Fire in our hearts - The Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTSCOMMUNICATE!Dave’s warm-hearted support provoked a fresh burst of controversyin the magazine 21st Century Christian. The editorhad to call a halt to the avalanche of letters with a final wordfrom John Noble pointing out: ‘All the criticisms of Noel Stantonand the Jesus Army were also made of William Booth andthe Salvation Army.’ 101John stepped forward at a crucial time for us. As a pioneerin the house churches himself, he was convinced that God’sagenda was far wider than restorationism, renewalism, orany other ‘ism’. We were grateful for his support, for this wasno time to be isolated and ostracised.Criticisms continued to come our way but it was the heartto heart exchanges, the integrity of Jesus Lifestyle, our compassionateoutreach and the genuine efforts to ‘pursue peacewith all men’ that helped soften suspicions about the JesusArmy. It might take a few years and we wouldn’t please everybody(sharp swords aren’t meant to!) but, as Roger Forsterassured us, many now admired what we were doing.The Spirit brought a surge of creativity in the whole area ofcommunication. Photographers, writers and editors; art, designand graphics bods; technicians, musicians and songwritersall put their talents to work. Rufus came into his own inprophetic drama and a host of prop-makers arose in his train.John ‘Good’, the part-time cattleman, played stage managerfor the Celebrate Jesus events. (When the smoke-machinewent wrong, John was to blame!)We developed our own Jesus Fellowship Resources. An oldouthouse at Sheepfold Grange was converted into a soundstudio where Andy, the lead-guitarist, edited some live wor-305