God’s Forever Family

Abstract

Although the Jesus People movement lasted only about a decade, this chapter argues that it had a major impact on both the evangelical subculture and the larger American society. The growth of what became the contemporary Christian music (CCM) industry and the widespread use of “praise and worship” music in the nation’s congregations both emerged from within the Jesus movement. Likewise, so did Calvary Chapel and the Vineyard movements, the two largest new denominations of the postwar era. And while the chapter shows that the Jesus People profoundly altered the evangelical subculture’s relationship with both popular and youth cultures, its ultimate importance might have been in the manner in which it served to strengthen ties of Baby Boomer youth to conservative Protestantism amid the crises of the Sixties. This, in turn, proved to be a major factor in the evangelical resurgence of the 1980s and beyond.