Rock 'N' Roll, Revival, and Jesus Revolution | Brent McCorkle and Jon Erwin On The Babylon Bee
The directors of Jesus Revolution, Brent McCorkle and Jon Erwin, are at The Babylon Bee to talk about their new film that depicts the Jesus movement in California during the 1970s when the hippies were coming to Christ. The film stars Jonathan Roumie, best known as the Jesus from The Chosen, and Kelsey Grammer. They discuss the production of the film and also the real life story of Chuck Smith, Lonnie Frisbee, Greg Laurie, and how the Calvary Chapel movement started. Jesus Revolution is in theaters everywhere February 24: https://jesusrevolution.movie/ Become a premium subscriber: https://babylonbee.com/plans?utm_source=PYT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=description Listen to more Babylon Bee content with Bee Radio: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUu5jt0fuiT55J2KDStJwLw The Official The Babylon Bee Store: https://shop.babylonbee.com/ Follow The Babylon Bee Podcast: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebabylonbeepodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/babylonbeepod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBabylonBeePodcast
And then the real Greg Laurie was baptizing a member of the cast without us even knowing it, like a few hundred yards away while we were filming the baptism.
So it was just a level of power.
It was the most powerful day of filming I've had in my career.
And now it's time for another interview on the Babylon B podcast.
We're like, hey, you got a crazy uncle.
All right, let's get this thing started.
Hey, guys, get this back on track.
All right.
We're going.
Okay, this is the interview show at the Babylon B. We're really, really grateful to have these awesome guests here today.
Joining me is Emma.
I'm Jarrett, and we are going to talk with John Irwin and Brent McCorkle.
You guys are the directors of The Jesus Revolution.
I'm really excited about talking to you guys today because, you know, in the Christian film industry, and we were talking about a little bit before, you get a lot of movies that are like just sermons.
You get a lot of movies that kind of the quality is kind of low.
And you guys have really bucked that system.
And I'm not saying that you guys are, listen, I don't even know if you guys really are counted as Christian filmmakers necessarily or if you're just filmmakers.
So I don't know what your reputation is so much, but I am really interested to talk to you because you've done a really good job telling great stories over the last few years that have really, they're like the cream of the crop when it comes to this kind of genre.
It means a lot.
I know, honestly, I really're acting, you're writing, the storytelling, the cinematography, everything about it's been really good.
You don't have that second act lull that you usually see.
And so I just wanted to talk to you guys today.
This is awesome.
Thank you guys for being here.
Oh my gosh.
I never feel like I will ever arrive in my career, but to be doing an interview with Babylon B, it gets close.
I'm like, I love Babylon B for many, many years.
Keep coming.
Oh, man.
This is a very LA conversation where we just sit here and comment.
Mutual Admiration Society.
Well, I love John and Andy.
I have since they started.
And the commonality between us is I just want my stuff to be good.
And like it was a value of mine for it to be good and have high quality and be competitive with Hollywood.
And I saw these guys trying to do the same thing.
And I was just very appreciative of it because not everybody in the Christian space has that value.
And I guess that's fine.
But you always find your like-minded people that you want to storm the, you know, storm the castle with.
And I really found that in John and Andy.
We just, we just want our stuff to be good.
You know, we're constantly trying to get better.
And you want to have fun storming the castle.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I do have fun.
It's fun worth it too.
I have fun storming the castle.
That's funny.
It's hard.
It's, it's, you know, films are not easy to make.
And what did George Lucas say?
Films are never complete.
They're only abandoned.
But we should try.
I think that when you ask the average sort of Christian about what's been come to be known as faith-based films, which I sort of embrace in a way, because to be a part of anything that's emerging, you know, is cool.
To bleed on the bleeding edge of anything, most industries or whatever is sort of, the cement has hardened to the foundation.
And so to be a part of something, I remember Sean Aston said to us, he says, I feel like we were doing a film together.
And he's like, I feel like you guys and some of the other faith-based filmmakers are like frontiersmen and pioneers.
And I'm like, thanks, Sean.
And he's like, most frontiersmen die on the frontier, John.
And I'm like, well, the trail will be clearly marked.
But I think the quest should be for just constant improvement.
How can we get a little better every day at what we're trying to do?
The privilege, I mean, here's the magic of it.
The business of entertainment, very, very hard.
It's crazy, cutthroat, you know, hyper-competitive.
What we get to do in it is magical and is an absolute privilege.
