The love story of Pastor Greg Laurie and his wife Cathe is depicted in the new film Jesus Revolution which has just opened in the United States.
It began 50 years ago during the Jesus Movement revival of the 1970s.
The Christian Post describes it as a time when many young people including Greg and Cathe were searching for meaning and belonging.
A “restless and lost” Greg was living in a small trailer with his alcoholic mother while attending a military academy when he met Cathe.
She was raised a Christian but rebelling and joining up with drug-taking hippies.
They met a charismatic hippie street preacher called Lonnie Frisbee and gravitated to the church of Pastor Chuck Smith which was one of the sparks of the Jesus Movement.
The pastor had looked down on the hippie culture, but was moved by Lonnie’s testimony and opened the doors of both his home and his church to the street preacher’s crew of hippies.
“It’s remarkable because it shows what God can do when He breaks through to a generation,” Cathe explained.
“It was not organised. It was a spontaneous intervention, I believe, of the Holy Spirit into a generation that was lost and searching.”
Cathe told The Christian Post she has been praying to see that kind of revival breakthrough for subsequent generations.
The film’s release comes amid ‘outpourings’ and ‘awakenings’ at universities across the US.
Cathe describes Jesus Revolution as “A real love story. A love story with Jesus. A love story between Greg and myself and what God did in our lives.”
“This year, we’ll celebrate 50 years of ministry as Greg and I enter into our 50th year of marriage. Over the stages of ministry, life and married life, God has continually been faithful to call us back to each other and to Himself. Whenever we began to sort of go off in our own selfish directions, He brings us back and we still are at that, still having to do that daily surrender.”
Jesus Revolution stars Frasier’s Kelsey Grammer and The Chosen’s Jonathan Roumie.
It was the third most watched movie on its first weekend in US cinemas.
It brought in an estimated A$23 million at the box office, more than double the original estimate.
It’s due for release in Australia next month.
