October 29, 2025

The Importance of Running Together

The Jesus People movement occurred in the late 1960s and throughout much of the 1970s, impacting North America, Europe, Central America, Australia, and New Zealand before it subsided. It coincided with a significant breach between the younger and older generations, commonly known as the “generation gap.” This division was not a single, uniform phenomenon, but encompassed political beliefs, cultural tastes, social norms, and expectations about authority, education, and personal freedom. Sadly, the generation gap negatively influenced the Jesus People movement in some ways. Before we address this, let’s briefly recap this “generation gap.” It was caused by several overlapping phenomena:

• Postwar affluence: As economies grew, more young people enjoyed disposable income and time for education and leisure. This created a distinct youth culture with new priorities and ambitions separate from parental routines and activities. 

• Educational expansion: College attendance surged in the 1960s and beyond. Known for radical ideas in philosophy, sociology, and political science, campuses became hotbeds of challenges to established norms about race, gender, class, morality, religion, and authority.

• Civil rights and anti-war movements: Many young people began questioning the legitimacy of older generations’ hierarchical structures and national decisions. This led to great disillusionment in the youth.

• Cultural revolutions: Popular music, art, literature, and media celebrated experimentation, sexual liberation, and nonconformity. The rise of rock and roll, folk revival, and the drug culture offered new identities and ways to resist conformity.

• Changing gender expectations: Women increasingly challenged traditional roles at home and in the workplace, which impacted the family unit.

• Technological and media shifts: Television, film, and the mass availability of information allowed younger audiences to encounter diverse viewpoints and lifestyles, creating a sense of global connectedness and generational difference.

• Authority and traditional values came under scrutiny: Many parents and authority figures had grown up in more hierarchical, economically stable times. As their children embraced alternative lifestyles, dissent, and political activism, this generated distrust, conflicts over authority and discipline, and division.

What were some of the outcomes of this era? What did the generation gap produce?

• Cultural transformation: The era reshaped popular culture—music, fashion, literature, and media—leading to more permissive attitudes toward sexuality, the challenging of authority, and the celebration of individual expression. This left a lasting imprint on societal norms.

• Political polarization and discourse: Debates around war, poverty, and social justice created lasting generational divisions. Political movements often blurred into a sense of “us vs. them” between younger reformists and older traditionalists.

• Educational changes: Schools and universities became spaces for indoctrination and activism. 

• Long-term shifts in family dynamics: Shifts toward the family structure, feminism, reproductive rights, marriage, and contraception contributed to new family models and gender roles. Along with this, the idea that youth could and should define their own paths became a more accepted norm.

In summary, the 1960s and 1970s were a very tumultuous period, and the generation gap became very significant. It arose from a convergence of diverse issues affecting family, education, politics, and culture. Younger people questioned established authority, challenged social hierarchies, rebelled from past standards, and demanded more freedom. The era reshaped culture, intensified political discourse, and redefined family. 

How This Influenced the Jesus People Movement

When the Jesus People movement emerged, multitudes of youth were saved, but this did not heal all the division, distrust, and significant generational separation. The young people who came to Christ brought with them their different music, dress, free-spiritedness, many of their political ideals, and more. Some of this was actually good and helped break down the existing religious boxes in the church built solely on tradition and preference, not on Scripture. A lot of the older folks did not like this, however, and were resistant to the change, wanting the status quo. Traditions, especially religious traditions, are not easily changed. 

The youth also brought some of their distrust toward the older generation in the church. And, of course, this lack of trust was reciprocated by many of the older folks. Each wanted the other to change. The truth was that both generations needed to do so. Instead, the generation gap was brought right into this move of God. This was disastrous.

Malachi 4:6 speaks of a curse associated with division between parents and children. I realize many translations use “fathers,” not “parents,” but I believe the warning includes both fathers and mothers, as do several other translations. The verse states: “And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” KJV

“He will return the fathers’ hearts to their children and the children’s hearts to their fathers so that I can come and bless and not strike the land with a curse.”  TPT

The charismatic and Jesus People movements experienced the fruit of this curse Malachi spoke of, along with the rest of America. The wisdom of age and the zeal of youthfulness were unable to partner and produce the wonderful fruit God intended through generational synergy. The experience of the older generation didn’t help channel the passion of the young, and the elders’ passivity wasn’t offset by the fire of the sons and daughters. 

Many Joshuas couldn’t find their Moseses, Elishas their Elijahs, and Timothys their Pauls. And vice versa. Many of the old grew stagnant, becoming old wine skins, unable to receive the new wine; many of the youth were captured by false doctrines and built ministries on weak foundations. And much potential fruit for the Kingdom of God was lost.

The Third Great Awakening

I have hope in my heart that this breach will not exist in the coming revival. I believe God has done a work of joining fathers and mothers to sons and daughters, turning the hearts of each toward the other. And I believe this will create a much greater stability, power, and productivity in the new move of God. I also believe it will produce the longevity that comes from generational connection. In the next awakening, we will not be divided, but instead, will run together.

Let’s ask for this now. 

Pray with me:

Father, You call us to walk in unity with one another, including unity between generations. Sons and daughters, fathers and mothers must run together. We know that when they are in agreement, it releases synergistic power. 

In the coming revival, we want to see Joshuas leading with the strength of their Moseses, Elishas moving in the double portion of their Elijahs, Timothy’s building with the wisdom received from their Pauls. You said Joshua had the spirit of wisdom because Moses laid his hands on him (Deuteronomy 34:9). You said Elisha received the mantle of Elijah (2 Kings 2:13). You told us that Paul laid hands on Timothy and gave him spiritual gifts (2 Timothy 1:6). Do these things many times over in our day. No more generation gaps; those days are over. 

And we pray that the young people who come to Christ in this great awakening would grow quickly. Break off any and all mindsets that would hold them back or cause them to stumble. Free them from all addictions, gender confusion, deceptions, and wrong ways of thinking. Cause them to be truly Christ-like, demonstrating the fruit of Your Spirit in abundance, and be the greatest generation ever. All of this we pray in Jesus’ name. 

Our decree:

We decree that the hearts of the fathers and mothers have turned to the sons and daughters, and the sons and daughters have turned their hearts to the fathers and mothers.

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