To think that we can feel things deeply, we can see them sort of in our heads.
We can write them on a piece of paper in a script.
And then this whole team, hundreds of people, come around you and make those things real.
And then the fact that anyone would buy a ticket to our movies when the ticket is basically the same price for Avatar or Star Wars.
Well, I can see why they buy your movie over Avatar.
Of course they would.
Not me, but other people.
But the idea that in music or other forms of art, there's this price disparity based off what it costs to make the product.
So to think that someone's going to, same amount of time, popcorn's the same, sit in a dark theater to watch our movie as opposed to something that costs 20 times to make, that's a privilege.
And first and foremost, we must entertain.
So I'm here first to entertain you.
I feel like there's a community of people that want to support Christian films and they will put up with a lot of crap in order to go support Christian films.
But when they go see your movies, they don't have to put up with any crap.
There's some crap.
I don't ever watch.
Do you watch the movie?
Once the movies are locked, I can't watch them because all I can, so they're just like, I've got to let that ship sail.
It's crazy when it locks because you start seeing the problems that you didn't fix and it really kills you.
So yeah, I walk away.
But the joy of it is actually in the process.
Like the journey is the reward and the idea is to just show up every day trying to get a little better and really going like we tell people that come into our system, if you can be, you know, satisfied making a mediocre product or, you know, a bad film is still 70% of the work, you know, and time.
If you're satisfied with that, you won't be happy here.
If you want to sort of just go to the limit and that extra 10% and really just go all in on trying to make something great for an audience and entertain the audience first and foremost, and then by virtue of entertaining the audience, have an ability to share something meaningful that I think the right story can be life-changing, then you'll fit in here.
But what we do is hard and low-budget movies are typically not good, low-budget, not just in faith.
And so there's some things we need to do to get the quality up.
Having said that, what did Ryan Reynolds say?
You can never do something well until you're willing to do it badly.
So I think we can get better and better at what we do.
And hopefully there's this generation of talent coming behind us that can go even further.
When you got into this, was it like you saw a Christian movie and you thought, this is great.
I want to do this when I grow up.
Or was it just there's an absent, it's like absence of quality and you thought, I can make this better.
I could improve this.
I would say for me, you'll get two totally different stories.
I was dragged kicking and screaming into the faith space.
I had a chip on my shoulder, especially when I was younger.
I was just like, man, it's not good enough quality.
I'd rather use my worldview in my heart and make wider films.
And I think I still bring a degree of that into what I do with John and Andy.
But I guess I want to hold myself to the Hollywood standard.
And that's what makes us, I think, push a little harder.
So I didn't want to do it, but I was talking to Jarrett before we rolled.
I was kind of fighting the current.
I really just feel like God wants me in this space and I'm just going to do the best that I can.
I was trying not to do it because I had rightly or wrongly, kind of had this opinion of that it that people weren't fighting for high quality.
And there were people that I just wouldn't have wouldn't work with.
But then I saw John and Andy's stuff and I read the Woodlawn script in 2014.
I was like, this is very good.
And this is a story that needs to be told.
And I signed on.
I was like, yeah, let's go.
And man, I do think we're getting into a time where there's going to be more faith films and people at a very high talent level, like the Ethan Hawks of the world, who else?
Who else?
Mark Wahlberg.
He's a person of faith and guys like that.
They're starting to dabble in faith stories.
And I really hope that Hollywood sees, which I do think they are, that there's a viable market for these films.
Because as John said, if you don't entertain, you've failed.
But hopefully it's something beyond that.
And it was amazing.
Another thing I love about John and Andy, just to brag on them for a minute, it's like, just keep going.
Yeah.
If you came on set, you will see people from all walks of life, all stripes, all worldviews.
And that moves my heart.
And I have such an amazing time with him.
But it was so incredible to see all these people weep and cry and feel something different on the set.
You know, we set the culture.
And it's, you know, it is entertainment, but I think it can be more than that.
And, you know, when you're trying to do something for me, Jesus Revolution was trying to put more hope and love into the world.
For me, that was like kind of the big place that I came from in my heart in this film.
And I know you can feel that, man.
You can feel that on the set.
When you work, even on the hard days, when it's 14-hour days and we're killing everybody, you know, at the end of the, at the end of the whole run, we're all grateful that we have done it because it feels like it could maybe change somebody's life.
And so I'm glad I'm here.
I'm glad I'm here.
