A Real Experience That Reads Like Fiction (The Misunderstanding of Christianity — Part 3: Inspired by Indian Christians)

Posted on July 24, 2026 by Steve Simms

The Misunderstanding of Christianity (Part 3: Inspired by Indian Christians)

In 1984, I was a burned-out pastor on fire for Jesus, managing a small retail lumber yard in Murfreesboro, TN. Religious obligation had me faithfully attending a nondenominational, non-charismatic church.

One Sunday, a man from India preached there. His name was MA Thomas. He was full of passion and love for Jesus. He had started hundreds of churches, 5 or 6 Bible schools, 70 or so Christian schools, several orphanages, and a few leper colonies throughout India. As he spoke, I felt an inner prompting to ask him if he could use a volunteer teacher at one of the Bible schools.

As we talked, there was an instant heart-to-heart connection. He eagerly welcomed me and invited me to come to India for three months to teach in the Bible school where he taught.

After I had made plans to go in the Fall, the pastor of the church tried to get Brother Thomas to uninvite me because I speak in tongues. Brother Thomas told the pastor something like: “My wife was raised in the Indian Pentecostal Church, and she speaks in tongues, so I have no problem with that.”

A few months later, Brother Thomas made another trip to the USA. When he returned home, I went back to India with him. We had to spend the night together in New York, and to save money, we stayed with Indian friends of his in a rundown, high-rise apartment building in the Bronx.

They served us a meal of Indian street food that one of them had just brought back from India. That food started me on more than a year-long battle with stomach problems. The next morning, I woke up with cockroaches crawling all over me. I’ve never seen that many cockroaches again. I began to wonder if I had made the right decision to go to India.

When we got on the plane to head toward India, Brother Thomas was talking to everyone. He asked one man to sit by him until the seat holder came. He quickly and joyfully began to talk to the man about Jesus. Then he asked him if the plane crashed, where would he go for eternity? The man said he didn’t know. Then he went on down the aisle to his seat.

Halfway over the Atlantic, the pilot announced that we had lost one of our two engines and would be making an emergency landing in London instead of landing in Frankfurt. The seat by Brother Thomas was still empty. Suddenly the man showed up and asked if he could sit with us. He wanted to know how he could go to Heaven.

Brother Thomas told the man about Jesus dying to save us from our sins and how Jesus is now alive and wants us to let Him live inside of us and be our inner ruler. The man prayed and surrendered his life to Jesus. Brother Thomas talked to him about how wonderful Jesus is until we landed safely (Thank God!) in London.

After much flight rescheduling, we finally arrived in New Delhi. We picked up out luggage and headed toward the train station. Then we found our second-class seats and spent more hours headed toward Kota, Rajasthan (in between New Delhi and Mumbai) where Brother Thomas lived and the Bible school is located.

We finally arrived at Brother Thomas’ tiny house beside the church. There I met his wife, his teenage son Samuel, and his daughter Elizabeth and her husband. Finally, they showed me to my small room upstairs above the church. Exhausted with stomach problems and culture shocked, I quickly fell asleep.

I was awakened the next morning for breakfast. The family had their meals together at a table in the church kitchen. There was no silverware. They just used their fingers both to serve and to eat the food. I am a germaphobe and had to depend on God the next three months to help me be polite and eat.

The first day they acclimated me to their lifestyle and routine. About 30 students lived at the Kota Bible Institute about a block away. After introducing me to the students they showed me the classroom where I would teach the Bible (in English) three hours every weekday morning. (The student’s had been taught English in school, but I had to use simple vocabulary and speak slowly for them to understand me). I also had brought a 6-booklet Navigator, fill-in-the-blanks Bible study that I taught from. Someone in the Murfreesboro church had bought enough for each student to have a set. Several of the church members had also contributed to help fund my trip.

Brother Thomas shared their daily schedule with me. He, his family, and the students gathered in the church to spontaneously and fervently pray together three times every day: from 5:30 to 6:30 AM, 2:00 to 2:30 PM, and 9:30 to 10:30 PM. Of course, I was expected to be a part of those prayer meetings. The students also spent the afternoons from 4:00 to 7:00 on the streets and door-to-do talking to people about Jesus and I often went with some of them. I had my meals with the family at the church. The students had theirs at the school.

