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Frisbee: The Life And Death Of A Hippie Preacher

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I gotta say, there's no way I can be unbiased in this review. My dad, Jim Palosaari, did the narration, so take everything with a grain of salt.

Loved it. David di Sabatino is the premier historian of the Jesus Movement, having more copiously researched this unique event more than any other. He was the one to do this project. He meticulously reveals who Lonnie was and how he was treated, framing his story within the larger thematic genre of Biblical literature.

This film is about the guy who comes the closest to being the founding father of the Jesus Movement. It was due to him that Calvary Chapel and Vineyard exist at all. He was there not only on the nights when the Spirit came down initially in those two churches, back when they were an Assembly of God and a Calvary respectively, but he was the impetus for their growth and the movement of the Spirit. He was the evangelist, healer, and exorcist of those churches- not Chuck Smith or John Wimbur, for all the good that they did do. He was there at Fuller Seminary the night Peter Wagner first realized about Signs and Wonders. This movie describes the power that flowed through Lonnie, which even the skeptics couldn't deny. People wary of charlatans were impressed at how the presence of the Holy Spirit was palpable when Lonnie was present.

As the film's website asks, What do you do when the founder of your church turns out to be gay? What do you do when the impetus of the growth of your movement struggles with bitterness and doesn't seem to care about working on a healthy relationship with his wife? What do you do when a man obviously filled with the Holy Spirit dies of AIDS? This is the story the movie addresses. David di Sabatino calls this a Biblical story, for it is the story of how God uses tragically flawed people to show His glory greater. He uses Deborah, Gideon, Sampson, Delilah, David, Peter... the list goes on and on, for not many of us were wise in the eyes of the world, or great, or glorious. That is the brilliance of Christianity, and of Christ's message. He uses the weak to confound the strong.

After watching the movie you *must* view the extras. This DVD was done from a local PBS special in San Francisco, and not from the longer version touring film festivals and winning awards. As such half the footage is in the extras, and explains a good deal more of the background. It is unfortunate that the footage couldn't have been more incorporated into the storyline itself for the DVD.

This movie speaks powerfully to me. When I was 13, living on the Big Island of Hawaii, I briefly met Lonnie, just before he died. He was leading a prayer time, and he laid hands on me, and the Spirit came down powerfully, perhaps for the first time for me, as Lonnie prophesied about events in my future.

I think of my Dad, and the things he's done for the Kingdom, with thousands coming to Christ through his work. But he's made mistakes at times, and like Lonnie, I am impressed at how he's been written out of histories as inconvenient. I think of myself, and the struggles I have in beliefs that don't fit with the Evangelical mainstream, giving me an evolutionary scarlet E. Doors have closed to me in this world, both in the past and the future. I think of how we all have ways we are the 100th sheep, and ostracized because we don't fit the mold- or ostracize others because they don't fit our box of who God would want. That's what this movie is about.

Lest I forget, the narration- sublime! Deep and resonate, Palosaari chooses to read it more as a story than in the typical narrator's voice, which perhaps fits this particular film better, as it is story, and myth, of who we are.

This movie will shock you. The histories many of us have grown up with are not quite what we were always told. Our paradigms of reality are in the mood for a shifting. This documentary will tell you the truth about a great man and great churches. But hopefully it will do more than that. It will help you be amazed at the way God interacts with His people. After all, He's not a tame Lion.

I had the privilege of knowing Lonnie Frisbee in the late 60s, early 70s when he preached in the streets of Southern California and began attracting thousands of barefooted hippies to the Calvary Chapel Movement. After seeing this film in a couple of it's incarnations I can say that it not only captures the sights, sounds and emotions of the Jesus People Revolution but it also challenges us today in our presuppositions of what it means to be "a Christian." My life was changed by the ministry of this man of God, Lonnie Frisbee. I hope many will see this film and be encouraged to seek for themselves the love of God found in Jesus.

The old saying about 'God working in mysterious ways' seems to be the point of this fine and thought provoking film. Was/is Frisbee's message of the power of God's love made moot by his failings? Or, is the message validated because of what Frisbee went through? I attend a Vineyard church and when I found out about Frisbee and his early association with Vineyard, I started asking "The Elders" about Frisbee, and was met with...blank looks. Of course, that peeked my interest, so the movie was an eye opener. After viewing i was left with numerous questions and thoughts. Question: is Frisbee dismissed nowadays because he freely admitted that his path to God was fueled by drugs? Or is it because he was Gay? Or, my God, was there some sort of political battle going on (ego-battles? In the church family? Unbelievable!). Either way, whatever the truth was, or how history is written by those that remain, the Truth, as this film conveys, is that God does work in mysterious ways, and does use, at times, the most unexpected or peculiar messenger. Like Jesus, Lonnie was a radical who shook up the establishment and caused people to think about what being a Christian was all about. After mulling over the film and it's message for a few days, I had a thought: maybe God, all knowing, all about love, foreseeing the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic just a decade away, used Lonnie as his messenger--a Gay, acid imbibing hippie? Sure. God's like that.

My wife and I talked about this movie for days after watching it. We still refer to it from time to time. One the one hand, you've got this REALLY interesting character who seemed to be a key figure in the Jesus Movement; on the other, you're seeing what God did in the lives of many during this time period. Kind of a documentary on 2 people at once if you know what I mean.

