Jesus Life 71 Quarter one 2006 - The Jesus Army

esusLife 

#71 

one/2006 

FREE 

✚ MEN 

✚ New Monasticism 

✚ Talking to Jonathan Oloyede 

Bread & Wine Covenant Brothers 

A UK JESUS PEO PLE MAGAZINE from the Multiply Network and Je sus A UK Fel JESUS low ship/modern PEO PLE MAGAZINE JESUS army from (mJa) the Multiply Network and Je sus Fel low ship/modern JESUS army (mJa)

c o n t e n t s 

5-7 MEN 

Why men hate going to church 

9-11 NEW MONASTICISM 

Fad or future? 

14-16 TALKING TO 

Jonathan Oyelode 

22-24 MJA TRIBES 

Focus on Coventry 

31 RANT & RAVE 

Grassroots mJa members have their shout 

3-4 Church Alive 

8 Prisons Page 

12-13 Spiritual Search 

17-18 Jesus Centres 

19 Changed Lives 

20-21 Multiply 

25 Electronic Postbag 

26-27 Revival Fires 

28-29 Spiritual Search 

30 Jesus People Shop/National Events 

THE JESUS FEL LOW SHIP CHURCH, which is also known 

as the Jesus Army and in cludes the New Cre a tion Chris tian 

Com mu ni ty, up holds the his tor ic Chris tian faith, be ing 

re formed, evan gel i cal and char is mat ic. 

It practises believer’s bap tism and the New Tes ta ment 

reality of Christ’s Church; be liev ing in Al mighty God: Father, 

Son and Holy Spirit; in the full divinity, aton ing death and 

bodily res ur rec tion of the Lord Jesus Christ; in the Bible as 

God’s word, fully in spired by the Holy Spirit. 

This Church desires to wit ness to the Lord ship 

of Je sus Christ over and in His Church; and, by holy 

char ac ter, righteous society and evan gel i cal tes ti mo ny to 

de clare that Je sus Christ, Son of God, the only Saviour, 

is the way, the truth and the life, and through Him alone 

can we find and enter the king dom of God. 

This church proclaims free grace, jus ti fi ca tion by faith 

in Christ and the sealing and sanc ti fy ing baptism in the 

Holy Spir it. 

© 2006 Je sus Fel low ship Church, Nether Hey ford, Northamp 

ton NN7 3LB, UK. Reproduction in any form re quires 

writ ten per mis sion. The Jesus Fel low ship does not 

nec es sar i ly agree with all the views ex pressed in ar ti cles 

and in ter views print ed in this mag a zine. Pho to graphs 

in this mag a zine are cop y right Je sus Fel low ship Church 

un less oth er wise not ed. The Jesus Fellowship is part of 

Mul ti ply Christian Net work. Both the Jesus Fellowship and 

Multiply Christian Network are members of the Evan gel i cal 

Alliance UK. 

Jesus Life One/2006 Page 2 

www.jesus.org.uk

Comments from Noel Stanton and 

members of the Apostolic Team, 

Jesus Fellowship UK/mJa 

churchALIVE 

bread & wine 

covenant brothers 

CHRISTIANS at 

Mass, Eucharist, 

Holy Communion, 

the Lord’s Supper, 

breaking bread! It 

all depends on the 

Christian brand, 

and must be rather 

confusing to today’s 

searchers. We prefer 

the simplicity of 

the New Testament 

model. Here are Jesus 

and His disciples 

at the “last supper”, 

with Jesus announcing 

that the bread 

He was breaking was 

“His body” and the 

wine He was pouring 

was “His blood”. It 

was simple, it was 

powerfully dramatic 

and it pointed 

directly to His 

crucifixion. So for 

us it’s simply “bread 

and wine”, whether 

in our houses, when 

we meet as Sunday 

church, or at our 

big UK celebration 

events. 

To remember 

Jesus in this way and 

to celebrate the reality 

of the covenant 

with God through 

His body and blood, 

brings God’s love 

and mercy directly 

to us. It is important 

that we recognise 

and celebrate our 

vertical covenant 

unity with God 

through the redemption 

in His Son’s 

crucifixion. But 

there is also a vital 

horizontal dimension. 

The sharing of 

the bread and wine 

is a reaffirmation 

of our brotherhood 

covenant. Through 

Jesus Christ we have 

become God’s sons 

and daughters together 

in one family. 

We therefore meet at 

the “table of brotherhood” 

at which we 

sit in unity and love, 

men and women of 

every age, every race, 

all sexualities, those 

with disabilities or 

sickness, and all 

social classes and 

backgrounds. At 

this table we praise 

God for saving us by 

sending His Son, we 

humble ourselves, 

confess sins, and, as 

we pass the bread 

and wine to one 

another, we grip our 

brother or sister’s 

hand as a sign of 

committed brotherhood. 

“Love the brotherhood” 

is a New Testament 

command 

to believers. We are 

to show that we are 

born of God by our 

love for one another. 

And when such a 

strong church brotherhood 

is properly 

functioning, we fully 

care for one another, 

sharing our wealth 

to meet the needs of 

poorer brothers and 

sisters. We bond together 

to be a church 

with covenant unity 

in the Holy Spirit, 

with faith determination 

to achieve 

real church growth 

and to impact the 

wider society with 

the gospel. 

Jesus Fellowship 

Church is a national 

covenant church 

and each of its 65 

church households 

is a covenant household. 

As disciples of 

Jesus we cannot be 

anything other than 

a covenant bonded 

“bread and wine” 

church, so welded 

together in brotherhood, 

that we are a 

powerful force moving 

in Jesus Christ’s 

name, witnessing to 

the people with His 

compassion, mercy 

and forgiveness, 

serving the poor, the 

rejected, the sinful 

and inviting them 

to receive Christ as 

their Saviour and 

Lord and sit with 

us at the “table of 

brotherhood”. 

Dangerous 

leadership for 

the church 

of the 21st 

century 

Ian Callard 

WHEN I was a young Christian, 

the emphasis was on conforming 

to the way to do things. A copy 

of Wesley’s 44 Sermons was essential 

for lay preacher training. 

The shame is, this Christianity 

didn’t “do it” for its generation. 

Perfectly reasonable comfortable-standard-of-living 

choices 

buried the possibilities of radical 

discipleship. Nobody exposed, 

questioned, or contradicted it. 

There was little of the violence 

Jesus said entering the Kingdom 

could involve. This sad 

legacy calls for a more dangerous 

church leadership today. 

God wants you to be moveable. 

Are you, 2006 version, the 

same as the 2005 version, or 2004 

one? Then what hope for 2007? 

Moses killed an Egyptian slave 

master. Not the right response, 

but at least he moved. God could 

use Moses later, starting when he 

turned aside to see the burning 

bush. 

Once we’re moveable, God 

has a point in sending His Holy 

Spirit to stir us. Distress is a great 

stirrer; so is anger. Love should 

be, too. We’ve got to get stirred 

beyond our fears, our dread of 

failure, our fatigue, our distaste 

for risk, uncertainty and conflict. 

I found that growing in 

ministry responsibility seemed 

another conformist journey, 

broadly compatible with my natural 

abilities, until one day, the 

Holy Spirit said to me, “Notice 

the difference between David in 

Bethlehem, and in Ziklag”. David 

the shepherd makes modest, 

predictable increase. David the 

outlaw amassed resources for his 

dynasty by plunder (1 Samuel 27, 

29, 30). 

 

 

www.jesus.org.uk 

Jesus Life One/2006 Page 3

Dangerous leadership 

starts when you shift from 

what you can and can’t do, 

to what must be done. Saul 

blocked and confined David 

and attempted to stop him 

emerging as king. At Ziklag 

David got hold of who he’d 

been commissioned to be. 

He started to do what a ruler 

must. Never try to do just by 

character what God’s anointing 

alone will accomplish. 

The Final Mix 

Noel Stanton 

But be warned: when 

you’re moving from passion, 

you can be really hurt 

by failure or obstacles. David 

messed up bringing the Ark 

into Jerusalem. He was angry, 

afraid of (this unpredictable) 

God, and unwilling to do any 

more (2 Samuel 6). Passion 

is dangerous; it drives – and 

cripples – leaders. But it is 

essential if leadership is to be 

real – and dangerous. 

In 2005 the Jesus Fellowship target for new members 

was 450 throughout our UK regions. We fell just short of 

this, with some 95% new baptisms in water and Spirit 

and only some 5% joining us through transfers from 

other churches or returning from backsliding in our 

own church. Certainly, 2005 saw waves of baptisms. The 

church in Northampton had 153 baptisms, an average of 

almost 3 per week. The smaller church in Sheffield had 

54 baptisms, many of these being Slovakians. We have 

now committed ourselves to similar targets for 2006 and 

expect even quicker church growth. 

Bless you, everyone, for your prayers, your love and 

your gifts. You’re so important to us as we proclaim Jesus 

around the UK and build His church. 

THE PURE HEART 

Mick Haines 

PSALM 24 asks: 

“Who may ascend 

the hill of the Lord?” 

The answer? “He 

who has clean hands 

and a pure heart”. 

The most important 

thing I can do 

is to keep my heart 

clean. The blood of 

Jesus and the sanctifying 

Holy Spirit 

can wash me clean 

from all impurities if 

I simply ask. 

If my heart is defiled 

or unclean life 

becomes like living 

in a room with the 

curtains drawn, in 

the murky half light. 

I am the first to suffer 

a lack of love and 

joy from within, but 

also those around 

me will suffer. The 

Body of Christ can 

end up contaminated 

if my heart is 

unclean. 

We can give 

ourselves three tests 

to check our purity 

of heart. Firstly, our 

response to authority, 

both within the 

church and outside. 

The unclean heart 

will speak against, 

criticise and reject 

authority, whereas 

the pure heart will 

submit to godly 

authority within the 

church and respect 

civil authority. 

A second test is 

how we respond 

to life’s crucible 

experiences; life’s 

difficult, trying and 

challenging times. 

This could mean 

bereavement, disappointments, 

broken 

relationships, and 

so on. The unclean 

heart easily blames 

God or other people, 

becomes bitter, 

switches off, gives up 

and withdraws into 

lesser, meaningless 

pursuits. The pure 

heart still feels the 

pain, but grows and 

expands through 

these difficult times 

and becomes more 

effective for the 

kingdom of God. I 

believe emotional 

healing from past 

hurts is released in 

us much more easily 

if our heart is pure. 

The third test is 

in our relationships. 

The unclean heart 

can live with unresolved 

relationship 

difficulties. The pure 

in heart quickly get 

reconciled to their 

brother or sister because 

they are aware 

of the effect of the 

unresolved issue on 

the Body of Christ: 

a loss of power and 

less light shining. 

So let’s get our 

hearts purified; then 

more light will shine 

through us. 

Want to know more? 

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HY MEN HATE GOING T 

WHY MEN HATE GOING TO CHURCH 

by David Murrow 

FIVE YEARS ago, my faith in 

Christ was hanging by a thread. 

I loved God, but hated going to 

church. Sunday morning would 

find my body in the pews, but 

my heart was elsewhere. I was so 

desperate I began exploring alternative 

religions, including Islam. 

Did I mention I was an elder in 

my church? 

I was not alone. Truth is, a lot 

of faithful, churchgoing men are 

not all that excited come Sunday 

morning. Quite a few attend out 

of habit, surviving on the memories 

of victories won years ago. 

Others attend services simply 

to keep their wives happy. Most 

guys do nothing midweek to grow 

in faith. Few churches are able to 

sustain a viable men’s ministry. 

Why are men so bored in our 

churches? Of course, there are 

hypocrites. But even men who 

are born again, Spirit-filled, longtime 

Christians are clamming up 

and dropping out. What’s going 

on? 

A business guru once said, 

“Your system is perfectly designed 

to give you the results 

you are getting.” Christianity’s 

primary delivery system, the local 

church, is perfectly designed to 

reach women and older folks. 

That’s why our pews are filled 

with them. But this church system 

offers little to stir the masculine 

heart, so men find it dull and 

irrelevant. The more masculine 

the man, the more likely he is to 

dislike church. 

