Fire in our hearts - The Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTSNEW GENERATIONSo ran the first Independent Magazine of 1996. 134 The frontcover showed a light bulb. Glowing at its centre was a redcross. With a new millennium almost upon us, biblical Christianitywas now being hailed by the media as a ‘global revolutionarytide’. Its explosive power was the cross.We often wore red crosses and gave them away at meetings.These bright, visual images symbolised a faith that hadlain dormant in Britain but was rising again. A significantculture shift was underway with a deep desire for moralchange. Polls indicated that large numbers believed in Godand the Jesus of the gospels who was poor, selfless and spoketheir language. It was church they couldn’t cope with.A major need was to break down the barriers with the people,to ditch religious language and to talk sense with theman in the street. We realised that effective outreach in thesedays wasn’t blitzing the marketplace or standing on a soapbox. It was being friendly and sensitive to where people wereat.This was a challenge to many of us who’d lived in a Christiansub-culture for so long. As Mike ‘Rockfast’ warned in hisyearly report: ‘For some of us old-stagers this will mean comingout from behind our walls of community tradition andZion-speak assumptions and engaging in real heart contactwith the rest of the human race!’God told us to change our attitude towards our home town.The idea that Northampton was ‘hard’ stemmed from ownpride. We now began to see the Northampton folk as ourfriends. We belonged to them and they to us. They were ourpeople.403