I am STILL a Jesus Freak (have been since 1972). I enjoyed this movie because it brought up some vital points about what being Born Again really mean. God's Word should be our first and final authority for living the Christian life, not supernatural experiences/or people who do them. Is homosexuality worse than any other sin...no...but if i were a practicing murderer (only on Saturday nights), would it be okay to join your church? Why is homosexuality seen as a -can't help myself- and murder is seen as socially unacceptable (and yes i do know how God views murder)behavior. Shouldn't all behaviors , even thoughts, be viewed as sin if God calls it sin...As confessing believers don't we elevate ourselves to gods when we pick and choose what behaviors we will call sin and what behaviors we will call acceptable? I was a little confused by the ending of this movie, only because of this issue (homosexuality)- didn't quite know what was being pushed. Regardless...I loved the story, will watch it again...AND...i truly hope to see Lonnie when i get to Heaven...

I met Lonnie in 1985 when he ministered at my youth group in Maple Valley, WA. In 1990 I stayed in the same house in Poway for a month while Lonnie and several other people were living there.

I really enjoyed the first three-quarters of this movie, even though there are some very significant events that the movie leaves out or glosses over. The film style is disjointed, and the soundtrack is very loud when the music is playing and too soft when people are speaking; we had to keep toggling the volume. Still, the footage and photographs are phenomenal and the movie manages to show only authentic time period images for almost all (all?) of the non-interview footage. Then, at a point near the end of the movie, it's almost like somebody flicks a switch and suddenly the message of the film - and supposedly of Lonnie's life - is implied to be that the Christian church needs to consider embracing homosexual behavior as normal. I find this very unfortunate because neither Lonnie nor most of his associates would have agreed with such a conclusion. The film could have been very good without bringing in activists and selectively editing interviews in what appears to be a bid to produce controversy over this issue.

Some of the things which were left out of this movie are as stunning as the things that were included.

Left entirely out of the movie itself is:

- Connie's discovery about how much the church was making when Lonnie preached
- Lonnie's time in the Shepherding movement
- The destruction of all of Lonnie's earthly possessions by an associate
- Lonnie's traveling ministry in the mid-to-late 80's
- The subsequent history of the charismatic movement and it's detractors

The special features touch on a few of these things and leave others entirely out.

I'm surprised that the movie didn't show more commentary from John Ruttkay, who I think perhaps more than any other person knew and understood Lonnie during the later portions of his life. I'm also surprised the movie didn't include more commentary from Chuck Girard, especially about Lonnie's final few months.

In a real way I believe Lonnie was the victim of a tragic set of circumstances and a handful of personal choices. Yes, Lonnie was the catalyst for much of the Jesus movement. However there is not a lasting record of his contributions because mainly it was ministering the Holy Spirit during a series of personal encounters with people and mundane meetings that were turned supernatural by the Spirit's ministry. If Lonnie had founded a church with his name on it, or written a key book - something to keep his name in the lime-light - he would be much better known. Ironically, a lot of the people who feel he has been passed over might frown upon such mainstream ways of garnering publicity. And Lonnie made some key choices to turn away from a path that would have built credibility in a single church movement over time; after the Vineyard, there was never really one church where he stayed connected, tried to build credibility with leadership and tried to grow in service. If I was a pastor, I would also have had a hard time allowing Lonnie to minister given some of the things Lonnie struggled with on and off throughout most of his last 15 years. The film doesn't address these dynamics as part of the reason Lonnie has remained low profile in church history.

Still, most of the film presents an amazing history, and Di Sabatino has done a great service to the church by bringing it to light. It's just unfortunate that the last one-quarter of the film comes across as manufactured and political.

I was part of the Jesus movement back then, only I was from Tucson, AZ. I met many of the people from Calvary Chapel, Mansion Messiah, etc. and we visited back and forth. Lovesong used to play concerts in the park here in Tucson. Lonnie was someone that I saw from afar off, but I was so impressed by how God used him. It saddened me when Calvary, then other churches started freezing out the moving of the Spirit, and then their own sons and daughters in the Lord who didn't fit in with their ideas of things, and were an embarrassment to them. However, I appreciate the work that David Di Sabatino and the others did in bringing back Lonnie's message; because we have a new generation of young people who are crying out for God, and do not want conventional (dead) religion. Homosexuals are finding God IN SPITE of the church, and someone needs to let them know how much Jesus loves them, and to mentor them. I hope that I can get this movie to as many people as possible, as it will inspire them to seek and find the God of the Bible, and the God who loved and poured out his Holy Spirit on Lonnie Frisbee. In the words of God Himself, "Let no-one call unclean that which I have called clean."

I must point out that one needs to back up a little and view this account from a larger scale. Lonnie's life, unfortunately, is always viewed from the prism of a "timeline". (ie He began this way, he was used that way, he was ill treated another way, he died on the way)--most good documentaries are edited that way. But the reality is, God does not see us as a timeline. Rather, God looks at our lives based on two criteria, 1)amount of revelation given and 2)what we did with that amount of revelation. Lonnie was given a hefty dose, no doubt. But God will not judge or apply reward according to post-Jesus Movement decisions, where he slid backward, or how he died. But rather, will judge according to his life as a whole and all things considered therein. It really is not up to us to come to conclusions about Lonnie, Smith, or Wimbur... but rather to keep our eyes on the Prize before us, lest we look back and miss it.

If this video doesn't convince you that you know next to nothing about who and where GOD will use anybody HE chooses, then nothing will.

I highly recommend this video.

This is in a documentary format and is mostly interviews of people who knew Lonnie Frisbee. The most inspiring thing is this shows what can happen if somebody picks up a Bible, believes it, and starts doing what it says without any instruction. If you have heard of but not understood the Jesus Movement then this will give you understanding of it and the clash with the established Christian church in the USA.