A “beach revival” is underway in Southern California in what some say signals the beginning of a new Jesus movement.

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Over 200 Christians recently gathered on the shore in Huntington Beach to worship God, hear the Gospel and learn how to share the Good News with others. . . .

In January, Jessi Green sensed God say to her that He was shaking everything that could be shaken and that it would feel chaotic at first, she said in an interview Monday with The Christian Post. . . .

Jessi Green wrote down what she sensed, having no idea of the challenges that 2020 would present.

As part of California’s response to COVID-19, on Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered a second lockdown mandating churches in 30 counties to again cancel in-person worship services as the state continues its ban on singing in churches that are allowed to remain open with restrictions in place.

Four years ago, Green and her husband were living in New York City and partaking in a 21-day fast that their church was doing. During a worship session amid this three-week fasting period, she had a vision of thousands of people being baptized at Huntington Beach. So many, in fact, that people were turning around and baptizing each other.

The vision was so overwhelming she wasn’t even sure what to make of it — particularly if it was theologically advisable for that manner of baptizing to occur. . . .

After that, the Greens felt burdened to disciple people. They quit their jobs in New York City and moved across the country to Huntington Beach and began to share the Gospel in the streets of southern California and start micro-churches in homes called SALT churches.

Green said she prayed to God, asking, “‘When is this vision going to happen?'” . . .

Although not every Orange County-area pastor received news of their vision favorably at first, the Greens persisted in what they saw as their calling.

Saturate OC was soon born. They had planned to do a conference at a hotel in Huntington Beach earlier this year, but on the day Green was about to sign the contract to reserve the venue, the coronavirus pandemic was just beginning to spike in the U.S. and she called it off. . . .

After praying some more, they decided to host a weekly event on the beach every Friday in July. Momentum has grown with more churches participating in the past few weeks. Repentance and deliverance have characterized the past two gatherings.

“People were coming to the front repenting of sexual sin, and falling to the ground and not knowing why they are falling to the ground, and then feeling the presence of God in a way they’ve never experienced,” Green said. . . .

The vision for the Saturate OC initiative was to share the Gospel outside on the streets and not be a “one preacher kind of revival,” but rather, a “ripple effect,” she told CP.

While they have received some criticism about people not wearing masks and pressure to worship elsewhere, Green recounted a story she shared two Fridays ago where she and a few others were worshiping on the pier earlier in the week. . . .

Worship artist Sean Feucht, who has been leading worship with Saturate OC, believes the church is in a season that resembles the late ’60s and ’70s, a period in U.S. history marked by political strife, racial tension, government instability, and economic volatility.

“What we’re seeing now is a return back to a gritty, raw Gospel, Jesus people movement foundation. A lot of that is in part because we can’t be in our churches. We are kind of forced to be outside of our buildings and forced to be innovative and creative and come up with alternate solutions,” Feucht said in an interview with CP on Monday.

“And I think what it’s doing is stripping off the sheen and the polished nature of what we’ve built in America and it’s allowing us to return to the simplicity to the power of the raw Gospel.”

The worship leader recalled the story in Isaiah 6, while the prophet was distressed about the death of King Uzziah, and yet in that same year, Isaiah saw the Lord. Thus, despite the hardship surrounding the death of the noble king, there was a grace for a higher revelation for what was taking place in that time in history.

“I think people are having to choose faith over fear,” he added.

“So now, if we unplug from the perpetual fear-mongering narrative of the media and we press into the heart of the Lord, I believe that He’s still saying, ‘the whole Earth is full of His glory.'”

The focus on God’s glory is not escaping the challenges we all face, he said, but being aware of what God is doing.

“The church has been quarantined. We’ve been separated, isolated and alone. And society is crumbling. And for pastors and leaders to not understand that society is literally crumbling, I think, is a tragedy.” . . .

Feucht, who ran for Congress last year but did not win his primary, said that lately it has been easy to lead worship because people have been so hungry to sing to God.

“Whether you’re singing something from the ’80s or something brand new that they’ve never heard before, people are engaging and they are not allowing their doctrinal stances or their denominational barriers get in the way. There’s a real unity that we can access that is profound.”

Organizers announced on Saturday that Saturate OC will be extended to Aug. 7.

(Excerpt from The Christian Post. Written by Brandon Showalter. Photo from The Christian post. Taken by Kara Beth Nixon and Facebook/Saturate OC.)

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