I fought it really hard when I was younger, but I'm glad I'm here.
Were you worried that it would bar you from Hollywood?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
I think that's, I still think that's legitimate concern.
People ask me that all the time.
Like if I went to Lionsgate with just a, or another studio with just some kind of wide idea, I don't know how they would react to me.
Yeah, because they're going to look up.
Oh, hey.
Oh, you know, he's really hard to work with.
I had that feeling coming here.
I'm like, okay, this is my first job out of film school.
Am I going to be barred from everything else?
But then I work with people like Adam Jenser, who came from Ellen DeGeneres and Jared, who came from movies.
And I worry about it less.
Did you just roll your eyes?
That's so generic.
Just roll your eyes.
Removies.
Yeah, complimenting each other so much.
I mean, like, no, that was the rule.
That was so.
It was slight, but I saw it.
You saw the role of really talented people who aren't worried about that.
That's comforting.
I think it's more of a fear than it is in actuality.
But you're going to have that fear.
And it's that FOMO thing of like, oh, well, if I go this route, I'm giving up on this alternate universe that I could have done had I made this choice at this juncture in my life.
But I think it's less even now.
I think it's less now because once you get up to a certain place and people are like, oh, I saw that movie, that's legit.
I don't believe, I don't believe the way they do, but that's legit.
Yeah.
Well, it really, I think the defining, the difference is my path into the industry.
I started, I was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, did not have a plan at all to get in the industry.
But I was hyper-curious, which I just believe in living that way.
And I got to lie about my age when I was 15 to work for ESPN because someone got sick.
And I just said that I was apprenticing for a cameraman.
And he said, get over here, kick offs in three hours, just lie about everything.
Nobody should do that, whoever's listening.
I fell in love with the job.
And the oldest cameraman on that crew said, with wide-eyed optimism, I went up to him and said, how did you get this job?
And he said, bad luck, kid, get out now.
I didn't listen.
But then my dad helped me buy a camera and get a loan when I was 16 with money he didn't have.
My brother quickly joined.
And we just, I'm a huge believer in this as a craft, much more than an art.
It's a symphony of art, but a craft is something you kind of, a craftsman, you sort of hone, you know?
And so we had the great fortune of doing all kinds of like birthday parties and surgeries and weddings.
And then that led to like local car commercials.
And then I videotaped my first investment in film.
I had I had filmed 150 orthopedic trauma surgeries for him.
I've seen horrifying things in OR.
Anyway, I earned that money.
And then that led to my filming of my child.
That's pretty good.
Did you ever get you really?
Did you ever get woozy?
Okay.
I've seen so many shits.
Did you ever feel like I'd rather do that?
What's that?
Do you ever get woozy or feel like you were going to throw up?
I never did.
That's Kimlin that's worked for us.
You filmed that and still pass out.
That's like your picture of it.
I've got so many OR stories.
It's high stakes mechanics.
Don't get a motorcycle.
That's the moral of the story.
Chetsky's.
Same basic thrill.
Yeah.
More forgiving service.
Anyway, and then the artist Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, for reasons I still don't understand, gave us opportunities to do music videos for them.
And then we just landed in music videos and were doing a car commercial and four music videos a month.
And that was sort of like the grind.
And it was just a way to refine our craft.
And then my entry into this whole world was I went and directed second unit on a faith film called Courageous that a church in Georgia Sherwood was doing.
Yes.
And it's a real Cinderella story.
They were literally making movies as a church with primarily church volunteers.
Well, they wanted to do action sequences involving cars.
And you jumped out of the car and ran over and grabbed the donut and kid.
Yeah.
John shot that.
You shot that one.
It was my job to come in with some professionals, go far away from these extras so nobody got killed.
And I love blowing things up and doing chase sequences.
And so Alex, you know, they're very sort of Southern Baptist, Georgia.
And so they go right at it.
And, you know, to his credit, he asked me a question, like, I said hello.
And then he just went for it.
But it's a question that everyone should ask and answer.
He said, like, we don't really understand you.
Right.
He said, what's your purpose and the purpose of your work?
Like, why do you do what you do?
And it had all just happened.
I had no plan.
I didn't dream of being a film director.
It had just sort of happened.
I'd walked through some open doors and refined a craft, but I was just like, we were like the Han Solo of Christianity.
Like, if you got money, fly you somewhere.
The rest is your problem.
Yeah.
And so that was really where I was somewhat, where I got into the game, where it was sort of like a craft became a calling.