What do I mean? Men and 

young adults are drawn to risk, 

challenge and adventure. But 

these things are discouraged in 

the local church. Instead, most 

congregations offer a safe, nurturing 

community – an oasis of 

stability and predictability. Studies 

show that women and seniors 

gravitate toward these things. Although 

our official mission is one 

of adventure, the actual mission 

of most congregations is making 

people feel comfortable and safe 

– especially long-time members. 

Continued... 

 

 



DIVING INTO THE KINGDOM 

 

 


At the Jesus Fellowship’s 

Men Alive for God 

day, about 800 men 

met at Northampton 

Jesus Centre for a day 

of worship, teaching, 

seminars and “cut and 

thrust” brotherhood. 

One young man, 

Danny Driscoll, 17, 

writes about the day: 

MEN ALIVE for God? A 

day for men... it’s a day 

that is all about love. 

“What? How can you 

have love without a 

woman?” you may say. 

For me, a day like 

Men Alive for God always shows the 

greatest love. The love of Jesus. From 

the moment you walk through the 

door of the place to the end when 

you joyfully walk out – it’s all about 

love. 

This is the main reason why I – a 

17 year old lad – get involved in the 

church at all. Because of love. In this 

world, there is so much conditional 

love. Love that demands something 

Continued... 

HOW DID Christianity, founded 

by a man and His twelve male 

disciples, become the province 

of women? There is a pattern of 

feminisation in Christianity going 

back at least 700 years, according 

to Dr Leon Podles, author of The 

Church Impotent: the Feminization 

of Christianity. But the ball 

really got rolling in the 1800s. 

With the dawning of the Industrial 

Revolution, large numbers of 

men sought work in mines, mills 

and factories, far from home and 

familiar parish. Women stayed 

behind, and began remaking 

before it is given. But in the Jesus 

Fellowship and at days like Men 

Alive, love without conditions shines 

through. 

Picture it. 800 men, calling themselves 

brothers... Brothers, because 

each one loves each other as you 

would love your own family, even 

more so. 

Now this love compels men, 

compels me, to make sure that I am 

loving, to make sure that I am keeping 

true to God and to my brother. 

Because I’m so grateful to God and 

to my brothers for love. The whole 

thing is all because of gratitude: worship 

is because of gratitude... 

At the end of the day we were 

called to (literally) dive into the kingdom, 

to claim things out loud – the 

things we want to move into, things 

we want to change about our lives, 

like “getting baptised” or “giving up 

smoking”. There were brothers at 

the bottom of the stage catching us 

as we shouted and jumped off into 

their arms. We were showing love 

– in that we want to change and that 

we trusted that they were gonna 

catch us when we fell – and our 

mile 

brothers were showing love because 

us and put us back on the path of 

love! It’s all about love. 

mar 

Men for Jesus: this is a love no 

they loved us and were gonna catch 

earthly thing can match! 

the church in their own image. 

The Victorian era saw the rise of 

church nurseries, Sunday schools, 

lay choirs, quilting circles, ladies’ 

teas, soup kitchens, girls’ societies, 

potluck dinners etc. 

Soon, the very definition of 

a good Christian had changed: 

boldness and aggression were 

out; passivity and receptivity were 

in. Christians were to be gentle, 

sensitive and nurturing, focused 

on home and family rather than 

accomplishment and career. Believers 

were not supposed to like 

sex, tobacco, dancing or other 

“Churches and 

communities 

haveBOYS B 

““Churches and 

providing opportunities 

to play 

communities 

providin 

have 

a vital role to play 

opportunities 

that blend adventure, 

th 

blend adventure 

have milestones that 

belief 

adulthood 

and 

– rather 

cerem 

than 

enabling the 

young to have 

into 

belief and ceremony 

enabling the young to 

mark their journey into 

drifting through it with a 

sense of being lost.” 

” 

Boys Becoming Men, published by Spring 

Harvest Publishing and Authentic Media. 

Young men were called 

to shout declarations 

for God as they stage 

dived into the arms of 

their older brothers. 

rather than d 

worldly pleasures. The godly were 

always calm, polite and sociable. 

This feminine spirituality still 

dominates our churches. Those 

of us who grew up in church 

hardly notice it; we can’t imagine 

things any other way. But a male 

through h 

it with a 

visitor detects the feminine spirit 

the moment he walks in the sanctuary 

door. He may feel like Tom 

Sawyer in Aunt Polly’s parlour; he 

sense of bei 

must watch his language, mind 

his manners and be extra polite. 

It’s hard for a man to be real in 

church because he must squeeze 

himself into this feminine mould. 

Boys Becoming M ,p 

Harvest Publishing and Authenti 


uk

at 

, 

ECOMING MEN... 

Boys becoming men...for God 

TWO THOUSAND years ago, a young man 

called Jesus gathered around Him twelve 

other young men. He discipled them in such 

a way as to provide the Church He founded 

with rock-solid apostles who “turned the 

world upside down”. 

Jesus Fellowship aims to be a Church that 

dares to put into practice the revolution that 

ony 

Jesus began, not shirking some of His tougher 

demands. Such a call to “do the difficult 

thing” appeals to young men; pain is not 

unattractive to them if it’s in the interests of 

a cause. “No pain, no gain” may be a cliché, 

but it also happens to be true – and its truth 

rings true for boys in the deepest part of what 

it means for them to be becoming a man at 

all. The painful taking up of a new identity is a 

basic part of the shedding of infancy. 

Many cultures have rites of passage, symbolic 

milestones which mark boys’ transition 

from childhood to adult manhood. Nelson 

Mandela, in his autobiography Long Walk To 

Freedom, tells of his, within the Xhosa tribe in 

South Africa. For six weeks, Xhosa boys about 

to come of age would leave home and live in a 

tent where they would be circumcised. No cry 

ey 

There is an urgent need for churches to be able to call young men in 

a way which captures them – their energy, their imagination… their 

whole life. James Stacey reports. 

of pain was allowed. While they were healing, 

they would lie under a blanket which would 

be burnt just before returning home as an 

adult man. 

This fierce ritual makes receiving the key 

of the door seem lightweight – but even such 

a simple act can have symbolic meaning. 

The important thing is that young men are 

given the opportunity to “cross the line”. 

Lowell Sheppard, in his book Boys Becoming 

Men, urges churches to provide what he calls 

“PROPs” for young men – Puberty Rites Of 

Passage. He advocates such deliberate acts of 

transition at age 10 or 11, again at 14 or 15 and 

finally on arrival into full adulthood. The content 

can vary, but should contain elements 

of challenge, spiritual discovery and celebration 

of the young man’s growth by the wider 

family and community. Challenge provides 

a humbling encounter with his limitations 

as well as an opportunity to overcome them; 

time, often alone, discovering his spirituality 

affords the opportunity to authenticate 

his faith as a grown man; celebration affirms 

the young man as accepted and loved – and 

genuinely valued by the community. 

The form these rites of passage take is secondary: 

whether it be climbing a mountain, 

spending some days alone, or a symbolic dive 

into the arms of their older brothers: the essential 

thing is that churches see the need that 

young men have for such rites, and respond 

to it with imagination and courage. And it is 

churches who express and practice the radical 

ideals of the kingdom of Jesus that are best 

positioned to inspire young men to embrace 

Christian discipleship: an initiation into manhood 

is not the same as a baptism into faith, 

but the two can – and should – be linked. 

In today’s UK, many young men are rootless, 

lacking direction. Previous generations 

were more likely to be trained by older men 

or their fathers in a trade, establishing a sense 

of “passing on” skills and identity. Today’s 

young men often do not have a stable fatherfigure. 

The result is all too common: young 

men express their testosterone-charged development 

in sullen rebellion or in anti-social, 

even violent behaviour. May the churches rise 

to the challenge, live radical and call young 

men to the painful, fruitful way of Christian 

manhood. 

JL 

y p g 

Media. 


Men, if you’ve felt out of place 

in church, it’s not your fault. If 

you’ve tried and failed to get a 

men’s ministry going in your 

church, it’s not your fault. If you 

can’t get your buddies interested 

in church, it’s not your fault. 

The church system is getting the 

results it’s designed to get. Until 

that system changes – radically 

– men will continue to perish, 

both inside and outside our 

congregations. 

Some of you don’t know what 

I’m talking about. A feminized 

church? Some guys are happy 

with church just as it is, and see 

no reason for change. Others are 

the sensitive type and actually 

like the macho-deficit. But try to 

see church through the eyes of a 

typical guy. It’s intimidating for 

a man to hold hands in a circle, 

to cry in public, or to imagine 

falling deeply in love with another 

man (even if his name is 

Jesus). 

If we’re going to be fishers of 

men, we’ve got to do a better 

job considering men’s needs 

and expectations. Jesus did it; so 

must we. 

This article by David Murrow, director of Church for Men, 

Alaska, USA, was first published in New Man magazine, 

May/June 2005, and is used with permission. 


ON THE INSIDE 

OUTSIDE 

finding my place 

Graham Galloway is 

a member of the Jesus 

Fellowship and lives 

in Northampton 

Your time’s 

done, and 

you’re out. 

But what’s 

church 

really like? 

A lifer on 

licence 

writes 

“ ” 

WHEN I came out of prison, after 

16 years of fantasising about this 

great Church from the safe confines 

of my cell, my expectations 

were well ahead of reality. Well, 

what else can a bloke expect? I 

moved straight into a community 

house in London, and straight 

into a blitz of criticism over my 

smoking, foul language, general 

irritability and lack of respect for 

just about everyone, apart from 

the house leader, of course! 

A good example would be a 

couple of screaming matches I 

had with my elder, Tim. He saw 

more in me than I saw in myself, 

and he hated the silliness I was 

going through. I soon realised he 

acted because he loved me - as I 

loved him. After all, he’d stayed 

faithful to me for 10 years by letters 

and visits. 

This house had all the freedom 

the world has to offer, along with 

a structured regime that I so 

badly needed after years of not 

having my own mind. But it is a 

settled, long-established house, 

and I am not; so I left and got my 

own flat, keeping in touch quite 

closely. 

Soon after leaving, 

I met a lovely girl and 

got married, all with the 

close involvement of 

the church. Ann loved 

the church at first sight. 

Tim prayed with her 

and things got better 

and better from then 

on. I had a small business, 

plumbing, and all 

was rosy in my world. 

Then Steve came 

to stay for the odd 

night. That was great, 

“Two years after 

leaving jail, I’m 

doing great; and 

all credit for that 

lies firmly with 

my Jesus and my 

church” 

and he invited us to visit him in 

his Northampton community 

house. We did, a week or so later, 

and a great love affair started; at 

last, I’d found my place in the 

church. Apart from a few sticks 

of furniture Steve came and got 

for us, we left all and followed 

him! Not quite biblical, but 

who’s perfect? 

Two years after leaving jail, 

I’m doing great; and all credit 

for that lies firmly with my Jesus 

and my church; I could never 

have done it alone, and that’s the 

truth. We still don’t live in community, 

but we’re right in the 

thick of the vision of the Church. 

What’s more, I’ve a nice flat from 

the council, and a nice wife to 

delight my days! 

More importantly though, I 

now have a worthwhile cause to 

struggle for. I believe I am valued 

at the community house, and 

certainly value the opportunities 

the house gives me. I’ve enjoyed 

the freedom Steve gave 

me to reorganise the 

garden, and do other 

work on the house. I am 

also privileged to help 

some of the very needy 

and suffering brethren 

Steve ministers to, a 

humbling experience in 

many ways. Structure 

and purpose: great, 

eh? And me a lifer on 

licence! God is indeed 

good and full of grace 

toward me. 


www.jesus.org.uk

Mo 

r future 

NEW MONASTICISM: fad or future? 

As the Christian Church in the UK seems increasingly to 

lose its way, many leaders are talking of the need for a 

return to ancient ways, a “new monasticism”. 

James Stacey investigates.

NEW MONASTICISM: fad or future? 

THE CHURCH in the UK still makes the headlines 

occasionally. Take “GAY BISHOP RESIGNATION 

CATASTROPHE” for instance. Then there’s 

“CHURCH COULD SPLIT OVER WOMEN BISHOPS”. Or (steady 

yourself) “ANGER AS VILLAGE CHURCH BELLS SILENCED”. 

