Fire in our hearts - The Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTSNEW GENERATIONpositive note (maybe coloured by the fact that Mary from PalmTree had just agreed to marry me!):Jan 4: The year of the people. Away with spiritual snobbery! Inwith Jesus, the One who walks with the crowd. This is all aboutrelease — of heart and spirit — of colour and creativity. Nowadayswe are vulnerable and accessible. The flag that flies fromour turrets is stained with blood; and the more colourful, themore attractive for that. It is the warm blood of compassion.Zion may have walls. She is holy to the Lord. But her gates areopen. The drawbridge is down. The dancing is in the streets.Poetry apart, the times were good and a lot was ‘crackingoff’. At the Easter Weekend we received over 100 new memberson stage amongst a happy chaos. The Festival themesong, ‘Now the strong wind is blowing’, was backed by hailand fierce winds that shook the tent and threatened to rip itopen. To us, it symbolised a spiritual wind that was blowingever stronger in Britain.A major encouragement was the way fellowship sons likeNathan and Phil were beginning not only to come throughwith God but also to find a burning vision for community. Phil,now mentored by Rufus, gave up his place in drama schoolfor discipleship at New Creation Farm. Phil had alreadycleaned up his life; now he decided to get rid of his possessionsand follow the call of Jesus to full commitment. Nathanwas to follow.This was the break we were hoping for: a second generationnot just sticking around, but radically taking up the torch.There was also a growing number of visionary new people,375