![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.historydefined.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/1969-Baptism.4.jpg\")
Arriving on the Scene<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nApart from being born in Hastings, Minnesota, and having four siblings (Janice, Marijean, Kay, and William), little is known about Pederson before arriving in California. He arrived sometime in the mid-60s to pursue an entertainment career. By one account, as a ventriloquist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But rather than follow a path in show-biz as planned, Pederson was drawn to the Hippie counterculture scene erupting in the Haight-Ashbury District of San Francisco. To Pederson, it seemed the perfect setting to introduce Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Hollywood Free Paper <\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nIn 1969, Pederson launched the Hollywood Free Paper. <\/em>This was meant to serve as a Christian reaction to the Oracle <\/em>and other underground countercultural newspapers of the Haight-Ashbury District. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWithin two years, circulation of this biweekly \u201cJesus\u201d publication reached 1,000,000 copies. Each copy was hand-delivered through the streets and across the beaches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pederson’s approach to reaching the Hippies was to neither counteract nor denigrate their lifestyle. Instead, he promoted the idea that peace, love, and free-thinking were very much in keeping with Jesus’ teachings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pederson was not the first to promote Christianity to the California Hippie community. Seminary student Kent Philpott and Pastor Chuck Smith preceded him. But he was the first to capture their hearts, minds, and imaginations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Origins of the \u201cJesus People Movement\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nAccording to most accounts, the \u201cJesus People Movement\u201d began in 1967. It started with the opening of a small storefront evangelical mission. This was created by Ted Wise who was a drug-using sailmaker-turned-evangelist. He called this storefront the \u201cLiving Room.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was located in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district–but quickly spread to Los Angeles and Seattle. Most historians consider the opening of the mission (and others) a direct reaction to the \u201cSummer of Love\u201d sex and drug-fest that took place the year before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though Christian-based organizations had existed in the area before this, this was the first outreach mission run solely by street people, for street people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hippie philosophy embraced a decidedly spiritual dimension (a conglomeration of Eastern meditation, the occult, Native American spirituality, Zen Buddhism, and \u201cHare Krishna\u201d Hinduism). But, Wise and evangelical pastor John MacDonald believed that the rampant rise in decadence among the youth indicated that they’d strayed from the teachings of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Essential to the popularity of the \u201cLiving Room\u201d was a charismatic Hippie convert named Lonnie Frisbee, chosen by Wise to be the \u201cface\u201d of the mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soon after, other conservative pastors recruited \u201cHippie\u201d spokespeople to spread the word of God on their behalf. The \u201cLiving Room\u201d dissolved after only eighteen months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blessitt, Meissner, Bright, and Sparks<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nA short time later a street evangelist named Arthur Blessitt, the so-called \u201cMinister of Sunset Strip\u201d entered. He famously preached to members of the Hell’s Angels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He opened a coffeehouse\/counseling center on Sunset Strip in West Hollywood called, \u201cHis Place.\u201d This was a 24-hour \u201cwalk-in\u201d for young people (located next door to a topless Go-Go club). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile in Seattle, the \u201cJesus People Army\u201d (JPA) came about. It was born of a vision experienced by evangelist Linda Meissner (famous for her book, The Cross and The Switchblade<\/em>). She claimed she’d seen an \u201carmy of teenagers marching for Jesus.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\nMeissner, who’d previously ministered to New York City street gangs, opened several other outreach centers throughout the Pacific Northwest before dissolving the JPA and moving to England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the fall of 1967, attention shifted from the multitude of wayward kids roaming Bay area streets to the college students at the University of California. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
California Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC) president Bill Bright devised what he thought was a workable strategy to attract students at Berkeley to Christianity. At that time, the campus was a boiling cauldron of radicalism, protests, and anti-war marches. But his attempts failed miserably. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In February of 1969, Jack Sparks, a former associate professor of statistics at Penn State (and CCC staff member) visited Berkeley. He decided to relocate there and adopt the same aggressive methods used by the counterculture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He distributed leaflets, carried signs, hung posters, and used bullhorns during rallies to reach the students. By April, Sparks had successfully established an outreach program called the \u201cChristian Liberation World Front\u201d (CWLF). Its mission was to convert campus radicals to Christianity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.historydefined.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/jesus-people.jpg\")
<\/a>March in Sacramento – The Hollywood Free Paper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nFundamentals of the \u201cJesus People Movement\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nAt the heart of the \u201cJesus People Movement\u201d was the rejection of intellectualism and the conservative social values of the previous generation. This included the norms of institutional religion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The \u201cMovement\u201d (as it was most commonly referred to) lacked organization and a universal agenda. This resulted in many disjointed subgroups. Participants nonetheless shared many common characteristics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most apparent was their intense evangelistic zeal for the word of Jesus and emphasis on personal experience over Biblical dogma. One of their most distinguishing features was the copy of Good News for Modern Man <\/em>(the simplified version of the New Testament<\/em> published in 1966) many carried, quoted, and distributed. <\/p>\n\n\n\nRecognizing that their power lay in numbers, evangelical ministers (like Duane Pederson) organized mass rallies that hundreds–even thousands–of \u201cJesus Freaks\u201d would attend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Media Attention<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nInto the 1970s, Pederson continued to provide spiritual guidance and support to the \u201cJesus People Movement\u201d in California and Europe. His highly successful publication, the Hollywood Free Paper, <\/em>was now spreading across much of the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAttempting to capitalize on the Free Paper’s<\/em> effectiveness, \u201cJesus\u201d papers became a fundamental component of several other street Christian groups. Among them: Right On!<\/em>, The Fish<\/em>, Street Level<\/em>, and Cornerstone–<\/em>none of which came close to reaching the same status.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Free Paper<\/em> became so popular that on multiple occasions between 1970 and 1972 it drew the interest of several mainstream periodicals. These included Time<\/em>, Life<\/em>, Newsweek<\/em>, Look<\/em>, and Rolling Stone<\/em>\u2014all of which suddenly found long-haired, bell-bottomed \u201cStreet Christians\u201d and \u201cJesus Freaks\u201d newsworthy. <\/p>\n\n\n\nLife<\/em> magazine covered the \u201cJesus Freak\u201d phenomenon in an article called, \u201cThe Groovy Christians.\u201d After that, a flood of articles, editorials, television exposes, and even films spotlighting the \u201cMovement\u201d followed. <\/p>\n\n\n\nSuddenly, outdoor prayer gatherings, ocean-side baptismal services, and long-haired street-corner evangelists became fodder for magazines all around the globe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coffee Houses, Halfway Houses, and Communes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nAround 1970, dozens of new coffee houses sprang up around the San Francisco Bay area and the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Simultaneously, halfway houses and new communes were established where members of the \u201cMovement\u201d could live with other like-minded youth. (Communes were far from a new concept; as many as 2000 existed across America in the 1960s.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While coffee houses had been common meeting places for the Beat Generation in the 1950s, many of those evolved into establishments where Hippies and \u201cJesus People\u201d could gather. They largely replaced the walk-in missions of a few years before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among the more popular were \u201cThe Coffee Gallery,\u201d \u201cThe Cellar,\u201d and \u201cThe Anxious Asp\u201d–added to them, \u201cThe Belly of the Whale\u201d and \u201cThe Upper Room.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Between 1969 and the early 1970s, hundreds of independent communes, \u201chalfway houses\u201d (apartment buildings or boarding houses where Hippies could crash<\/em> for a night or three), and coffee houses\/fellowship centers sprang up in southern California. They appeared as far north as Washington State. The \u201cJesus People Movement\u201d was growing at an extraordinary rate. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe \u201cLighthouse\u201d and \u201cShiloh Youth Revival Center\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nIn 1970, pastor and real estate agent Jim Durken acquired an abandoned coast guard station 11 miles outside Eureka, California. He named it the Jim Durken Lighthouse Ranch<\/em> (The \u201cLighthouse\u201d), which he invited young Christians to consider their home. <\/p>\n\n\n\nBy 1972, the group had grown to between 250 and 300 active members. With Durkin’s guidance, he began sending out church-establishing teams. Eventually, they founded the organization, \u201cGospel Outreach\u201d (which today has missions all over the world).