And then it was like, okay, what's my contribution to this?
How can Andy and I, you know, run a lap in this race?
And I think fondly when I think of, I think of just films, stories in general are how we sort of cipher the purpose and meaning of life.
I mean, that's why they exist far beyond movies, all the way to like a campfire, right?
Right.
The parables that start with.
To me, to tell a story that's meaningful, that's important, that's a manifestation of something I deeply believe in, that's first and foremost entertaining, that can help someone understand why we're here and why they're here and have a sense of meaning and purpose.
That's a privilege and really cool.
And I think the attitude, here's what I've learned about the great people in our industry.
I was hanging out with guy, Jay Ellis.
He's a great guy, great actor.
And he was one of the pilots in Top Gun.
And he said every day, Tom Cruise would show up and say, this is a privilege.
What we do is a privilege.
And how can we entertain the audience?
What I realized working in music was the very best people were much more obsessed with serving the audience than the audience serving them.
And to me, instead of saying, well, what will this do to my career?
Just connecting with an audience and saying, how can I serve this audience?
And I just noticed in music, there were these bands that wanted the audience to be there for them.
And then there were these bands that wanted to be there for the audience.
And the people that recognized the difference between those two things were the audience.
And so I think to me, just to say, look, connect with an audience, know an audience, get to know them, serve them, and do what you do better than you did yesterday and then the day before.
And sort of own that space like the Babylon B does.
Satire is tough.
Comedy's hard, but you do it well and it's funny.
And then in that humor, you can really, you know, shed light on some things on truth, really.
So to me, that's the differentiator is just, is just like embrace the audience, love the audience, don't be ashamed of it.
Don't be afraid of it.
Who cares what it's going to do to your career?
And the people that one of the guys I've got to know, which is in a totally different space, is Jason Blum.
And he, you know, horror empire, you know, at Universal.
Blumhouse.
Yeah, Blumhouse.
But we bonded over this word, disdain, that you can't hide disdain in a product.
And audiences know when a product is made with disdain.
And 25 years ago in horror, the industry was disdaining that audience.
They're like, they don't want quality.
They don't want stories.
They just want blood and gore and murder, whatever.
And Blum really brought a level of sophistication and love for the audience and quality and creative freedom.
And that's led to this enormous thing.
And I think that's also possible in faith.
But I think the attitude to have is just like, love what you do, love the audience you get to serve, believe in the stories that you're making, and just then let the rest.
It seems like there's a lot of Christian directors, maybe not, maybe this isn't entirely true, but there's people that I run into in the Christian industry that are a little bit cynical when it comes to the audience.
Like they feel like, well, they just need this.
They disdain this.
Yeah, they need a salvation.
They need a scene where somebody breaks down.
We'll have three of those in the movie.
And then, you know, the rest of it, it doesn't matter.
We can make the crappiest film in the world.
They will eat it up.
Like, this is the attitude.
You know, like literally that makes it.
I like recoil.
Like, I get angry.
You know, it's like, no, like, but it says a lot about the person more than the audience because I don't know, man.
I want to walk like in humility in this place of surrender and never feeling like I've arrived because there's always a place to go to grow and get better and become.
So if you're demeaning the product, you know, it feels like you've kind of stalled out yourself creatively, right?
So yeah, man, like it, especially if you're going to put God or Christ or Jesus on something, like, shouldn't it be like the best you could possibly do?
But it's immoral, in my opinion, to make a product.
Yeah.
Among many things.
But to me, from a business level.
No excuses.
It's immoral to make a product that you don't believe in and love and then hope that someone else or to make it about yourself somehow.
Like that's the other thing that I find is that people are more interested in making something about themselves.
They're not about, they're not about making the product the best it can be.
They're making about themselves.
They're making it for you.
You should be like the first audience member though.
Like if you like the movie, you should like it.
And I've heard that with horrors.
A lot of people will say, oh, if you don't have a big budget, make a horror.
I mean, that's like insulting the genre and saying anyone that has a limited budget can make a good horror film.
And I think people have that idea with Christian films where it's like, I don't need a big budget.
I don't need to really try hard because the audience is easy to please.
And that's not the mentality to have.
Have you seen the Hallmark Christmas stuff lately?
Oh my gosh.
That's like the, yeah.
My wife.
My wife loves that.
Love that crowd.
Yeah.
But I can't.
I can't.
Formulaic.
Eats it up.
