Lonnie Frisbee
Lonnie Frisbee (Costa Mesa, California)(1949 - March 12, 1993) was an American hippie Pentecostal evangelist in the late 1960s and 1970s who despite his appearance (traditional hippie long hair and full beard) had great success as a minister and evangelist. Contemporary accounts atrributed his success to his incredible anointing of the Holy Spirit. Frisbee was a key figure in the Jesus Movement and eyewitness accounts of his ministry documented in the 2007 film Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher explain how Lonnie became the charismatic spark "igniting" the rise of two worldwide denominations (Chuck Smith's Calvary Chapel & the Vineyard Movement). Both of these churches later disowned him because of accusations of homosexual behavior. Frisbee, who functioned as an evangelical preacher, is said to have still socialized at least occasionally as a gay man. This is held in tension with the fact that he said in interviews and sermons that he never believed homosexuality was anything other than a sin in the eyes of God. He also forgave those who maligned him before his death from AIDS in 1993. In the documentary movie Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher it was stated that it wasn't that he was one of the hippie preachers, "he was it" (the only one.)
Life
Frisbee was a student at the San Francisco Art Academy when he met members of the Haight-Ashbury's Living Room mission. At the time, he talked about UFOs and practiced hypnotism. When Christian missionaries first met him, they said he was talking about "Jesus and flying saucers".
Frisbee soon converted to Christianity and quit the art academy to move to the Christian community Living Room house in Novato, California, and later reconnected with his former girlfriend Connie whom he soon married. The community was soon dubbed The House of Acts (named after the community of early Christians in the Acts of the Apostles). Frisbee designed a sign to put outside the house, but was informed that if he gave it an official name, it would no longer be considered a mere guest house and would be subject to renovations. The small community could hardly afford this, so the sign came down.[citation needed]
Jesus movement, Calvary Chapel
Frisbee and his wife had left the commune of the House of Acts to go to Southern California. Chuck Smith, meanwhile, had been making plans to build a chapel out of a surplus school building in the City of Santa Ana, near Costa Mesa when he met Lonnie Frisbee. Frisbee became one the most important ministers in the church.[citation needed]
Frisbee's unkempt appearance (he greatly resembled the standard portraits of Jesus, a skinny man with long hair and a beard) helped appeal the youth culture to his message, and he believed that the youth culture would play a prominent role in the Christian movement in the United States. He cited Joel the prophet.
However, Frisbee's attachment to the Pentecostal movement, caused some disagreement within the church, since he was focused more on gaining converts than on helping them learn sound doctrine. Chuck Smith, however, took up that job and welcomed Frisbee into his church. The two worked greatly to bring hippies and young people to Jesus Christ. Under Lonnie Frisbee's ministry his most visible convert was evangelist Greg Laurie.[citation needed]
Smith then asked the Frisbees to depart to San Francisco circa 1968. Smith had set up a community house there called the House of Miracles which had been established in May 1968. Within a week, it had 35 new converts. The couple was to run it with John Higgins and his wife Jackie.
Fame
By 1971, the Jesus Movement had broken in the media, and major media outlets such as Life Magazine, Newsweek and Rolling Stone Magazine were covering it. Frisbee, due to his prominence in the movement, was frequently photographed and interviewed in the magazines.
It was also in 1971 that Frisbee and Smith parted ways because their ideological differences had become too great. Smith discounted Pentecostalism, maintaining that love was the greatest manifestation of the Holy Spirit, while Frisbee was also strongly involved in theology centering on spiritual gifts. Frisbee announced that he would leave California altogether and go to a movement in Florida led by Derek Prince and Bob Mumford which taught a pyramid shepherding style of leadership and was later coined as the "Shepherding Movement".
Divorce
In 1973, the Frisbees divorced due to his being focussed mainly on the ministry. Connie later remarried. Lonnie left the organization.
In 1980, Frisbee was invited by John Wimber to go to what was then a Yorba Linda branch of the Calvary Chapel movement, to preach. Since his early days at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, he had made a shift in his emphasis from evangelism to the dramatic and demonstrative manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit. When Frisbee preached at Wimber's church on that Mother's Day, people reported some unusual happenings.[citation needed] In the aftermath of the Mother's Day meeting, a number of reported miraculous healings shortly thereafter.[citation needed]
After this time, Frisbee and Wimber began traveling the world, going to such places as South Africa and Europe. While there, they claimed to have performed many healings and miracles for people.[citation needed] As reported by many who were there, Frisbee was integral to the development of what would become Wimber's "Signs and Wonders theology".
Death
Frisbee contracted AIDS and he died on 12 March 1993 from complications. At his funeral Chuck Smith controversially compared him to Samson.
External links
- "The First Jesus Freak" by Matt Coker, OC Weekly, March 3, 2005.
- Video of Lonnie Frisbee at Tom Stipe's church.
- Video of Lonnie Frisbee Memorial Service at Crystal Cathedral-Chuck Smith, Phil Aguilar and guests...