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, a small commune called The Shiloh Youth Revival Center<\/em> was established in the fall of 1968 in Costa Mesa, California by John Higgins. He was a former drug addict who’d converted to fundamentalist Christianity. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThis commune <\/a>relocated to Dexter, Oregon in 1970, effectively becoming the headquarters of the \u201cJesus People Movement.\u201d \u201cShiloh\u201d continued to thrive until the mid-1970s–but then began to wane.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 1978, the Shiloh Board of Advisors dismissed Higgins for his overly-authoritarian leadership style. By 1986 the commune was completely abandoned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Advent of \u201cJesus\u201d Music<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nTo the growing multitude of Street Christians, it seemed like a marriage made in heaven: Rock music and Christianity. One of the first to explore this idea was Barry McGuire. He was a singer\/songwriter already known to the Hippie community for his 1965 hit, \u201cEve of Destruction.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He became a Born-Again Christian in 1970 (after an encounter with evangelist Arthur Blessitt). McGuire signed with the American Christian music label Myrrh<\/em>, and released the album Seeds;<\/em> which failed to produce a hit. <\/p>\n\n\n\nMeanwhile, Phil Keaggy, Paul Clark, Randall Stonehill, Larry Norman, and singer-songwriter Norman Greenbaum (\u201cSpirit in the Sky\u201d) were getting airplay (albeit limited) from select Rock stations across the US. But then a new genre of music emerged: the Rock Opera. And suddenly, \u201cJesus\u201d music was mainstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In November of 1969, the title track to an as-yet-unfinished Rock Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar<\/em> hit the airwaves. Sung by British actor and singer Murray Head, \u201cSuperstar\u201d gives voice to the spirit of Judas Iscariot\u2014the Apostle said to have betrayed Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDuring the track, he asks poignant, rhetorical questions of Jesus regarding his bigger plan. Although the song received only limited attention, it was played on mainstream Rock stations. It elevated Christian music to a new level and broader audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In October of 1970, \u201cJesus\u201d music took a giant step forward with the release of Jesus Christ Superstar. <\/em>It was a Tim Rice-Andrew Webber double Rock album musical dramatization of the last week of the life of Jesus Christ. <\/p>\n\n\n\nIt began with his arrival in Jerusalem and ends with his Crucifixion (based primarily on the Synoptic Gospels and Catholic Bishop Sheen’s book, Life of Christ<\/em>). <\/p>\n\n\n\nUnlike earlier folksy approaches to popularizing \u201cJesus\u201d music, Rice and Webber enlisted a host of renowned hard Rock musicians. This included Deep Purple<\/em> vocalist Ian Gillan and members of Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs and Englishmen <\/em>band. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThen in 1971, the album was adapted to a full-stage production. Both the album and stage performance proved extraordinarily popular with Christians and non-Christians alike. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since then, Christian music has evolved into a billion-dollar industry, represented by every genre of music: from Heavy Metal to Country, Blues to Pop, Electronic to Soul, and Rap to New Age. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.historydefined.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Love-Family-musicians.jpg\")
Love Family musicians in Seattle – Seattle Municipal Archives<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nPederson’s Monthly Rock Concerts<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nRecognizing the uniting power of Christian-Rock music, in the early 1970s, Duane Pederson began sponsoring monthly 4-5-hour concerts at the Hollywood Palladium. This included the 1972 \u201cJesus People Live Festival of Music.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It featured performances by Dove Sounds, Gentle Persuasion, Harvest Flight, J.C. Power Outlet, Morning Star, and Wedgewood (which was recorded and released as an LP). Every concert attracted thousands of \u201cJesus Freaks\u201d who attended for the music, fellowship, and ultimately, exaltation of Jesus Christ. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, mainstream media increasingly viewed Pederson as just another charismatic religious radical–with a zealous cult <\/a>following.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDuane Pederson and the Priesthood<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nBy 1977, an estimated 2 million Born-Again Christians joined the faith. Many were inspired by the \u201cJesus People Movement.