web mag.indd - Jesus Army

DAVE LEE sat in the church pew and listened as
his father preached a sermon on ‘the faith of my
father and my father’s father before him.’
“I was fifteen,” Dave explains. “Listening to Dad, I
found myself thinking: ‘If your faith is your grandfather’s
and your father’s faith then it’s a second-hand faith and
therefore no faith at all. I need my own faith.’”
Dave’s grandfather had been refused work because
of his stand as a conscientious objector in the First
World War. Dave’s father had left behind a career as an
industrial chemist to be obedient to God’s call to be a
full-time minister. His mother was from a Quaker family
and famed locally for her kindness. They had given Dave
an example of costly Christian sacrifice – but what about
his own faith?
Dave didn’t have to search very far, or for very long.
At his school in Daventry, near Northampton, there were
active Christians in his year, who introduced him to the
Jesus Fellowship. At that time the Fellowship could still
fit its entire congregation inside Bugbrooke village Baptist
chapel – where Dave now found his spiritual home.
“As the son of a minister, who didn’t like sports, other
kids tended to put me in a special category, so I was a
rather withdrawn teenager and I hadn’t really fitted in
at school,” explains Dave. “My personality was very reserved
and introspective – I was a bit of a boff, I suppose,
without many real friends. I gave myself to the things I
knew I could cope with like chess and maths: things like
these were my hidey-holes. Then I walked into the chapel
and found a place where I felt totally accepted – not as
‘the minister’s son’, but as myself. That was important to
me. Now I had my own identity.”
As soon as he was 18, Dave was baptised. A small
number of the congregation had begun to pioneer allthings-in-common
community and forty days later, Dave
left home to join them. He lived at the very first big community
house, New Creation Hall, later moving to Living
Stones just six months after it was started.
“No sooner had I moved into community than I
started to pick up practical responsibilities in the church.
At first they were small ones like duplicating the notice
sheet. Then, in 1985, we bought a marquee and I took
on responsibility for sorting out the electrical power for
the events, starting with floodlights and progressing to
fluorescent lights attached to beams.”
Soon the marquee was being taken all over England
and Dave was travelling to ten different venues between
April and September, with many of the campaigns lasting
for ten days.
“I would leave work at lunchtime on Friday to go
straight to the marquee to set up for the big Saturday
night meeting and return the following Sunday to take
everything down.”
Dave, now 48, is the longest-serving member of the
‘tent team’ and still shins up 28 feet of king pole to fix
lights. He estimates that since he joined the church, 32
years ago, he has probably worked on the marquee for
155 campaigns, normally sleeping in the marquee. Campaigns
in some places required a punishing schedule,
often leaving home in the early hours to arrive on site for
8am, sometimes after three hours driving, but nowadays
these are infrequent.
Dave’s practical contribution is indispensable to the
church but he says that his true role is not up a ladder, far
away from people, but with his feet firmly on the ground
among other people – as a shepherd and a friend.
“Living in community has kept me human. If I wasn’t
in community, given that I’m so ‘things orientated’ I
would be a technical geek, knowing every last detail of
all kinds of practical gismos, but having no real relationships
with any living person.”
Much of Dave’s ability to relate to those who are
having a hard time with their walk with God comes from
a time some years ago when Dave himself had something
of a crisis.
“Our spiritual ‘dad’ on the tent team, Pete, died suddenly
of a heart attack. The whole church was devastated,
especially those like myself to whom Pete
had been such a wonderful friend and role-model.
We relied on him so much. And this followed two
leaders that I was close to leaving.
“Everything seemed to be falling apart.
Things seemed very bleak for a while, but in
that bleakness I began to realise that I didn’t
have to be ‘Wonderman’. For years I had taken the
line: ‘God is on our side so everything will go well.’
Finding out that this was not always so was devastating.
One Sunday night I cleared off from the community
house I’d moved to in 1985 and went to stay at Living
Stones where I spent hours just sharing my heart with a
trusted brother there. In the end, I stayed at Living Stones
and I’ve been there ever since.
“Through it all, I came to accept that God loves me in
spite of my failings – and from this came a much deeper
acceptance of others who haven’t done everything completely
right.”
And vision for the future? “My biggest concern about the
future is that we may lose our edge - which has happened
historically to thousands of churches. We must make sure
that God’s Spirit is free to move, turn things upside down
and change things. If I ever get to the stage when I think
‘I don’t want things to change’ then I’ll kill the very thing
that attracted me to this church in the first place.
“Over the last couple of years, I’ve been really blessed
to see the younger ones at Living Stones, a new generation,
moving the church forward. The grandfather’s and
the father’s faith has been passed on to sons. We have a
future.”
“I’ve been
really blessed
to see a new
generation
moving
the church
forward”
Jesus Fellowship UK / modern Jesus army
national
e v e n t s
Info: Jesus Fellowship, FREEPOST, Nether Heyford, Northampton NN7 3BR
t: 0845 123 5550 e: info@jesus.org.uk www.jesus.org.uk
all free
all welcome
no prejudice
POWER FESTIVAL
WEEKEND
Fri 26 - Mon 29 May
Giant Marquee,
Cornhill Manor,
Pattishall
NORTHAMPTON
UK MULTIPLY
INTERNATIONAL
LEADERS
CONFERENCE
Saturday 3 June 2006
Jesus Centre,
Abington Square
NORTHAMPTON
LONDON
JESUS DAY
Saturday 8 July
Trafalgar Square
LONDON
UK JESUS
CELEBRATION
Saturday 29 July
Jesus Centre,
Abington Square
NORTHAMPTON
WINNING FESTIVAL
WEEKEND
Fri 25 - Mon 28 August
Giant Marquee,
Cornhill Manor,
Pattishall
NORTHAMPTON