Jesus Revolution Parent Guide

When Janette Smith (Ally Ioannides) brings home a hitchhiker named Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie), her father is taken aback. Unsettled by the cultural turmoil of the late 1960s, Pastor Chuck Smith (Kelsey Grammar) is particularly mystified by hippies and is unsure how to relate to a long-haired man with an unkempt beard sitting in his living room. As Pastor Smith speaks with Frisbee, he realizes that he has a deep knowledge of the Bible and a sincere determination to share its hope-filled message with anyone who wants to be transformed by the love of God.

Humbled by the young man’s profound faith, Pastor Smith opens up his church, providing a warm welcome to anyone who wishes to attend, be they barefoot, homeless, or addicted. Some of his congregants are horrified, but others embrace the new adherents, and the church begins a period of explosive growth, spawning a revival movement across the state.

One of the people whose life is touched by Frisbee is Greg Laurie (Joel Courtney), an emotionally wounded young man who is looking for meaning in all the wrong places, specifically drugs. With an alcoholic single mother and a cynical outlook on relationships, Greg isn’t sure if any good thing can actually last. After a terrifying experience on drugs, Greg is ready to rethink his life and accept an invitation from his girlfriend, Cathe (Anna Grace Barlow) to attend church. During services, Greg is surprised when he’s overwhelmed by a flood of emotion. Initially fearful of future disappointment, Laurie finally turns his life over to God and is baptized in the Pacific Ocean.

Jesus Revolution is based on a true story, a Christian revival movement that began in Chuck Smith’s Calvary Chapel. The movie does a fine job of capturing the excitement of the period, as open-hearted, fresh-faced young people flock to the “good news” of the Christian gospel. There are joyful baptisms and bursting chapels and radiant smiles. There are also marital problems, financial stresses, institutional strains, interpersonal rivalries, and the everyday irritations that are bound to occur when people try their faltering best to reach imprecise but lofty goals.

The most interesting part of the film comes when the euphoria of conversion crashes against the rocks of messy reality. As Frisbee and Smith disagree on how services should be conducted; as charismatic spirituality conflicts with institutional stability, the two men find themselves at odds. When they battle over whose church Calvary is, it seems possible that pride and arrogance could destroy their ministry. Laurie also learns that religious faith won’t protect him against heartache – and he struggles to regain the hope and joy that animated his initial conversion. If this movie spent less time on beatific smiles and more on excavating the bedrock of faith in trying times, it would be a better film.

Don’t get me wrong: Jesus Revolution isn’t a terrible film. Given my routine complaints about plastic, paint-by-numbers Christian movies, this should be seen as a compliment. The script’s overriding message – that Christianity isn’t a country club for the comfortable but a welcoming refuge for those on the margins – is both relevant and timely. Hopefully, the story’s emphasis on inclusion and empathy will be a wake-up call for those of us in the pews who might have slipped into complacency or self-righteousness. Whether viewers share Smith and Laurie’s particular variety of Christianity is less important than the movie’s reminder of the basic tenet of all Christian denominations: love of God and love of neighbor.