The uncomfortable truth is that most average Brits see 

the Church as at best quaint or – more likely – completely 

laughable. There is not much to resemble the 

Church in the book of Acts which “enjoyed the favour of 

all the people” or whom “no-one dared join”. Today’s 

UK Church is rarely loved and hardly ever held in awe. 

It is partly in response to this withered Church that 

many Christian leaders are now looking back to a 

more muscular past to find inspiration. In the face of 

compromise in their day, heroes like Antony in Africa 

(read more about him on page 26), Benedict in Europe 

and Aidan in Britain pursued a way of holiness and 

sacrifice. Theirs was the way of monasticism, a disciplined 

and rugged life centred on vows of poverty, 

chastity and obedience. These monks took the words of 

Jesus about “forsaking all”, “renouncing marriage” and 

“laying down your life” at face value. As one writer put 

it, they “swam for their life” against the disastrous tide 

of worldly culture. The result was a Christianity with 

the integrity and the tenacity to change the face of their 

times. 

There’s a groundswell of interest in monasticism in 

evangelical circles in the UK. Many are looking into 

ancient monasticism as a blueprint of effective Christianity. 

There is a lot of interest in those who first brought 

the gospel to Britain: Celtic monks, such as Aidan. 

The Northumbria Community in Chatton, Northumberland, 

promotes a Celtic-style “new monasticism” 

which involves “a single-hearted seeking of God”. The 

Will people abandon personal wealth and 

home, move in together and share their 

possessions, owning nothing? 

youth prayer movement “24/7 Prayer”, with its “Boiler 

Rooms”, is now using the monastic language of “vows” 

and “abbots”. Even John Stott, the elder statesman of 

British evangelicalism, has remarked that if he were 

young and beginning his Christian life again, he would 

establish a kind of evangelical monastic order for men 

vowed to celibacy, poverty and peaceableness. 

And the big success of the BBC’s documentary 

The Monastery, which followed the experience of 

five not-very-religious men who tried living as 

monks for forty days, demonstrates that interest 

in monastic spirituality is wider than just the 

Christian sphere. 

But is the present attention being given 

to monasticism really going to turn a feeble 

UK Church around? A lot will depend on 

whether its challenges are truly met. For 

all the talk of vows and the like, it seems 

horribly possible that many Christians, including 

leaders, will dodge the real issues 

and just flirt with monasticism without 

taking the real – and scary – steps that the 

early monks actually took. 

There is such a danger of flowery religious 

waffle. One article on new monasticism 

in a prominent Christian website 

quoted a leader who had “felt the Lord” say, 

“I’m not looking for poverty but for a prosperity 

of contentment, whether someone has a lot 

or a little… I’m not looking for unswerving obedience 

to a spiritual director or to a person or to 

an institution, or even to a way of doing things; rather, I 

desire a mutuality of submission.” 

Can anyone really imagine wild Antony or dangerous 

Aidan (or, for that matter, Jesus of the Gospels) asking 

for a “prosperity of contentment”? And while “mutuality 

of submission” may be well and good, it is so vague as to 

lead almost inevitably back to each person doing as they 

please. 

The article goes on to describe the city of God being 

planted not “on a hill, but right in the midst of the ‘city 

of man’”. Not only does this flatly contradict the words 

of Jesus, it also reverses the core of monasticism. With- 


out holy, distinctive apartness what is there left of monasticism 

at all? Monasticism starts with the premise 

that the only way to save the world is to demonstrate 

something fundamentally different. 

It gets worse. The online “blog” of one fairly prominent 

British “new abbot” contains reflections on the 

latest film he’s watched and some family photos 

– and not very much else. You may ask: is there anything 

wrong with outings to the Showcase and family 

albums? After all, isn’t that what every nice middle-class 

family does? But if “new monasticism” 

is going to bring to comfortable UK Christianity 

anything other than just a shallow makeover then 

surely its “abbots” must demonstrate something 

totally different to the cosy norm. 

The early monks did. For them, monasticism 

was not a romantic dream (with the faint sound of 

a Hollywood film score in the background). It was 

tough; sometimes agonising. It meant hard decisions 

and sacrifice. They didn’t embrace poverty, 

chastity and obedience because they liked them: 

they saw that there was no other way to impact an 

infected society with the drastic and vital truths of 

the Kingdom. 

So: today in the UK? Will people abandon personal 

wealth and home, move in together and share their 

possessions, owning nothing? (The neighbours would 

be bound to notice, let’s face it.) Will people pioneer 

drastic purity, some of them choosing not to marry in 

order to be free “for the Kingdom”? Will people commit 

themselves together in a permanent and binding vow of 

brotherhood? 

The reality is that it will take more than a trendy historical 

fad to turn the UK to God. Christian consumers, 

shopping in the mall of history for packaged titbits, are 

not going to be enough. Only if Christians – lots of them 

– take some drastic steps will the Church stop being 

ignored. 

Imagine some different headlines: “TEN THOUSAND 

GIVE UP CAREERS AND MOVE IN TOGETHER”… “TWENTY 

THOUSAND TWENTY-SOMETHINGS ABANDON MARRIAGE FOR 

A GREATER CAUSE”… “SEE HOW THEY LOVE ONE ANOTHER”… 

Now that could turn the tide. 

JL 

Just a silly little thought? 

Love lies behind Doris 

Kahnes’ choice to make 

a vow of lifelong celibacy 

It was a ‘silly little 

thought’ that crossed 

my mind when I 

was 18: “Why ‘make’ 

more children when 

so many exist but live 

without love?” 

Two years later I left my home 

in Germany, fully convinced that 

God would eventually lead me to 

work in an orphanage in Africa. 

But He had different plans. I 

ended up in London and soon realised 

that those deprived children 

are everywhere, of any age and 

from all over the world. They are 

our neighbours, our workmates; 

they are found in every layer of society; 

top managers and cleaners, 

doctors and prostitutes, musicians 

and the unemployed - all are ‘children 

without love’. 

Ten years on I’m a celibate and 

live in a former convent. But I’m 

not a nun. The original mother 

house of the All Saints Sisters of 

the Poor is now home to two families 

with six children, 

two couples, seven 

single men and eight 

single women. 

Like the nuns I pray 

in the chapel; however, 

I don’t kneel down in 

the benches but sit in 

a comfy chair or walk 

around the coffee table. A few 

people have managed to play 

some wonderful old hymns on the 

organ, but mostly we play guitars, 

tambourines and bongos. I don’t 

know what the saints on the 

stained glass windows make of it! 

One of the most driving 

thoughts which led me to vow myself 

to celibacy aged 24 was “you 

never know how long you’ve got”. 

I want to make all my life count for 

eternity. Marriage is only for this 

present life. I had always wanted 

to get married and have my own 

children but reading the scripture 

in Matthew 19:12 (“He who is able 

to accept this, let him accept it”) I 

thought, “Yes! Surely only by the 

grace of God and ‘because it is 

given to me’ – but I can take it.” 

The All Saints Sisters centred 

their lives on prayer and service 

to the poor, especially children, 

and kept the traditional vows of 

poverty, chastity and obedience. 

They recognised them as a ‘threefold 

cord by which the believer is 

bound to God – a binding of love 

through which one is set free’. 

We too are seeking to be ‘bound 

to God’ and as celibates to have 

less ‘attachments’. 

“I’m a celibate 

and live in a 

former convent. 

But I’m not a nun” 

This is why I am 

celibate. In this 

way I seek to love 

‘children’ who have 

not known much 

love. Not a silly little 

thought – but a 

gift from God. 

COMING SOON... ONE HEART AND SOUL - A brand new book 

on intentional Christian Community from Multiply 

Publications, to be released in 2006. It combines gritty, 

challenging teaching with people’s own stories of life in 

community. For more details look on the Jesus Army 

website www.jesus.org.uk or contact 0845 166 8172 

Jesus Fellowship, Northampton NN7 3LB 


Signp 

Signposts led over the edge 

“WE BOTH felt as if we were 

diving off a very high divingboard 

without being able to 

see fully what we were diving into!” 

This was how Peter Bayliss 

described the moment in August 

1976, when he and his wife, Gill, 

sold their home and joined another 

family and an elderly couple in a 

farmhouse in Northamptonshire 

as pioneers of the New Creation 

Christian Community. 

“God was asking us to risk all. 

We had two young daughters, 

Ruth, nine years old 

and Jean, seven, and it was 

a huge step of faith!” 

All Peter’s life, since 

he became a Christian as 

a student, he says that God put 

signposts along his way to guide him along the right paths. Each new 

direction had meant costly decisions - but this new challenge was in 

a class of its own. 

“Quite honestly,” says Peter, “I’ve needed those heavenly signposts. 

We couldn’t have moved into community if we hadn’t been 

certain that it was God’s calling to us. And we’ve always come back 

to that fact in the difficult times. It was a big decision but neither of 

us had any serious doubts about it - God was going to watch over us. 

I remember praying: ‘God, You’re going to have to get us out of a big 

mess if it all folds!’” 

Peter and Gill are not naturally the sort of people you would expect 

to pioneer community. Far from being an extrovert, Peter is naturally 

a private, cautious type, while Gill describes herself as ‘the only child 

of ancient parents’. 

“After spending twelve years of my childhood in boarding schools,” 

says Gill, “community living was definitely NOT on my agenda!” 

While Peter was working as a graduate engineering apprentice, Gill 

was studying music in Essex. Their paths crossed for the first time in 

1963, on a stage in Colchester, where they were both singing in the 

chorus of a college musical. They married in 1965 and, after a 

short time, moved to Rugby, Warwickshire. 

“We were both very serious about our faith,” says Peter. “Inside 

Gill’s wedding ring is inscribed from Psalm 127: ‘Unless the Lord 

builds the house, those who build it labour in vain’ and we both 

meant every word. We were faithful church-attenders and Bible class 

leaders, but after a while we both 

“God was asking 

us to risk all” 

felt that there was something 

missing from our Christian life.” 

In the late 60’s the young couple 

began to hear from different 

friends about something called 

‘the charismatic movement’ that was gathering momentum in the 

south of England. They both sensed that God was setting up another 

signpost for them to follow. 

“Don Double and John McCloughlin came to a local housemeeting 

in 1969,” says Peter. “We both listened intently when Don 

explained ‘speaking in tongues’ and we agreed ‘that’s right!’ A year 

later, in another local house-meeting, Harry Greenwood from Chard 

was the speaker, and our hands shot up when he asked if anyone 

would like to receive the Holy Spirit. A hand was laid on both our 

heads together. I felt a warm sensation and for Gill the experience 

was like a cannonball exploding or a fountain springing into life. It 

was a powerful moment that changed our lives completely.” 

Sadly, the experience was spoken against by other local Christians. 


www.jesus.org.uk

osts 

God’s 

signposts led 

Peter and Gill Bayliss 

at key times in 

their lives including 

the giant step into 

Christian community. 

Nearly three decades 

have passed since 

then - plenty of time 

for them to answer the 

question ‘did we make 

the right choice?’ 

EARCH 

Disillusioned, but more determined than ever to pursue God’s fullness, 

Peter and Gill eventually found their way, in 1975, to the Jesus 

Fellowship, at Bugbrooke Chapel, Northamptonshire, twenty miles 

away. The following year came the Holy Spirit’s call for the Fellowship 

to set up community. Peter and Gill were among the first to step 

out in faith and become part of it. 

“If we had any illusions,” says Gill, “that life was going to be 

trouble-free, they quickly disappeared! We’d only been living in 

community for some eight months, when Peter went to the doctor 

about a lump he’d discovered and came home to say that it might be 

malignant. 

“Within a week Peter was on the operating table at the local hospital 

and I had my eyes opened to the reality that his life could be in danger. 

“Before I was baptised in the Holy Spirit I had a particular fear 

about being left as a young widow. God knew this and when I received 

the Spirit so powerfully in 1970, the fear completely went. It 

was as if God prepared me for what lay ahead. 

“Peter had always been fit and well - to be struck down like this was 

very hard. But he just oozed faith and got through amazingly well.” 

At first everything went well and the cancer responded to radiotherapy. 

Then, some months later, the cancer re-occurred. This time 

it had spread and become more serious. 

