Last night I was finally able to watch the movie "Lonnie Frisbee: the Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher". This movie tells the story of Lonnie Frisbee, from his conversion experience while on a drug trip during the late 60's, through his incredible influence on the growth of both the Calvary Chapel and Vineyard church movements, to his death from AIDS in 1993.
I can't begin to describe the jumbled mix of emotions that kept me awake for a long time afterwards. Sadness - an incredible sadness - had to be at the top of the list. Lonnie was an integral part of the founding of the Calvary Chapel and the Vineyard movements, and it was bittersweet to see all those pictures from the early days of both churches and stranger still to hear this portion of the history of the Vineyard portrayed on TV.
My history as a Christian is so tied up in this story. Not as a central character, by any means - but this story is part of my story. I prayed to accept Jesus in March 1979, after talking to a guy I was supposed to be studying with while hanging out in the student union at Cal Poly, San Luis Obsipo. Within a few weeks, I started attending the rapidly growing Vineyard church in San Luis Obispo. I had been to church very little prior to that time in my life, but what I experienced at Vineyard was very different than what little I had known of church before that. We were a group of mostly college students led by a very young pastor. There were no pews or choir - we were packed into a rented Oddfellows hall and the pastor led worship with a guitar.
So when John Wimber invited Lonnie to come and lead the famous (in Vineyard history, and now in this movie about Lonnie) "Mother's Day Service" at his Calvary church in Yorba Linda in 1980, I had been a part of the San Luis Obispo Vineyard church for a year already. I have a really bad memory for that time period in my life, but I do remember how John Wimber, and I think often Lonnie, began to come visit our church and lead us in the beginnings of learning to pray for healing and the move of the Holy Spirit. It was an incredible, exciting and heady time, even before Wimber's influence began to impact and shape the direction of the church.
This is something that I have often remembered when reading about and watching the growth of the emerging church. Much of what I read about the emerging church reminds me of those early years of the Vineyard. A few times I have mentioned this on blogs or forums, and I feel like I have been told "Oh no, this is not the same at all". But I suspect that those people only equate the Vineyard with John's ministry of Signs and Wonders, and miss the fact that there were Vineyard churches ministering to us young people, speaking our language and reaching us in a way that we felt was authentic and relevant to our lives, well before the Signs and Wonders ministry began.
It was heart wrenching to watch this documentary about Lonnie Frisbee. I remember hearing at the time that Lonnie was being pushed out of his role in public ministry in the Vineyard, but I was oblivious to any more than that. There are other stories of how incredibly human and flawed some of the people involved in the very public ministry of the Vineyard of the time were. I think it is sad and shameful that Lonnie's failings (and I am sure there are many different definitions of what those would be) were treated differently and with much less grace than most others'. This has reminded me to look at the entire chain reaction of recent events in the blogging community surrounding the Haggard affair with much more humility.
It is hard to understand how other people, who's stories are not so intertwined with the story being told, will view this documentary. And I can only imagine how those who's stories are much more intimately involved in Lonnie's story will feel about this movie. I'll be watching this one over again, and asking God what he wants to speak to me about my life through it.
links:
the website for the Frisbee movie project - the FAQs section is very interesting...
the KQED program that ran the documentary has another summary of the movie
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5 comments:
Your sweet potatoes ROCK!! Thanks for the recipe - a blessing to my Thanksgiving table.
So glad you liked them, Jenell!!!
They are pretty great, aren't they? I don't usually like sweet foods during dinner, but that dish is an exception.
Chris - I ordered this DVD a week or so ago. I,too, have been on a walk down memory lane. In Kansas (who would have thought?) my siblings were very much a part of the Jesus People movement, it was the music (Love Song , Honey Tree, 2nd Chapter of Acts) that I grew up with. My parents were involved in the beginnings of the Vineyard in Aurora CO and that is where I came back to the Lord (IS there a better way to say that?) at a Spiritual Warfare Conference led by Wimber in 1985, right after I graduated uni.
Reading online, and listening to that music has been good, and helped me to weave together some bits of my faith journey. It was the scandal in Co Springs that led me to Lonnie's story, and the trip down memory lane. It is interesting, in a good way, to read your musings too. (It has also helped me to understand why I do feel like I have been there done that with the emerging church - between my sibs Jesus coffee house, and my parents Charismatic Roman Catholicism, I was raised in emerging faith movements. ) Makes me understand why the stability of Quakers appealed to me!
I'll have to check this one out..
i'm looking forward to viewing the dvd. having been in the vineyard since 90, i've come to know the name and hear a lot of stories from "back in the day". thanks for posting about it.
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