Becoming Jesus People

Title: Becoming Jesus People: True Stories of How Love Broke Through in the Jesus People Movement
Author: Riley Taylor and Carissa Gobble
Major Themes: Jesus People, Christian Life, Hippies
Synopsis: Many people came to faith in Jesus Christ through Liberation House in Eugene, Oregon—how did it happen?

The Jesus People movement of the 1970s is part of my family’s history. My dad went from being an atheist to finding Jesus through the Jesus People movement sometime around 1970 when he lived in California. Because of his story, I find myself quite interested in anything about that movement. So, when I saw an invitation to review Becoming Jesus People, of course, I was interested.

This book explores the lives of 19 people who were involved with one particular commune in Oregon, Liberation House in the town of Eugene. Liberation House was begun as a discipleship house for new Christians, most of whom had been hippies and were now seeking to live for Jesus. They lived together, ate together, worked together, and worshipped together. Each chapter tells the story of a different person.

The stories are as diverse as you could expect from a group of 19 people. They all have one thing in common, however: Each person had an overwhelming desire to find the truth and to figure out Who was in control of the universe. Brian was running from the draft when he met up with one person after another who asked him if he knew Jesus. Riley was running from the draft when he found himself in the middle of the Sahara desert and heard an English broadcast of Christmas carols. He remembered meeting a woman who radiated light, peace, and happiness. How could he find that for himself, though? Then there was Craig, who tried to trip up a friend who claimed to be memorizing Bible verses, and, instead, heard God speaking to him through those verses.

One thing that many of these stories have in common is some sort of supernatural experience with God, where He spoke to them through their mind and showed Himself to them vividly. This happened in many different contexts, such as during a worship meeting, meditating out in nature, or while searching for a meeting through Eastern mysticism. Many of these people prayed prayers challenging God to show Himself to them.

I am normally somewhat skeptical of stories in which people claim that God spoke to them directly. However, reading these stories, and seeing the results in these people, where they went on to serve God for the rest of their lives, I believe they are genuine accounts, events that really happened. If a person lives for Jesus for 59-odd years, that shows me he or she has truly met Jesus. God works in many different ways and this was how He was working in young people in the hippie movement in the early 1970s. The stories also partly ring true because of my own parents’ lives. My mom prayed a prayer similar to those many of the young people in the stories in Becoming Jesus People prayed. My dad had experiences similar to what is described here. I came away from reading this book inspired by what God has done in the past and challenged by what He can do now. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to broaden their perspective of what God can do, has done in the past, and wants to continue doing.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it.

WARNING: Occasional use of words such as darn or heck. A number of stories mention doing drugs, mainly LSD. One story describes an abortion.

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