Fire in our hearts - The Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTSthe drop-out rate. Few of the early bikers were around andsome of the hippies had fallen away. The problem was thatthese young sheep were not being shepherded enough. Oftenthe wolf picked off the solitary sheep who had been isolatedand made vulnerable.1974 was a year when the concept of shepherding was muchabroad. Good shepherding was to bring depth and cohesionto the growing charismatic churches. We needed men we couldfollow. A group were maturing among us who carried particularwisdom and love, and we felt the time had come torecognise elders. Clearly God placed in the church ‘some tobe apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists,and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s peoplefor works of service’ (Eph 4:11-12). These ministries wereemerging and we needed them desperately.We hadn’t recognised elders yet — those invited to theelders’ and deacons’ meeting assumed they were either deaconsor awed spectators! A number of originals went, includingVerna and Miss Campion. We realised that not everyonewho attended had pastoral gifts. We needed to restructurethe leadership without giving offence.The solution was simple. Our fellowship began to plan abreakdown into shepherding groups — mid-week regionalgatherings of up to thirty, designed for fellowship, caring,and ministry. During the Ashburnham retreat, we formed thegroups and laid hands on the new leaders. A senior brotherwas to be assisted by two others in pastoral leadership. Thatwas roughly ten ‘sheep’ to one ‘shepherd’.We now had a male eldership whose authority was publiclyrecognised — and frequently forgiven! (They were an imma-112