Music of the Jesus Movement, Part 4
Photos by multiple sources
In the excitement of the Jesus Movement, Pastor Chuck Smith rejoiced as Calvary Chapel began to expand into its own movement in the 1970s. Much of that growth happened as the increasing number of Jesus Music bands performed in cities along the California coast—and musicians helped to start churches there.
At a Jesus Music reunion (left to right): Jay Truax, Chuck Girard, Mike MacIntosh, Chuck Smith, Tommy Coomes, and Bob Wall.
Let Us Be One
Unconditional love was a huge part of the Jesus Movement, especially at Calvary Chapel. “Chuck and Kay loved the hippies when we were completely unlovable,” LoveSong member Tommy Coomes testified during a group interview with Pastor Chuck Smith in 2009. “Chuck, you were like a father to us—especially because so many of us were estranged from our parents.” In 1972, Tommy wrote the song “Let Us Be One”, which says, “Lord, give us love for one another … Teach us to build up one another. Let us be one in You.”
The band Parable included (back row, left to right) Don Kobayashi, Gary Arthur, Chuck Butler. Sitting back-to-back are John and Lisa Wickham, parents of current musicians Evan and Phil Wickham. Phil has won numerous Dove awards. Chuck Butler’s son Chad plays drums for the well-known band, Switchfoot.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7
Kay Smith had a huge heart for the young hippies. Some had come from horrific backgrounds of abuse and neglect; others had suffered broken hearts from the costly deception of “free love” that didn’t last.
Chuck and Kay’s oldest daughter, Janette Smith Mandersen, noted, “The hippie kids would call her Mama Kay and my dad Papa Chuck.” Kay had been abandoned as an infant, and understood that many of the hippies’ sinful lifestyles were a cry for love. “A lot of the hippie kids came from homes where they were not loved. As [Kay] talked to them, she found out that’s why they were on drugs—because they were hurting and looking for something real. They found real love when they found the Lord.”
As hundreds of young people got saved and baptized, Calvary Chapel had to move to bigger facilities several times from 1969 to the mid-1970s, even knocking out walls and later meeting in a giant tent to accommodate over 2,000 people. “It was such an exciting time,” Janette reflected. “Our church was the place to be every night. People would put their arms around each other and worship together; they would hear the Gospel. Every night, people were getting saved. It was wonderful to see them come in one way and leave changed, filled with the joy of the Lord.”
Pastor Chuck rejoiced to see more Calvary Chapels spring up, spreading the Good News. “We had more than a dozen groups and many individual musicians exercising their gifts and blessing the church,” Pastor Chuck recollected in 2013. “Their music sounds so soft and easy now, but it was radical then. Soon we began sending them out to share in different venues along the coast. Eventually, many of them ended up developing new churches in various cities where they gave concerts. That’s how Calvary Chapel began to expand from one fellowship into an entire movement—it was as much through the music as the actual pastors going out to plant churches.”
A recent photo of LoveSong band members, (left to right): Bob Wall, Tommy Coomes, John Mehler, Chuck Girard, and Jay Truax. They have been working hard on an upcoming docuseries about LoveSong, as Jesus Music was a predecessor to Contemporary Christian Music.
LoveSong’s upcoming docuseries seeks to chronicle how God used the Jesus Music to reach an entire generation for Him during the great spiritual awakening of the 1960s-70s. For more information about the docuseries “A Band Called LoveSong,” visit LoveSongTheBand.com
This is the conclusion of our series. You can read Parts 1, 2, and 3
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