Love Song reunion Concert and the Jesus Movement 

It was great to see Love Song together again this month. The first time in 30 years that all the original members have played together.

Great to see Chuck Smith introduce the band and with tears, tell the story how it all began in this little church in Southern California.

If the music seemed a little dated, well it was, back then it was rock music, today it’s not that far removed what we know as country music. However the words are just as true today as they were then.

For all those who think that Hillsong invented Contemporary Christian Music this may come as a shock. Guess what – they didn’t! CCM really started with Jesus Music in the 70’s, the pioneers being Larry Norman, Barry McGuire, Love Song and Andraé Crouch. The ‘church’ did not understand this ‘new’ sound. Some called it evil and the devil’s music and it was banned in many churches.

There were times when Andraé rolled up to a church and when the pastor realised he was black Andraé wasn’t allowed to play and was sent home. It was Love Song that helped break down the barriers and bring electric guitars and drums into a worship service.

Larry Norman and Love Song's albums were originally released on a secular label. There wasn’t a Christian music industry. In fact back then it wasn’t called CCM it was known as Jesus Music and there’s a vast difference between the two.

As more and more Hippies got saved, it took someone like Chuck Smith at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, to open his doors and heart to these scruffy long haired people. As Chuck Girard from Love Song relates in the early days at church” This dear old lady came up to me one day and said “Son I sure am glad that Jesus has cleaned you up on the inside, but I can't wait for Him to clean you up on the outside”.

The Hippies had fallen in love with Jesus and were inspired by the scriptures and this new found faith. They had an exciting message to share with their friends and the only way they knew how to, was with what they had, a voice, guitars, drums and scripture.

What happened back then was very unique. Young people flocked to churches and the whole Jesus movement began. The ‘new’ music wasn’t coming from a piano or traditional church organ; it came from guitars and drums. It wasn’t ‘church’ music, although everyone did embrace the traditional Hymns. They didn’t throw the old songs out, they just created some new ones and they were all mixed together. In fact some of the old hymns became really 'cool' to sing. Not much later a whole industry grew up around the ‘new’ music, which led to what we have today, CCM.

As I said before, what we have today has very little to do with Jesus music. Most CCM today leaves me running to the nearest elevator to get some relief. As the years have gone by ‘the church’ has gone in a direction of making it’s music ‘cool’ or ‘hip’ to ‘appeal’ to the masses. The result is that we now have a whole generation that has grown up within this culture, not knowing how and where the seeds of this all started and once again, those in the church started creating what I would term ‘church’ music.

You have church kids listening to the world and trying to create a contemporary sound and expressing words about the world in which they live (the church). The whole point has been missed. It has nothing to do with what music you’re playing, what coffee you’re serving in the foyer how big your TV screens are or how slick you and the church look.

Just look at any ‘western’ church service, they’re all singing the same songs, all have the same stylish clothes, all have the same haircuts (guys with a comb over except it goes across the face) almost all in the 'worship team' are under 35. The whole scene is quite incestuous and from the outside you look at it and scratch your head?

Here’s the difference – back then, you had secular musicians getting saved and their influence was their new found faith and love for Jesus. They turned their back on the secular music world and the 'in scene’ - there was a wholesale dumping of everything that was ‘of the world’. In the process, unknowingly and innocently, they created something entirely new.

Today’s CCM is the reverse. It’s all about ‘the look’ the charts, what the latest chorus to sing is, who’s cool and who’s not. How many units did the last album sell?

In what appears to be an obsessive drive to appeal to the world, you have western Christians singing about their faith but copying the world in all aspects from music to presentations, to fashion and trying to ‘create a contemporary atmosphere in their churches’ ultimately creating something that for many people outside the church looking in there’s confusion between spirituality and entertainment.

They’ve created something that church folk get excited about but the world sees it as entirely bland and meaningless if not a little embarrassing and very little to do with spiritual issues.

