Chuck was the pastor of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, and Kay, his dutiful wife, was on a quest to find out why the hippie culture was so disenfranchised. He had the opportunity to share this message with Chuck and Kay Smith one night in 1968. While hiking the Tahquitz Canyon Trail in Palm Springs, he stripped off his clothes, looked up to the sky, and shouted to God, asking Him to reveal Himself.Ĭlaiming he felt a tingle and a glow after that incident, Lonnie said Christ told him that He was going to use him as a “light to thousands of other people.” He described a vision he received where thousands of young people were lined up along the coast, waiting to be baptized.įrom that point, Lonnie drifted back and forth between Orange County and San Francisco, hitchhiking, and telling others what Christ had done for him. When he had an encounter with God-in the desert no less-it was extreme. Despite his freewheeling and rebellious lifestyle, Lonnie was deeply concerned with matters regarding life and death, even remembering the teachings he learned in church as a child. Lonnie, like many of his generation, was on a search for existential meaning. He had encounters with Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison, Jerry Garcia, and Charles Manson, who presented himself to everyone as both Jesus and the devil. He often saw Janis Joplin walking her seven dogs. He hung out at hippie teahouses where people sat around drinking tea, smoking pot, reading poetry, and discussing the new youth revolution. San Francisco at the time was the place to be. Like thousands of others, Lonnie headed to San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury district to “tune in, turn on, and drop out” during 1967’s Summer of Love. He was sexually victimized by an adult neighbor, which, according to Lonnie, “broke the foundations of my faith.” This pushed him in the wrong direction as he dove headfirst into drug culture during his teens.Ī talented artist on scholarship, Lonnie went to college but quickly dropped out and dove headlong into the hippie movement, ingesting hallucinogenic drugs and even experimented with the occult and mystical practices. Both of his parents were still in their teens when they married, and he was exposed to sketchy characters as a child. And yet, his guru-like hippy shirts, long, brown hair parted in the middle, full beard, and leather sandals made him look like the quintessential portrait of Jesus.īut Lonnie had the devil on his back from a young age, being raised in a dysfunctional home. He might not have fit the strong, virile image traditional churchgoers expected of a great leader-he was small in stature and seemed fragile. It was time for change, and he was the right person at the right time. However, Lonnie was exactly what the moment called for. He pushed the Jesus Movement in a charismatic direction, a path that many in the traditional church didn’t want to go. But sometimes had a penchant for theatrics. He spoke in hippie patter (phrases like “tripping,” “far out,” and “outta sight” could be heard in his sermons), was totally authentic, original, and on fire for the Lord. Lonnie’s down-to-earth and appealing style of preaching was tempered with a gentle spirit, and good humor. He was one of the fixtures of our culture. A post shared by Greg Laurie no surprise to me that interest in Lonnie’s story lingers decades after his death.
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