A History of Jesus People USA

By Jon Trott

Part I (a)
Birth and Rebirth

Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. -- Acts 2:43-47;4:32-35 (NRSV)

What drew us together in the beginning? Each of our stories was different: there was Glenn, a young man so recently strung out on drugs that he could barely string two words together; Micki, a girl whose restless spirit had led her across America in search of. . . what? Neil, a young man whose sexual identity reflected his lostness as a person, and to whom the world said, "Homosexuals cannot change." We were the flotsam and jetsam of a generation which had set out to prove man's innocence when freed from Western culture, but which instead had proved man's evil is an intrinsic part of him.

And then came Jesus: someone to live for, someone to be loved by without conditions, someone to love in return. And someone to answer the aching questions, "Who am I? Why am I here? What is my significance?" As a result, just as we had given our all to drugs, sex, and various sixties' ideologies, we now knew following Jesus was no halfway thing:

When I was in the peace movement I was always looking for peace and joy and love and there never seemed to be any. I'd come home at night and it just didn't seem real, it just didn't last. You know it says in the Bible that if you build a house on sand that when the wind and water come it will blow away. But if you build a house on rock, when the wind and the water come it will stand firm. When I heard about Jesus it just blew my mind that something came before and then just went on into eternity. It blew my mind that I could be grounded into that rock. That rock transforms you. The authority runs right through your whole being. I had always believed that there was a truth, a rock, that you could grab hold of and that wouldn't change, but I was never able to find it until I found Jesus.¹

In 1971, the Jesus movement was cresting. ² Young hippies were suddenly not only looking like Jesus; they were quoting Jesus. Jim and Sue Palosaari had been led to Christ by the Vancouver-based Russ Griggs. Soon, the couple was working with Griggs in Linda Meissner's Seattle-based Jesus People Army (JPA). Then, in early 1971, Jim and Sue went to the Midwest to start a counterpart to JPA. Initially, the couple checked out Chicago but found Milwaukee far more hospitable. ³ Linda Meissner helped the Palosaaris launch their Milwaukee ministry by leading a "Jesus march" which culminated with Meissner's preaching near the city's war memorial; this raised the initial number of JP Milwaukee (JPM) members from seven to twenty-five. ⁴ "Eventually a coffee [house] called 'The Jesus Christ Power House' was established in the counter-culture, 'hippie' neighborhood [of Brady Street], and under Palosaari['s] charismatic leadership the group grew quickly." ⁵ By November of 1971, JP Milwaukee had approximately sixty members. ⁶

In October of 1971, a pastor with a history of alcohol abuse and marital infidelity, John Wiley Herrin, decided to join Palosaari's group. ⁷ J. W. Herrin for nearly ten years had pastored churches throughout the South with his wife, Dawn, his two daughters, Wendi and Katherine, and his son, John. When Wendi encountered Christ through Palosaari's group, J. W. and Dawn decided to visit the JP Milwaukee headquarters. What they found astonished and attracted them: "The idea of living together was to dedicate your entire life, every aspect, to following Jesus Christ. It was 100 percent commitment, a way that seemed designed to put Christianity's truth-claims to the test of real life. Jim Palosarri asked us to join." ⁸

JP Milwaukee had a band called the Sheep, who played Jesus rock in parks, church sanctuaries, and gymnasiums. ⁹ A young Glenn Kaiser, escaping both the drug scene and his rock roots by joining the commune in fall of '71, thought his music days were over. Later that year, in response to Palosaari's request for a second JP Milwaukee band, Kaiser stepped forward. The Sheep had been getting more requests for concerts than they could fulfill. "Charity" ¹⁰ played mellow folk music, though they soon changed their name to "Resurrection" and began working on a rock set as well as the folk set.