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1978, however, Pederson did the unexpected: He shifted his ministry from Street Youth to prison inmates. He joined Christian Prison Volunteers as a \u201cvisiting\u201d minister to the incarcerated and those adjusting to post-parole life on the outside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ceasing publication of the Hollywood Free Paper<\/em>, for the next two years the periodical functioned as a ministry to prisoners called, the Visit<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\nNow focused exclusively on bringing Jesus to prison inmates, Pederson’s Street Youth disintegrated. Some delved deeper into Christianity, others abandoned it completely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1991, Pederson joined the Antiochian Orthodox Church and was subsequently ordained as a priest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1993 he was tasked by his bishop with creating a national prison ministry. He successfully created this and it ran for more than a decade. In 2005, this ministry was sanctified and named the \u201cOrthodox Christian Prison Ministry\u201d (OCPM)–and carries his reputation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1999, Father<\/em> Duane Pederson was elevated to the rank of Archimandrite, a title of respect for his many years of service to the Antiochian Orthodox Church. In 2012, \u201cFather Duane\u201d (as he came to be known) was given the \u201cMatthew 25:36 Award\u201d for his lifetime of achievement in prison ministry. <\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 2014, Pederson wrote, Larger Than Ourselves: The Early Beginnings of the Jesus People<\/em>. In this, he recounts how the \u201cJesus People Movement\u201d began. He includes photos of key individuals and places pertinent to the early years of the \u201cMovement.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\nArchimandrite Duane Pederson died on July 20, 2022, at the age of 83. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today he is remembered more for his prison ministry than his years as a self-described \u201cJesus Freak.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
References<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nshilohworshipmusic.com., \u201cThe Jesus Movement of the 70s,\u201d The Jesus Movement of the 70s (shilohworshipmusic.com) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Place.asburyseminaryiedu., \u201cThe Spontaneous Generation: Lessons from the Jesus Movement
for Today,\u201d https:\/\/place.asburyseminary.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=1133&context=jascg<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nScholarworks.wm.edu., \u201cThe Jesus People Movement and the Awakening of the Late
1960s,\u201d https:\/\/scholarworks.wm.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=5452&context=etd\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nPederson, Duane, accessed via: Archive.org., \u201cJesus People,\u201d Jesus people : Pederson, Duane : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Angelcraft, JC, Rollingstone<\/em>, YouTube.com., \u201cThe Hollywood Free Paper<\/em> was issued from 1969-1978,\u201d https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=llJNUr1w6M0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1969, Pederson launched the Hollywood Free Paper. <\/em>This was meant to serve as a Christian reaction to the Oracle <\/em>and other underground countercultural newspapers of the Haight-Ashbury District. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Within two years, circulation of this biweekly \u201cJesus\u201d publication reached 1,000,000 copies. Each copy was hand-delivered through the streets and across the beaches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Pederson’s approach to reaching the Hippies was to neither counteract nor denigrate their lifestyle. Instead, he promoted the idea that peace, love, and free-thinking were very much in keeping with Jesus’ teachings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Pederson was not the first to promote Christianity to the California Hippie community. Seminary student Kent Philpott and Pastor Chuck Smith preceded him. But he was the first to capture their hearts, minds, and imaginations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to most accounts, the \u201cJesus People Movement\u201d began in 1967. It started with the opening of a small storefront evangelical mission. This was created by Ted Wise who was a drug-using sailmaker-turned-evangelist. He called this storefront the \u201cLiving Room.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was located in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district–but quickly spread to Los Angeles and Seattle. Most historians consider the opening of the mission (and others) a direct reaction to the \u201cSummer of Love\u201d sex and drug-fest that took place the year before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though Christian-based organizations had existed in the area before this, this was the first outreach mission run solely by street people, for street people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hippie philosophy embraced a decidedly spiritual dimension (a conglomeration of Eastern meditation, the occult, Native American spirituality, Zen Buddhism, and \u201cHare Krishna\u201d Hinduism). But, Wise and evangelical pastor John MacDonald believed that the rampant rise