The Jesus movement was the major Christian element within the hippie counterculture, or, conversely, the major hippie element within the Body of Christ. Members of the movement are called Jesus people, or Jesus freaks. The movement arose on the West Coast of the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and spread primarily through North America and Europe, before dying out by the early 1980s. The Jesus movement left a legacy of various churches and other Christian organizations, an impact on the development of the contemporary both the Christian right and the Christian left, and Jesus music, which greatly influenced contemporary Christian music. The worship services in the Jesus movement paved the way for the development of Contemporary Christian Worship.

Beliefs And Practices
The Jesus movement was restorationist in theology, seeking to return to the original life of the early Christians. As a result, Jesus people often viewed mainline denominations, especially those in the United States, as apostate, and took a decidedly anti-American political stance in general. The theology of the Jesus movement also called for a return to asceticism. Also, the Jesus people had a strong belief in miracles, signs and wonders, faith healing, spiritual possession and exorcism. The movement tended towards strong evangelism and millennialism. The group's theology rejected the excluded middle. What they lacked in theological depth, Jesus people made up for in zeal for Christ and love of others. They strived for social justice and seemed to simply be in love with Jesus. Some of the most read books by those within the movement included Ron Sider's Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger and Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth.

 

Perhaps the most illustrative aspect of the Jesus movement was its communal aspect. Most Jesus freaks lived in communes. Though there were some groups, such as the Calvary Chapel inmovement, which did not live in communes, these remained more on the fringes of the Jesus movement. Within the commune, the group became more important than the individual, and communal sharing of possessions was the norm. Some of these communes became highly authoritarian.