Fire in our hearts - The Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTSNEW GENERATION‘It does my head right in!’ he blurted:‘What’s that, bro?’ asked Nathan.‘Babylon mate! Worldliness, negativity. It cabbages me. Isee it leering at us, trying to get in. It does my head right in.Right in, I tell you. Ooow... You devil!’‘Calm down bro,’ said Nathan soothingly.‘Calm down? — Grrr!’ retorted Jason. ‘I hate it! I hate itwhen the church isn’t holy. She’s supposed to be a praise inall the earth. She’s the light, man, the light! And peoplewhinge. I feel like smashing their Walkmans with a hammer!’‘Ah, I know bro,’ smiled Nathan and picked up a guitar thatwas lying on one of the old beat-up armchairs.‘Don’t let it bug you, Jase. There’s some brilliant thingscracking off. You know that. This is a new era, man!’Nathan started to strum his guitar. Then he paused, andwith a look of determination, he pointed a finger at Jason.‘It’s going be better than its ever been — better than whenI was a kid. They’re hungry out there, bro. It’s incredible.These new guys at the Farm — they’re radical man!‘Yeah — they’re buzzed right up,’ chuckled Jason. ‘You’reright. You know I really love this church. I love Cornhill, andthe warehouse, but I get frustrated sometimes.’‘It’s gonna be all right bro!’ grinned Nathan. ‘You wait!’And he launched into a new song.As the curtain fell on 1994 we didn’t expect a huge applause— at least not from God. There were hard facts to face. Wewere well behind in our planting programme and had achievedless than two-thirds of our targeted membership increase.After several years of growth, numbers in community were387