Fire in our hearts - Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTS
ON THE MARCH
on which we had approached the EA. On that basis, we felt,
many others could be disqualified from membership. Anyway,
enforced resignation was an unusual way to strengthen
relationships!
However, the EA prided itself on being an alliance of member
churches at a local as well as a national level. In their
view, the word ‘alliance’ hardly described our position. The
Council sent Noel a letter assuring him that the question was
not one of orthodoxy but of whether continued membership
of the EA was desirable. On other matters they ‘had no wish
to sit in judgement’. It seemed as if they were washing their
hands of us. A saddened Noel wrote back:
Is it not surprising that a saga, which began with our advising
EA of a defamatory pamphlet and requesting their support,
should end with the EA virtually dismissing us?...
The EA has found this church an embarrassment because of
opposition we are attracting in our stand for scriptural holiness...
The issues were:
1 Are the critics using lies, distortions, and unbalanced
comment, and should they be reproved?
2 Is this smear campaign in the Spirit of Christ?
Our appeal for support had been rejected. It felt like being
handed over to our ‘crucifiers’. Once again we experienced
pain and humiliation. But the path of suffering would lead on
to fruitfulness.
And so, in 1986, the Jesus Fellowship Church resigned from
the Evangelical Alliance. When Buzz magazine interviewed
Clive Calver, he was conciliatory: ‘We have encouraged the
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