A while back I was talking with a parishioner and mentioned the Jesus People, he didn’t have a clue to what I was referring. If you don’t either I’d suggest you Google “San Francisco Jesus People” either now or later and get some background. If you do read about the Jesus People in San Francisco chances are the names David Hoyt and Kent Philpott will come up.
Much like Miguel Diaz and George Will, David and Kent had an early influence on me. About a year ago I chatted with Kent on the phone after some email exchanges, and later I had a snail mail (yes – they still do happen!) exchange with David Hoyt – in both cases it had been over 40 years since I had contact with them. I believe that David is working on a book about his Jesus People days and if it comes out I look forward to reading it.
If you do Google about the Jesus People you’ll find more info about David and Kent than I could share on a blog, but I do want to share about my time with them, especially David, and about my time with other great people in San Francisco.
I suppose you could say that I had three spheres of relationships in San Francisco, the Jesus People, the black church community, and the hippie/revolutionary movement. Yep – no typos here. For a time I lived in Haight-Asbury (and again, if you don’t know about Haight-Asbury and the hippie movement go ahead and look it up). I also lived with David Hoyt at the Anchor Rescue Mission, and I can’t recall where it was, though it definitely served a different clientele than would be found in Haight-Asbury.
Now I need to adopt something here that I am a bit uncomfortable with, but I see no way around it – other than David and Kent I’m going to have to supply names for people whose names I can’t remember. If I do remember an actual name I’ll point that out, otherwise I’m afraid that I’ll be supplying names as I go along – I think you’d get tired of reading about “Mrs. so-and-so whose name I can’t remember.” Fair enough? Thanks.
The Spanish-speaking community of New York City taught me hospitality, a love for missions, and a love for those in need. The Jesus People introduced me to the functioning Body of Christ. Up until my encounter with The Jesus People my paradigm of church was traditional, the preacher/pastor did the work and everyone else basically watched. My idea of “ministry” was individualistic, ministry centered on the preacher/pastor, and these preacher/pastors were focused on developing their ministries – as opposed to developing people. (By this time I had probably read Watchman Nee’s The Normal Christian Church Life, now I think republished under another title, but I must not have understood it. Nor must I have understood Bonheoffer's discussion of community in The Cost of Discipleship. What we see is so much more powerful than what we read – I guess I needed to actually “see” a functioning body before I could relate to writings about a functioning body.
If you’ve never seen a VW micro-bus with Jesus- People art painted all over it, rolling down the highway with the driver and inhabitants singing Jesus songs, you’ve missed a sweet part of both Americana and church history. Some folks might want to celebrate Woodstock, I’ll celebrate The Jesus People. Come to think of it, that’s not a bad testimony – to have people call you Jesus People.
“…and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.” Acts 11:26
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Bob, I've been reading into the Jesus People Movement just about all day since you posted this, and I've got to say that based on what you've wrote and what I've read it sounds like it must of been a pretty amazing thing to be a part of. We've got an older couple at church who talk about this from time to time. They were living in California at the time and were personally involved in a lot of what was going on during the movement. It's really inspiring. I can only imagine what it was like to be a part of something like that in such a community of other believers. I sincerely hope and pray that my generation will be able to experience something great like this.
ReplyDeleteActually, I've recently gotten involved in a group in Woodstock in which we're praying and believing that God will do something here in Woodstock. We're going to start a youth night where young people can hang out on a weekend and hopeful experience God (be for the first time, or in a deeper way). A lot of young people in our area don't have much to do on the weekends and complain that there is nothing to do in our town. That's why many turn to drugs and other such things. We're going to have this gathering held in the Community Christian School gym - the same place New Hope meets. We've already got a group that meets together every Sunday night in that location, and next month we will start holding bigger events (such as the Youth Night) where we will bring in Christian musicians, and utilize lights, dramas, and visuals to attract people who otherwise would want nothing to do with traditional "church." Our hope is that it moves beyond that and they begin to come for something more - a personal encounter with Jesus. Because at the end of the day that is what it's all about. And I believe if you have something real (as you've touched on recently in this blog), you don't need all that show to attract people.
Keep up the posts - they are encouraging (at least to me)!