A History of Jesus People USA
By Jon Trott Part I (b)
Quest For Balance
The older members of the community searched the Scriptures for answers to what had taken place. It wasn't as though there were plenty of people to ask. Christian community among Evangelicals is almost unheard of, and was even more so in the mid-seventies. The Book of Acts, which had provided a sort of blueprint for living in community for the Jesus People, painted plurality of leadership as a norm.
The two elders chosen by the council--Glenn Kaiser and Richard Murphy--were picked because they had already been the two head deacons. Glenn was twenty years old, and Richard Murphy twenty-six. In daily "council meetings" various problems and opportunities for the community were dealt with by the group. Basically, Kaiser and Murphy's titles made them spokespersons for JPUSA, but on the council their influence was no greater than any deacon or deaconess. The young disciples were all too aware of how little they knew and how much they needed to know. A certain humility, along with a dogged determination to press on, seemed to characterize JPUSA leadership during this time.
One thing we had preached, and then had the unfortunate opportunity to practice, was the direct and honest confrontation with sin. The confrontation with J. W. Herrin had reinforced our belief that forcefully confronting sin, whether in ourselves or others, was a necessity. For instance, when an offended reader complained about a Cornerstone cover depicting a materialistic church, our reply noted:
We don't knock people, we knock sin. We consistently speak out against the games and abominations of the freak scene. We also factually expose every rip-off Jesus people group that we have real evidence against. We don't judge people to condemn them to hell, we try to confront people with the truth so they will have to face themselves and their sins the way they really are. That's the only way they'll have a decent chance to repent...Paul wrote in I Cor. 5:11-13: "But rather I wrote to you not to associate with any one who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber--not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. Drive out the wicked person from among you..."
We do not believe that you have to live in a Jesus People ministry to be saved. We have never said anything like that in any of our literature. We do believe, however, that salvation and discipleship are inseparable. Without the water and nourishment of discipleship, the seed of salvation will eventually die. By discipleship we mean putting Jesus and His way first in every area of our lives. (Not life in a Jesus commune.) Jesus said, "If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me."33
David Gordon, who for over a year did research on Jesus People USA for his doctoral thesis comparing them to Ron Rendleman's suburban Jesus movement group, Jesus Is Lord, found what he called "balance" to be a major theme of our theology and lifestyle. The time he spent with us was during 1974 to 1975 in our residence in Faith Tabernacle's basement.
Balances which are often referred to include balancing structure and spontaneity, submission and love, criticism and praise, teaching and worship, and recreation and work. In an additional usage, balance refers to qualification, as when someone provides a balance to what another has said.Balance is an emphasis which most previous writers on the Jesus movement have overlooked. Since balance is a moderating influence on the Jesus Peoples' beliefs and actions, I have found them to be less extreme than most other accounts have reported. This could be the result of moderation occurring over time or it could be peculiar to the Center City [Chicago] area groups which I have studied.
An area where this discrepancy of findings is most clear is in Bible interpretation. The Jesus People have been presented as proof-texters who quote Bible passages out of context, accept every word of scripture as literal truth, and generally have a simple-minded approach to the Bible. [Gordon footnotes, 'see especially Enroth et al.', referring to Dr. Enroth's book, The Jesus People: Old Time Religion in the Age of Aquarius.] Most Jesus People I have met are aware that much of the Bible is ambiguous and requires interpretation, that context is crucial to understanding passages, that the Bible does not contain all answers (although it does contain all necessary answers), and that careful study of the Bible and commentaries is necessary for full understanding. . . . One young man in [JPUSA] told me, "Balance is like, when the Children of God take the verse in the New Testament that says to forsake your parents, and then they go off and reject their parents. There's no balance to that. They don't look at all the other verses in the Bible that say that you should obey your parents. So they're right that you should put Jesus first but the balance to that is that you have to respect and obey your parents, too. . . . Cults are unbalanced. They just take one little statement or line and build a whole cult on that."34
Gordon recorded what he saw as the typical JPUSA day during the Faith Tab era: at seven, we got up and grabbed some breakfast; by nine we did our housecleaning (which often meant moving our bedding and clothes, lock, stock, and barrel, out of the church folks' way). At nine we worshiped together and then had our first class at ten, a second at eleven. After lunch, we hit the streets witnessing, usually for the entire afternoon. Then came dinner, and around 6:30, more witnessing and study.35
