Fire in our hearts - The Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTSCOMMUNICATE!sequences and hundreds of slides, statistics and newsreelitems. All had to be orchestrated through a relay of headsets.As the deadline loomed, the autumn stress levels gave ampleopportunity for abiding in Christ. Talk about team effort!One inspiration was to use a group of ‘searchers’ dressedin brown hessian clothes that represented their various backgrounds.A young couple who’d lived as new-agers in Cornwallspent their spare evenings making hippie gear out ofsackcloth. Others created suits, African dress, even a bowlerhat and brolly, all out of sacking material!When the big day eventually arrived, we all hit the groundrunning. Wembley opened with a leaders’ breakfast and continuedthrough two long sessions of guest speakers, musicand sketches. After refuelling at teatime we fastened oursafety belts for four hours of non-stop, multimedia action.Jesus Live was nothing if not a sensory experience. If thetheme was creation, the audience had to see, taste and smellit as stewards passed round grapes and sprayed us all withstrawberry mist! If our worship was as ‘fragrant incense rising’,they were there again, swinging some smoking objectsthat looked decidedly Catholic. Boring it was not.During the praise there was a mass distribution of fluorescentyellow cloths and red crosses. Ultraviolet in the darknot only highlighted an impressive praise wave and 2,000glowing crosses but did amazing things for my white shirt!But this was no mere extravaganza. There was tenderness.Through deeply moving songs and images we felt, with thesearchers, the pain, the outrage and the shame. Rob sanggently:369