By February of 1972, JP Milwaukee had grown to nearly two hundred members. The teams returned to the Milwaukee base for a graduation service, and on April 23, 1972, with a year of leadership under his belt, Palosaari embarked on an outreach to Europe with the Sheep and around thirty of the older members. ¹¹ J. W. Herrin took Resurrection Band along with thirty Jesus People, most of whom had been with him in Benton Harbor, Michigan, to minister as "Jesus People USA (JPUSA) Travelling Team." Frank Bass, a Duluth Christian from the traditional church, kept a small number for JP Milwaukee's "Home Base," which was supposed to serve as a coordinating center, while JPM left "Jesus People communes in Duluth and Davenport." ¹² Meanwhile, the bulk of JP Milwaukee's number--many of them newer converts--became a part of Pentecostal tent revivalist Bill Lowrey's "Christ is the Answer."

Jesus People Milwaukee both did ministry and emphasized basic ministry themes in ways which set a pattern for Jesus People USA. For instance, JP Milwaukee followed the lead of other Jesus movement outposts by starting Street Level, a "Jesus Paper" artistically similar to Milwaukee's secular underground paper, Kaleidoscope. Cornerstone magazine is a relative of Street Level, as Cornerstone's first issue used various materials directly taken from the Milwaukee paper. Street Level, likewise, had in its first few issues borrowed from the JP Army's Truth newspaper.

"Jesus People USA -- Travelling Team" Resurrection Band and Cornerstone were the two prime voices of our traveling outreach. The band set up wherever they could, in parks, in churches, in schools, playing almost nightly. The rest of the young disciples hit the streets passing out Cornerstone (than a newspaper) along with a "Do you know Jesus? He loves you, man!"

After some initial rallies in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois, JPUSA headed south in a couple old cars and a bright red school bus with "JESUS" painted on the side. June 1972 found JPUSA traveling on down the East Coast toward Florida, where they ended up spending August in Jacksonville, then moving on to set up living quarters in Gainesville. Along the way, some of the members who had joined in Milwaukee left, while others (often newly converted Christians or believers who had backslidden) joined up. Some members who became central in the future JPUSA's leadership joined during this time.

While in Florida, JPUSA witnessers were continually asked if they were with the Children of God, who had increasingly been exposed as a group with dubious lifestyle and theology. The COG had a "colony" in Gainesville at the time. Cornerstone found it necessary to explain to our audience that "We Are not 'The Children of God'":

There has been much controversy over us as we have been travelling around the country. Many people fear that we are the "Children of God." Let me make one point very clear. We are not the "Children of God," but we are God's children. . . .

Our doors are always open. We welcome parents and friends of all our disciples to come and visit us any time. I'm sure that you will soon discover that our standards and morals are as high, if not higher, than any Bible college in the country. Our lives are totally exposed. We have nothing to hide and find no reason to go underground as many "Children of God" have done...

Whenever a group begins to feel that their way is the only way, error begins to creep in. However, as a Christian community--representing the Church (the body of all believers) we must agree together that there is only one way to salvation--through Jesus Christ. Because of His shed blood, death, and resurrection, we can accept Jesus into our hearts as Lord and Savior and He will forgive us of all sins, if we only ask Him.

Within the Jesus movement you will always find Jesus People sharing and worshipping with the established churches. However, rarely do you see the COG fellowshipping with the Christian community...

A good number of COG are undoubtedly just being obedient to their elders--even in committing error. I'm not making excuses for them because we do not walk in blind obedience, even under the dictates of deacons and elders. The Lord has given us light through His Son and His Word in order to enable us to determine if what we are asked to do is of the Lord. Our first obedience is to God! ¹³

JPUSA's first home in Gainesville, located at 2032 NE Terrace, was a large, ramshackle house which had previously been owned by the Vietnam Veterans against the War. As a result, we had a fair amount of interaction with the VVAW cadre still in the area, including Scott Camile. ¹⁴ Next we moved into a house previously owned by the Hare Krishnas, located at 216 SW Second Street in Gainesville. With the house also came an old synagogue next door which served us as a coffeehouse; in addition, we briefly ran the one-night-a-week "Harvest House" coffeehouse located in the basement of Rawlings Hall dormitory on the University of Florida campus. ¹⁵

JPUSA was finding Florida a hard nut to crack, Gainesville's "sin city" lifestyle offering a cold shoulder to our community. "This is the city where the University of Florida's Halloween party makes Sodom and Gomorrah look like something out of a fairy tale." ¹⁶ Meanwhile, the church folks had a hard time relating to us Northern hippies. The community's members recalled the tremendous revivals of Benton Harbor and Duluth with longing. "We had really touched a chord with the people up north," Dawn Herrin Mortimer remembers.

