Young long-hairs and Christian rock music came together in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The result: the Jesus People. Today, you'll see those Jesus freaks of yore in most churches, where they are preaching, teaching, working, and generally being the upright and sometimes uptight citizens they may have deplored in their youth. Maybe you are even in one of their families and always get a laugh when looking at snapshots of your folks from those days when your dad had hair and your mom glowed with a profound joy.

When the Jesus People tuned in, turned on, and dropped out, they weren’t looking for drugs. Instead, they sought out fellow believers. Favorite places were small coffee houses that sprang up around the country. In such places, it was all about the Gospel, caffeine, and a strong guitar riff.

The scene may have been launched by The Living Room coffee house, which opened in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district in 1967. It was a sharp-edged mix of the sacred and the secular, and an occasional Janis Joplin sighting. That same year, a young preacher named Arthur Blessitt could be seen dragging a cross down the Sunset Strip in Hollywood. He established the "His Place" club, where drugs and alcohol were replaced by rockers striking a chord for the Lord. After the club was shut down by The Man, Blessitt moved his traveling show to a go-go joint called Gazzarri’s.

Campus Crusade for Christ experimented with the scene, opening a club in San Bernardino, California, in the late 1960s. Coffee was a penny and the band was Andrae Crouch and the Disciples, who went on to win eight Grammies in a rich career. Between sets, young evangelists made rounds from table to table, sharing the "Four Spiritual Laws" tract and praying with those who were touched by the message.

Although not all churches back in those Generation Gap times responded warmly to the youth movement, those that did saw their attendance numbers spike. In Orange County, California, Pastor Chuck Smith saw his Calvary Chapel congregation grow into the thousands by aiming his messages at youth. The house band was called Love Song, and they had an impressive following. From those beginnings, Calvary Chapel itself became a movement, with influence reaching around the world.

One pastor who saw the response to rock-music-driven messages in 1973, said, "If Christ was here today, he'd have a guitar and he'd be reaching these kids." Churches everywhere opened music-oriented coffee houses where the young sang and preached. A musical staple was "baptizing" a popular song by giving the lyrics a Christian twist. For instance, the Eagles song "Desperado" opens, "Desperado, why don't you come to your senses? You been out ridin' fences for so long now." Even a musician with limited talent but a clear viewpoint could steer that into a Gospel song.

As years passed and music changed, the coffee houses faded. Disco arrived and so did Contemporary Christian Music and Christian radio. There was a Los Angeles club that tried to make it with baptized Disco in the early 1980s, but it slipped from the scene after just a few weeks. Jesus People, by then mostly settled with families to raise, barely noticed.

The Des Moines Connection

Christian rock music wasn’t the only tool in the Jesus People evangelism kit. They also used a series of four movies produced in Des Moines.

The first, Thief in the Night, was the best known of the series, and there are claims that it has been seen by more than 300,000,000. If anything, that estimate seems low for the movie, which was released in 1972. The story follows a group of Midwestern young adults through tumultuous Last Days events as sinners become saints (at least the wise ones do).

What Thief lacked in production value was more than made up for by the enthusiasm with which the movie was received. Though it never reached much distribution through theaters, it wasn’t uncommon for youth ministries to rent a 16 mm copy for weekend night showings at churches, parks, or even in backyards. Conversions seemed to come at every showing through the mid-1970s.

There were three follow-ups films. Produced by Mark IV Productions, the series ended with The Prodigal Planet, released in 1983. All the films are now on DVD and sold through websites. Clips are also available at YouTube. Go there and check out the opening of Thief in the Night, and come back to Veritas on Thursday to meet the man behind it all.