“After extensive chemotherapy and time dragging on,” says Peter, 

“there was a real sense of battle for my life. One dedicated brother 

came weekly to pray for me and anoint me with oil. I lost two stone 

and all my hair. 

“ What a wonderful feeling, though, when the day came when I was 

told there had been a dramatic change in my condition. Praise God 

for my healing!” 

By the early 1980’s, the community began to spread out from its 

Northamptonshire roots and in 1981, Peter and Gill moved to a new 

household in rural Warwickshire, where they lived for a few years, 

before becoming part of the city team in 

Coventry, where they now live. 

Nearly thirty years later and both in their 

sixties, Peter and Gill are still fully active. 

Peter works for one of the church businesses 

and Gill is part-time domestic, fitting in 

other work. 

Both are volunteers at the Coventry Jesus 

Centre. Their daughters are both married 

with families and are active Christians. 

Gill comments: “Community produces 

unusual situations which have their funny 

side afterwards, but can be hugely stressful 

at the time - like the night we came 

home late and tired from a meeting to 

find every one of our duvets had been 

stolen! Our experience has always been 

that whatever the challenge - big or small - 

God has always been faithful and brought 

us through.” 

Peter believes that community has presented an opportunity to 

be released from things that would have distracted him from his 

goal to build something lasting for God. 

“Quite often I’ll walk past private houses where couples are 

building homes just for themselves and their children. At first I’d be 

thinking: ‘Mmm. I’d quite like to be there.’ Then I’d think again and 

ask myself: ‘ but what cause have they got?’ Living in community 

we’ve got a far bigger, greater cause to be a part of. My life has an 

eternal value because I’ve chosen to give it to God in a real way. My 

goal is far bigger than community itself - community is just part of 

a much bigger picture of following Jesus, growing in knowledge of 

God and building His church in a practical way.” 

JL 



talking to Jonathan an Oloyede 

Huw Lewis 

Huw: Can you just tell us about 

how you found Jesus? 

JONATHAN: I come from a 

Muslim family in Nigeria, from 

the Yoruba tribe. My whole family 

were entrenched in Islam but have 

all now become Christians. My 

dad was the last to get saved, and 

the first to see Jesus face to face. 

I was born in England, but 

brought up in Nigeria where I 

trained as a medical doctor. The 

two things my dad said to me 

when I was going to medical 

school was, ‘Jonathan, I don’t 

want you to marry anyone outside 

our tribe, and don’t marry a 

Christian! Always remain a Muslim.’ 

I broke both in a matter of 

six months because I was going 

out with a girl who was not from 

the Yoruba tribe and I became 

a Christian soon after going to 

medical school. But I couldn’t 

tell my parents for a long time. 

I was a devout Muslim. I was 

still searching for God but never 

seemed to get proper answers. 

At university I had a number 

of friends who were Christians 

and I used to ask them lots of 

questions. They invited me to 

Christian meetings. One evening 

I went to a prayer service, and 

the minute I walked into the 

church, I felt a presence. Something 

deep within my heart said, 

‘this is what you’re looking for.’ 

It wasn’t the worship, the praise 

or the preacher, but just the 

presence of God there - it felt like 

I’d come home. 

At the end of the service I 

walked to the front to give my 

life to Jesus. I was baptised in the 

Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues 

– all at once! This may sound 

controversial to evangelicals, but 

the presence I felt in that church 

was the same presence I felt in 

my heart when I was on my mat 

as a Muslim, when I said to God 

‘Where are you?’. I say to people 

that we don’t introduce Jesus to 

people, we unveil Him. 

What happened then? 

I saw my friends in eternal peril so I 

got down on my knees and began to 

pray for their salvation. 

Was it hard to separate yourself 

from your Muslim connections? 

I had a number of friends who 

were Muslims at the time who 

could not accept my radical, 

overnight conversion. When 

I finally told my parents, my 

dad disowned me and threw 

me out of the house. My dad 

said, ‘You’re no longer my son, I 

don’t want anything to do with 

Jonathan Oloyede is one of the Senior 

Pastors of Glory House, a multi-cultural 

church in East London. Glory House 

belongs to the local network of churches 

called ‘Transform Newham.’ He is an 

executive trustee of the African Caribbean 

Evangelical Alliance and the Team Leader 

of Soul in the City London, which aims to 

envision citywide events and projects in 

2008 and during the 2012 0lympics. 

In this interview, he talks to Huw Lewis, 

former editor of Jesus Life and part of the 

Apostolic Team of the Jesus Fellowship. 

you.’ So I had to go and live with 

Christian friends. 

That must have been painful? 

It was very hard, but it strengthened 

my faith. Jesus said that He 

came to bring a division, a sword, 

between father and mother. So I 

took these words quite literally. 

Soon afterwards my sister and 

my two brothers got saved. Then, 

in 2003 my mum came with my 

dad to the United Kingdom. She 

came to our church on Mothers’ 

Day, I was preaching, and she gave 

her heart to Jesus. Subsequently, 

my dad got saved as well. He went 

to be with the Lord very recently. 

What brought you over to this 

country then? 

I was going to become a missionary 

doctor in northern Nigeria. 

Then I thought about going to 

China, because I’d read about 

Hudson Taylor! After medical 

school, I planned to go to a Baptist 

missionary hospital in Nigeria. 

I came over to England on a 

three month holiday. But within 

24 hours of landing here, I felt the 

Holy Spirit calling me. He said, 

‘Jonathan, you’re not here 

by accident, you are here by 

divine design. You are here as 

part of my recruitment to this 


www.jesus.org.uk

egion of the world in preparation 

for the coming of My Son 

and My kingdom.’ 

What year was this? 

This was 1991. So I dropped my 

own agenda and picked up God’s 

programme. The call was so 

real I just knew it was God. But I 

struggled with it for six months. 

My mum flipped! She said, ‘Go 

and tell that God of yours to 

refund all the money I spent on 

your medical school! 

What happened next? 

A group of us started a small fellowship. 

Some of us had come 

out of university campus life 

- I’d just finished medical school 

and didn’t understand the 

term, ‘church’. We visited some 

churches to find out what they 

did on Sundays. So we ‘cut and 

pasted’ it all with some hymns, 

prayers and an offering! It was 

just all new to us. 

We looked for a building, then 

registered as a charity, and were 

told that we had to get a lease 

‘Jonathan, you’re not 

here by accident, you are 

here by divine design.’ 

of us were giving donations and 

tithing as well, and that’s how 

the church started in March 1993. 

And this was just a group of 

Africans? 

Yes, most of us were Africans, 

sprinkled with a handful of Afro 

Caribbeans as well. The church 

started as Glory Bible Church in 

Leyton, East London with Dr Albert 

Odulele as the pastor. Within 

three years we had grown to about 

300 so we had two services in the 

building. By the time we came 

here in 1997, we were close to 

1,000. We have since planted a 

number of churches - one in Brussels, 

and three others in London. 

What caused the growth to be 

so rapid? 

Our church was almost like a 

holding bay to catch the new 

immigrants coming from Africa. 

Almost 80% of Africans and 65% 

of Afro Caribbeans in the UK 

live in London. We just found 

ourselves in a strategic position, 

ready to receive people as they 

came. Africans are very communal 

- if one person comes to 

your church, five people come 

into your church, because aunties, 

cousins and parents would 

invariably come. 

Also many Africans coming 

here are looking for a social hub 

and relationships. They have 

real faith and are also looking 

for a platform to express their 

faith. Many of them are single, 

upwardly mobile and coming 

from middle-class, educated 

families and meet other people 

from the same background. The 

new churches are ideal for them. 

How did you find the spiritual 

climate of this country when 

you came over here from 

Nigeria? 

It was a culture shock, both 

spiritually and socially! Many of 

the heroes of the faith that I had 

in Africa came from England 

and America. For some reason, 

my mindset was that everybody 

went to church over here. 

So you can imagine my shock 

when I came here. 

Socially, I can remember clearly 

travelling on a bus with my sister. I 

wondered if there had been some 

sort of national tragedy or disaster 

as the silence and lack of communication 

was eerie. In Africa if you 

get on a bus it’s buzzing. It was 

very strange for me! 

So, how has the Glory House 

developed since then and what 

are your current activities? 

In the last 12 years we’ve grown 

from one church to a multiple 

network of churches, as we have 

planted in many places. We have 

set up a Bible school, and we 

have also transformed into a cell 

church, because when we hit the 

thousand mark, pastoral care 

became a bit unmanageable. 

We read all the books we 

could read about cell church and 

began to train our leaders for 

cell church. We now have home 

churches, which have a network 

of about 50 people in each of 

them. The membership of Glory 

House is about 3,000. Another 

3,000 see us as their church and 

attend during the festive seasons. 

You’re reaching out to the community 

quite strongly. 

Yes. We run a football academy. 

Most of the kids that come are 

white Eastenders. There are 

about 700 on this course. Many 

of the families would say Glory 

House is their church so, by 

linking in those families as well, 

there are many other people who 

are attached to us. We run programmes 

in the local schools. 

I don’t see us remaining as a 

black majority church for much 

longer, so I’m looking to shuffle 

the cards a bit in order to reflect 

‘...there’s a counter-culture 

within the black churches’ 

years my vision is to make the 

church as multicultural as possible 

and really break into the 

local community. 

Why do you think that black 

majority churches have been so 

successful in the last ten years 

especially? 

I would say there’s a counterculture 

within the black churches. 

Firstly, the level of faith expectation 

within black majority 

churches is very high. Secondly, 

there’s a high level of respect for 

clergy and that breeds strong 

leadership. Clearly, some do it 

wrongly. Thirdly, churches grow 

with visionary leadership. A lot 

can be accomplished where 

creative leadership is allowed 

to take risks and explore new 

dimensions. That’s encouraged 

within the black churches. 

Fourthly, the congregations 

believe in the leadership, and 

they don’t get into a debate 

about issues. The democratic 

process is not really part of the 

culture. There are principles of 

democracy in terms of trustees, 

and the leadership sit and talk, 

but it’s not an open debate. 

Fifthly, the black culture is 

still very communal and so a 

person comes into a community, 

not a just church. They don’t 

just come to Glory House on a 

Sunday - all through the week 

they’re in contact, interacting 

with people. We phone them, 

go to hospitals, visit them, attend 

someone’s baby’s naming 

– there are so many layers that 

overlap and interact and that 

allow people to bond strongly. 

That’s one of the principles that 

we saw within the cell church, 

and adopted into our church. 

Lastly, there’s a whole life approach 

in black churches. Many 

black churches give practical 

help with all aspects of your life 

- business, career, education, finance, 

marriage and family support 

etc. For example, we have 

meetings where women who are 

running their businesses, show 

other women how to run businesses 

– that’s a church meeting! 

I call it a Hebrew mentality, 

where your worship is beyond 

the building and you don’t compartmentalise 

between church 

and life. 

I would say 50 – 70% of the 

black population, in some way, 

go to church regularly – compared 

with 5-10% of the British 

population. 

Are we doing better at breaking 

down the barriers between black 

and white churches? 

The short answer is not really. 

I look at the conferences, the 

meetings, the expressions of 

faith and it’s still very divided. 

 

 



My passion is to see that broken 

down. One of the ways in which 

I’ve got involved is the ‘Soul 

in the City’ project. Right now 

we’re having a drive to connect 

the grassroots movements of 

networks within all the major 

boroughs of the city of London, 

linking the emerging leaders, 

youth workers and young people 

together, whether they are 

Hispanics, Latinos, Philippinos, 

Africans, Caribbeans or English. 

Whatever the nationality or ethnicity, 

we want to work on some 

projects together. I think that’s 

where we can begin to crack it. 

One of the things I feel anointed 

and called by God to do is 

link the church together through 

prayer. So we’re joining in the 

‘...it’s church uniting; 

it’s youth releasing, and 

community transforming’ 

Global Day of Prayer, which 

emerged from a prayer movement 

in South Africa. I’m going 

to be pushing next year for the 

church to be doing something in 

London on Pentecost Sunday. 

I’ve also spoken to ‘Christianity’ 

Magazine and they’ve featured 

two of my articles. I’ve suggested 

other writers to them and they’re 

going to begin to work more with 

ACEA (Afro-Caribbean 

Evangelical Alliance). 

