Lonnie Frisbee

Lonnie Frisbee was a "hippie" evangelist in the 1960s. He worked in conjunction with Chuck Smith's Calvary Chapel movement and he was a key figure in the Jesus Movement.

Frisbee was abused and molested as a child, and kept this pain inside of himself for the rest of his life and it led to sexual confusion and homosexual dalliances in his non-Christian and possibly Christian life. He was raised in a Christian home, but found the California drug culture more inviting. He was a prominent art student at the San Francisco Art Academy when he was found by members of the Haight-Ashbury's Living Room mission.

At the time, Lonnie worshipped UFOs and was involved in hypnotism and homosexual activity. When the missionaries found him, they said he was talking about "Jesus and flying saucers."

Lonnie soon converted to Christianity and quit the art academy to move to a Christian community in Novato, California along with his wife Connie. The community was soon dubbed The House of Acts (named after the community of early Christians in the Acts of the Apostles). Lonnie 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 renovations. The small community could hardly afford this, so the sign came down.

Chuck Smith, meanwhile, had been making plans to build a large chapel on the border between Santa Ana and Costa Mesa when he met Lonnie Frisbee. Lonnie and his wife had left the commune of the House of Acts to go to Southern California, where the two men met. Lonnie was soon to become one of the most important ministers in the church.

Lonnie's unkempt appearance (he greatly resembled the standard portraits of Jesus - a frail man with long hair and a beard) helped appeal the youth culture to his message, and Lonnie believed that the youth culture would play a prominent role in God's movement in the United States. He cited Joel the prophet.

Lonnie's attachment to the Pentecostal denomination (so named after the events at Pentecost in Acts of the Apostles), however, caused some disagreement within the church, since Lonnie was focused more on gaining converts than on helping them learn sound doctrine. Smith, however, took up that job and the two worked greatly to bring hippies and young people to Jesus Christ.

Smith then asked Lonnie and Connie 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. Lonnie and Connie were to run it with John Higgins and his wife Jackie.

By 1971, the Jesus Movement had broken in the media, and major outlets like Life Magazine, Newsweek and Rolling Stone Magazine were covering it - Lonnie, due to his prominence in the movement, was frequently photographed and interviewed in the magazines. Frisbee's caricature was even featured on a 1971 Time Magazine devoted to the phenomenon.

It was also in '71 that Lonnie and Chuck Smith parted ways because their idealogical differences had become too great. Smith discounted Pentecostalism, maintaining that love was the greatest manifestation of the Holy Spirit, while Lonnie was also strongly involved in theology centering on spiritual gifts. Lonnie announced that he would leave California altogether and go to a Charismatic ministry in Florida.

In 1973, Lonnie and Connie divorced, and Connie later remarried. Lonnie spent the next five years, in his words, "fritting to and fro throughout the body of Christ."

In 1978, Lonnie was invited to go to the Yorba Linda branch of the Calvary Church, to preach. As he was "fritting", his belief that spiritual gifts of some sort must be a part of the Chrisitian life had only grown stronger. Lonnie went to preach there on Mother's Day, resulting in a manifestation of spiritual gifts and a number of reported miraculous healings shortly thereafter, but Chuck Smith still discounted Lonnie's theology.

By 1980, Lonnie had met John Wimber and became integral to the signs and wonders theology. They also began travelling the world, going to such places as South Africa and Europe. While there, they claimed to have performed many healings and miracles for people.

Unfortunately, Lonnie contracted the AIDS virus at some point in his life, and sadly he died on 1993-03-12 from complications with the virus. He was eulogized as a Samson figure - a man through whom God did many great works, but was the victim of his own struggles and temptations.

External link

• The Lonnie Frisbee Documentary Project (http://www.lonniefrisbee.com/)
• Coker M. The First Jesus Freak. (http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/05/26/cover-coker.php) OC Weekly, v10#26
• Coker M. Ears on Their Heads, But They Don’t Hear. (http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/05/32/cover-coker3.php) OC Weekly, v10#32 (interview with Lonnie's widow and the documentarist)