Lonnie Frisbee

Lonnie Frisbee
Lonnie Frisbee in the 1960s
Born	Lonnie Frisbee (1949-06-06)June 6, 1949 Costa Mesa, California, US
Died	March 12, 1993(1993-03-12) (aged 43) Orange County, California
Nationality	American
Occupation	Pentecostal evangelist and minister
Years active	1966–1991
Style	Power evangelism, gifts of the Spirit
Spouse(s)	Connie (divorced in 1973)

Lonnie Frisbee (June 6, 1949 – March 12, 1993) was an American Pentecostal evangelist and self-described "seeing prophet" in the late 1960s and 1970s. He maintained a hippie appearance and struggled with homosexuality (according to his own report). He was notable as a minister and evangelist in the signs and wonders movement of the 1970s and 1980s.

Frisbee was a key figure in the Jesus movement and eyewitness accounts of his ministry documented in the 2007 Emmy-nominated film Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher explain how Frisbee became the charismatic spark igniting the rise of Chuck Smith's Calvary Chapel and the Vineyard Movement, two worldwide denominations and among the largest evangelical denominations to emerge in the last thirty years. It was said that he was not one of the hippie preachers, "there was one." The term 'power evangelism' comes from Frisbee's ministry. Some of his harshest critics for heavy use of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit came from the churches he helped found. He also influenced many prophetic evangelists including Jonathan Land, Marc Dupont, Jill Austin and others. Frisbee co-founded the House of Miracles commune and was its main architect, converting many. The House of Miracles grew into a series of nineteen communal houses that later migrated to Oregon to form Shiloh Youth Revival Centers, the largest and one of the longest-lasting of the Jesus People communal groups.

Frisbee functioned both as an evangelical preacher also privately socialized as a gay man before and during his evangelism career. This is held in tension with the fact that he said in interviews that he never believed homosexuality was anything other than a sin in the eyes of God and both denominations prohibited gay sexual behavior. Both churches later disowned him because of his active sexual life, removing him first from leadership positions, then ultimately, firing him. He was shunned and "written out of the official histories." As part of his ostracism from his former churches his work was maligned but he forgave those who tried to discredit him before his death from AIDS in 1993.