What attracted young people and ‘the hippies’ was Jesus, getting saved, prayer and their new found faith. It had nothing to do with a place that played ‘their’ kind of music or ‘felt’ like the coffee shops or clubs they had been attending. Church was church and it was exciting to go and sit on the floor and have a bible study and maybe sing a simple chorus with an out of tune guitar.

Seek Ye First became an anthem sung in two part harmonies. People didn’t sit and be ‘entertained’ they WERE part of the music. It came from within the congregation not round the other way as it does today. Jesus people understood the difference between a worship song and a song that you could sing in church as a musical item. That has become totally blurred today.

I know many church leaders who are trying and have tried to ‘recreate' the Jesus movement. Spoke to one today as I was writing this, who enthusiastically told me “We’re recreating the Jesus Movement Halleluiah brother!” I thought as I listened “If you only knew what I’m writing about.” Hello! You can’t recreate it.

Firstly it was something that ‘just happened’ around the world and secondly, it happened outside the church. Sadly you can’t tell them, (church leaders), they just don’t get it. They can't see the forest for the trees. Ask anyone who was a part of the Jesus movement what I’m talking about and they’ll get it instantly.

Ask anyone in the church and you get comments like “Cynic, backslidden, you’ve got no idea, you need deliverance, you're living in the past, you're a trouble maker, you've got stinking thinkin', you need to attend more bible studies, etc etc.”

In fact someone did come up to me with a fierce look in their eyes obviously ready to cast out demons and told me I needed deliverance. I shot back without even thinking "I have had deliverance, you should have known me before I did." I said it before I even realised what I said and it stopped them dead in their tracks.

One of the often used terms I hear from Church leaders is “Fake it till you make it”. See; the Jesus movement didn’t have to fake anything - it was real.

Jesus people didn't and don't need a book to tell them how to have a "Purpose driven Life, or Church", they just got on and lived every moment of every day and many are still living it unfortunately they just don't fit into and are generally not wanted in what is now called 'the church'.

The established church took the Jesus People's innocence and their music, alienated most of them and turned what they brought to the church into an industry. Now many church leaders are desperately trying to recreate a Jesus movement, those of us who were part of it just look and smile.

This new move will not start within the church, it can't, the church today won't allow it, just as it didn't allow it in the 70's and it didn't when Martin Luther tried to reform it or when St Francis of Assisi tried to live and walk the Christian life and again right back some two thousand years ago to a scruffy band of fisherman and their leader who were not accepted by the established church.

The church needs to change, otherwise there’s a whole generation who are going find that at the end of the Mosh Pit there is nothing but a whole lot of wasted physical activity, good for an aerobic workout and very little if any ‘good on the inside’ certainly not enough to sustain a faith in God and to face the trials that come with everyday life.

Barry McGuire's "Pay the Piper" and "Lear Jets" was originally aimed at the world, sadly today, those very words are easily applied to the church.

Before I get a flood of emails criticising me, let me say this: I find today’s church scene VERY exciting. Today’s ‘western’ church is culturally where the church was in the 50’s and early 60’s. So if you’re in a church, get ready for a new wave of folk to come in and turn the place upside down. Open your arms and just love em and watch what happens.

As Chuck Girard said at the beginning of the historic concert, "People refer to the Jesus Music guys as 'the Legends' or the 'pioneers' only to be dismissed as old, irrelevant and washed up. These 'legends' are actually 'the fathers' and the church needs to listen".

The church has done all it can to 'bury' the fathers - I was reminded recently by my friend Craig Helms of a comment by Larry Norman who said "Churches killed the true Jesus Movement, which was a movement on the streets, by absorbing those who got saved into church structures".

As Chuck Smith said at the end of the Love Song concert, "Maybe this is the start of something new, maybe as the song says, we need to 'return to our first love', "Welcome back to the things that you once believed in, Welcome back to what you knew was right from the start."

The future looks amazingly exciting!