Fire in our hearts - Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTS
COMMUNICATE!
hair cut, take your earrings out, get a Cliff Richard smile.” We
say it’s the heart that’s important.’ 114
Charismatic worship had made some amazing inroads into
the churches yet the mood was too often white, western, middle-class
and selfish. So many were good with the comfortable,
but not so bright with the outsiders and rebels.
During the 60s Jesus Movement in America many in the
counterculture found in Jesus their model revolutionary —
the Messiah who kicked the old system and established the
new. Sadly few evangelicals were big enough to accommodate
their unconventional zeal. Some of the hippies became
cult fanatics. Others fizzled out. Those who stood were often
isolated in a youth-culture which lacked the breadth of God’s
real alternative.
The searchers of the 60s found the establishment a turnoff.
But things were changing. God’s Spirit was breaking the
chains of culture and freeing his people emotionally.
At our first Marquee campaign in Liverpool, Noel spoke of
three breakthroughs — in the heavens, on the streets and in
the church. The angelic war had been engaged and God’s
power was breaking through. Hearts were hungry as never
before. The 60s Jesus Movement had barely touched this country
but now a new wave was on its way. Thousands would find
God at festivals, on the beaches and in the streets. This was
God’s hour for the church as one favourite hymn declared:
332