Bob’s Story

Based on an interview conducted March 10, 2020 in Santa Barbara, California:

I was baptized in the Methodist Church when I was a baby. I went to church pretty much every Sunday, because that’s what my parents made me do. When I went to college, I started having severe depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. So in my junior year in college, I met this girl who was in Campus Crusade for Christ, and she told me about the meetings there, and how Jesus Christ had helped her out a lot in her life and turned her life around completely. So I started going to the meetings, and I prayed to receive Jesus Christ. Then at a sorority house at Alabama, my junior year, I think 1968, I met Jud. He came up and says, “Hi, I’m Jud, how’s it going?” He said, “Let’s get together sometime.” So we went out to eat, and he basically is the one that kept me in Campus Crusade for Christ. We met some people on the periphery that were doing other things in Christianity around the University of Alabama.

He moved  to California in, I think, 1970, and I came out to see him for about three months in 1971. I liked it so much that I went back to Alabama, got all my stuff, and drove back out in September of 1971. I’d always wanted to come to California because there wasn’t much happening in Alabama. And I’d always wanted to come to California anyway because, in the late 60’s, that’s where everything was happening with the hippie movement and the Christian revival. I was intrigued by that. 

So that brought me to Isla Vista, which was like a whole story in itself. I think officially I was there in the church from the beginning. Gene said, “If you are in this meeting, you are officially here from the beginning.” There were other people like Jud who had moved here a year before me, and other people like Lance and Bob and their families. When I moved to I.V., I lived at a place called the brown Pasado House on Pasado Street in Isla Vista. I had listened to a tape called “God’s Eternal Purpose” that Gene gave at UCLA in 1969. That really affected me. It made me think I was on the right path. As far as the teachings, I really identified with what Gene said. In the meetings, I really felt like I was in the Spirit of the Lord. I liked the singing and the praying, although I never was a good prayer person. I always kind of sat back and observed and got all the good vibes from everybody else. 

Church life – we went through so many different aspects of it, I think my first memory was having simple jobs so I could enjoy the meetings and everything. Also, we had a thing called Weltblick where we would go out to different places. I went to San Diego and did some teaching credential work there, but that was about the extent of it. I lived usually with single brothers. When we lived in common, that was quite an experience. I really liked the idea when we went into it, but the practical out workings of it – of course, human nature got involved. People would quit their jobs and just hang around, stuff like that. I was probably more like that than someone who really tried to work a lot. I was probably a guilty party. I sold my car and donated the money for that, but then I didn’t work as much. So probably that was one of the things that ended the living in common, was people not really contributing everything like they should – or like I should have.

One of my memorable experiences was when we went to northern California. We went  to Lighthouse Ranch and visited there, and met Jim Durkin. I remember he came down at least once. And I remember Ron Junkel who was with that group. Those two were really good brothers.  

The reason I came out to the church was because I wanted to experience the kingdom of God in this life, not wait for it until I die, and I had a feeling I could do that. So, I used to have really good times when I would be with Jud or Ken. We had this thing where we could be in the Spirit without having to talk. Just have a silent conversation going on, being in the Spirit. One thing I really liked was when Gene taught us that we could go to our spirit no matter what happened. I still do that, although it’s more difficult when you don’t have the brothers and sisters encouraging one another like we did in those days. Early morning prayer meetings were a big thing. I’m not really a morning person, but I did go to a lot of the morning meetings, one on one, people praying the Scriptures. I got a lot out of that.

I think probably when living in common didn’t work out, I felt like we were going from one event to another, like Weltblick or something like that. There was always one thing in the future keeping us going. I felt like we didn’t concentrate enough on our own spiritual lives. When Gene actually ended the church, I wasn’t at that meeting where he officially ended it; I think someone told me about that when I called him from Alabama. I really wasn’t that surprised. I was at such a point that I was kind of relieved. It was still hard on me, but I was kind of relieved because it opened up the next chapter in my life and a lot of other people’s lives. 

One funny thing – at a follow-up meeting, Gene said, “Okay, if we ever get together again, I’ll call you.” So I asked Gene, “What happens if I’m not there when you call?” (Laughs.) I forget what he said. That was before the internet and texting and computers. Life was so much simpler then too – I think that’s one thing I’m realizing from this interview. 

Sometimes I just wish we could get together again. I don’t know what it would take. I had a little joke, from the Blues Brothers – sometimes when I’m with somebody else, I’ll say, “We’re getting the church back together again,” like when a group of us is together. The Blues Brothers said, “We’re getting the band back together again.” I have more in common with the people I shared church life with than I do with the people I’m with now. We come together, and nothing’s changed. I want to experience the kingdom of God on this earth. I still have faith that we can do that. I used to get together with Ken when we lived on Trigo in 1973 or so. Ken and I would be praying together, and we’d say, “We can experience the kingdom of God on this earth.” We didn’t even know what that involved, how to do it or what. But I think it probably starts with turning to your spirit.

I have this fantasy that we would all get together again and be in the church – not living in common, but having an experience like Philippians or Corinth or whatever. I don’t see why it couldn’t happen today. I still love all the saints of the church in Isla Vista, no matter what happens. I hope to see many of them and spend more time with them.

I go to the Orthodox church now. I’m open to every Christian. I don’t care what church you go to, as long as the message is Christ and Christ crucified. All these little phrases that split people up into denominations – I’m really against that. I know that people think certain things are important, but I don’t think it should separate us as being brothers and sisters in Christ.