Fire in our hearts - The Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTSNEW GENERATIONwards was mainly from small apostolic teams. Ian believedthis missionary model was the way ahead for his region.When we’d first commissioned Ian to lead the new houseGod’s word to him was to ‘multiply’. Ian envisaged Sheffieldnot just as a satellite of ‘Jerusalem’ but as a new centre ofmissionary activity. He’d experienced church-building on theBugbrooke estate and in Warwickshire. Now Sheffield wasprospering and Andrzej was all set to lead a second housethere. Ian had set his sights on the regions beyond.At the present rate, planting in new territory was taking atleast three years. At that rate Ian might plant six householdsbefore he was 70. But that was using the community housemodel. We had already begun to shift the focus away fromcommunity houses to congregations. The old mindset was hardto change, but the shape of the future was going to be a churchwith a minority of community members.Ian realised that the dynamic of church planting was not inshipping in ready made communities but in the outworkingof the kingdom word. God’s messengers weren’t called totransplant; but to sow seed which would spring up, ‘first thestalk, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear’ (Mk 4:28).At Bugbrooke the steps into community had been slow andsteady. Noel had steered the Northampton base through along and, at times, turbulent history. Ian could hardly do thatin each new location. Sheffield would have to function as amother church sending out small church-planting teams.These would produce a body of people whose future wouldbe mainly in the hands of local leaders.By 1994 things were taking shape. In Preston five singlebrothers made an attempt at community living. The experi-381