They had powerful, passionate, and Spirit-anointed church services on Sunday morning and also on a weeknight. I was frequently asked me to preach at them. It was challenging. I was interpreted into two different Indian languages. My preaching and my Bible teaching were better received in India than anywhere I’ve ever preached or taught. They also had me preach a three-day outdoor crusade in a slum in Mumbai (formerly Bombay). I even preached at two or three Indian weddings. What a blessing it was to have my unconventional preaching style so well received!

Seeing God do amazing things through sold-out Christ followers in a passionate Spirit-led environment for three months was incredible! Indian Christians changed my life! I’m crying as I write about it.

When I was leaving to go to the train station to begin my return home, everyone crowed around me, hugged me, and powerfully sang together the song in English, “God Be With You Till We Meet Again.” What a trip!

Yet, God had more in store for me. An English man who had spoken at the church in Murfreesboro made arrangements for me to spend two weeks in England on my way home. One week I was a tourist. The other week was another powerful spiritual adventure.

I spent Christmas week in a castle owned by Torchbearers, a ministry founded by Major W. Ian Thomas. Every Christmas for many years a fairly small group of Christ-followers had gather there for an intimate, informal time of seeking the Lord together. There was some teaching and a lot of Spirit-prompted sharing, praying, and testimonies. It was 1 Corinthians 14:26 in action — what I had been searching for since the Jesus Movement.

When I returned to Middle Tennessee, I had the desire to try to get back into full-time ministry again and face more disappointment as a pastor.

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The Misunderstanding of Christianity (Part 2: The Struggles of a Misfit Pastor)

Posted on July 23, 2026 by Steve Simms

“How hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.” How hard it is to do things the way God wants to lead you instead of the way that makes you look good and feel comfortable.

The Misunderstanding of Christianity (Part 2: The Struggles of a Misfit Pastor)

While in seminary in Memphis, I preached on Sunday mornings at a tiny Presbyterian church in Truman, Arkansas. Ablaze with love for Jesus, I enthusiastically talked about Him. They politely and passively listened. Not much else happened.

Once I earned a 3-year MDiv. degree from seminary and was going through the process of being ordained a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, I was eager to go and make disciples. I was ready to take the Jesus Movement to a church as a full-time minister.

First up was the Clarksville First Cumberland Presbyterian Church in the city of Clarksville, TN. They hired me to be their assistant pastor. It was very dry and formal and had two pulpits. The head pastor preached out of one. I made announcements, read a Bible passage, and led a responsive reading out of the other. During the week, the pastor spent most of his time in his office. I visited people in the hospital and in their homes. Sometimes they would let me pray with them.

After nine months, I was thrilled to be hired by the small Mayfield Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Mayfield, KY, at the time a town of about 14,000 people. The church had an attendance of about 20 people. They were very friendly to me and liked to compliment my preaching. But I wanted more than compliments. I wanted them to get excited about Jesus.

I began to attend the Full Gospel Businessmen’s meeting in town and met the owner of the local radio station. He was as excited about Jesus as I was and began to attend the church. He asked me to visit his son who he thought was doing drugs. I did, and eventually his son and two of his son’s friends met Jesus and got on fire for Christ. They became Jesus Freaks in the town high school and began to attend the church,

The church started growing both spiritually and in numbers. Things were off to a good start. I even started taking the three high school students to Maranatha, a charismatic group of fired-up young adults that met in Paducah. Those three guys were growing stronger and stronger in the Lord.

The first year was great. The second year things began to slow down. The college guys got more interested in Maranatha than in the church.

The church had grown to about 60 on Sunday mornings. The original 20 weren’t fully comfortable with the growth. I was trying hard to get the people to testify and share during the Sunday service. The denomination didn’t like what was happening and was putting pressure on me to tone things down. I could tell that I was going to have to settle into routine religion or face a lot of conflict.

Two of my roommates from Melodyland School of Theology were pastoring small, charismatic churches, one in Carson City, NV and the other at Lake Tahoe, NV. They had a friend who was pastoring in Reno, NV. I was invited to be the volunteer assistant pastor in Reno, so off I went.

I loved the Spirit-filled praise and worship time in Reno. However, I wasn’t too fond of the way things shifted at sermon time. The people went from enthusiastic participants to mere spectators. I tried to encourage more interaction during my two years in Reno, but my suggestions were mostly ignored.