What was particularly amazing in retrospect was the fact that JPUSA relied on donations from street witnessing and upon the providence of God to bring us our food and monetary needs. And He did, though a lot of peanut butter was consumed in those days! As Gordon noted, "The fact that none of the members of [JPUSA] works outside of the group means that the group's financial resources are always very low and often what others would consider a crisis level."36
What was it like in the early days, lifestyle-wise, from our point of view? This self-description of the sacrifice of living in JPUSA, lifted from a 1974 Cornerstone, is both daunting and blood-stirring:
Discipleship: What is it?Amidst all the work, there was a lot of play, and perhaps the sudden decision to take the day off and go to the beach for a ministry picnic. Dawn sometimes had to remind the younger elders that JPUSA was a family, and everyone in a family needs to have good times, laughter, and relaxation. Nights might find a group of JPUSAs working a puzzle, having a pillow fight, or reading a book aloud to each other; days might find a group having a snowball fight or (in the summer) swimming in Lake Michigan. In addition to such "impromptu" relaxation, we took Monday off instead of Saturday, which was an ideal day for street witnessing. With a little or a lot, we've always known how to party.To the newcomer, it is commitment. Taking the words of Jesus and living by them. Preaching His love day after day on the streets, praying and seeking the Lord's help for problems, reading the Bible consistently and hiding the Word of God in one's heart.
It is sharing with one another the things you really didn't want to loan out. That brand new sleeping bag you haven't had a chance to use yet. . . a visitor spending the night needs it. (But Lord, you don't want me to be a poor steward of what you gave me, do you? I mean, what if they rip it off?) The only poor steward is one who won't be generous...
Discipleship, to Resurrection Band, is driving to three different rallies in three different states over the weekend to share the love of Jesus. A bumpy bus with no heat and two people to a seat doesn't offer much rest. Discipleship is continuing on after the glamour wears off... 37
Cornerstone articles from this era offer further proof regarding Gordon's concept of balance as an important part of our understanding and lives. One example of this was an editorial, aimed both at ourselves and at those who strongly disliked nearly everything about long-haired Jesus freaks:
We have been involved in full-time evangelistic work . . . and we've arrived at a few conclusions we would like to share. Working with believers all over the U.S. more often than not the following subjects arise in the conversation.Issues like long hair vs. short, Jesus rock music vs. gospel quartets, a salaried job vs. "living on faith" with no assured income, and Christian communal living vs. individual private dwellings....
Much division, tension, and contention has been caused by these and other subjects, but there is no scriptural basis for closing one's self off from one's brother in Christ, unless it is gross error and rebellion in a major doctrine (such as salvation).
If the Jesus people are to mature, if the "traditional church" is to grow, it will be through love for Jesus. A burden for the unsaved, coupled with the ability to accept, if not understand the diversified ministries and culture of all parts of the Body is essential....
Jesus made it plain how the world will know His disciples; by their love one for another (John 13:35), and by their fruits (John 15:8). God's Word is our foremost yardstick. We may never agree on everything, but it seems urgent that in these last days the world sees Christians lifting up Christ. 38
It was near this time in the summer of 1974, that Jack Winters, an older man from an established suburban charismatic community, Daystar, 39 began coming to JPUSA regularly to teach classes. The Jesus People had first heard of Winters via some cassette tapes on "Healing of the Memories," which they had listened to during the cold U.P. winter of 1973. Soon after Herrin left, a carload of JPUSAs visited Winters, hoping Daystar would take in a lesbian girlfriend of a woman who had just joined JPUSA. The friend ended up not liking Daystar, but when Jack Winters prayed for the Jesus People, including a "healing" prayer for Dawn regarding her errant husband, they reached out to him.
The obvious void left by J. W. Herrin's departure left us eager to receive ministry from any older Christian who'd offer it to us. "We were feeling pretty alone in the world after my husband left. And I hoped that Jack would help disciple our young men in leadership," says Dawn Herrin.
Jack Winters' weekly class, which usually dealt with counseling, healing, and deliverance, eventually wandered into some pretty interesting territory. His teaching, according to those who were there, went something like this: This is a rebellious generation--young, rebellious people who didn't grow up having any discipline or love from their parents. Sometimes, they need to go back and experience discipline to deal with that rebellion in their lives. You need to go back and walk through those steps, receiving parental discipline to heal the rebellious adult. In short, what Winters was talking about was giving spankings to "rebellious" adults!