So we’re far from it, but we’re 

getting closer. We’re not where 

we were a few years ago. 

What advice would you give to 

local churches in terms of being 

able to break down those barriers 

practically? 

I would say for me that there are 

two broad objectives. Firstly, for 

a local church that is completely 

black or completely white to 

become multicultural. Secondly, 

for local congregations to connect 

with other congregations of different 

nationalities. 

One of the practical things that 

a church in a large city can do is 

to diagnose the community. If 

you have a local Congolese community 

in your area, then find 

out who has a passion to communicate 

with this community. 

Then, arrange to sit down with 

some of these people, eat with 

them and find out their needs. 

You can offer your service, invite 

them into your homes and connect 

with them. Sometimes it’s 

good to put on some specific 

event or service that meets a 

particular people group. If they 

don’t understand English we can 

set up ESOL classes. 

One of the things I find with indigenous 

English churches is that 

we can be strong on the humanitarian 

dimension, but not strong 

on the spiritual dimension. Black 

people are very spiritual people, 

and they want to feel touched by 

the power of God. 

How have you responded to the 

negative press coverage of some 

recent issues concerning black 

majority churches – like child 

abuse and witchcraft as well as 

financial irregularity? 

There is a fault on both sides. 

The black churches have not 

always done good PR, in terms of 

being able to project clearly what 

they believe, what they teach 

and what they stand for, in a way 

that gives people a clear view of 

who they are. 

On the other side there has 

been what I call irresponsible journalism, 

which has just repeated 

hear-say, or previous reports, 

without doing its homework. I’ll 

give you a practical example of 

a recent child abuse case where 

witchcraft practices were alleged. 

Thorough investigations found 

out that the incidents were by a 

person who was not a member of 

the named church. He was not in 

any church! 

Some recent misrepresentations 

were all caused by the fact 

that we have very few proper 

communication links between the 

black and white communities. 

We need some very healthy 

communication links with the 

media, so we can explain what 

is really happening. 

For example, I spoke to a 

journalist about what happens 

in black churches concerning 

deliverance ministry. I said 

that if I’m going to lay hands 

on someone, I do it in the 

presence of two or three other 

people with the permission of 

the person. I said I would never 

pray for someone with total 

demonic oppression without 

me explaining what I’m about 

to do. Deliverance does not normally 

happen with shouting and 

breaking glass. Also I explained 

that things like falling under the 

power of the Holy Spirit happen 

‘I want to see a 

thousand John Wesleys’ 

in every charismatic church, 

whether it’s black or white. 

What exactly is ‘Soul in the City’? 

I first heard of it in 2002. I 

was leading church leaders in 

Newham in prayer for revival 

every Saturday for two years. 

Someone told me about Mike 

Pilavachi, whom I’d never heard 

of before, and he’d never heard 

of Glory House either! But 

in 2003 he came over to East 

London to speak to us and I was 

really blessed by it. 

For me, Soul in the City 

is three things – it’s church 

uniting; it’s youth releasing, 

and community transforming. 

I want to see London truly 

changed. I think the church 

can do it and carries enough 

of a critical mass, if it works 

together, to make it happen. 

What was its fruit? 

The fruit of Soul in the City is 

the unity between networks and 

churches that is beginning to develop 

and is growing. Many local 

boroughs know of Soul in the City. 

The police are full of praise for it. 

In some parts of London there 

has been a reduction in crime on 

whole estates. Part of our dream 

is to make that happen 24/7. It’s a 

high calling. 

Can you just say something 

about how you train your leaders 

or how you raise up a new 

generation of people who are 

going to carry on the work. 

One of the things we do is we 

drop people in at the deep end. 

Our vision is to get every member 

of Glory House involved in 

ministry. What we try to tell everybody 

is that, ‘you are a leader 

– go and pastor your workplace, 

your school, your business, you 

carry a responsibility for the 

souls in your estate, your street, 

your local area.’ 

Is there anything else you 

wanted to share that you 

haven’t touched on that is a 

passion to you? 

My passion is to have a day 

to day walk with Jesus. That’s 

my highest passion - to know 

Jesus and to make Him known, 

to love Jesus and to embrace 

His love. Because I know that 

if people just have a taste of 

that love, they will go after that 

beyond anything else. 

What do you feel God is saying 

to our nation? 

“I am coming!” Prophetically, I 

sense there are real rumblings 

in the distance. It’s almost 

like in Africa when it’s about 

to rain you hear the thunder, 

see the clouds gathering. If the 

church does not wake up in 

time and get herself together, 

God’s message will not be one 

of joy but of judgment. The 

whole prayer movement is His 

mercy, saying, “Repent, for the 

day of the Lord is at hand.” 

I want to see a thousand John 

Wesleys. I want to see a thousand 

Jeffery brothers in one generation. 

If we could have that, we 

would see the beginnings of our 

nation turning back to God. 

JL 


www.jesus.org.uk

Jesus 

jesus centres : NORTHAMPTON 

F.L.U.I.D 

Jane Darling plunges into 

a counter-cultural river of 

spiritual life 

10.30pm FRI- 

DAY NIGHT & 

something’s 

happening in 

the foyer of the 

Northampton Jesus Centre. 

‘FLUID’ (Flexible Loving Unexpected 

Intuitive Driven) is being 

created – tables and chairs set 

out, Faith Zone set up, drinks 

laid out, lights…action! 

Every Friday night a group of 

young people get together in the 

foyer for FLUID (doors open 12 

midnight, doors close – anytime 

between 2.30am and 4.30am!) 

It’s the counter-culture to the 

‘normal’ Friday night scene of 

alcohol & drugs, violence, pubs 

& clubs. Without the attitude 

and alcohol, but with atmosphere 

- tunes, visuals etc. Brings 

the whole idea of being spiritual 

onto your level (whatever that 

is). A whole load of people 

loving each other & accepting 

everyone for who they are, not 

what they look like. God in the 

culture & more to discover. 

As soon as the doors open 

people are in, questions are 

asked, friends found: “What’s 

going on here?”, “What you all 

about?” Come & taste spirituality 

in the Faith Zone - take time 

out to reflect; take the bread 

& wine; renew a vow; make a 

pledge; say a prayer. Let’s wash 

your feet (a sign of love from the 

bible), chat, chill out, discover 

our spiritual side. 

‘FLUID’ describes the ability 

Jesus had to flow with humanity 

and relate to the culture He 

lived in. Our brief is to do the 

same as Him. 

www.jesuscentre.org.uk 


Jesus Centres 

jesus centres : LONDON 

london opportunities 

The London Jesus 

Centre, due to open 

late 2006, presents 

the challenging 

opportunity to 

express the care of Jesus to a 

hugely diverse local population. 

Rob Bentley, Project Manager 

for the Jesus Centre, reports. 

THE RESIDENT population of Westminster 

is 222,000 but every week day there are 1.9 

million people in the borough. 

Only 55% of the population were born in 

the UK and 25% of it is made up of 18-29 

year olds. 

There are 150 different languages spoken 

by school children. 

In 2004 there were 5,436 homeless applications 

and 2,944 families in temporary 

accommodation. 85% of all UK asylum 

seekers live in London. 

The vision is a place which will express 

the love and care of Jesus in this wildly diverse 

and unique community. There will be 

day care services for the homeless and dis- 

advantaged, training facilities, a ‘gateway’ 

to other services and a café. The challenge 

is to address the ever increasing needs of 

a fragmented society – nowhere more dramatically 

expressed than in central London 

– with a tangible expression of hope. 

Rob comments: “Empty rooms and 

empty desks, challenges and opportunities: 

the space available for the London Jesus 

Centre is just waiting to be filled. As we 

research the many needs of our area and 

plan the services we will offer I am excited 

by the potential that this amazing location 

offers, to the team of committed people 

who will be at the heart of the third Jesus 

Centre.” 

jesus centres : COVENTRY 

Speaking out 

Justice is what Coventry Jesus Centre support worker Val Hook longs for 

WHEN VAL HOOK saw the 

Support Worker post advertised, 

she thought, ‘yes!’ She had been 

working in the centre’s café but 

wanted to do something more 

specific to help people. 

Now she assists clients with 

applications for housing and 

other benefits, arranges crisis 

loans or accommodation, rings 

agencies to make appointments, 

and reads and writes letters for 

them if needed. 

“People feel that agencies 

don’t care,” says Val. “Support 

work is about helping them to 

have confidence. So we ring to 

make the appointment, but the 

client has to go themselves.” 

In one case, Val found a client 

a flat but he then went into 

prison. He wanted the tenancy 

kept open as he had been homeless 

for a long time. Val was able 

to sort the situation out with 

housing benefit. 

“You need to know a person’s 

rights,” she says. “They have to 

pay housing benefit for a prisoner 

for 52 weeks.” She managed to 

keep the place open for him, 

which meant he didn’t get caught 

in the cycle of re-offending. 

Like Jesus and the 10 healed 

lepers, the response to the 

help offered can be varied! 

“Sometimes people can be a bit 

demanding, saying ‘I want a flat 

now!’” Val says. “But the guy 

from prison waited at reception 

for hours to thank me.” 

Her qualifications? ‘Only the 

love of Jesus’ and her own life experience. 

For example, her own 

struggle with depression has 

helped her to relate to people 

with mental health problems. Val 

has had to learn to be persistent. 

“I feel believed in by people here 

and this has meant a lot for me,” 

she says. 

In September the Coventry 

Jesus Centre, together with a 

local estate agent, launched a 

bond scheme as a way out of 

the homelessness trap. “Lots 

of people can’t get started due 

to money problems and their 

lack of address,” explains Val. 

To qualify, the client needs to 

be on housing benefit, and to 

be someone who would benefit 

from the scheme. They have to 

pay £130-150 rent in advance. 

The £50 bond is the Jesus Centre’s 

responsibility, £30 the client 

must find themselves. 

Val is very much inspired 

by the song ‘I will speak out for 

those who have no voices’. 

“The world’s such a mess and 

sometimes you think ‘what can 

I do?’” she reflects. “This centre 

is a little part of the kingdom of 

God and this is what I can do… a 

lovely thing.” 

JL 


www.jesuscentre.org.uk

If little girls are made of sugar and 

spice and all things nice, what are 

fourteen year old girls made of? 

“Music, fashion, makeup and boys” 

according to the tagline of one teenage 

girls’ magazine. Not so for these three 

fourteen year old revolutionaries. 

REVOLU IONARIES 

LIZZIE, Amy and Emmaline are all fourteen 

and have an enthusiastic and vibrant faith 

in God. All were brought up in Christian 

families and all have met God themselves in 

a compelling way. 

Amy knew the security of being surrounded 

by people who loved Jesus. When she 

encountered His life changing potency for 

herself, she found a growing desire to live 

for Him too. From a young age, she wanted 

to be filled with His Spirit and when she 

finally received this amazing gift at 13, after 

much longing and frustration, she shook, 

laughed and cried with joy. A new language 

bubbled up in praise to God. 

‘I was being filled with the love of God so 

much’, she recalls, ‘that I had to express my 

joy in some way. I didn’t want to stop it.’ 

Once, she didn’t feel adequate to pray, but 

now she had a new prayer language (speaking 

in tongues) to communicate with God. 

A new boldness filled Amy and soon she 

was struggling to meet the demand for red 

crosses among her classmates at school. 

One friend found her latent faith rekindled 

as Amy spoke to her about the beautiful 

promises of heaven. 

Lizzie has grown up in New Creation 

Christian Community: to her, it’s been a 

privilege to be brought up in this way. A 

combination of loving discipline and the 

opportunity to know many different types of 

people has given her a rounded character. 

Seeing many healings and changed lives 

has proved God’s reality to her. She also has 

her own stories of answers to prayer, such 

as the time she and her older brother prayed 

every night for a much longed for baby 

brother. Their mum wasn’t planning to have 

another child, but after about a month, she 

announced she was pregnant. Nine months 

later, her little brother George was born. An 

answer to childlike, faith-filled prayer. 

Earlier this year, Lizzie responded to God’s 

emphatic ‘Go!’ and was powerfully baptised. 