in decadence among the youth indicated that they’d strayed from the teachings of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Essential to the popularity of the \u201cLiving Room\u201d was a charismatic Hippie convert named Lonnie Frisbee, chosen by Wise to be the \u201cface\u201d of the mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon after, other conservative pastors recruited \u201cHippie\u201d spokespeople to spread the word of God on their behalf. The \u201cLiving Room\u201d dissolved after only eighteen months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A short time later a street evangelist named Arthur Blessitt, the so-called \u201cMinister of Sunset Strip\u201d entered. He famously preached to members of the Hell’s Angels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He opened a coffeehouse\/counseling center on Sunset Strip in West Hollywood called, \u201cHis Place.\u201d This was a 24-hour \u201cwalk-in\u201d for young people (located next door to a topless Go-Go club). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile in Seattle, the \u201cJesus People Army\u201d (JPA) came about. It was born of a vision experienced by evangelist Linda Meissner (famous for her book, The Cross and The Switchblade<\/em>). She claimed she’d seen an \u201carmy of teenagers marching for Jesus.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Meissner, who’d previously ministered to New York City street gangs, opened several other outreach centers throughout the Pacific Northwest before dissolving the JPA and moving to England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the fall of 1967, attention shifted from the multitude of wayward kids roaming Bay area streets to the college students at the University of California. <\/p>\n\n\n\n California Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC) president Bill Bright devised what he thought was a workable strategy to attract students at Berkeley to Christianity. At that time, the campus was a boiling cauldron of radicalism, protests, and anti-war marches. But his attempts failed miserably. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In February of 1969, Jack Sparks, a former associate professor of statistics at Penn State (and CCC staff member) visited Berkeley. He decided to relocate there and adopt the same aggressive methods used by the counterculture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He distributed leaflets, carried signs, hung posters, and used bullhorns during rallies to reach the students. By April, Sparks had successfully established an outreach program called the \u201cChristian Liberation World Front\u201d (CWLF). Its mission was to convert campus radicals to Christianity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At the heart of the \u201cJesus People Movement\u201d was the rejection of intellectualism and the conservative social values of the previous generation. This included the norms of institutional religion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u201cMovement\u201d (as it was most commonly referred to) lacked organization and a universal agenda. This resulted in many disjointed subgroups. Participants nonetheless shared many common characteristics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Most apparent was their intense evangelistic zeal for the word of Jesus and emphasis on personal experience over Biblical dogma. One of their most distinguishing features was the copy of Good News for Modern Man <\/em>(the simplified version of the New Testament<\/em> published in 1966) many carried, quoted, and distributed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Recognizing that their power lay in numbers, evangelical ministers (like Duane Pederson) organized mass rallies that hundreds–even thousands–of \u201cJesus Freaks\u201d would attend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Into the 1970s, Pederson continued to provide spiritual guidance and support to the \u201cJesus People Movement\u201d in California and Europe. His highly successful publication, the Hollywood Free Paper, <\/em>was now spreading across much of the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Attempting to capitalize on the Free Paper’s<\/em> effectiveness, \u201cJesus\u201d papers became a fundamental component of several other street Christian groups. Among them: Right On!<\/em>, The Fish<\/em>, Street Level<\/em>, and Cornerstone–<\/em>none of which came close to reaching the same status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Free Paper<\/em> became so popular that on multiple occasions between 1970 and 1972 it drew the interest of several mainstream periodicals. These included Time<\/em>, Life<\/em>, Newsweek<\/em>, Look<\/em>, and Rolling Stone<\/em>\u2014all of which suddenly found long-haired, bell-bottomed \u201cStreet Christians\u201d and \u201cJesus Freaks\u201d newsworthy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Life<\/em> magazine covered the \u201cJesus Freak\u201d phenomenon in an article called, \u201cThe Groovy Christians.