For Heaven's Sake
April 1, 1996
Can a Kansas farmer grow a California church? Lyle Steenis did. Back in 1948, he plotted his field, broke up the ground, sowed, watered, and finally reaped. Folks back home told the tale of how he saw a cloud formation in a clear Kansas sky that spelled P.c. They thought the sign meant PLOW Corn. Lyle said it meant PREACH Christ.
So Lyle diligently followed what he discerned as the Lord's direction. He moved to Redondo Beach, when it was all sand dunes and fields, and built a little church with his own hands. He and his wife made their home the church nursery while they struggled to grow a congregation. He prayed for souls and for revival.
It seemed the Lord had answered his prayers, and in a neat and tidy way, too. By 1969, Brother Steenis was pastor to about three hundred middle-class, middle-aged family folks. There was spiritual growth and numerical growth. God was at work in their lives.
Then something messy happened. It was chaotic. It was unorthodox. It was revival.
Some kids from the Love Generation found Brother Steenis and Jesus, in that order, and knew they had found real love. They brought their friends, and soon the services overflowed with barefoot, long-haired types wearing love beads and placing their drugs and rock-and-roll albums on the altar for Jesus. They came half-dressed, and some of the newer ones still smoked cigarettes out in the parking lot.
Then they wanted to pray till all hours of the night. They moved in together for fellowship till their homes looked like communes. Just what was this, anyway—a hippie church, a cult?
Soon, most of the tithe-paying families began leaving, with words of doom delivered at the back door.
Brother Steenis was still an old Kansas farmer and didn't know much about cultural ...
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