There are crucial dates in every era that mark the generations. December 7, 1941 was the day of the Pearl Harbor attacks that brought the U.S. into a war that marked our history for generations. The atomic age was introduced on August 6, 1947. Thank God no other such attack has been deemed necessary. Yet the fear of our nuclear age has impressed multiple generations. October 28th and 29th, 1929 were the dates the stock market crashed and ushered in the Great Depression. It took 26 years for the Dow to recover to the point it had reached in 1929. And in our near term September 11, 2001 weighs heavy on the hearts of all generations of our time.

Today, 1968 is a year that everyone is still impacted by. This year numerous benign and many not so benign events occurred. The Beatles started Apple Records and Yoko split the band up. Rowan and Martin started the first hip TV show called “Laugh-In.” But not all events brought smiles that year. The Broadway musical “Hair” was the rage that year as well, along with the movie that made Dustin Hoffman famous, “The Graduate.”

This was the year the 1968 Democratic convention turned into war in the streets as thousands of students marched in protest against the war in Vietnam. Distrust in the government rose high. This was the year Martin Luther King was murdered in Memphis.

It was also the year Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in L.A.

There still abides an undercurrent of attitudes and worldviews that etched their way out of that year. Among those are: distrust for the government, wild rock and roll, generational tension, and resistance to any war.

However, 1968 also was the beginning of a great movement called the “Jesus People Movement.” This movement sought to make the Gospel intelligible to an unchurched generation known as the Baby Boomers. It was a spontaneous explosion for the most part. Most contemporary movements in the church can trace at least part of their roots back to this movement. Christianity bought into the idea of accessibility and the expectation of experiencing God rather than discussing God.

Who knows what future years will hold for us. But it is likely and in fact hopeful that we could see another banner year like 1968. I have been plumbing the shape of the Jesus People explosion. I feel in its core it has been the only spontaneous general movement in our century other than the Pentecostal renewal. Today’s great movements in church owe a great deal to 1968.