I can't do it.
It's just a formula.
But the point is there's an audience.
Audience loves it.
We were talking about that before.
You know what I'm saying?
So it's like, not for me.
It's not for me.
But I've seen, hey, firsthand how much the audience loves it.
But you're exactly right.
Make something that moves you.
As a director, you're the first viewer.
Yeah.
And so I hope the audience laughs and cries and is entertained and moved by Jesus Revolution.
I laughed and cried and am entertained and moved by Jesus Revolution.
I'm not going to give it to the audience until it moves us in ways that we feel is worthy of the audience's time.
And it's such a wrong way to think of like, well, this is what the audience wants.
I mean, I'm above it.
I like real movies, but the audience down there, they want to see it.
Yeah, they want a guess who recognizes and feels that disdain.
The audience.
And you felt with the audience.
So I think to me, it's one of those things of saying, I am a member of this audience.
And let's make something that we love and then let's give it to the audience.
So I'm a member of this audience too.
I watched Jesus Revolution in Nashville at your headquarters.
Oh, cool.
Yeah.
So this is a couple months ago and with old Daryl.
So we got to see it with old Daryl.
Lafina.
And that's what I call him.
Old Daryl.
And so anyway, sorry, Daryl.
You're not that old.
Yeah, you're older, but you're still young.
Older than me.
That's all that matters.
No, but honestly, I watched it.
What you said is exactly true.
I think Jesus Revolution might be the best of the Christian films that I've ever seen.
You cried.
No, honestly, I'm not trying to blow smoke.
I like cried ugly crying.
And I think the Holy Spirit, this is the combination of things.
Anything that has to do with Jesus, whenever anyone talks about the Spirit of God or a movement of the Spirit of God, when I see something genuine, I start weeping anyway.
But like, I do think what you guys captured is really a genuine movement of God that happened in the 70s and the 60s.
And you did such a good job that I was like, I couldn't, like, there were people around me.
There were like four or five people in the room, very small group.
And I was trying to control my, my sobs.
Like, I couldn't, I was sobbing where I haven't had that experience in so long.
So I just want to tell you guys, like, from a person who, and I care about quality of film, I care about all that.
And so I have the same feelings.
But as far as being able to communicate what you guys are trying to communicate, you did such a good job of this.
So do you feel like that?
Would you, do you like it?
Do you think that's a good thing?
Well, first of all, I cry.
He's like, I hate it.
I cry every time I see it.
I know, you know, the scene, the foot washing scene where Chuck watched.
I really every time.
Yep.
You know, this, I've probably seen this movie hundreds of times now, but like, it just gets me every time because there is something so genuine and powerful and evocative.
I did the research, the preliminary research for this for John when we first started.
It was John's idea to do the movie, and he tasked me with, you know, starting to put the research dossier together.
But when I read that scene, I went to John.
I was like, we could mess up every other scene in this movie.
If we get this one right, everything else will go.
But like, it's just, it gets me, man.
It was so cool.
We had a Lionsgate exec.
She was working with me on the music and she came in and we saw that scene for the first time together.
And she was crying too.
Like, we're all crying.
Was she a Christian person?
No.
Awesome.
No, see, that's that's that's another thing, too.
That's, I just, I want my stuff to be wide and I don't really care.
Like, I just kind of, it's like you leave a note, a love note with somebody and they get to do whatever they want to with it.
But the response from Lionsgate has been amazing.
A lot of tears from the executives, similar to your experience.
And, you know, they're not.
Again, that's what I love about John and Andy.
And, you know, it's like, you don't have to fill out a questionnaire and, you know, tell me if you espouse these theological views.
Just come work with us.
Yeah.
And I want this stuff to hit as many people as possible, like irrespective of their worldview.
So yeah, I think it's working.
It's like, I mean, it definitely, you know, to John's point, it has to rebound on you.
Even though you've been in the edit bay and you scored the music and you directed that actor, if it comes back and feeds back into your soul and loops in a way that's hitting you emotionally, I know that it's there.
That's the magic of what we do.
I mean, for me, the first time I cried interfacing with the story of Jesus Revolution was 20, gosh, 15.
We were making this film Woodlawn set in the 70s.
And I was like, a whole high school was sort of saved from a spiritual awakening.
And I was like, could this actually have happened?
Like, is this true?
And I found on eBay this magazine where this psychedelic Jesus is on the cover of Time magazine.
I'm like, what is this?
