Fire in our hearts - The Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTSNEW GENERATIONNoel was much impressed with a South American, Ed Silvoso,and his passion for city people. Ed Silvoso believed that‘If you want to reach your city for Christ, you must catch God’sheartbeat. Listen carefully and you will hear two sounds:none... all. None to perish. All to come to repentance.’ 135His book, That None Should Perish, described a strategy of‘prayer evangelism’ that had impacted whole cities in Argentina.‘Prayer evangelism’ was systematic spiritual warfarewhich engaged the enemy in aggressive prayer whilst mobilisingcell groups to penetrate into the neighbourhood.In comparison, our own activity was fairly laid back andunorganised. Wednesday night cell groups were flexible. Thishad its plus points, but there was wasted effort and laziness.Maybe these cell groups needed motivation and management.Mobilising our ‘troops’ into Northampton would also challengeany complacency in the central church.We were talking war here. It was useless trying to captureenemy territory if our own ground was vulnerable and insecure.As Ed Silvoso pointed out, Hezekiah first cleansed thetemple before he was able to convert the city. Our communityhouseholds needed cleansing and reviving.The spirit of radical pioneering had been our genius overthe years. This had to be recaptured. If residential communitywas to be a minority portion in the church, it must be thewhite hot centre, unadulterated and undiluted. Retaking thecentral ground was first priority.We took a special pledge of sacrifice, inspired by the exampleof a dynamic Christian biker club. This was ours:404