JPUSA's two elders, Richard and Glenn, looked at each other and within a few days went out to Daystar in the suburbs to get their spanking; whatever it took to get closer to Jesus! Though the spankings might seem more shocking to the reader, what shocked the rest of JPUSA about Glenn and Richard's visit was that they came back with their long hair cut off! (Winters felt the hair was a sign of rebellion as well.)
To follow this historical thread to its conclusion, for the next three years, members of JPUSA continued to "apply" this teaching if they felt there were real areas of rebellion in their lives. One elder, in particular, felt that "the rod" (a thin pine dowel) was of great help in his life. Though occasional classes had been taught at JPUSA on the practice, many members simply chose not to avail themselves of this "discipline." The fact that, for instance, this writer joined Jesus People in January of 1977, yet didn't encounter Winters' teaching until nearly a year had passed, indicates the place the rod occupied in the regular JPUSA disciple's life. 40
As time went on, Winters' rationale for the spankings no longer made sense, if it ever had. By 1978 the practice was waning, and the few still asking for such "ministry" didn't seem to be benefiting from it. At a meeting held in early 1978, Glenn Kaiser announced to the fellowship that Winters' teaching had been in error and that we were discontinuing the practice. His rationale was that (1) the teaching was outside the evangelical mainstream, that no one else we knew of (besides Winters) was practicing this teaching, and that JPUSA didn't want to be involved with anything which would bring reproach to Christ; and that (2) that people were using "getting the rod" as a cheap alternative to serious repentance, which ought to be about stopping wrong behavior and pursuing righteous behavior.
Soon afterward, JPUSA pastors raised the issue of Winters' teaching at a meeting of Chicago-area Christian communities. Among other fellowships represented at that meeting, Reba Place, Wellspring, and Gospel Outreach were present. Our pastors raised the issue frankly, stating that we had been practicing Winters' concept of adult spankings but now questioned its legitimacy and advisability. Other community leaders admitted they, too, had briefly experimented with such ideas, but like us, had found them either unworkable or simply foolish.
In regard to this chapter in JPUSA history, sociologist of religion Anson Shupe said, "It is one thing for a Baptist pastor to do something along those lines; it is another when a full-time commune of countercultural Christians, which after all is a social experiment of sorts anyway, does something like that. It is odd yet understandable in the context of a new movement that makes up rules as it goes along." 41 True, but it doesn't make our history on this point any less embarrassing!
The relationship with Jack Winters began to deteriorate in late 1974 when he told us he would help us get a down payment on a house so we could move out of Faith Tabernacle's basement. Then, without warning, he informed us that one of the Daystar women had received a word from God that we weren't to have the house after all. Instead, Winters informed us, it was time to either disband and "go home" or else to join his Daystar communities.
The JPUSAs felt betrayed. "I didn't care whether he got us a house," recalls Wendi Kaiser. "But when he just told us to all go home or else join him, I reacted. I went, 'Wait a minute, Jack. You've got to understand, just because we're young doesn't mean we haven't heard from the Lord. We're together because God put us together, and you aren't going to change that. You just can't go, 'I'm the boss, apple sauce--understand, rubber band!' and think we're going to do whatever you say!" Wendi's forthright address came from the experience of rejecting any form of one-man leadership. From that point on, though we and Winters remained on speaking terms, our relationship cooled.
Meanwhile, true to our moniker, "Discipleship Training School," we tried to keep on learning, to keep believing in God and trusting Him when various ones of us were either unable or unwilling to live out the ideal and make it real. The vision, the calling to what we were asked to become in Christ, wooed us on. There was no Great Leader to emulate; Glenn, Richard, and the deacons and deaconesses struggled with the old nature just as any young dopehead off the street might. The trick was to learn, each time, what God was saying to us through our various failures and shortcomings. The true meaning of grace became abundantly clear. The Father wasn't expecting us to be perfect any more than He would expect a mere toddler to win an Olympic relay race. So came wisdom and humility, in slow and small doses.
Where would a house of our own come from? What would we do when kids started showing up? Somehow, to all these questions (usually asked by concerned parents or friends), we offered the answer of an old hymn: "Day by day / oh, dear Lord, three things I pray / to see thee more clearly / love thee more dearly / follow thee more nearly / day by day...." Or as Jesus put it:
And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you--you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (Matt. 6:28-33, NRSV).