By the end of the year, the JPUSAs went back north so that various members could spend Christmas with their families. In January of 1973, the JPUSAs checked up on the progress of those who'd been saved in Benton Harbor, Michigan, and the news was good. "Our babies of last year's rallies were alive and doing fantastic. A local group of Jesus people was formed, the One Way Coffee House was filled. The adults of the area had stood with the youth of the community. Working together they discovered what life in Christ means. Praise Jesus!" ¹⁷ On the basis of the continuing revival they found in Michigan, along with the warm reception and numerous invitations from local church people, JPUSA decided to return north for good.

In February 1973 we found ourselves once again in the middle of revival in Michigan. As the weeks rolled by, the towns of Ontonagon, Houghton-Hancock, L'Anse, Baraga, Ironwood, and Marquette experienced the Jesus movement's full power. A fragment from a Houghton-Hancock area newspaper tells of the arrival of JPUSA in "The Copper Country" of Upper Michigan:

A large bus and several cars with Jesus painted on the side roll into the Houghton-Hancock area. Thirty-six freaky-looking kids spill out onto the streets. The girls with ankle-length dresses and long-haired boys fortified with armloads of papers scatter and start rapping with the closest passerby...

[Jesus People U.S.A.] is made up of people from all backgrounds, from college student to high-school drop-out. Among them are straight kids who went to church all their lives, and the "heavies" who have smoked, and dropped shot their way out of reality. But there is one common denominator--they have seen Jesus Christ take their empty lives and transform them into His likeness, Jesus has changed their lives dramatically, they say.

Each morning the group assembles to pray and study the word of God. Classes include studies in Romans, Apologetics, Old Testament Survey, Life of Paul, the Study of Cults, Christian Leadership and various leading Christian teachers. The afternoons are spent on the streets witnessing person to person. In the evenings, the group gathers for rallies which feature the "Resurrection" Jesus Rock Band...

Their purpose is to help build up the Christian community here. The Jesus People U.S.A. have worked with all kinds of churches, schools, and many different Christian organizations. They are available for programs in churches, youth groups, ladies circles, classes, and prayer groups. Jesus People U.S.A. is a ministry totally supported by the faithful giving of people concerned about the "drop out" generation. ¹⁸

JPUSA Meets Chicago

We yearned for a permanent home base and, in mid-1973, decided on ministering in Chicago, the city even Billy Sunday could not shut down. We reacquainted ourselves with a local church called Faith Tabernacle, which had hosted JP Milwaukee in July of 1972 for some Jesus rallies. Resurrection Band continued to be the centerpiece of our evangelistic outreach, holding concerts wherever they could.

Cornerstone happily announced that from January to May of 1973, 1600 people had been led to Christ. "We know the world is hungry to hear about Jesus!" The center-page ministry spread dealt with the move to Chicago and let Chi-town's readers know what they were in for.

"Jesus People-U.S.A.": the forty-one long-haired, blue-jeaned Christians who hit Chicago's sidewalks late in May have stayed to set up a discipleship training ministry under the eldership of Rev. John Herrin...

We're not against the church; we work with them to build up the Christian community, though the focus of our ministry is on the street people. ¹⁹

Henry Carlson, a Full Gospel Businessman with a big enough heart to take in our ragtag bunch, gave us permission to move into Faith Tab's huge and underused facility. The single women took up residence at one end of Faith Tab's massive basement, and the married couples erected temporary rooms with trailer board walls (we called them "Barcelonas").

The single men slept in the "small sanctuary," folding up their beds and clearing the room each day. We hoped to find housing of a more permanent nature quickly, but it would be over two years before we moved out of Faith Tabernacle. The structure was located on the corner of Grace and Broadway streets, to our ironic amusement.

