Fire in our hearts - The Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTSCITY ON A HILLdull uniformity where great experiments of this kind arefeared...’ 59Lewis visited us and prepared an article which later appearedin the Baptist Times:When I arrived, Noel was out in the fields working. He came in,mud all over his gum-boots, and gave me the shy, welcomingsmile I remembered so well... He is still the same quiet, deepman, but one held by a vision that by the Spirit the church is tobe a visible and powerful expression of the kingdom of God...Most of the criticism of the community has been unfair anduninformed, and some has been malicious. Bugbrooke is notperfect. Noel Stanton is not always right. But it is a bold ventureof faith...First, it is a genuine effort to express the Gospel in practice...Second, it is a lay movement... every member plays his part...Third, it reveals the kingdom of God as a true alternative andrevolutionary society.Fourth, for the Jesus Fellowship, mission and community areinseparable...Fifth, it is a dynamic and ongoing movement...At last week’s Baptist Union assembly it was said that God isdoing a new thing... If we are not too afraid of change to lift upour eyes to see, we may well be considerably enriched, whetherwe follow the Bugbrooke pattern or not. 60Dave ‘Resolute’, who was becoming our PR man, went roundvisiting Christian leaders like Arthur Wallis, Roger Forsterand Gerald Coates. One day Dave and I sat down in Gerald’shome at Cobham. His openness impressed me and I smiled at199