Fire in our hearts - Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTS
COMMUNICATE!
The ‘highly charged’ atmosphere at Wembley was not
unique. The reporter noted that, ‘hundreds of such gatherings
took place last year’. Her research ranged from John
Wimber, ex jazz-player, to George Carey, the new Archbishop
of Canterbury; from the Evangelical Alliance and March for
Jesus to new churches like Ichthus and Jesus Fellowship.
She judged that ‘the continuing ascent of the evangelicals
can only be accelerated this year’. The press had been alerted
to an ‘extraordinary charismatic renewal worldwide’ — and
it was transforming church life in the UK.
There was now a strong sense of destiny for Britain. The empty
materialism of the 80s had produced a huge reaction and spiritual
hunger was taking millions into drugs, mysticism and
the occult. It was also drawing them to Jesus. As the media
travelled from New Age sites like Findhorn, Glastonbury and
Stonehenge, to the Jesus marches, Christian festivals and celebrations,
they noted a major spiritual uprising in the UK.
We were in for an interesting decade as New Church and
New Age movements both gathered momentum.
Fresh winds were also blowing into the more traditional
Church of England. But whatever form church life took, it
needed to be sufficiently anointed and relevant to reach people.
The Daily Mirror had told the story of Frankie, one of a
group of warm hearted and quick-witted young men whom
the Farm brothers first met as homeless rogues in London:
Frankie McGaughey, 19, had already served 11 months for burglary
and was on the run with an 18-month suspended sentence
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