I finally took the strange job of managing a small retail lumber yard with two part-time employees and moved to Murfreesboro, TN. I started attending a mid-size nondenominational, noncharismatic church. I settled into the passive Sunday morning routine until M.A. Thomas, a visiting pastor from India who had started several thousand churches there, invited me to come and teach in one of his Bible schools for three months. (More on that in Part 3.)

My spiritual fire was recharged! When I got back to Tennessee, I decided to look for a way to get back into full-time ministry. I found a position as assistant pastor of a nondenominational church of about 200 people in Paducah, KY, called Gospel Mission Church. It was non-charismatic; I think my Holy Spirit fire was too much for them. I lasted about 3 years and was basically forced out.

Some former members of Gospel Mission Church had started their own church and asked me to be their pastor. I accepted, but for some reason they asked me to leave after a few months. I never really understood why.

Then a Pentecostal friend of mine and I started a church called “Christian Challenge Outreach.” I wrote a weekly column called “Christian Challenge” in a local newspaper. We thought the name might draw people to the new church. We decided to be co-pastors and to alternate preaching on Sunday mornings. We also tried to get people to testify and share during the service. We never grew to more than 15 or so people and had trouble paying the rent on the building, so after about six months we stopped.

I decided to give up on being a pastor and to become a motivational speaker instead. I thought that I could sneak Jesus into my speeches. So, I moved to Nashville and began to speak to professional associations and civic clubs. I started attending a charismatic church start-up and thought I would focus on a speaking career. But God had other plans. (More on that in Part 4)

five small historical churches and one large Gothic cathedral in a rural village surrounded by green fields and trees
A collection of five small historical churches with a large Gothic cathedral in a peaceful countryside setting
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The Misunderstanding of Christianity (Part 1: The Jesus Revolution From Southern Style to Southern Cal Style)

Posted on July 22, 2026 by Steve Simms

My roommate, Jimmy Hoppers, and I showed up at a small Southern college in the fall of 1969 — the University of Tennessee Martin (UTM) in rural West Tennessee. Little did we know that it would drastically change our lives in unexpected ways. Jimmy has written about our experiences in a book called “The Jesus Revolution Southern Style.”

It was there at UTM that, for the first time in my life, I encountered Jesus as a living reality rather than as a religious story. I was swept into a movement of God that was unorganized, mostly unchurched, Spirit-led, supernatural, and the most exciting time of my life.

Multitudes of students were getting caught up in Jesus. We would spontaneously gather all across campus to talk about Jesus and to Him. We were part of a spiritual movement that was producing Southern Jesus Freaks.

After graduating, I wanted to continue my Jesus Revolution experiences, so I moved to Southern California to attend Melodyland School of Theology—a charismatic seminary in Anaheim not too far from Calvary Chapel.

My first day there, I was waiting in line to register. When my name was called, a guy behind me said, “Frank Beard said to tell you hello.” Frank Beard was a fellow UTM Jesus lover. The guy behind me, Marlon Rains, had met Frank in Atlanta. I told him the motel where I was staying. Then I went on to register.

My father and brother had driven to Anaheim with me and were planning to fly back after a week. I was searching for an apartment but having no success. The day before my family was going to leave, there was a knock on our door. When I opened it, I saw Marlon Raines with two other guys, Tom Griner and Eric Stovesand. He said, “We’ve rented an apartment and need another roommate. Would you like to join us?”

With great relief, I jumped at the chance. Those three guys became lifelong friends. They loved Jesus so much! Marlon and Eric were from St. Louis; Tom grew up in the South. Together in our friendship, we continued to experience the Spirit-led spontaneity of the Southern-style Jesus Revolution.

However, things were different in Southern Cal. The School of Theology was on the same property as Melodyland Christian Center, one of the first megachurches in the USA. The classes began in an amazing way. They would start with about five minutes of spontaneous prayer and praise (even sometimes including singing in tongues). Then they would shift into classroom style lectures.

I loved the beginnings of the classes, and I learned a lot from the lectures, but the Southern style Spirit-led interaction was hard to find in the California Jesus Revolution. My three roommates and our friends frequently experienced it among ourselves however other than that it seemed rare.

I searched for it at Melodyland Christian Center. The church services there were anointed with great teaching, but the people in the huge congregation were basically kept as spectators. On Saturday nights I would sometimes go to a Jesus Music concert (before it was called Contemporary Christian Music) at Calvary Chapel (the church featured in the movie and book “The Jesus Revolution”).

