I was raised as a Roman Catholic and was very committed, serving as an altar boy for many years. During that time, I was influenced by many sincere, self-sacrificing nuns and priests, but unfortunately, I was only introduced to a concept of religion, not the transformational experience of being “born again.” That powerful turning point did not happen until almost a decade later.
As a teenager, I strayed away from anything religious. Playing keyboard in a rock band carried me further into darkness. Then the pivotal event happened: a near death experience at the age of eighteen that awakened me to the seriousness of life and the importance of living for that which has eternal value.
In 1970, in a desperate effort to find ultimate reality, I dropped out of college to study personally under an Indian Sikh guru named Yogi Bhajan. I devoted myself completely to the practice of yoga and meditation, embracing many ideas out of Far Eastern religions and New Age Spirituality—as I pursued the elusive experience of God-consciousness and Self-awareness. Eventually, I formed a yoga ashram in Tampa, Florida, and began teaching Kundalini Yoga to several hundred students at four universities in that area (University of South Florida, University of Tampa, Florida Presbyterian University and New College). Then , though a series of divinely orchestrated events, the darkness of spiritual deception was driven away and ultimate truth was revealed. (For the details of this story, download The Highest Adventure: Encountering God.)
Right: An ink-sketch drawn by one of his yoga students in 1970.
One day, through the urging of a friend, I spent the entire day praying and reading the Bible, asking Jesus repeatedly if He truly was the only way to a relationship with God that He would give me a sign. That afternoon I was hitchhiking to go teach a yoga class. It was no mere coincidence that I was picked up by a young man named Kent Sullivan who had previously been involved in Kriya Yoga and the teachings of Yogananda (the first Indian guru to spend the majority of his life in the West, who wrote The Autobiography of a Yogi and founded Self-Realization Fellowship). However, Kent had recently opted to leave eastern religions and become a follower of Jesus. So he was the perfect person to share the validity of Jesus’ statement, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
That day, I received Jesus Christ into my heart and invited Him to be Lord of my life. The divine encounter that resulted was so real, and so undeniable, that I shut down my yoga ashram, canceled all my yoga classes and soon after, joined a Christian commune in Central Florida. Several months later, I began traveling across the United States and overseas sharing the Gospel during that powerful era when multiplied thousands were caught up by a tsunami wave of cultural change called “The Jesus Movement.”
March of 1971 / a call to radical discipleship
For several months after my conversion to Christianity (after being “born again”), I lived at a Jesus commune in Oviedo, Florida, and worked a construction job. About ten of us lived in the commune. We had church in the living room every night for four or five hours, reading God’s Word and praying. Late one night (about 2am) I was sitting at a campfire behind the commune with leader of our group, Bob Sherman, discussing Scripture. Bob pointed out a Bible passage that changed my life forever. Jesus was sharing with his followers the discipleship price they would have to pay to truly follow Him. One of the strongest statements gripped my spirit: “Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:33).
Bob asked, “Do you know anybody doing that?” I said, “No, I don’t!” He said, “Let’s do it!” I responded, “Sure, I’m game!” And that’s how it happened—a major life-altering decision solidified in just a few seconds. While the flames of the campfire were flashing in front of me, God’s holy fire began burning in my heart, a willingness to sacrifice all and a passion for adventure.
Bob and I agreed to launch out the next day. We gave away all our possessions and money to the poor. The only personal items we allowed ourselves was a Bible and one change of clothes in a sack. Our plan was simple: go wherever we felt led, hitchhiking across the United States, preaching the Gospel on college campuses, street corners, and the places of greatest darkness, especially in major cities. I will never forget stepping out on an interstate ramp with a little cardboard sign that said, “GOING FOR JESUS!” Somewhat of an unorthodox way of entering the ministry, right? But it worked for us—supernaturally. Jesus also gave the following promise that has certainly come to pass.
“Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house, brothers, sisters, father, mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.” (Mark 10:29-30)
We hitchhiked about 1,000 miles to Bloomington, Indiana, having received an invitation to speak at at church there. However, upon arriving, the pastor told us he’d changed his mind and canceled the meeting, before we even had a chance to preach one message. It was deeply disappointing to say the least, but I have since learned, when you’re following the Lord’s leading, that “disappointments become divine appointments” and “setbacks become setups” for the blessings and the purposes of God. That setback was a classic example, as you will see.
As we walked down the street near the University of Indiana, Bob said, “Mike, we came to Indiana to preach, so we’re going to preach.” Slightly nodding my head in agreement, I asked where he wanted us to start. About that time we came to a big open field a couple of blocks from the university with a large billboard in the middle declaring it was “The People’s Park” (see the video below). It had been purchased by the Yippies (hippies who were politically oriented, usually with a socialistic, communistic ideology). It was their way of making a statement endorsing one of the basics tenets of communism (no personal property–everything is communally owned). Bob looked at me and said, “That’s our church!” It may not have had a tall steeple and chandeliers, but we had the universal dome overhead that lit up with stars when the sun set. “Sure, that will make a great church,” I thought to myself. Like Joshua and the armies of Israel at Jericho, we walked around the field seven times, claiming it for the Kingdom of God.
Then it dawned on us—if we were going to be successful in drawing people, we needed advertisement. But we had no money. So, Bob came up with an ingenious plan. Across the street was a pizza restaurant. We dug down in the dumpster behind it and found some old, beat-up pizza boxes. Then we bent them around backwards, and wrote on the white cardboard with a big, red magic marker big in bold block letters, “Old Fashioned Street Preaching, miracles, signs, and wonders–healing the sick, casting out devils, delivering the oppressed—every night at 7:30” and positioned the signs at the four corners of the field. Then we pulled about 40 or 50 cardboard Pabst Blue Ribbon beer boxes out of the dumpster, broke them down, and spread them out flat for people to sit on. I’ve often quipped (with tongue in cheek) that the communists bought my first church for me and a beer company supplied my first pews.
The first night about eighty people showed up, most of them into a hippie lifestyle—drugs, alcohol, occultism, new age spirituality, astrology, heavy rock music, free love, no rules. I preached my first sermon ever in the open air. My main text was another challenging statement that came from the lips of the Son of God: “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mark 8:35)
Almost all of those in attendance gave their hearts to the Lord that night, including a musician that worked with Led Zeppelin. It was the firstfruits of a harvest of many thousands of seekers who have come to the Lord over five decades of sowing the seeds of truth in the hearts and lives of those who dare to hear and respond.