And it was entitled Jesus Revolution.
And it was this 10-page spread.
And I read, you couldn't find the article online.
And I read that article.
And it was one of the most like buoyant, positive, hopeful accounts of Christianity I'd ever read.
And it was current.
It was going on all over the nation.
And I'm like, why did I not know about this?
This is Time magazine.
And what is this?
And I think a part of being human individually, corporately, collectively, we just lose our way.
Like things atrophy, things institutionalize.
We lose our first love.
We lose our passion.
That's just a part of being human.
And as I read that article, it was so clear that, man, where did this go?
This is like the essence of the thing.
In California.
In California.
This was like a reset of Christianity.
And it was amazing.
And I just, I felt this fear of missing out.
Like, I've been a Christian all my life, deep South, Southern Baptist, and you sort of take it for granted.
And I'd never experienced anything like this.
So a lot of the process of just making the movie was sort of selfish.
I just wanted to taste a little bit of the last sort of great sweeping spiritual awakening.
And as I studied it and as Brent researched it and as we put it together, it was sort of, it was confounding because it sort of challenged, like, for instance, the scene that we all love is to be a hippie in the 70s.
Like, here was the path of going to church for a hippie.
like go home, run away, take a bath, cut your hair, rejoin society, get a job.
Now maybe you can come to church.
This was the group that wasn't allowed in church.
So the fact that this is where this spiritual awakening happened and this very square pastor, Chuck Smith, on a dare just opened his doors to what he did not understand and they flooded in and this sort of nitroglycerin relationship between him and this street preacher, Lonnie Frisbee, that sparked a nationwide awakening.
Just that idea of like hanging out with someone and two groups that didn't understand each other, that all of society would say could not be in a room without killing each other, actually joined together in this movement.
It was this beautiful thing.
It was just really challenging and thought-provoking.
And the more I learned, the more I'm like, I want to, I need this in my life.
I need this in my family.
I need this in my city.
Man, how can we get a taste of this?
And that led to, can we get this movie made?
So every movie that we've made, sort of like, I can only imagine, I still believe American Underdog has been about getting enough chips to sort of cash in and let a studio make us make a movie called Jesus Revolution that's authentic.
And I would say to your point, and I think there's something for artists, there's been, there's a spectrum of sort of honesty in the films that I've made and not to critique anyone, but there's films where I feel like they're probably 86% honest.
And then there's probably a little bit of me thinking, well, the audience wants this.
90% honest, but you know, the studio wants this.
86.5.
You know, whatever.
Yeah.
I would say Jesus Revolution is finally getting enough to say there's going to be things that the studio is nervous about with this movie.
Frankly, there's going to be things that the Christian audience is nervous about with this movie because I want to go to a level of honesty.
There's not a perfect character in this movie.
No, yeah.
But I want this movie to be completely authentic.
And so I'd say every word in this movie is like, sort of, screw this.
I completely believe in every word on the page.
And I believe that this is a fair and accurate telling of the last great sort of spiritual awakening in the country.
And so there's an honesty about it.
There is.
And I hope that honesty leaps through.
And I hope people understand that this could happen again.
We're in a very similar time.
And God can use me.
Like so many of us, I think, think, okay, I struggle with this or that.
I've done this or that.
I'm not talented enough, whatever.
I'm useless, except that I can sit in the congregation and listen.
I hope this movie just totally challenges that, that like God can use anybody.
Each of us have a unique role to play.
Each of us have gifts.
And no matter what you've done or, you know, who you are, what level of talent you have, like, you have a role to play.
I never even heard about this like revolution in California.
I grew up in the Christian church, but I guess we didn't really go into too much of like Christian pop culture.
Yeah.
But because when I moved out from Pennsylvania, I thought I was going to have a hard time finding a church or Christians.
I thought Christians didn't exist in California.
So it's crazy to hear that this movement started here.
And then when I was researching it, I saw that some people, when they retell the movement, kind of leave out that hippie preacher because he's controversial.
Yeah, correct.
And because the leader of the church is controversial at that time or like, but it's good to use, you know, show that God can use anyone.
Good point.
You know, you don't have to shave your head if you're a hippie before you go to church.
Correct.
Yeah, correct.
I think the Lord can use anyone.
And I love that you're saying this is the time where we need to be aware that God could move again in this way and he needs to, I feel like I want a revival like that in my lifetime.
And I like the imperfect, the imperfect Lonnie Frisbee, especially.