In spite of the spiritually, the school and the churches around us were training us to conform to and to be leaders in the passive audience model of church. In its early days, the school was teaching us that if we had a grown up in a denominational church we should go back into that denomination and become a pastor so we could change it from within.

They convinced me. I had been an active member of a Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and they had a very small seminary in Memphis, Tennessee.

So, after three semesters at Melodyland, I transferred to Memphis Theological Seminary. It was religion Southern style — very structured, analytical, formal, controlled, and dry. Several of the professors didn’t even believe what the Bible clearly taught. I endured and was able to keep God’s fire burning in my heart by boldly speaking up about the living Jesus, finding and reading deeply spiritual books from the school library, daily devouring the Bible, and frequently praying in tongues.

I graduated and was eventually ordained as a Cumberland Presbyterian pastor. What a misfit I was. They were not accustomed to a Jesus Freak pastor. I’ll talk about my pastoring experiences in another post.

I believe that spectator-style church is a misunderstanding of Christianity. Learn how to experience Christ beyond traditional church. Google: Beyond Church Ekklesia.

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Let Living Faith Be Your Go-To App

Posted on July 21, 2026 by Steve Simms

Faith? Faith is faithfully relying on and depending on God with or without a sign!

God doesn’t want people to be stuck in an outward form of godliness. (2 Timothy 3:5) He wants us to be inwardly empowered by faith. (Galatians 3:11) Faith unapplied is God denied.

God doesn’t want us to settle for sermons. He wants us to be directly led by the promptings of His Spirit. (Romans 8:14) He doesn’t want us to simply listen to lectures about the written word. God wants us to be faithful doers of it. (James 1:22-25) He wants us to listen to and obey Jesus, the living Word. (Hebrews 4:12, John 1:1-14)

Faith isn’t about just following the rules. (Titus 3:5) It’s about living by God’s righteousness, peace, and joy. (Romans 14:17) It’s not only about church attendance. It’s about the ongoing experience of the powerful presence of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)

It’s not about pride. It’s about humbly letting God Himself be your guide. (James 4:6) It’s not merely about Bible information. It’s about holy transformation. (2 Corinthians 5:17) It’s about letting the words of the Bible burn in your heart. (Luke 24:32)

True Christianity’s not about your political views or what’s in the news. It’s about letting the risen Jesus be your King and continually govern you from within. (Matthew 6:33) It’s about radical loyalty and obedience to the inner kingdom of God. (Luke 17:20-21)

Have you learned to walk in the Spirit? (Galatians 5:16) Are you willing to continually notice Christ’s voice and to hear it and obey it? (John 10:27) That’s what God wants for you. (2 Peter 3:9) Refuse to settle for less. Google: Beyond Church Ekklesia.

(The picture is AI-generated. The writing was all generated within me as I listened to the Holy Spirit and let Him transpose the words in my heart.)

Hand holding smartphone displaying The Faith App with devotional and Bible study options
A person is using The Faith App to follow a daily devotional in a cozy living room.
Posted in faith, faith and politics, faith in action, faith in God, justification by faith | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Be Inspired!

Posted on July 20, 2026 by Steve Simms

Religious traditions or heart-to-heart togetherness? Which truly inspires?

Many Christians throughout history have set aside God’s 50+ New Testament “one another” commandments in order to observe their own Sunday morning traditions. (Mark 7:9) Instead of assembling together to “spur one another on to love and good works” and to “encourage one another,” (Hebrews 10:24-25) they have gathered to passively sit through religious program after program.

If you’re satisfied with superficial Christianity that merely teaches human rules, (Mark 7:6-7) you’re lukewarm and you need to be heated up. (Revelation 3:16) If your faith isn’t a roaring fire within you, fan it into flame before it’s too late. (2 Timothy 1:6)

Lectures can lay out the letter of the law, but they can’t empower people to live daily in the spirit of the law. (2 Corinthians 3:6) Only God the Holy Spirit can do that. (Acts 1:8)

Humble, repentant, open-hearted prayer leads to direct connection with God the Spirit. (James 4:6) A church service that doesn’t enable and empower people to connect directly and heart-to-heart with “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” (Colossians 1:27) and with other Christ-followers may be what the Bible calls a powerless form of godliness. (2 Timothy 3:5)

Photo by Diva Plavalaguna on Pexels.com
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Replacing the High and Low of Hierarchy with the Alternative of M&Ms

Posted on July 19, 2026 by Steve Simms

The High and Low of Human Hierarchy and the Alternative of M&Ms

Hierarchy’s high is this. Because it places one person as the head over all the others, it creates a chain of command that can effectively control what goes on in an organization, a business, or a church service.

