Tag Archives: Jesus Movement

Movement: Chuck Smith

Chuck Smith (1927-2013). A pastor on the move.  A passion for the lost, but not without conflict.

Chuck Smith (1927-2013). A pastor on the move. A passion for the marginalized, but not without some conflict along the way.

In the 1960s, most American Christian churches wanted to have nothing to do with hippies. A young Southern California pastor, Chuck Smith, was determined to change all of that.

When an older member of the church posted a sign in the sanctuary with “no bare feet allowed”, Smith ripped it down. Smith believed that the church was called to reach out to the counter-culture community, even if it meant exchanging the standard suit and tie of the evangelical preacher for a more casual dress.

Chuck Smith’s critical moment came unexpectedly when he befriended a long-haired, bearded hippie teenager, Lonnie Frisbee. Frisbee became a pastor himself in Chuck Smith’s Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa. From there, by the sheer providence of God, the Jesus Movement was born.
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