Fire in our hearts - The Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTSCOMMUNICATE!The ‘highly charged’ atmosphere at Wembley was notunique. The reporter noted that, ‘hundreds of such gatheringstook place last year’. Her research ranged from JohnWimber, ex jazz-player, to George Carey, the new Archbishopof Canterbury; from the Evangelical Alliance and March forJesus to new churches like Ichthus and Jesus Fellowship.She judged that ‘the continuing ascent of the evangelicalscan only be accelerated this year’. The press had been alertedto an ‘extraordinary charismatic renewal worldwide’ — andit was transforming church life in the UK.There was now a strong sense of destiny for Britain. The emptymaterialism of the 80s had produced a huge reaction and spiritualhunger was taking millions into drugs, mysticism andthe occult. It was also drawing them to Jesus. As the mediatravelled from New Age sites like Findhorn, Glastonbury andStonehenge, to the Jesus marches, Christian festivals and celebrations,they noted a major spiritual uprising in the UK.We were in for an interesting decade as New Church andNew Age movements both gathered momentum.Fresh winds were also blowing into the more traditionalChurch of England. But whatever form church life took, itneeded to be sufficiently anointed and relevant to reach people.The Daily Mirror had told the story of Frankie, one of agroup of warm hearted and quick-witted young men whomthe Farm brothers first met as homeless rogues in London:Frankie McGaughey, 19, had already served 11 months for burglaryand was on the run with an 18-month suspended sentence330