Fire in our hearts - Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTS
CITY ON A HILL
attract the world to an alternate society and a counter-culture
and a way of life that they are looking for.’ 62
Gilbert Kirby paid us a visit, too. He was then General Secretary
of the Evangelical Alliance. Michael Harper also came
and asked Stanley Jebb, the minister of New Covenant Church
in Dunstable, to write an article on us for Renewal.
Stanley Jebb attributed our comparative success to strength
of leadership and careful shepherding, to the application of
the Scriptures, to holiness and to covenant loyalty. The criticism,
he reckoned, stemmed mainly from gossip and ignorance
of the real facts. ‘The church is orthodox in doctrine.
Being different is not the same as being heretical...’ he wrote.
He saw the danger of the Jesus Fellowship becoming isolationist.
But he said there was also the ‘danger’ of ‘having our
way of life challenged, our horizons widened, and our understanding
of Scripture tested, if much contact is made with
the Bugbrooke Fellowship. Some are not willing for this, so
they stay away.’ 63
By the autumn we were evangelising in Milton Keynes and
had bought Promise House in Coventry, and Faith House in
Leicester. The Fellowship was on the move and becoming increasingly
public. Dave ‘Resolute’ was now editing our magazine,
Newness, which explained our biblical basis and conveyed
our radical vision to others.
Arthur Wallis and Gerald Coates were amongst those who
called in. Our bridge-building efforts had broken the ice, but
where larger, more visionary men saw in us a venture of faith,
many still treated us with caution, or even contempt.
Dave wrote in Evangelism Today:
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