Revolution for Jesus
In the mid 1960s, David began traveling with his wife and children, carrying out evangelistic outreach. In early 1968, at the invitation of his elderly mother, David and his family journeyed to Huntington Beach, California, a seaside town that had become a gathering place for thousands of hippies. It was here that he found his life's calling, and the movement now known as the Family International had its birth. Of this time, David wrote:
"I'm here to start a revolution! I'm here to turn the System upside-down and do what Jesus did"
It had taken me 49 years ... to find my life's work!—And there
we found it among the poor hippies of Huntington Beach! My mother had begged us to come help
them, saying the church people didn't know how to handle them, even though some of them were
trying. They were too churchy for the hippies, who were fed up with the church, and the feeling
was mutual: The churches didn't like them, either! In fact, it seemed nobody loved hippies! They
were the most hated, maligned, discriminated against, abused, harassed, persecuted, and
downtrodden element in all American society. [1]
David freely acknowledged that initially he, too had little love or sympathy for the hippie generation. David described the supernatural manner in which God spoke to him in California of a mission to reach the youth of his generation:
As I wandered amongst them, wondering about them, God spoke to my
heart that all they needed was His Love and a good shepherd to guide them, and God asked me if
I'd be willing to be that shepherd! I was startled and mystified by this revelation, and wondered
what it could mean, as I hadn't the faintest idea of how to go about it! [2]
When I saw those poor hippies, those poor wandering sheep without a
shepherd, oh, the love God put in my heart for them! How my heart went out to them! I saw them
and I wept for them! ... The Lord gave me such love and compassion for them! ... And that night I
promised God that I would try to lead them and do everything I could to save them and win them to
the Lord and lead them into His service. [3]
Inspired by this new mission, David and three of his teen children enthusiastically began ministering to the youth in a small Christian coffee house, the Light Club. Within a few months, the coffee house was full every night, hundreds of young people had become Christians and stopped taking drugs, and about 50 had decided to live and work full time with "Uncle Dave" and his family. He later recounted:
We followed the hippies down into their gutters and their dives and
their dope-dens and their hard-rock hells and we invited them—not to come to church, not to
sit in fancy pews—but just to come to Jesus, and He would solve all their problems, answer
all their questions, satisfy all their longings and hungers, and give them something wonderful to
live for—the truth of His marvelous Love!
They were not only quick, but gloriously enthusiastic in their
reception of and their return to God's Love in Jesus and the answers of His Word!—Which,
after all, are the answer to all mankind's problems, not only the hippies'! So when I and my own
teenage children came to them with the loving message of God in Jesus and His Words, and tuned to
the language of their music, they were more than happy to receive it! [4]
David's new ministry to the hippies marked not only the beginning of the movement that eventually became known as the Family, but also his rupture with mainstream Christian denominations.
David recognized that his newly saved hippie congregation wanted the uncompromising and unvarnished truth of the Gospel, and he was happy to oblige them. In a talk given in September 1968 at the Light Club, he explained to his audience that Jesus was a true revolutionary, and that the Bible advocated nothing short of a complete spiritual revolution as the answer to society's problems.
I'm here to start a revolution! I'm here to turn that System upside
down and do what Jesus did, and show you what real Christianity is and what real religion is! And
it's not going to church on Sunday!
I'm here for revolution--the right kind, the kind the Apostle Paul
wished to start. Not violence, not guns, not swords, not that kind of a revolution, not one of
Molotov cocktails and rocks and beer bottles, but a revolution started by the sword of the
Spirit!
The only answer is this: the Love of God, the Love of Christ, non-violence, mercy, the Spirit of Jesus Christ. That's the only thing that will ever do it, the only thing that will ever bring real revolution. Communism, Marxism, Leninism, socialism, any other kind of "ism" might be able to overcome the world with guns and bullets and propaganda of the mind, but only God can change hearts. Only this Truth here [the Bible] can bring freedom. [5]