Lonnie Frisbee

June 6, 1949 - Lonnie Frisbee is born in Costa Mesa, California.

Lonnie had a troubled childhood. His grandmother was a Christian.

He claimed to have been molested as a child.

1956 - At the age of 8, he made a Christian commitment but later gave that away.

1960s - Frisbee becomes involved in the counterculture movement and experiments with drugs.

• He had encounters with Timothy Leary and the Mystic Arts drug cult.

• He met Casey Kasem and became a dancer on Shabang. He also got into modelling which gave him money and access to more drugs.

• He came to believe LSD was God. He became a naturalist and nudist and promiscuous.

1966 - He attended the Laguna School of Art and got a scholarship for the Academy of Art In San Francisco.

1967 - the Summer of Love. Frisbee dropped out of art school and moved to the community centred at Haight Ashbury.

1967 - He met Ted Wise, a drug user who became more serious about his faith and moved with others into a commune north of San Francisco, called The House Of Acts.

• David Wilkerson made a documentary about it.

• Christian Life put the House of Acts on its cover.

1968 - Having taken "acid", Frisbee has a religious experience. He read from the gospels, painted a big picture of Jesus on a rock and started baptising his friends. he saw this as reigniting his faith.

1969 - Frisbee meets Chuck Smith, pastor of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, and becomes involved in the Jesus People movement.

• Chuck Smith's wife, Kay, came to believe the church should be open to the hippies. Chuck was eventually persuaded.

John Nicholson picked Lonnie up as a hitch-hiker wanting to convert him but Lonnie was also keen to convert John. John was dating Chuck Smith's daughter and, knowing that Chuck had said he wanted to meet a hippie, John drove Lonnie to Chuck Smith's house.

Chuck Smith called Lonnie Frisbee to be an evangelist.

Some members left Calvary Chapel as a result of the bare-footed hippies who started arriving. Chuck Smith sided with Lonnie.

The converted hippies began their own commune, the Calvary Chapel House of Miracles.

Lonnie Frisbee baptised hundreds, or thousands, at Pirate's Cove.

Frisbee became something of an Evangelical superstar.

1970 - Frisbee becomes a key figure in the Jesus People movement, known for his evangelism and charismatic preaching style.

1971 - Time Magazine featured the Jesus Revolution on its cover and mentioned Lonnie.

Billy Graham approved of the movement.

It is estimated that there were more conversions through the Jesus Movement than there had been in the First Great Awakening.

1971 - Chuck Smith, Lonnie Frisbee, Chuck Girard and some others were invited to be on Kathryn Kuhlman's television show. Lonnie loved it but Chuck Smith was uncomfortable with baptism in the Holy Spirit and the spectacle of what was happening.

Calvary Chapel was growing but Lonnie felt the Spirit was being quenched.

Mid-1970s - Frisbee shifted to Florida for about five years and worked with Bob Mumford, the founder of the Shepherding Movement.

Frisbee saw that the Shepherding Movement could be cult-like. He called Chuck Smith and asked to come back. Smith accepted him. Calvary Chapel had grown and was planting new churches in other countries. But it was also becoming more "respectable".

It seemed best that Frisbee become a missionary. He began travelling internationally but began moving back to some of his old ways.

• He had same-sex attraction. But Lonnie said that he never led a gay lifestyle. 

He moved back to Orange County knowing he needed some accountability.

The Charismatic/Evangelical rift was widening between Lonnie Frisbee and Chuck Smith.

John Wimber started a number of home groups that joined the Calvary Chapel movement. He and Frisbee were kindred spirits and they worked together from 1980 when they experienced an outpouring of the Holy Spirit (although others were less sure that is what it was). See the Mothers' day service below.

Chuck Smith decided the Frisbee and Wimber were not welcome in the Calvary Chapel. Instead they joined the staff of the Vineyard Church.

Frisbee faced accusations 

1980-83 he travelled as an evangelist with Vineyard but travel could be his downfall.

1983 - Frisbee and Wimber fought and parted company.

Mid-1980s - Lonnie moved, dejected, to San Diego. He turned back to cochane and a profligate life.

Late-1980's - He repented of his sin and decide to make amends.

He moved between various ministries and continued to travel.

1990 he had to move back for good.

He joined Phil Aguilar of the ministry Set Free, a biker ministry.

Frisbee tried to reconcile with former friends and was reconciled to Chuck Smith but not to John Wimber.

1992 - He became visibly ill, eventually admitting that he had AIDS.

March 12, 1993 - Frisbee dies of AIDS-related complications at the age of 43.