Though we still thought of ourselves as a band of disciples out on the street spreading the gospel, the idea of being a family--loving each other despite our human frailties--was at the center of our vision:

Throughout God's Word, He speaks of the "Body Ministry"--a group of believers working as a family unit to strengthen and uphold one another while ministering to the unsaved. In God's perfect plan, He brought us together, one by one, and began making us into a family and at the same time, an army...

Our whole purpose as a ministry is to show others Jesus Christ by our lives. If it weren't for each member's personal walk with Jesus, this ministry would be impossible to continue. We spend time together worshipping Him and personal time in prayer and communion with Him and in His Word.

We make mistakes and let people down sometimes because we're still human. But to help people put their trust and confidence in Jesus (who never fails us) is the greatest responsibility and the greatest joy He could have given us. ²⁰

J. W. Herrin was the sole elder of JPUSA but did not make ministry decisions alone. A "council" of leadership included not only elder J. W. Herrin but deacons and deaconesses: Dawn Herrin, Richard Murphy, Glenn Kaiser, Karen Fitzgerald, Mark Schornstein, Janet Wheeler, and Denny Cadieux, who also discussed decisions facing the group.

The identity of the community remained in keeping with JP Milwaukee's vision: "We have three functions, really; the discipleship school, street-witnessing, and rallies with the band." ²¹

The discipleship school really was defined by our lives together, but it imitated JP Milwaukee in having regular classes. "Our classes are geared toward witnessing, mainly. Knowing how to answer those who ask a reason for the hope that is within us. They also build up our faith in the Word." ²² The early issues of the paper showed our attempts to educate ourselves and our readers, with articles on topics ranging from evolution ²³ to marriage ²⁴ to critical evaluations of various sects. The last became a category in itself, each "new religion" examined via its own teachings and practices placed in the light of Scripture and a little critical thought. A Cornerstone article on the then fifteen-year-old guru, Maharaj Ji, cynically observed Ji's use of deep breathing to supposedly experience nirvana: "They refer to hyperventilation as a manifestation of 'the word.' " ²⁵

As our young community stretched the collective noggins via reading and classes, we also found plenty of adventure in witnessing. Street witnessing was a daily activity, and at day's end nearly everyone could tell a tale of either victory or defeat, sadness or humor. One of the more moving early stories had to do with a fifteen-year-old runaway named Laurie, who had arrived in Chicago with nowhere to go. A JPUSA witnessed to her, discovered she was without help or shelter, and invited her home. She talked with more of our community's sisters and made a decision to follow Christ. We urged her to call her parents, who sent us this letter after she went home to them:

Dear Jesus People U.S.A.,
We wish to express our deepest thanks for helping our troubled daughter and for returning her safely to us. Our richest blessings and may God help you in your work. --Albany, NY²⁶

And witnessing ended up leading to a number of things not commonly thought of as "evangelism."

We members of Jesus People U.S.A. are just like one beggar telling another where to find a piece of bread. This world is starving, but it doesn't want to stop long enough to taste of the truth. Sharing a Cornerstone with you is only one part of the work we have been called to do. Christian love takes on many aspects--"Even so faith if it hath not works is dead"--James 2:17.

Our boys have worked with the Chicago Missionary Society loading semis with clothing and supplies for the flood victims in Mississippi. When excess bread was given to us we loaded our old International and drove into Up-town with big signs--"Bread from Jesus." With each loaf of bread we gave away we shared "the living bread, Jesus."

Several days were spent unraveling red tape to help relocate an elderly woman who lived in fear at the apartment where she was staying. Lost children have been fed and taken home. Many hours are spent in counseling.

One whole night was spent talking a guy down from a bad trip. Whether it is for illness, a problem at home, or trouble at school, no hour is too late to find a brother or sister praying with someone over the phone.

I John 3:14 says, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." ²⁷

Resurrection Band continued to tour, playing in parks, high schools, churches, and anywhere else they could find plugs for their instruments. In early 1974, Resurrection did two four-track recordings entitled All Your Life (a folk set) and Music to Raise the Dead (a rock set); the band tried to be all things to all listeners.