Hierarchy’s low is this. Because it relies on human authority and control, it interferes with, hinders, and even prevents direct leadership and direction by God the Holy Spirit.

God’s alternative to human hierarchy is M&Ms. It is everyone present engaging in mutual ministries under the Headship of the living Jesus as they are prompted and led by His Spirit.

Jesus told His disciples not to function as a hierarchy. (Matthew 20:25-26) Christ-followers are supposed to function as His body and to be directed by His Headship rather than by following a human hierarchy.

Overseers (elders, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers) in the body of Christ are always plural. They are guides on the side, not a single sage on a stage or one person monopolizing a pulpit. Together they train and disciple Christians to engage in Spirit-led, mutual ministry that obeys the 50+ New Testament “one another” commands.

Would you like to experience spiritual awakening in your life, your family, your community, and your nation? Then let go (of human control) and let God lead you into M&Ms — Spirit-prompted mutual ministries.

If you listen to sermons about Jesus but your daily life isn’t about getting to know Him better and better, you’re missing the point of Christianity. When people truly encounter the risen Jesus and surrender themselves to Him, they no longer serve their own desires for human control. Instead, they focus on obeying and pleasing God.

Posted in church government, church leadership, ecclesiology, hierarchy, Lord it over | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Is Humble Heart-to-Heart Conversation Outdated?

Posted on July 18, 2026 by Steve Simms

Simple survey: Which do you prefer — the poem or the prose?

1)
Passive
Depression
Isn’t good
For your
Mental health.
Get up.
Get helping.
Get hope.

Or 2)
Passive depression isn’t good for your mental health. Get up, Get helping. Get hope.

Answer in the comments. Please like and share help and hope everywhere you go today. It will make the world a better place and make you feel better about your life. #hopeful #helpful

Let’s have a humble, heart-to-heart conversation. Caring, compassionate human interaction is incredible. Try it today and see.

Photo by August de Richelieu on Pexels.com

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There’s No Excuse To Hide

Posted on July 17, 2026 by Steve Simms

The Bible calls on Christians to walk in the light. (Ephesians 5:8-10) Light exposes things. To walk in the light is to allow the hidden things in your heart to be exposed. It is to “confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” (James 5:16)

Yet when Christians gather on Sunday mornings, you don’t see them walking in the light and having open, honest, heart-to-heart “fellowship with one another.” (1 John 15-7) You don’t see them confessing their sins to one another and spending time praying for each other. You don’t notice them assembling themselves together to “spur one another on to love and good works” and to “encourage one another.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)

Instead of letting God’s Spirit be their inner guide (Romans 8:14) you see Christians hiding behind religious pride, routine, ritual, tradition, programs, and even Bible teachings. Rather than confessing, testifying, (Revelation 12:11) and openly sharing what God prompts them to, (1 Corinthians 14:26) they hide what’s really going on inside of their heart.

When the Holy Spirit is quenched, Christians harden and shut down their heart. That stops God’s inner rivers of love from freely flowing. That’s why the Bible says to walk in the light.

A house church can be just as shut down and tradition-bound as a brick-and-mortar church. The difference between ekklesia and church isn’t the location. It is the leader. A church focuses on the leadership of a one-man pastor. An ekklesia focuses on being led by the Holy Spirit. Google: Beyond Church Ekklesia.

When people gather to all listen to God the Holy Spirit, and then each person present says and does what He puts on their heart, God’s glorious ekklesia is experienced in action. Churches are all around, but ekklesia is rarely found. Make church ekklesia again.

People who follow the risen Jesus are never supposed to walk in darkness. (John 8:12) If you want to know Jesus better, begin to gather with other Christians, not to passively watch a program or sit through a “service” but to walk in the light together. If you want to experience light like that, come visit the Christian encouragement group that meets on Saturday mornings at 8:30 at Chile Burrito, 330 Franklin Road, Brentwood, TN 37207.

Diverse group sitting in a circle in a cozy room, engaging in discussion
A diverse group of people share stories in a warm, supportive group setting
Posted in Christian spirituality, Christian support group, discipleship, ekklesia, house church | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Who Or What Is Shaping You?