Emmaline is also grateful for her Christian 

upbringing. She can confidently 

relate to people of all types and ages. She 

is convinced of God’s existence through 

feeling the Holy Spirit from a young age and 

through the love she’s seen in the people 

around her. 

Emmaline knew she had to make her own 

profession of faith – a second hand faith was 

not good enough. Her parents had not been 

able to come to a church meeting that she 

attended and she was faced with the reality 

of God’s call on her life. She responded and 

– with her parents blessing – was baptised. 

‘I have become a different person; I’ve become 

more in-tune with the Holy Spirit and 

I’m longing to play my part in what He’s 

doing,’ she says. 

God’s also brought a new dynamic to the 

girls’ friendships. Emmaline puts it like this: 

‘It’s great to have people that think about 

you and genuinely care for you, people that 

you can relax with and feel comfortable 

with. The friendship is eternal, not fickle like 

so many friendships without God are.’ 

As for the future? Serving God is top 

priority! All three see their future in New 

Creation Christian Community. 

Amy would like to use her talent for foreign 

languages to serve God in the Church. 

She particularly has a desire to help refugees 

and asylum seekers. 

‘I don’t know what plans God has,’ says 

Lizzie; ‘I want to do what He wants me to 

do and be what He wants me to be. It’s a 

challenge, but one I’m growing into and 

wanting to achieve.’ 

As for Emmaline: ‘I want to do everything 

in my power to build the church. I owe so 

much to God – I have to do it!’ 

JL 



Stop being sweeties 

Niceness is the enemy 

of the church, heard 

delegates at the latest 

UK Multiply conference 

“WE ARE not here to be sweeties.” 

This was the word to the 

150 plus men and women 

gathered at Cornhill Manor for 

the 2005 UK Multiply Leaders 

Conference. Apostolic leader 

Steve Calam continued, “Out of 

strength comes forth sweetness, 

the scripture says. So many 

leaders are aiming to be warm 

and sweet. We should be redhot, 

edgy, on fire.” 

“Too much Christian leadership 

has become docile”, 

Multiply director Huw Lewis 

had kicked off the day by saying. 

This was to be a time of challenge 

and change. 

The conference continued 

on this challenging theme, interspersed 

with rich fellowship, 

traditional English lunch and 

French African style worship. 

“Very encouraging”, was one 

delegate’s response, “It was 

wonderful to hear what God is 

doing.” 

DON’T MISS OUT... 

MULTIPLY INTERNATIONAL 

LEADERS CONFERENCE 

Saturday 3 June 2006 10:30am - 9:30pm 

Jesus Centre, Northampton 

For all leaders from the Multiply Network Churches and 

interested leaders from other churches and groups 

big challenge 

An encounter with Christian community 

clarified one Polish couple’s vision 

LESZEK AND ELA JANUS, 

together with their son Nikodem, 

are part of an 80-member 

Baptist church called Kosciol 

Chrzescijan Baptystow in Glogow, 

west Poland. Leszek is an 

elder, and Ela runs the Sunday 

School and is secretary of the 

church’s English School. 

“I was born again 20 years 

ago, through a group in the 

Catholic Church who taught 

the way of salvation to me,” 

explains Leszek. “It was a process 

over many months and, 

later, I made many friends at 

the local Pentecostal Church: 

this is where I started to speak 

in tongues. 

“I had big problems with 

alcohol and smoking and, in 

1993, I decided that the best 

way to change my life was to 

go to the interdenominational 

Bible School in Cracow. 

“After our wedding, Ela and 

I returned to Glogow where we 

met a young pastor and his wife 

and decided to join them in 

helping to grow a small Baptist 

church. Maybe 1 per cent of 

the 40 million people in Poland 

are Christians – it is a spiritual 

desert.” 

In 2004, when Leszek lost 

his job in a foundry, he came 

over to the UK to work. It was 

here that he first met the Jesus 

Army. In April 2005, he and Ela 

were reunited in Poland and 

their visit to the European Multiply 

Conference a few weeks 

later was their first time in the 

the UK as a family. 

“Before I met the Jesus 

Army,” says Leszek, “I had 

never thought about Christian 

community, although Ela and 

I had both found living with 

other Christians at Bible School 

a very good experience. 

“The Multiply Conference 

has helped us to feel clear 

about several aspects of our 

vision: first, that church needs 

to be open 24/7; second, that 

it must be absolutely radical; 

third, that it’s only through 

friendship that the church can 

be built. 

“Our visits to the businesses 

showed us how to make money 

and give it to God to use. Our 

church is opening a coffee 

house in Lubin, about 40 kilometres 

from our town. It’s a big 

challenge – please pray for us!” 


MULTIPLY INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN NETWORK 

Nigerian expansion 

Building the body of Christ was the 

theme of the second West Africa 

Multiply conference 

THE SECOND West Africa Multiply Leaders 

Conference was held in Lagos in December. 

Two Jesus Fellowship leaders, Victor Shefford 

and Clive Strudwick, attended. It was 

Victor’s eighth visit to Africa, and Clive’s first. 

Victor reports: 

“Matthew Oluwasesin, our apostolic 

Multiply man in Nigeria, has built together a 

group of 10 churches that really cooperate in 

all sorts of ways – practically and spiritually. 

The 45 delegates at the three-day conference 

included several pastors from Nigeria, 

five from Accra, Ghana, one from Benin state 

and one from Gabon, in addition to members 

of the host church of Glad Tidings and 

other Multiply Network churches. 

The theme of the conference was ‘building 

the body of Christ’. Thursday was a welcome 

day. On Friday there was a symposium, in 

which delegates split into three groups to 

discuss what makes for peace and unity in 

the body of Christ. It came out strongly that 

you won’t get this peace and unity unless all 

the joints and ligaments in the body are disciples 

and willing to be trained and accountable. 

Saturday’s programme opened with a bible 

study from me on what the body of Christ 

is about. This was followed by a woman 

pastor, Sister Elizabeth from Divine Healing 

Ministries, sharing about two different 

types of love – convenient love and covenant 

love. Convenient love is where you love with 

anticipation of being loved back. Covenant 

love is sacrificial, where you give without expecting 

anything back. Matthew then spoke 

of the need for churches within Multiply 

Network to be separated from the world and 

not to indulge in the things of the world, 

then Pastor Samson Grace concluded this 

part of the day by stressing the importance 

of accountability for everyone in the body of 

Christ. 

This session finished about 3pm. The 

whole day was interspersed with singing and 

dancing in which Clive and I were encouraged 

to join. After the main conference we 

had a celebratory meal. Even though there 

was only a BBQ spit to cook over, all 100 

people in the church were fed. 

There is quite a lot of interest in Multiply 

in the region. Ten churches are already in 

Multiply, and Matthew is considering about 

another seven for inclusion.” 

JL 

Above: Clive (left) and Victor (centre) with Matthew 

(right of Victor) and other West African Multiply 

leaders; Below left: Worship inside Glad Tidings; 

Below right: Glad tidings Church in Lagos, Nigeria.

nomads no longer 

but we’re still on the move… 

MJA COVENTRY: 

FACTFILE 

• 250 people regularly involved 

• mJa Coventry first started in 1979/80 

• Made up of two “half tribes”: Coventry 

and Warwickshre 

• Three Christian community houses in 

Cov: Promise, Bright Flame, White Stone. 

• Two Christian community houses in 

Warks: Kings (“very big house in the 

country”), Tree of Life 

• Runs Coventry Jesus Centre, Lamb 

Street: The Bridge drop-in for homeless, 

Gateway Hall venue, Upper Well Café 

• Average age: going down fast! 

 

Turned inside out 

Coventry Jesus Centre, Lamb Street 

Coventry Jesus Centre has made a huge 

difference to Coventry mJa. 

BEFORE we opened the 

Jesus Centre in 2002, a typical 

conversation with a new 

friend when we wanted to 

invite them along to a Sunday 

meeting might go something 

like this: 

“Hello, I’m from Jesus Fellowship 

Coventry.” 

“Ok, great, nice to meet you. 

I’m a believer too.” 

“Cool. Would you like to 

come along tonight?” 

“Sure, where do you meet?” 

“ Well, …ah……it was the 

Sports Centre last week… or 

was it the Scout Hut…doh …. 

I’ll get back to you.” 

A sad scenario, but one that 

was repeated too often. Of 

course, we had our community 

houses and often people 

would come to them during 

the week, but when it came 

to Sundays we suffered the 

uncertainty of meeting, week 

by week, in an assortment of 

halls and venues that might 

or might not be available 

when you wanted them. We 

were a nomadic congregation 

in those days, as we trekked 

from sports centre, to dance 

hall, to scout hut – and even 

to a farmhouse in deepest 

Warwickshire! 

Fast-forward to the present 

and the Coventry congregation 

now meets in our very 

own Jesus Centre, pleased to 

be able to invite one and all to 

“Come and have a cuppa with 

us at the Jesus Centre! It’s up 

on Lamb Street – big building 

with the rainbow all over the 

walls… you can’t miss it!” 

The Jesus Centre has loads 

on and it’s kept us busy – but 

it’s also become a home for a 

growing congregation and a 

feature on the map of Coventry. 

A seismic 

shift has been 

occurring in 

what we do 

with Sunday 

evenings. 

SUNDAY nights used 

to be straightforward 

enough: song 

sandwich – rows 

facing front – twenty 

minute preach 

– a happy enough 

knees-up, but hard 

for new people to 

understand and get 

involved with. 

The final straw 

came when a few of 

us brought some new 

friends to the meeting. 

We sat behind 

the rows of people 

facing away from 

us singing songs 

the visitors didn’t 

know. It was simply 

impossible to do 

anything with them. 

Conversation was 

impossible. Sure, the 

gospel was expressed 

but there was little 

opportunity for our 

friends to ask their 

questions. It was all 

too tightly “packaged”. 

Something 

was wrong. 

The solution was 

simple but radical: 

we needed to change 

our “mindset” and 

acknowledge that 

these times were 

not just for us to 

enjoy for ourselves. 

Deconstruct any 

barriers stopping the 

newest among us 

meeting Jesus. Get 

out of our comfort 

zones. Be outgoing 

on the streets. Invite 

new people in. Make 

conversation possible. 

Connect. 

So now we have 

café style Sunday 

nights: the Solid 

Rock Café. The rows 

have become tables 

around which people 

hook up: all are 

welcome. Bite-sized 

gospel and words of 

testimony pepper the 

evening. Intercessors 

support the work as 

teams lead evangelism 

on the streets. 

There’s opportunity 

to pray and to “talk 

spiritual”. 

The result: we have 

more new people 

around on Sunday 

nights. They’re finding 

Jesus. We have 

baptisms. We have a 

church that is turning 

outwards. 


www.jesus.org.uk

TRIBES 

FOCUS ON: Coventry 

 

God said: “Here 

come the Boffs 

and the Goths” 

Laurence Cooper, a leader in Jesus Fellowship Coventry, 

takes us behind the scenes of an innovative and energetic 

congregation in “the heart of the Midlands”. 

GOD SAID they were coming… 

Last year saw a big influx of 

teens into the congregation. In 

January at White Stone, one of 

Coventry’s community houses, 

one of the leaders was seized 

by an inspiration in a meeting. 

He asked fourteen-year-old 

Bethan to leave the room and 

then come in through the door. 

She did so. He asked her to do 

it again. And again. This was 

repeated many times and the 

leader explained that he sensed 

God saying that many, many 

teenagers would be coming 

through their doors in 2005. 

Very soon they were. Thursday 

evening friendship meals at 

White Stone saw up to twenty 

teenagers coming around. And 

very soon they turned up at the 

Jesus Centre on Sunday. What 

a change! A crowd of screaming 

“Goth” teenagers at the front of 

Solid Rock Café worship times 

brought a whole new feel to 

the meeting. We had to ban 

“body slamming” during the 

more lively songs, as there was 

a real danger of serious injury 

to those less experienced in the 

art of “moshing”… but it’s all a 

healthy challenge to the staid 

and respectable. 

Noise, energy, a certain 

amount of chaos, but in the 

midst of all of this: young 

people finding Jesus. Over the 

last several weeks it has been 

great to see a number of them 

baptised and daring to become 

real disciples. 

God has also been inspiring 

faith for students to come and 

join us. 

