The Jesus Revolution true story reveals that it was a national spiritual awakening that began within a community of teenage hippies in Southern California and spread across the country. Also called the "Jesus Movement," it gained traction after members of the group, in particular Lonnie Frisbee (played by The Chosen's Jonathan Roumie), met a pastor named Chuck Smith (portrayed by Kelsey Grammer), who opened the doors of his church, Calvary Chapel, to the wandering youth in hopes to bring them closer to God. As the revolution expanded, the members of the movement were nicknamed "Jesus people" or "Jesus freaks." One characteristic of the members was that they largely rejected vices like alcohol and drugs, which had been commonly associated with hippies, and replaced them with religion.
A Jesus Revolution fact-check reveals that the evangelical Christian movement began in the late 1960s on the West Coast of the United States. It spread across North America and reached Europe and Central America before it died off in the late 1980s, with the most impactful part of the movement lasting not more than a decade. It spawned the formation of several denominations and organizations, as well as the creation of youth groups for young worshippers. It also influenced the evolution of the modern-day Christian left and Christian right. The music associated with the Jesus Movement, dubbed "Jesus music," eventually evolved into the contemporary Christian music industry.
Yes. Jesus Revolution is based on Pastor Greg Laurie's book Jesus Revolution: How God Transformed an Unlikely Generation and How He Can Do It Again Today, which tells the story of the Jesus Movement in California in the 1970s. Laurie is portrayed by Joel Courtney in the film.
Yes. An investigation into the Jesus Revolution fact vs. fiction reveals that Pastor Chuck Smith's church, Calvary Chapel, was sort of dying at the time and struggling to attract new members. It's true that many of the older, more conservative members clashed with the young hippies that Smith was welcoming in, disagreeing with them regarding their views on life and religion. The real story confirms that some of the older members even quit the church. As in the film, the young people gave Calvary Chapel Church new life and many new members. However, at the same time, they were altering traditional Christian worship by blending it with their hippie sensibilities, which certainly had its detractors.
Yes. As indicated by the photos at the top of the page, Lonnie Frisbee, a hippie who embraced Christianity, was indeed a real person. Like in the Jesus Revolution movie, he helped bring thousands of kids to Christ by way of his charismatic preaching. Fans of The Chosen TV series will immediately recognize the actor who portrays Frisbee, Jonathan Roumie, who interestingly plays Jesus in that series.
Yes. The true story confirms that the ocean baptisms indeed happened. The filmmakers returned to the location of the real-life baptisms, which took place at Pirates Cove in Southern California. Producer Kevin Downes said that a real pastor who was part of the actual movement was present for the beach scenes and even performed several real baptisms in the ocean while he was there (presumably on crew members who had found Jesus during their work on the movie). -Liberty University Panel
Yes. In answering the question, "Is Jesus Revolution accurate?" we discovered it's true that Greg Laurie hadn't been raised with religion as part of his life. "My mother was beautiful. She literally was a dead ringer for Marylin Monroe. She was married and divorced seven times," Laurie told Kirk Cameron on the TBN show Takeaways. "She was a raging alcoholic, and when I say alcoholic, she passed out every night. She would get in raging drunken brawls with her husbands and boyfriends in between. So I had to grow up really quick." Laurie said that he bounced around somewhat, living with his mom for a time, his grandparents for a time, and was sent to military school. "So, it was a very unusual upbringing, but it got me searching for answers at a very early age." Instead of wondering if he was going to make the football team like other boys his age, he sat around and wondered about the meaning of life, believing it had to be better than what he had experienced.
According to Greg Laurie, this moment in the film indeed happened in real life. "I was kinda hanging around with him for a few months after my conversion," Laurie said while speaking to Christian rapper Ruslan KD on his Bless God Studios YouTube channel. "[Lonnie] was praying for some people, and I was just standing there to the side, and he turns to me and he says, 'The Lord just told me you're gonna preach to thousands of people around the world.' I'm like dumbfounded. I didn't even preach a single sermon [at that point]. I mean, I drew a cartoon booklet. That was my claim to fame. So, this was really surprising."
Greg Laurie would go on to start his own church, Harvest Christian Fellowship, which has become one of the largest churches in the country, with a congregation of 15,000. Just as Lonnie Frisbee predicted, Laurie has preached to thousands of people. In addition, his large-scale evangelistic events called Harvest Crusades have been attended by more than six million people and his TV programs have reached millions more. -Harvest.org
No. The real Lonnie Frisbee was much younger than actor Jonathan Roumie was at the time of filming. In fact, Roumie, who was approximately 47 when the movie was filmed, is more than double the age of Frisbee, who was in his early 20s at the time of the real-life events.
Yes. Anyone who has dug into the Jesus Revolution true story will understand that there is a certain amount of controversy around both Chuck Smith and Lonnie Frisbee, who are portrayed in the movie by Kelsey Grammer and Jonathan Roumie. Pastor Chuck Smith falsely predicted that the world would end by 1981 at the latest. When New Year's Eve passed in 1981 and the end didn't happen, a number of baffled followers left the Calvary Chapel movement. Still, despite Smith's flaws, the movement he helped launch brought thousands of young people to Christ. His church grew to encompass an international family of more than 1,700 churches around the world (CalvaryChapel.com).
Yes. Like in the movie, Greg Laurie was an aspiring cartoonist before he became a pastor. During his days in the Jesus movement, his cartoon characters appeared in tracts that were handed out. "I did little booklets we called tracts and a comic book featuring [the characters]. All of these publications had the Gospel in them and people came to Christ reading them!" Laurie said in a Facebook post. "For a long time, I was known as 'The cartoonist who preaches'. Now, people are surprised to find out that I used to do this. I still doodle a bit here and there but that’s it. . . For now." Pictured below are two of the characters that Laurie drew during the Jesus movement, "Ben Born Again" and his dog. Ben was dreamed up in 1972 when Laurie was 18. The character's name is an obvious play on words.
The Jesus Revolution spawned what was called "Jesus music." It evolved from the fact that the young, counterculture Christians were hungry for songs that spoke to what Jesus meant to them. Musicians who were part of the Jesus Movement performed at various venues, including churches, campuses, and the numerous "Christian coffeehouses" that had sprung up across the country. In 1971, Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel founded the first Christian rock label when he started Maranatha! Music. As the Jesus Movement came to an end in the 1980s, Jesus music underwent a transformation into the multibillion-dollar contemporary Christian music of today. To learn more about this, check out the Erwin Brothers' documentary The Jesus Music.
Much like what was started during the Jesus Movement, for several decades now, many churches across the country have opted to embrace contemporary Christian songs instead of traditional worship music. While their congregations have grown larger as a result, some have argued that despite the songs focusing on faith, love, and triumphs through Jesus, they deviate too far from the Word of God and blur the lines with secular music, especially with regard to the concert-like performances put on in some churches, complete with laser lights and stage crews. Critics argue that these performances are more entertainment-driven than biblically-driven, and ultimately, while attractive, represent the Devil's infiltration into the church. Still, some will point out that modern worship songs are more likely to influence nonbelievers than traditional worship music, thus attracting more people to Christianity.
During a Liberty University panel in early February 2023, director Jon Erwin (I Can Only Imagine, I Still Believe, American Underdog) said that he got the idea to make the movie after coming across an old TIME Magazine on eBay with an image of Jesus on the front, underneath the headline "The Jesus Revolution".