jesus life 70

Jesus Life Three/2005 www.jesus.org.ukA UK JESUS PEO PLE MAGAZINE from the Multiply Network and Je sus Fel low ship/modern JESUS army (mJa)A UK JESUS PEO PLE MAGAZINE from the Multiply Network and Je sus Fel low ship/modern JESUS army (mJa)

JesusLife#70three/2005FREE

✚ London March and Festival✚ Talking to Mike Morris✚ Multiply European Leaders Conference

A UK JESUS PEO PLE MAGAZINE from the Multiply Network and Je sus Fel low ship/modern JESUS army (mJa)A UK JESUS PEO PLE MAGAZINE from the Multiply Network and Je sus Fel low ship/modern JESUS army (mJa)

Jesus Centre Vision

1.indd 1 06/09/2005, 10:56:10

Church Alive 3-4 Prison Page 8 Changed Lives 12-13Talking to Mike Morris 14-16Jesus People Shop/National Events 24Electronic Postbag 25 Changed Lives 26-27Spiritual Search 30-31Phones 32

LONDON DAYWelcome to church

JESUS AT THE FESTIVALSIsle of Wight & Glastonbury Evangelism

EATING, DRINKING, PRAYING, MARCHING, LOVING, LIVINGJ Generation in London

28-29

THE JESUS FEL LOW SHIP CHURCH, which is also known as the Jesus Army and in cludes the New Cre a tion Chris tian Com mu ni ty, up holds the his tor ic Chris tian faith, be ing re formed, evan gel i cal and char is mat ic. It practises believer’s bap tism and the New Tes ta ment reality of Christ’s Church; be liev ing in Al mighty God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit; in the full divinity, aton ing death and bodily res ur rec tion of the Lord Jesus Christ; in the Bible as God’s word, fully in spired by the Holy Spirit. This Church desires to wit ness to the Lord ship of Je sus Christ over and in His Church; and, by holy char ac ter, righteous society and evan gel i cal tes ti mo ny to de clare that Je sus Christ, Son of God, the only Saviour, is the way, the truth and the life, and through Him alone can we find and enter the king dom of God. This church proclaims free grace, jus ti fi ca tion by faith in Christ and the sealing and sanc ti fy ing baptism in the Holy Spir it.

© 2005 Je sus Fel low ship Church, Nether Hey ford, North- amp ton NN7 3LB, UK. Reproduction in any form re quires writ ten per mis sion. The Jesus Fel low ship does not nec es sar i ly agree with all the views ex pressed in ar ti cles and in ter views print ed in this mag a zine. Pho to graphs in this mag a zine are cop y right Je sus Fel low ship Church un less oth er wise not ed. The Jesus Fellowship is part of Mul ti ply Christian Net work. Both the Jesus Fellowship and Multiply Christian Network are members of the Evan gel i cal Alliance UK.

9-11JESUS CENTRESNew movement in Jesus Centres

MULTIPLY EUROPEAN LEADERS CONFERENCEEurope will once again be the cradle of living christainity

Jesus Life Three/2005 www.jesus.org.uk

2.indd 1 08/09/2005, 14:00:50

Comments from Noel Stanton and members of the Apostolic Team, Jesus Fellowship UK/mJa

churchALIVEALIVEjesus centre vision

03-4

VISION is vital to any church. Vision comes through the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of prophetic sight, the giver of dream and vision. Vision is God’s direction for the church. Vision is life. Vision, with faith, produces action and achieve-ment. We, in Jesus Fellowship Church UK, are gradually

www.jesus.org.uk

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activating that part of the church’s vi-sion which involves the opening of Jesus Centres. In doing this we are helped by our many friends with their prayers and gifts. The vision is to establish Jesus Centres in all those cities and towns where our local church is strong enough to provide for the needs of staff

