[10] Frisbee influenced prophetic evangelists including Jonathan Land, Marc Dupont, Jill Austin and several others.

[5] He is portrayed by Jonathan Roumie in the 2023 film Jesus Revolution, which highlights his ministry with Chuck Smith and the impact he had on Greg Laurie's evangelism.

Also revealed in the film was that Frisbee ran away frequently and entered into Laguna Beach's homosexual underground scene with a friend when he was 15.

Di Sabatino further commented that an incident such as the alleged rape, "fragments your identity", and that he saw Frisbee's homosexuality as a flaw.

[12] He won awards for his paintings and even appeared as a featured dancer on Casey Kasem's mid-60s TV show Shebang.

[12] As a teen he became involved in the drug culture as part of his spiritual quest,[12] and at fifteen he entered Laguna Beach's homosexual underground scene with a friend.

[6] A later acid-trip in the same area produced "a vision of a vast sea of people crying out to the Lord for salvation, with Frisbee in front preaching the gospel.

[15][16] He quit the art academy and moved to Novato, California, where the Heefners and Wises set up a commune and later reconnected with his former girlfriend Connie Bremer, whom he then married.

He cited Joel the prophet and remained upbeat despite what the young couple saw as unbalanced treatment, as Frisbee was never paid for his work and another person was hired full-time as Smith's assistant.

[18] Frisbee walked on the beaches during the day to convert the young people; he brought them to church for the nightly services.

Smith discounted Pentecostalism, maintaining that love was the greatest manifestation of the Holy Spirit, while Frisbee was strongly involved in theology which centered on spiritual gifts and New Testament experiences.

He witnessed the explosive growth of Calvary Chapel and wanted to build a church which embraced the healings and miracles that he had previously been taught were no longer a part of Christian life.

[citation needed] He began teaching and preaching about spiritual gifts and healings, but Wimber held that it wasn't until May 1979, when Frisbee gave his testimony during an evening service at what was then the Yorba Linda branch of the Calvary Chapel movement (later the Anaheim Vineyard Christian Fellowship), that the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit took hold of the church.

[21] Since his early days at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, Frisbee shifted in his emphasis from evangelism to the dramatic and demonstrative manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit.

"[24] Eventually some church officials felt that Frisbee's inability to overcome sexual immorality became a hindrance to his ministry.

Smith said he'd received a call from a pastor who'd just heard a young man confess to having been in a six-month relationship with Frisbee.

Wimber called Smith the next day to say he'd confronted Frisbee, who openly admitted to the affair and agreed to leave.

A source claimed Frisbee contracted AIDS and died from complications associated with the condition;[11] At his funeral at the Crystal Cathedral, Calvary Chapel's Chuck Smith eulogized Frisbee as a spiritual son and said he was a Samson-like figure, saying that he was a man through whom God did many great works, but that he was the victim of his own struggles and temptations.

[28] David Di Sabatino produced and directed the video documentary: Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher.

Narrated by Jim Palosaari, it received an Emmy Award nomination from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (San Francisco/NorCal chapter).

Finished in March 2005, Frisbee was first accepted to the Newport Beach Film Festival where a showing at the Lido Theater was sold out.

The theater is not far from the Blue Top commune, a Christian community of young hippie believers which was run by the Frisbees in the late 1960s.

The documentary was also accepted to the Mill Valley (2005), Reel Heart (2005), Ragamuffin (2005), San Francisco International (2006), New York Underground (2006) and Philadelphia QFest (2006) film festivals.

The edited version of the movie was shown on San Francisco's KQED in November 2006; the film was released on DVD in January 2007.

[29] The 2023 movie Jesus Revolution starred Jonathan Roumie as Lonnie Frisbee, and Kelsey Grammer as Pastor Chuck Smith.