Posted on July 16, 2026 by Steve Simms

Faith unapplied
Is Christ denied.
Let Him direct
You from inside
And make you kind.
Then you will find
True happiness.

A man with an unclean spirit saw Jesus from afar. He ran to Jesus and fell down before Him. Then Jesus supernaturally set him free! Superficial suppositions about God should never replace the supernatural presence of Christ.

You can know Jesus superficially like a subject you were taught in school, or you can know Him as a present living reality ever working in your heart and in your daily life. No human teaching or Bible lesson can take the place of an ongoing relationship with the risen Christ. Refuse to be satisfied with mere information about Him.

You can’t see the living Jesus with your physical eyes. He’s invisible. Seeing Him requires the inner eyes of your heart. You can develop that type of inner seeing by persistently pondering His presence. There would be no benefit from seeing Jesus with your physical eyes if your heart is hard and your mind is blind to His reality.

To be free from sinful intentions and self-focused sensations requires more than willpower, church attendance, and Bible knowledge. It takes persistent focus on and surrender to the presence and power of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Train yourself to set aside every thought and intention that isn’t pleasing to God.

Without the habit of continual attentiveness and obedience to the presence and power of the risen Jesus, Christianity becomes little more than routine religion. Every day, become more familiar with God the Father. Let God the Spirit be your constant guide and cause your attitude, words, beliefs, and behaviors to demonstrate the reality of God the Son living in and through you.

A sinful life is the denial of Christ. It is the defiance of God. It fills people with guilt. The more guilt they feel, the more they try to justify themselves in the eyes of other people. However, the more they surrender to and obey God’s inner kingdom, the less they focus on what others think of them. That’s genuine freedom and true happiness.

Everyone needs God’s forgiveness, including you. Why not run to Him and humbly ask Him for it and receive it today?

Man kneeling and bowing in front of a robed man like Jesus on a crowded subway platform
A man kneels in reverence before a robed figure resembling Jesus on a busy subway platform

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Quotes from The Book “The Jesus Revolution Southern Style”

Posted on July 15, 2026 by Steve Simms

“The Jesus Revolution Southern Style” is by Jimmy Hoppers.

“This is the eyewitness account of God’s revival on a small southern campus. We couldn’t make this stuff up if we tried.”

“The Jesus Revolution was more than what has been portrayed in movies and magazines. It was far more than hippies in California or megachurches or Christian music morphing into secular rock and roll. The Jesus Revolution was something more real than those who weren’t a part of it can ever imagine. It was a few brief years that transformed the lives of thousands, if not millions, all across this great land. From where we stood it appeared that the whole University of Tennessee Martin (UTM) campus was on fire.”

“We had no designated leader save for the Holy Spirit and what we did on those nights varied from week to week. We came together those nights having no preset agenda and no preconceived idea of what the Lord might do. I can’t speak for the others, but those meetings became the anchor of my spiritual walk. We would share what God had taught us individually since we had last come together and then we would seek the presence of the Lord collectively. Sometimes there was prophecy and interpretation, sometimes people would just share. Some were gifted teachers, others were encouragers, and some had the unique ability to gain insight from Scripture than many of us had missed.”

“We had gotten used to God doing something new and unexpected on campus almost daily.”

“There was no pressure to conform to anyone’s expectations. All that was required was that everyone did his best to love God with all his heart and soul and mind and strength. Everything else was optional. Our daily prayer was, like the song says, that we would increasingly become one in the Spirit and one in the Lord.”

“The University of Tennessee Martin (UTM) was fast becoming known in religious circles as a hotbed of spiritual activity and unbeknownst to us, what was happening on campus had become a frequent topic of conversation in local congregations. They seemed to be disappointed that we hadn’t become a feeder route for their individual churches. While we never discouraged attendance at a local church and many new Christians did deside to affiliate, most did not. “

“California and Tennessee are miles apart, not just geographically but culturally as well. We do things differently in the South. And although each of us has been commanded to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, the Lord our God, the Lord is One, and those west coast hippies and we southern hicks will one day stand hand in hand before the Throne together and proclaim that Jesus is Lord.”

“These unassuming students who had come to UTM from a variety of backgrounds had through the years forged a bond that would last the rest of this life and into the next. Even half a century later as I sit at my computer and type this final chapter, I still have to fight back the tears.”

Read more! Here’s the link: The Jesus Revolution Southern Style: Hoppers, Jimmy: 9798996397747: Amazon.com: Books

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