His character was wonderful.
Jonathan Rumi did a great job.
And it was so funny because you're expecting to see Jesus and him having that accent, you know, and he comes out and he has this, he's like, hi, I'm Lonnie, you know?
That's too good.
That's really good.
It's not too bad.
Yeah.
Jonathan, if you're watching this, Rumi.
Hey, very good.
Yeah.
I do a good Jesus too.
Yeah.
But honestly, it's just to see the imperfect people that God uses throughout history, but to be able to see it so well done, it gives people a lot of hope.
And my hope is that people start to engage with this in surrender.
We were talking about it before.
The only prerequisite is that you're willing, you're surrendered to him, willing to do what he wants you to do and be obedient in ways that he's asking you to be obedient in.
That's right.
That's it.
That's it.
That's really it.
Yeah.
You know?
Yeah.
And just walk, like, walk into your calling and don't listen to those voices.
Like, like, so I love that, you know, Lonnie is, you're right, a character that has been somewhat written out of the movement.
I don't think the Jesus movement has been given its due or even measured.
Here's a little factoid.
The most baptisms that have ever been recorded in American history, 1972, at the height of the Jesus movement.
That was it, Pirates Cove.
It just was nationwide.
It was there, and then it was like 600,000.
The Southern Baptist measured it in a year.
So it swept the nation.
And so Lonnie's contribution was undeniable.
But so much of what sparked the Jesus movement came out of this countercultural revolution.
By the way, we talk about like spiritual awakening or whatever.
If you pray for a spiritual awakening, watch out because that's not the same as like revival in the context of Christianity.
There was a whole generation that was somehow immediately spiritually awake.
They realized the hypocrisy and sort of emptiness of their post-World War II parents having this materialistic dreams.
That spiritual awareness was one of the huge instigators of like sex, drugs, and rock and roll as a quest.
LSD being the main thing that was like, this is going to connect us.
This is going to be a show in the show in the movie.
Yeah.
And so there was a righteousness to the quest.
They were looking for the right things, but in the wrong places.
And it was only in the despair of that not working that the Jesus movement broke out.
So careful what you wish for with spiritual awakening.
And I think there's things today.
I think social media is something.
It's like, I thought this would connect us, but it's actually just making things worse.
And I think we're in a similar time of like desperation.
I did it.
And I think that there's that spiritual hunger.
I think it's back.
I agree.
I agree.
I think we're in a hungry time.
We're right.
I remember talking to a ton of people, come to find out, like, my parents were saved in the Jesus movement.
Dallas Jenkins, the chosen.
His parents were at this thing called Explo72.
Right.
Culminating event.
That's why his name's Dallas because it was in Dallas.
I was saying that.
That's right.
And so much of the church today came from this movement.
And so I love the idea of getting to tell an authentic story with flawed people and this snapshot of a moment in time.
And so much of their gifts were tied to their flaws.
And I put myself in that category.
You know what I'm saying?
So it's like, I hope that there's still challenges.
Yeah.
I smell you.
Of course you do.
I smell what you're feeling.
You've heard.
Anyway.
Yeah.
I know.
I'm the same place.
Sure, you do.
You know?
Yeah, I know.
Yeah.
It's interesting, you know, just being used and not knowing what God's going to do next.
And it's this crazy, like, it's like you're surfing on God's will and you don't know exactly.
You just have to kind of adjust as you're going.
Yeah.
It's a crazy thing.
A lot of the areas God uses you are in ways that are tied to ways that you've screwed up or ways that you, you know, or things that you battle or wrestle with or because you have a, you know, that's where you learn.
And so I just think that it was cool to sort of reinstate a character because Lonnie Frisbee's role and contribution to the Jesus movement was completely undeniable.
Undeniable.
Absolutely.
And yeah, he got, helped spark the Vineyard movement in the 80s.
I think what we cover in the film felt used, felt sort of like ostracized, had a big problem with Father Figures, kind of drifted from the church in the 80s, went to Rio for several years, came back, died of AIDS in 1994.
And his memoirs, the year before he died of AIDS, yes, there were consequences of choices he made in his life, but his memoirs were full of hope and full of this spirit of wanting another Jesus Revolution to happen in America.
So to be able to reinstate that character, I think was a cool thing to do.
And I'm glad we were able to do it.
Yeah, God still used him.
It's like, would we get rid of Judas as a character in the Bible?
You can rip Psalms out of your Bible?