\u201d After that, a flood of articles, editorials, television exposes, and even films spotlighting the \u201cMovement\u201d followed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Suddenly, outdoor prayer gatherings, ocean-side baptismal services, and long-haired street-corner evangelists became fodder for magazines all around the globe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Around 1970, dozens of new coffee houses sprang up around the San Francisco Bay area and the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Simultaneously, halfway houses and new communes were established where members of the \u201cMovement\u201d could live with other like-minded youth. (Communes were far from a new concept; as many as 2000 existed across America in the 1960s.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n While coffee houses had been common meeting places for the Beat Generation in the 1950s, many of those evolved into establishments where Hippies and \u201cJesus People\u201d could gather. They largely replaced the walk-in missions of a few years before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Among the more popular were \u201cThe Coffee Gallery,\u201d \u201cThe Cellar,\u201d and \u201cThe Anxious Asp\u201d–added to them, \u201cThe Belly of the Whale\u201d and \u201cThe Upper Room.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Between 1969 and the early 1970s, hundreds of independent communes, \u201chalfway houses\u201d (apartment buildings or boarding houses where Hippies could crash<\/em> for a night or three), and coffee houses\/fellowship centers sprang up in southern California. They appeared as far north as Washington State. The \u201cJesus People Movement\u201d was growing at an extraordinary rate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1970, pastor and real estate agent Jim Durken acquired an abandoned coast guard station 11 miles outside Eureka, California. He named it the Jim Durken Lighthouse Ranch<\/em> (The \u201cLighthouse\u201d), which he invited young Christians to consider their home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n By 1972, the group had grown to between 250 and 300 active members. With Durkin’s guidance, he began sending out church-establishing teams. Eventually, they founded the organization, \u201cGospel Outreach\u201d (which today has missions all over the world).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, a small commune called The Shiloh Youth Revival Center<\/em> was established in the fall of 1968 in Costa Mesa, California by John Higgins. He was a former drug addict who’d converted to fundamentalist Christianity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This commune <\/a>relocated to Dexter, Oregon in 1970, effectively becoming the headquarters of the \u201cJesus People Movement.\u201d \u201cShiloh\u201d continued to thrive until the mid-1970s–but then began to wane.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1978, the Shiloh Board of Advisors dismissed Higgins for his overly-authoritarian leadership style. By 1986 the commune was completely abandoned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To the growing multitude of Street Christians, it seemed like a marriage made in heaven: Rock music and Christianity. One of the first to explore this idea was Barry McGuire. He was a singer\/songwriter already known to the Hippie community for his 1965 hit, \u201cEve of Destruction.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n He became a Born-Again Christian in 1970 (after an encounter with evangelist Arthur Blessitt). McGuire signed with the American Christian music label Myrrh<\/em>, and released the album Seeds;<\/em> which failed to produce a hit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Phil Keaggy, Paul Clark, Randall Stonehill, Larry Norman, and singer-songwriter Norman Greenbaum (\u201cSpirit in the Sky\u201d) were getting airplay (albeit limited) from select Rock stations across the US. But then a new genre of music emerged: the Rock Opera. And suddenly, \u201cJesus\u201d music was mainstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In November of 1969, the title track to an as-yet-unfinished Rock Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar<\/em> hit the airwaves. Sung by British actor and singer Murray Head, \u201cSuperstar\u201d gives voice to the spirit of Judas Iscariot\u2014the Apostle said to have betrayed Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the track, he asks poignant, rhetorical questions of Jesus regarding his bigger plan. Although the song received only limited attention, it was played on mainstream Rock stations. It elevated Christian music to a new level and broader audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In October of 1970, \u201cJesus\u201d music took a giant step forward with the release of Jesus Christ Superstar. <\/em>It was a Tim Rice-Andrew Webber double Rock album musical dramatization of the last week of the life of Jesus Christ. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It began with his arrival in Jerusalem and ends with his Crucifixion (based primarily on the Synoptic Gospels and Catholic Bishop Sheen’s book, Life of Christ<\/em>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Unlike earlier folksy approaches to popularizing \u201cJesus\u201d music, Rice and Webber enlisted a host of renowned hard Rock musicians. This included Deep Purple<\/em> vocalist Ian Gillan and members of Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs and Englishmen <\/em>band. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Then in 1971, the album was adapted to a full-stage production. Both the album and stage performance proved extraordinarily popular with Christians and non-Christians alike. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since then, Christian music has evolved into a billion-dollar industry, represented by every genre of music: from Heavy Metal to Country, Blues to Pop, Electronic to Soul, and Rap to New Age. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Recognizing the uniting power of Christian-Rock music, in the early 1970s, Duane Pederson began sponsoring monthly 4-5-hour concerts at the Hollywood Palladium. This included the 1972 \u201cJesus People Live Festival of Music.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n It featured performances by Dove Sounds, Gentle Persuasion, Harvest Flight, J.C. Power Outlet, Morning Star, and Wedgewood (which was recorded and released as an LP). Every concert attracted thousands of \u201cJesus Freaks\u201d who attended for the music, fellowship, and ultimately, exaltation of Jesus Christ. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, mainstream media increasingly viewed Pederson as just another charismatic religious radical–with a zealous cult <\/a>following.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By 1977, an estimated 2 million Born-Again Christians joined the faith. Many were inspired by the \u201cJesus People Movement.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1978, however, Pederson did the unexpected: He shifted his ministry from Street Youth to prison inmates. He joined Christian Prison Volunteers as a \u201cvisiting\u201d minister to the incarcerated and those adjusting to post-parole life on the outside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ceasing publication of the Hollywood Free Paper<\/em>, for the next two years the periodical functioned as a ministry to prisoners called, the Visit<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now focused exclusively on bringing Jesus to prison inmates, Pederson’s Street Youth disintegrated. Some delved deeper into Christianity, others abandoned it completely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1991, Pederson joined the Antiochian Orthodox Church and was subsequently ordained as a priest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1993 he was tasked by his bishop with creating a national prison ministry. He successfully created this and it ran for more than a decade. In 2005, this ministry was sanctified and named the \u201cOrthodox Christian Prison Ministry\u201d (OCPM)–and carries his reputation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1999, Father<\/em> Duane Pederson was elevated to the rank of Archimandrite, a title of respect for his many years of service to the Antiochian Orthodox Church. In 2012, \u201cFather Duane\u201d (as he came to be known) was given the \u201cMatthew 25:36 Award\u201d for his lifetime of achievement in prison ministry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2014, Pederson wrote, Larger Than Ourselves: The Early Beginnings of the Jesus People<\/em>. In this, he recounts how the \u201cJesus People Movement\u201d began. He includes photos of key individuals and places pertinent to the early years of the \u201cMovement.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Archimandrite Duane Pederson died on July 20, 2022, at the age of 83. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Today he is remembered more for his prison ministry than his years as a self-described \u201cJesus Freak.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n shilohworshipmusic.com., \u201cThe Jesus Movement of the 70s,\u201d The Jesus Movement of the 70s (shilohworshipmusic.com) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Place.asburyseminaryiedu., \u201cThe Spontaneous Generation: Lessons from the Jesus Movement Scholarworks.wm.edu., \u201cThe Jesus People Movement and the Awakening of the Late Pederson, Duane, accessed via: Archive.org., \u201cJesus People,\u201d Jesus people : Pederson, Duane : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive <\/p>\n\n\n\n Angelcraft, JC, Rollingstone<\/em>, YouTube.com., \u201cThe Hollywood Free Paper<\/em> was issued from 1969-1978,\u201d https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=llJNUr1w6M0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nOrigins of the \u201cJesus People Movement\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Blessitt, Meissner, Bright, and Sparks<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Fundamentals of the \u201cJesus People Movement\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Media Attention<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Coffee Houses, Halfway Houses, and Communes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The \u201cLighthouse\u201d and \u201cShiloh Youth Revival Center\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Advent of \u201cJesus\u201d Music<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Pederson’s Monthly Rock Concerts<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Duane Pederson and the Priesthood<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
References<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
for Today,\u201d https:\/\/place.asburyseminary.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=1133&context=jascg<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1960s,\u201d https:\/\/scholarworks.wm.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=5452&context=etd\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n