason this is such a temptation is we see something of the heart of Christ in His purpose, as then respond in our own strength, thinking we're increasing the kingdom of God, when in reality we're building our own kingdoms out from ourselves rather than out from Him.
In the end, I don't think what began to happen in the mid 1960s was a failure in any way. What it did was remind us that God can easily move outside the institutional church system, and can make an extraordinary impact on the lives of men and women who want only Him.
The key thing we need to learn if we want to go forward is to stay focused on Christ alone, and stay away from the temptation to become well known. Even if we are approached and we think it's a good opportunity to grow and become known, I would stay away from it and quietly let the Lord do His work.
After all, He's never in a hurry.
This isn't to discourage growth, just that it has to be growth from God rather than human ingenuity and thinking.
What happened with the publicity connected to the Jesus people was the immaturity of the new and primarily young believers was used as an excuse to attack the overall impetus of what God was doing, and the end result was that publicity caused the purpose to really be stillborn before it was able to take root.
We are at that stage again, as Chrisians start to look seriously at alternative ways of meeting as the church and what it really means. Unfortunately there are already those who are off the foundation of Jesus Christ and embracing all sorts of irrelevant worldly issues rather than the only thing that really matters.
Don't be discouraged though if you're not one of them. All the publicity they're attempting to generate will fall by the wayside relatively soon, as it always does.
For those serious and focused on Christ alone, we need to continue to hold to the head and not be tempted to let go.
Much of what the Jesus people experienced for a short period of time was from God and gave a little glimpse of what is in store for the future of the church. Let us not be in too much of a hurry to grow and become well known, rather let us continue to root down deep into Him and never move off of that.
For those of you who have gathered quietly for a number of years, this doesn't mean growth won't come to you, just be careful of it coming forth from Jesus and not from the current temptation to make it a popular experience.