Elder John Herrin, in a column concerning the new year, wrote words which seem in retrospect a warning to himself:

These are the last days. Time is drawing short and none of us have time to spend selfishly. 1974 is a year we haven't yet messed up. Live it in expectation of Jesus' return. ²⁸

The upheaval which came next was mostly felt by the deacons and older members of JPUSA who were directly involved. It began with John W. Herrin's obsession with a younger woman in the community. The woman (we will call her Ellie) did not respond to his overtures but was afraid to tell anyone due to John Wiley's insistence that, were she to tell, the community would fall apart. Finally, however, Ellie went to Dawn Herrin and confessed what Dawn's husband had been saying to her.

Dawn consoled Ellie and went to the young deacons to tell them what had happened. The leadership confronted their elder, and his response was tearful and remorseful. But it was not repentance. The next six months were misery for the leadership, as they continued to confront J. W. Herrin over his obsession, which became more and more irrational. Misery--yet perhaps this experience steeled them for the years ahead as nothing else would have done. The deacons and deaconesses felt strongly that, despite our desire for the situation to quickly resolve, we couldn't force the issue. Rather, we believed that God had finally cornered Herrin, and for once he couldn't escape God's confronting love.

"My dad was acting so crazy," Wendi Herrin Kaiser recalls, "and we were so afraid for the younger community members. How was it going to affect them to see this man of God be what he had preached against: a hypocrite and a liar? And it was obvious that he cared less about the community than he did himself." She recalls one incident vividly. "One time Glenn and I were in our little Barcelona down in the basement of Faith Tab, and my father just throws open the door and yells at Glenn, 'Get out of my ministry!!' Glenn just ignored him," Wendi continues. "I vomited a couple times, the tension was so heavy. Both Tina and I were so affected that whenever he started ranting and raving, we'd both have to run for the bathroom. There were times, alone with me at night, Glenn would be praying for my Dad and just start crying." ²⁹

At the apex of the crisis, Cornerstone came out with an article on community entitled "United We Stand." And we did stand. For anyone thinking communal living was a way to opt out of the real world, our words in Cornerstone and our struggle to bring J. W. to repentance argued otherwise:

To the public mind a commune is either a group of drug subculture freaks, or radicals who have copped out on reality, living in cloistered protection. Most people rarely think of the possibility of a community living by Christian standards.... [They] are probably repelled at the idea of having to share their lives with so many other people. However, we have found it highly rewarding as well as demanding. ³⁰

The fire of struggle and suffering we were passing through perhaps contributed to these observations about the future and about loving one another:

Everyone here, as they grow in Jesus, realize that their lives will be spent as servants of God. When confronted with the thought, "Where will you be ten years from now?" we are left without an answer. We know that with God we only have to worry about today, and that even if we did plan our way down to the letter, God may still have something completely different in mind...

So many things are absorbed in our large family, when one person hurts, everybody comes to the rescue with comfort and prayer...

... We handle our own emotional, spiritual, and even marital problems. Yes, Christians, despite popular fantasies, are not immune to problems. ³¹

For J. W. Herrin, the story ended sadly. After consulting with a JPUSA friend, charismatic writer Jamie Buckingham, the JPUSA council sent their fallen elder to a counseling ministry for errant pastors on March 18, 1974. But it was no good. Ultimately J. W. Herrin headed west, years later divorcing Dawn and stepping out (to our knowledge) of Christian ministry.

The first decision for the young deacons and deaconesses was how to handle telling everyone else. The members' reaction, agreement that JPUSA should press on in our calling, made it obvious that no one man or men could "own" JPUSA--it was beyond that. The community belonged to all of us, as did the vision for that community.

Within a year, Cornerstone was able to articulate the lessons learned from JPUSA's test by fire:

The first year in Chicago Jesus brought us through the lion's mouth as Satan attacked us internally. When our elder fell along the wayside denying the faith, our young men became mature men overnight facing the responsibility of a full-time ministry of 60 people.

We pulled closer together as a family to meet the needs. Jesus healed our wounds and protected the lambs. He was truly our shepherd. The Christian community watched as through the fire the gold within us was purified. ³²

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