Fire in our hearts - Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTS
NEW GENERATION
self-righteousness and were hot on brotherhood. Many were
keen to embrace a life of purity, often in stark contrast to the
way they’d been. Members of ‘Generation J’ were as uninhibited
in their Jesus life as they’d been in their sin. What’s more
they were daring.
Youth was not our only mission field. A typical Jesus Army
meeting was a fair cross-section of humanity. However we
still reached far too few people considering the current openness
to God. ‘Come to us’ was the old mindset. This usually
meant church on Sunday. The Jesus mindset was ‘go to them’;
sit where they sit, meet where they meet — whether in streets,
shops, pubs or homes.
Evangelistic though we were, outreach-orientated though
we’d become, our focus had always been on community
houses. Get people along to the houses and they would find
life. God corrected this. The way we were now growing, community
folk were the minority. The focus swung out to the
wider congregation. Congregation, not just community, was
church. With an expectation of a spontaneous people movement,
it was foolish to think otherwise. Could we even keep
up with a revival movement, let alone hang it round community?
Our vision and structure adapted to maximise involvement
with the people. Those in their own homes were well placed
to network with locals. Revivals usually ran along the lines of
family and friendship. Homes provided great opportunities
to meet people and home-based cell groups could grow up
into small congregations. We now baptised anyone, anywhere,
who had faith in Jesus. Covenant membership was our strong
heart, but anyone who loved us belonged. We were inclusive.
398