Reliving the Jesus Movement: Cornerstone Festival and the Weekend Jesus Freak

The collapse of the countercultural sixties provided fertile ground for a revival of traditional Christianity among American youth during the late sixties.  The Jesus movement, self-dubbed as the Jesus Freaks, was a Christian revival involving hippies who converted to orthodox Christianity and retained a countercultural aesthetic, often sporting the hippie image and popular music for missionizing. The effects of the movement is still seen in contemporary Christian aesthetics, “new paradigm” churches, and surviving Jesus Movement intentional communities. 

Founded in 1972, Jesus People USA (JPUSA) is one of the most significant surviving expressions of the original Jesus Movement.  The community owns and dwells in a former hotel building in Chicago’s inner-city, operating on what they perceive as the New Testament model of community.  Members—now approximately four hundred of all ages—live in communitarian fashion, agree to voluntary poverty, and work for one of many community-owned businesses.  JPUSA’s blend of Christian Socialism, theological orthodoxy, postmodern critical theory, and ethos of edgy artistic expression—demonstrated at their annual music festival—prove what some scholars have long suspected: evangelicalism is a diverse, complex movement not easily categorized.

JPUSA’s six hundred acre Cornerstone Farm (owned by JPUSA), located near rural Bushnell, Illinois, is home to their music festival. This particular festival demonstrates how some expressions of evangelicalism are actually evolving into something different: tolerant, comfortable with theological ambiguity, increasingly politically liberal, and engaged in secular culture.  JPUSA represents a complex expression of evangelical Christianity, reveals the evolutionary nature of evangelicalism, and continues the spirit of the original Jesus Movement at the annual event and within the intentional community.  The festival demonstrates what Victor Turner refers to as a liminal moment, creating a sense of communitas within a space designated “sacred,” challenging evangelicals to think beyond their assumed paradigms.