Yeah, if we just didn't like the ending.
Or David.
Right.
I mean, he comes back, but Solomon.
Think about the Psalms we sing.
Most of the Psalms that you've not lived till you've been to a YouTube concert and heard them close to Psalm 40, this 3,000 year old song.
But yeah, the lyric is like, he lifted me up out of a pit, out of the Myri Cliff.
So most of the Psalms we still sing are this king processing authentically his failures and all the ways he's blown it.
And so, I mean, Psalms is still in the Bible.
It is.
And I think that that's one of the ways we veered and lost our way is just having this standard that's a bit unattainable and I think keeps a lot of us on the sideline.
Well, I mean, you couldn't go to church if you had like tattoos, and now that's kind of shifted.
Now you have to have tattoos.
Yeah.
Now you have to have tattoos, at least one.
I just don't know what I would put on my body permanently.
I'll just do the Kingdom Story company.
No logo.
Like a tramp stamp.
I can't tramp stamp with the Kingdom Story.
Yeah.
A tattoo of Bucky.
Get done.
I do think it's interesting.
So you guys, Jesus Revolution, our listeners, people that are watching, Jesus Revolution is going to be a really, really great movie.
I'm very excited about it.
And it's coming out when?
February 24th.
February 24th.
And they keep adding theaters.
So we're at 2,700 now?
2,700?
That's a big thing.
The idea that a movie studio let us make a movie called Jesus Revolution.
Thank you, Lionsgate.
Yes.
And is releasing it in this environment wide in theaters is frankly, it's a miracle.
It is called Lionsgate.
Yeah.
I mean, it's true.
Like the temple.
They named it, oddly enough, Felton Burns named it after a bridge in Canada when they bought the company.
But it's also a gate in the old city of Jerusalem.
It is the gate.
Isn't it close to where Jesus is supposed to enter in?
I'm sure it is.
So after everyone attends Be Live, you can watch Jesus Revolution.
Same day.
Be Live, February 24th.
You guys want to check it out in Dallas Forward, Texas?
It's going to be great.
Oh, that sounds cool.
Yeah.
Super excited.
Be Live.
Live stuff.
We're going to have all kinds of live stuff.
Live podcast, live sketch.
Yes.
You're going to end up with it.
And smoke some cigars.
I'm MCing.
Awesome.
Where will it be?
Fort Worth, Dallas.
Dallas Forward, Texas.
I mean, comedy on the spot.
Do you guys want to go?
Yeah.
I would love to go.
Why don't you go?
Why don't you go?
I think.
I think people do that.
What day?
It's going to be February 24th at the River Ranch.
It's the day of your release.
I'll be in DFW opening the movie with all my friends because I grew up in Arlington.
What time are you going to be there?
Dude, you can come at our skip be live and I'll come to your opening and then we'll cover for each other.
By the way, there's a special advanced screening with bonus content that's selling out.
It's really cool to see on the 22nd on Wednesday.
So if you go to be live, just hit the earlier show.
Hit the earlier show.
I'm there.
Dude, that'd be so good.
I'm going to take all my friends.
Have you guys done this before?
Live comedy.
No, first time.
First time.
By the way, just to yeah, I've done many.
One of the things that we believe is that faith, whatever you want to call it, it's not a genre.
It's an audience to serve.
It's a cause to champion.
It's a set of values that we feel are universally appealing and needed.
But it's not a genre.
Like there can be all kinds of types of content that can manifest this vision.
And so I've done several, you know, a lot of different types of movies.
I can say this with some authority.
Comedy is like the hardest thing to do.
It is so specific.
It requires so much thought and architecture.
And it is tough, man.
Yeah, that's why comedy, it's always funny because you look at the comedy actors, the people that come out of comedy, their timing is so good.
They're the best dramatists.
That they're really great dramatists.
That's exactly right because it's so timing dependent.
Kelsey Grammar.
Well, our thought was Chuck Smith was what we needed.
And Kelsey, when we remounted the project post the COVID delay, the only name for me was Kelsey Grammar because when you can do Frasier and Macbeth, I know.
That's range.
You needed the humor and timing because there was so much natural humor in this relationship between squares and hippies.
But you also need real gravitas.
And he crushed it.
Coming up next for Babylon B subscribers.
In the charismatic churches, man, the arts are really elevated and they encourage kids to pick up instruments and sing and be in the choir and act and do like your stupid little plays, you know, with the paper-mâchés.