Fire in our hearts - The Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTSCOMMUNICATE!go for a walkabout. It was a chance to see how green thegrass was outside.Visiting new churches broadened my outlook, but I missedthe ‘gutsy’ types I’d grown to love in the Jesus Army. Theabsence of tattoos, weird haircuts, nose-rings, lace-lesssquaddy boots and friendship bands made me a little homesickamongst the well-mannered, the groomed and the beautiful.There were exceptions, but it struck me how hard theaverage Christian finds it to relate to people ‘on the level’.Hence so few of the liberated, the outrageous and the different.I missed the raw energy of the sons of thunder.And where on earth was the church on Monday? Seriously.I tried the Yellow Pages. The City Christian Fellowship or theLord’s Community Church sounded tasty, but all I got was arecorded invite to the Sunday meeting. I could be dead bythen! In the early days at Bugbrooke we met six nights a weekand God led us into a kingdom culture. I knew that withoutsuch an ever-present alternative many of our guys would nevermake it. Nor would I. The church was in my blood. ‘Zion’ wasmy life, my dream, the fabric of my soul.Fortunately, the brethren at home proved more accommodatingthan first appeared. After meeting some good peopleand tasting a little of the sweetness elsewhere, I found myselfback at Wembley. Back to excitement and colour; to flashinglights and videos, to fast-moving programmes and to wildand tattooed youngsters. To loud music and to noise. To noise!‘Oh God’, I groaned, ‘do we really need all this?’My mind turned to pleasant house-groups, to quiet earlynights in my own room, to undisturbed morning meditations,(Ah!) and to the sweet freedom of sunny October days.339