David Meakin and Jason Porter 

study at Coventry University, 

in the middle of the city. Both 

David and Jason have a strong 

vision to reach other students 

for Jesus. 

 

 

Continued... 



God told David the 

names and faces 

of those he would 

meet in the Jesus 

Fellowship 

Continued... 

David came in touch with the Jesus 

Fellowship in a very remarkable way. He was 

praying and asking God to tell him what He 

wanted him to do with his life. As he prayed 

he saw a face that he didn’t know. As David 

continued to pray he saw in his mind’s eye 

a house which he knew was near where he 

lived in Coventry. He started walking towards 

the house and as he did so the name “Andy” 

came into his mind. When he arrived at the 

house, he knocked on the door and asked if he could speak 

to this person. The house – unbeknown to David – was Bright 

Flame community house. “Andy” was upstairs and came 

down to welcome this stranger and introduce him to the 

church. David is now living at Bright Flame. And the face he 

saw when he was praying turned out to be that of Piers, one 

of the main leaders of the congregation! 

Jason has strong 

vision for students 

Jason says: “It’s great to ‘rub off’ 

godliness onto the students I’m 

with by being myself – in Jesus 

– among them. I always wear my 

red cross and in my conversation I 

gently and naturally bring God into 

it, not pressurizing them, just giving 

them an opportunity to come 

into contact with the life of God in 

me.” 

Meanwhile, Zoe Biswas from 

the other University in town, 

Warwick University, has been 

bringing friends over to our meetings. 

We involve ourselves in 

Warwick’s Christian Union and 

are on the CU’s advisory council 

of local church leaders. Ten years 

ago we had a major invasion of 

young radicals from Warwick Uni. 

Could we be about to see a similar 

phenomenon happen? We hope 

so. We’re on the look out for a 

new crowd of ‘ready for anything’ 

student firebrands to come and stir 

up the kingdom revolution. 

HEAT in the 

red light district 

Creative Wings 

JESUS ARMY 

brave, Andy, leads 

a group of evangelists 

on the streets 

on Wednesday 

nights in Hillfields, 

Coventry’s 

red light district. 

They put into 

practice the words 

of Jesus: speaking 

good news, 

praying, healing 

people on the 

streets. The group 

call themselves 

“HEAT” which 

stands for “Hillfields 

Evangelism 

Action Team. It’s 

raw Jesus Army 

action at its best. 

The death of Jesus is expressed dramatically at 

the Goldsmiths event 

CREATIVITY has been one of 

the hallmarks of our approach 

to evangelism. Outdoor events 

in the centre of Coventry have 

featured music, drama, dance, 

performance-poetry, art - all with 

the aim of broadcasting the very 

good news of new life in Jesus! 

24 hour worship times have 

included psalming, painting and 

silent dance! 

The Goldsmiths event is an occasional 

“big bash” multi media 

event where we present the gospel 

in an engaging and relevant 

fashion. These times are good for 

new people to see church as it is 

meant to be: bold, alive, adventurous, 

humorous, compassionate, 

Spirit-filled and human. And 

Goldsmiths is good for all of us as 

we stretch our creative wings. JL 

Prayer by painting 


www.jesus.org.uk

5El 2El 

tr 

cPo 

tb 

DOOR TO DOOR 

It was good to receive the 

magazines and I thank God 

for your ministry. We are 

a church that evangelises 

with door to door work and 

open air crusades as well as 

having a prison ministry and 

a hospital ministry. We also 

have schemes to help disciple 

new converts and train them 

in skills like carpentry and 

computers. Please pray for us. 

A.Kalema Entebbe 

UGANDA 

MISSIONARIES 

We are full time missionaries 

spreading the gospel to the 

under privileged. We are 

involved in various projects 

such as the poor Christian 

community project. 

The total population of 

Pakistan is 157 million, of 

who 97% are Muslims. They 

have a strong hold over the 

economy and have superior 

positions in the government 

sector. Christians are deprived 

of high positions and are 

forced to do the menial jobs 

and low paid work. Christians 

can’t get high ranks in the 

army, Navy or Air Force or 

Police. This is part of the 

constitution of Pakistan. 

Many Christian children 

are deprived and illiterate 

and families struggle to meet 

expenses. I am an evangelist 

working among these people 

and helping them through 

their conflicts and problems 

– both spiritual and financial. 

Name and address supplied 

PAKISTAN 

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SWISS PILGRIMS 

We are a Christian community 

with our administrative office 

in Switzerland and three 

branches both in France and 

Israel. Do you know whether 

Trevor Saxby’s book, Pilgrims 

of a Common Life, has ever 

been translated into German? 

Looking forward to hearing 

from you. 

A. Joss 

SWITZERLAND 

BIG PROBLEM 

Greetings. I am a Liberian 

refugee, living in Algeria 

and a Christian. I have a big 

problem here because the 

country is an Islamic one so 

things are difficult for me in 

my faith. I don’t have a Bible 

so I ask for your prayers. 

Name and address supplied 

ALGERIA 

NIGERIAN WORK 

I wish to express my sincere 

appreciation of the good 

work that God is performing 

through the Jesus Army. 

God is using the Jesus Army 

to touch lives from many 

different backgrounds, races 

and orientations. The love and 

joy of the community vision is 

worth spreading to other parts 

of the globe. 

I have spent a year in the 

northern part of Nigeria – in 

an Islamic state where sharia 

law is enforced. I participated 

in a hospital and prison 

ministry, teaching the way of 

Christ to Muslims. At present, 

I am in eastern Nigeria, 

dominated by Christians, but 

there is still a need for more 

revolutionary work to be done 

as most of the church has 

been diluted and adulterated. 

C. Amaefula 

NIGERIA 

GREAT WORK 

Thanks very much for 

remembering us and regularly 

sending us the Jesus Army 

magazine and Streetpaper. I 

was really impressed by you 

when I was in the UK and I 

am sure that when I go to the 

UK again I will be in contact 

with you. I think you are doing 

a great work. 

M.Ramsis 

EGYPT 

HIV LOVE 

I am involved in a ministry 

among children who are HIV/ 

AIDS affected or destitute. We 

have a home for them and 

are able to supply them with 

free food, accommodation, 

clothing and education – as 

well as the love of Christ. 

I liked your Jesus Army web 

page and found it useful to us! 

F.Solomon Tamil Nadu 

INDIA 

RED CROSS 

I was in London on July 23 

and saw your presentation on 

Trafalgar Square. I purchased 

a black tee shirt with a small 

red cross on the left breast. 

I wore it to church and our 

worship team really liked it. Do 

you have more? I would like 

to order some for shipment to 

Honolulu, where I live. 

J.Hochberg Honolulu 

HAWAII 



adical pioneer 

ANTONY was a true pioneer, 

whose influence is still felt 

today. Born in Egypt about AD 

251, his parents died when he 

was young, leaving him a small 

fortune. One day he heard a 

Christian quote Jesus’ words: If 

you would be perfect, go sell all 

you have, give to the poor, and 

come follow Me (Matt.19:21). 

They cut him like a knife. He 

sold his estate and became the 

disciple of a godly pastor. 

Yet his heart grew restless. He 

didn’t belong to the world he 

saw around him. He felt a strong 

pull to the desert beyond the 

Nile. Here hot and cold, flood 

and drought engaged men in 

a daily, physical battle for life 

itself. To Antony, this mirrored 

the human soul in its battle 

between flesh and spirit, love 

for God and love of self. Here 

too was a pioneering adventure, 

where only the real would make 

it. 

So Antony went to live alone 

in the desert. Friends sent food 

every few days; the rest depended 

on his survival skills. His 

experiences were later dictated 

to a follower - and what reading 

they make! He fought boredom 

and guilt, sexual temptations 

and hunger for possessions. He 

gives graphic accounts of battles 

with demons, but also of sweet 

times of intimate communion 

with Jesus. He also learned the 

importance of manual work for 

focussing the mind; he wove 

reed baskets and sold them in 

town. 

Gradually his reputation 

spread, and men came to 

the desert to be near Antony. 

Reluctantly, in AD 305, he left 

his solitude and spent six years 

drawing these disciples into a 

community of hermits. In time, 

some 5,000 were with him. They 

lived alone or in pairs in the 

week, then came together on 

Sundays for worship, fellowship 

and mutual support. He taught 

them the foundational principles 

that he had based his own 

life on: love, patience, celibacy, 

gentleness and humility. Hate 

all peace that comes from the 

flesh, he taught. Gain your 

brother, and you have gained 

God. Offend your brother, and 

you sin against Christ. 

Finally, Antony withdrew 

deeper into the desert, where 

he lived to be 102. He appeared 

only twice: to strengthen persecuted 

brethren in Alexandria, 

and (at 101) to preach against 

a dangerous heresy. His burial 

place was kept secret, since he 

feared men’s idolatry. Today, 

Antony is acknowledged as the 

father of the monastic life; the 

man who broke the mould and 

let passion for Jesus create a 

new, living ‘wineskin’ for the 

Holy Spirit’s life. 

In the 4th Century, an 

astonishing movement of 

revolutionary Christianity 

started - in the desert. 

IN OCTOBER 312, the Roman Emperor, 

Constantine, claimed that the Christians’ 

God had helped him crush his enemies 

and secure power at the Battle of 

Milvian Bridge. This marked the end of 

persecution and the apparent promotion 

of the Church to a privileged position in 

society. “Christendom” was born – the 

Church was wedded to the political 

power of the day. 

In reality, Christendom was a dreadful 

deception. The Church for the most 

part abandoned its call to be a countercultural 

embodiment of the Kingdom of 

Jesus - which He had described as “not 

of this world”. Empire and Church were 

mingled. The proclamation of the gospel 

was largely drowned out in the clamour 

of the marching feet of imperial armies. 

“Love your enemies” morphed into “slay 

the barbarian”. 

Some, however, 

resisted this 

development. Men such 

as Antony, Pachomius 

and Macarius and 

other Desert Fathers 

forsook wealth and 

influence and moved 

to the desert. Here 

they formed visionary 

communities which 

demonstrated the need 

for God’s people to be 

an alternative culture 

to the violent, powerhungry 

world system. 

Egypt in the 4th Century 


www.jesus.org.uk

FATHER 

to thousands 

PACHOMIUS was born 

in Egypt about AD 291. As a 

young man he was press-ganged 

into the Roman army. One day 

some Christians showed such 

care to his unit that he determined 

to find Jesus himself. He 

was converted in his twenties. 

In AD 318, he was walking in the 

desert when he felt God prompt 

him to found a monastery at 

that very spot (an old Roman 

fort called Tabennisi). So he and 

a friend did just that. 

Numbers grew rapidly, and in 

time there were seven monasteries 

for men and two for women, 

several numbering over a thousand 

souls! There were major 

underground healer 

differences between Tabennisi 

and the collection of hermits that 

St Antony had formed. This was 

a carefully structured organisation 

where the brothers lived 

together at all times, followed a 

Rule (set of precepts) and had 

their set jobs and ministries for 

the good of all. 

The monks lived in communal 

houses according to the 

work they did (carpentry, basket-weaving, 

etc.). Each house 

held around 40, and there might 

be 30 houses to a monastery - a 

large undertaking! There was a 

senior leader (abbot) over the 

whole monastery, and leaders 

for each house. At weekends the 

whole monastery met for worship 

and the bread and wine; in 

the week they met together in 

their houses. They wore a simple 

white tunic and shared two 

simple meals a day - unless they 

chose to fast. Their crafts and 

industry were such that they 

had their own boats on the Nile 

to ferry goods to market. 

Pachomius was a gifted 

leader. What he built was not 

equalled for 1,000 years. He 

was a deeply spiritual and loving 

man. He spoke in tongues 

and saw frequent visions, but 

kept his monks focussed: The 

greatest vision you can have, he 

taught, is of a pure and humble 

man. His leadership style was 

to insist on the same basic rules 

for everyone, for the sake of selfdiscipline, 

while encouraging 

brothers to go beyond it according 

to their zeal and strength. 

Spiritual fatherhood was a 

key issue for him. He taught 

that a leader must be a man 

of scripture, prayer, humility, 

service and miracles. In all his 

communities it was a rule that 

leaders should serve: lay tables, 

answer the door, and tend the 

sick. He led the way himself. He 

truly loved the monks as sons, 

frequently addressing them as 

‘my little children’. No wonder 

he became father to thousands. 

MACARIUS 

was born in Egypt in 

AD 300, of Christian 

parents. He had 

a soft conscience 

and strong sense of 

justice. He was called 

the “aged youth” in 

his village, because 

he had great spiritual 

wisdom even in his 

twenties. For a while 

he worked as a 

camel-drover, but in 

330 he withdrew to 

the desert and sought 

out St Anthony to 

disciple him. 

He relocated to 

Scetis, south-west of 

the Nile Delta, and at 

first lived as a hermit. 

But soon other men 

were joining themselves 

to him and a 

community began. 

It was particularly 

active in healing ministry. 

People from far 

and wide made their 

way to the desert 

to be prayed for by 

Macarius. According 

to his biographer, 

there was an average 

of five or six healings 

a day. He always had 

other monks with 

him, to learn healing. 

He also taught them 

to use spiritual gifts 

of words and discernment. 

Sometimes 

Macarius withdrew 

– with the help of an 

underground passage 

to a remote cave 

– because he heard 

the praise of men. 

Another mark of 

his community was 

fatherly humanity. 

He urged full renunciation 

of money and 

property on all the 

monks, but at times 

broke his own rules 

out of love. Once he 

travelled to Alexandria 

in person to 

buy some sherbet to 

soothe the throat of 

a young brother who 

had fever. 

The third characteristic 

was Macarius’ 

stress on the Holy 

Spirit. Every Christian 

should pray to be 

filled with the Holy 

Spirit, because it is 

the Spirit who transforms 

us and stamps 

us with Christ’s image, 

“as a gold coin 

is imprinted with the 

king’s image and is 

then fit for the royal 

treasury”. 

Macarius was deported 

for a time, but 

returned to Scetis, 

where he died in his 

nineties. 

JL 


‘MONK’ 

MODERN 

NELSON-LIKE on his fifty-foot rocky 

pillar in the Syrian desert, Simeon 

Stylites was the celebrity saint of 

the fifth century. The pillar was his home 

for thirty-six years without roof or shelter: 

crowds flocked to hear him speak, emperors 

climbed the ladder to seek his advice, and 

– most mind-boggling of all – other seekers 

joined him, on their own stony pillars. 

In his childhood-fantasy world, Jake 

dreamed of becoming a famous mystic or 

orator like Simeon. Or a famous politician. 

Then again, perhaps a writer – or a footballer? 

Whatever – he was going to make his 

mark on the world. 

But in fact, Jake was an insecure child. 

After having lived with his bohemian 

parents in Spain in his very early years, he 

arrived at respectable Hertfordshire and the 

respectable school of a respectable village. 

The alternative young “hippy” was considered 

to be “out of control”. This, combined 

with his asthma and eczema, alienated Jake. 

Behind the walls of his imaginary world, he 

“showed them all”, but reality was bleak. 

His teens brought bravado: Jake “reinvented 

himself” and began to be seen as the 

leader he ached to be. Politics became the 

big thing. Seeing a poor man in Portugal 

wash himself in a muddy puddle and other 


www.jesus.org.uk

Part of a messedup, 

“fatherless 

generation”, 

God’s healing 

has enabled Jake 

Organ to father 

others through 

the genius 

of celibacy 

and Christian 

community. 

experiences had made a deep impression 

on him. His anger at the world, combined 

with his desire to make his mark on it, 

forged in him dreams of becoming a Marxist 

hero. And he began to drink. At thirteen. 

By sixteen, the “reinvention” was well 

underway. “My first year at tertiary college 

in Harlow was a good year in all the wrong 

ways”, Jake now says. “Parties and raves, 

acid, dope and drink. And women became 

a feature. I was the leader of the pack, but 

I began to have these 

Jake dreamed of becoming a 

famous mystic or orator 

strange feelings about 

it all: I began to despise 

my friends as the very 

kind of people who had 

rejected me in my childhood.” 

More than this, Jake had begun to despise 

himself “for being shallow and for using 

people, especially girls”. As Jake’s gang 

became increasingly submerged in drink, 

drugs and violence, his life became a tangle 

of lies. In the chaos, Jake started to wonder 

who he really was. 

Still, a talent for exams got him good 

enough A levels to go to Cambridge. “I used 

to enjoy giving everything up three weeks 

before an exam and totally focusing myself”, 

Jake recalls. (Something of Simeon Stylites 

lingered under the drink and drugs.) The 

successful image preserved, Jake moved on. 

But the Harlow street-fighter didn’t really fit 

in with the independent-school types who 

strolled around the college backs. Jake left 

Cambridge, three years later, with depression, 

a barely-contained drink-drug habit, 

and a degree in History. 

Jake and his Harlow crew had put on a 

huge party in the summer of 1991, “the 

legendary rave summer”. Jake was in his 

element, “a god among gods”; but all night 

he kept thinking of a song he’d sung at 

school. “Who is the Lord of the Dance?” he 

kept asking his mates. They thought he was 

losing his mind. And he was – but he was 

also beginning to perceive Someone calling, 

through the cloud of confusion. 

Aged 21, Jake set off for India, the land of 

mystics and seekers. Not that he saw himself 

as a “seeker”. Ironically, the first thing he 

found in India was the Western drugs scene. 

Nevertheless, a brush with death in the Hindu 

holy city of Varanasi – Jake, high on drugs, 

fell off a tall building – and an encounter with 

an Indian Christian who, as he remembers, 

“looked into my eyes and just seemed to 

know me” began to reach through to him. 

He had no money and was “living on 

blag”. In Manali, in the Himalayas, – “the 

most beautiful place in earth” – Jake 

found himself hanging out with 

some of the most dubious characters 

on earth (or at least, in Manali). 

One day, he felt an asthma attack 

coming on and realised that if he 

passed out his dodgy companions 

could hardly be relied upon to look 

after him. 

Beginning 

to panic, he 

glanced out of 

the window 

at the majestic mountains and a 

thought hit him – there was no way that such 

beauty could have happened by chance. 

There had to be a God. At the precise moment 

of this revelation, Jake’s lungs cleared. 

From this time on, Jake knew that God 

was real and started to look for other signs 

of His reality. 

Back in the UK, however, life began to 

unravel fast as the years of pandemonium 

took their toll. He ended up in psychiatric 

hospital, having reached the brink of 

suicide. “I’m not allowed to tell you this”, 

whispered the ward sister, “but it was Jesus 

who brought you here!” Jake was getting the 

message loud and clear. 

Once discharged, Jake went along to a 

local Anglican church. “I can tell he’s just 

proud and stuffy”, he thought about the 

vicar. A moment later, the vicar’s mouth fell 

open, he gasped and staggered backwards 

in his pulpit. The sermon quickly ended, 

but the next week, the same vicar explained 

how he’d met God as he’d been preaching 

– and that God had told him that he was 

proud and stuffy. “I know that the reality of 

God has begun to change me”, announced 

the vicar, who then invited people forward 

to receive prayer. Jake pressed forward 

and burst into tears as all the pain of his 

childhood came back to him. “Let Me touch 

this”, God seemed to say, and Jake experienced 

an incredible sensation of healing. It 

was his conversion moment. 

After the initial euphoria, Jake realised 

with horror that he had to be a Christian 

now: “What do you actually do as a Christian?” 

But when a rehab worker took Jake to 

Living Faith, the Jesus Army’s community 

house in Oxford, Jake immediately found 

the answer to his question and the destination 

of the journey he’d been on. It was 

November 1994 and Jake was 23. 

Three months later, Jake was baptised 

and moved into Living Faith; two and a half 

years later, he made a vow of celibacy. “One 

of the ways that celibacy really inspired me 

is the way it proclaims Jesus”, says Jake. 

“I can say: you may think you know about 

Jesus, but he’s captivated me. I’m married 

to Him: He’s truly the Son of God.” And 

Christian community? “It’s spiritual family. 

And it shows that the heart of God towards 

people is central to our faith: unless you 

discover how to lay down your life for others 

you haven’t understood Christianity”. Jake 

describes his explorations of celibacy and 

community as a journey from a (Simeonlike) 

“solitary mystic” ideal to a new vision: 

a big-hearted lover of people; a “father” who 

lays his life down in love. 

JL 



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Saturday 25 March 2006 

11:00am, 11:30am, 12:45pm, 

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Jesus Centre, 

Abington Square 

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t: 0845 123 5550 e: info@jesus.org.uk www.jesus.org.uk

Jesus Life hears 

from grassroots mJa 

members about what 

makes them bubble 

with excitement... and 

what makes them boil 

with rage. 

“Those who breach an ASBO 

need to receive a substantial 

sentence that impacts on their 

freedom.” [Northampton 

Chronicle and Echo] 

WE HAVE a new scourge in 

society with their hoodies and 

baseball caps, rebels without a 

cause – ASBOs the media calls 

them: Anti Social Behaviour 

Orders. 

Many fit the basic criteria: 

wear the wrong clothes and look 

offensive. Hoodies are banned. 

All those “worthless human 

beings”, “clearly up to no good”, 

these “yobs”, these “problem 

youths”. “They’re bad, they’re 

sick, they’re dirt! Give them 

what they deserve!” 

What about taking action to 

give them something better 

rather than spending months or 

even years just trying to name 

and shame? 

Attention is now also steering 

towards what are known as 

BABY ASBOs for children under 

the age of ten. 

Unloved, from broken 

families, gangs on large council 

estates – does anyone care? 

The eyes and ears of the 

respectable community see 

them as yobs and hate them; 

they want their names on a list 

and to see these young men arrested 

– just wearing the wrong 

clothes? Hanging around? No 

wonder the lads feel they’ve 

been rejected, placed low and 

therefore they fight for space, 

sorting out their own status, doing 

what they want. 

“It’s not just about curtailing 

these young people, it’s about 

letting the community know 

that we are taking their concerns 

seriously and that action 

will be taken.” [Northampton 

Chronicle and Echo] 

So what about us loving 

them instead of just “curtailing” 

them? What about “taking 

action” to give them something 

better? 

Jesus loves and forgives. He’s 

a friend of the ASBOs. He wants 

to give them all a new style. And 

it’s a better style than the stuck 

up, self-righteous hypocrisy of 

many lawyers, Home Secretaries, 

most MPs, some senior 

police officers, and countless 

local government authorities. 

- Sam Nichols 

WELL, I’ve been shouted at, 

screamed at, told that I was into 

idol worship and all because 

I wear a red cross. Positive 

response, eh? There is no doubt 

that the red cross provokes 

reactions and I’m glad it does. 

What kind of Christian would I 

be if I was ashamed to promote 

the cause of Jesus and rave 

about what He has done in my 

life! Come on! The red cross 

flies in the face of mainstream 

Christianity that hides behind 

its “niceness”. I don’t want to 

be a nice Christian; I want to 

be a disciple. You may think 

that I have a bit of an attitude 

about this issue – well I do! By 

wearing my red cross I am not 

making some kind of fatuous 

fashion statement, I am saying 

that I identify with Jesus and 

the resurrection power that He 

has given to all who believe in 

Him. How could you find that 

offensive? And yet people do, 

lots of them do. 

The red cross intrigues people, 

it’s a talking point and it 

certainly attracts attention. One 

time when I was evangelising in 

Brighton, a woman came up to 

me and told me that she hated 

my cross. I was glad she did, it 

stirred her into reacting. The 

cross represents who I am and 

who I was truly made to be. I 

want to be flamboyant and bold 

in my display of it, because it 

speaks without me having to 

say a word. One last time: I love 

wearing a red cross. 

- Claire Mallon JL

At the Jesus 

Fellowship Praise- 

Day in Sheffield, 

people were 

invited to renew 

their baptismal 

pledge to God in 

a dramatic way. 

A large trough of 

water was placed 

at the front of 

the auditorium. 

Those who 

wanted to offer 

their actions to 

God again, were 

called to dip their 

hands in the 

water; those who 

wanted to offer 

their thinking to 

Him, their heads. 

Many took the 

opportunity 

to rededicate 

themselves to 

God in this way.

Jesus Life 71 Quarter one 2006 - The Jesus Army

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