and fi nance. So far we have purchased property for adapta-tion as Jesus Centres in Coventry, North-ampton and Lon-don. The Coventry and Northampton Jesus Centres are now fully open and London is sched-uled to open late in 2006. Jesus Centres provide a place of worship for our local church. They also provide daily welcome and care facilities for those in need, includ-ing the homeless, asylum seekers and all people groups suffering abuse and rejection. A main slogan is “The Jesus Centre – where every person is valued.” And part of the vision is that where the prop-erty lends itself to this, and planning permission can be obtained, some part will be devoted to residential church community, hous-ing members of

the New Creation Christian Commu-nity. This has been possible in London where 21 adults and 6 children are in residence. Jesus Centres will always be places of witness to God’s love in Jesus Christ. We want them to be places through which the light shines into the social, moral and spiritual darkness of our times. Jesus Centres show the gospel, even while they speak it. Our experience is that some of those who come to our Jesus Centres respond readily to the friendship, accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour and are baptised, becom-ing members of the church. We praise God for Jesus Centres. We have vision to eventually open them in other cities such as Birming-ham, Leicester and Sheffi eld.

I DON’T tend to scour the daily news for hidden actions of the Holy Spirit. But personal coincidences brought the recent London bombings into my focus. I’d visited our new central London property twice in as many weeks. And in the weekends between, attended our Leeds church meetings in - of all places - Beeston, apparantly con-nected with the bombers. Bomb scares aren’t anything new. In the past, I’ve evacuated from both offi ces and shopping cen-tres. This turn of events arrested me. I wondered what God may make of it all. The Psalms express gratitude for deliverance from wild beasts, natural disasters, hostility and violence. Today’s soci-ety proves resentful and insecure, not humbled - in the face of such threats. Blind, too, to the spiritual power-play that penetrates our daily affairs. Yes, we joined local groups from Beeston in a gesture of community solidarity. But, our own strongest worship times have centred on lifting up Jesus as Lord of all; and our outreach witness, too. This seems our anointing, and vital contribu-tion; and no coinci-dence to the Holy Spirit.

bombs and blindness

Ian Callard

Jesus Life Three/2005

08/09/2005, 13:58:33

03-4.in

HUMANISM tells us one story. Revelation tells us God’s story. There are only two people groups: we either worship Jesus or we worship the image of the beast. Revelation 13 tells us that ALL, the poor and the needy as well as the rich and powerful, if not in Christ, wear the marks of this age. What is easier – for the rich to let go of their wealth, or for the needy to let go of their need? The other people group is symbol-ised by the 144,000. These have a new mark now – on their heart, on their head, and on their hand,

in their worship, in their thinking and in their actions. These are the whole people of God. If we have the name of Christ, what will our mark then be? That we are healthy? Wealthy? Have knowledge of the Bible? No, that we lay down our life. The mark of Jesus the Lamb is that He is slain. He poured out his blood and purchased many for God. We are not here for self-gain; we are called to give our life. The mark that we must bear must above all things be the mark of love, the mark of the age to come.

marked menSteve Calam


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“we are christians”AS I WRITE, we have just completed an ex-cellent Bank Holiday Festival Weekend. God’s presence was powerful and hundreds of people responded. Central to the week-end was the need to recover the name “Christian” originally used as a name of

ridicule by opposers. The name “Christian” is mentioned three times in the New Testament, fi rst when disciples were fi rst called “Christians”, presumably as a word of abuse, then by king Agrippa as he responds to Paul by saying “You per-suade me to become

a Christian?”. And the last reference says that if anyone suffers as a Christian they should not be ashamed but under that name glorify God. The followers of Jesus readily accepted this name and, in our day, we need to give it the importance it deserves.

final mix

Noel Stanton

THERE is an increasing momen-tum to fulfi l our 2005 target of 450 new members. Baptisms occur weekly, the Holy Spirit is truly moving. The London Day gave effective testimony to God’s grace in Christ Jesus. It was the time of the terrorist bombings and both the Mayor of London’s staff and the police were keen for us to go ahead, and gave full support. Many people were met, with some wanting to belong to Jesus and us. Our UK Jesus Celebrations in Northampton were anointed events with many receiving

the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. The “Changed Lives” Gospel Roadshow continues to journey around the UK bringing the gospel to many. You are welcome to join us for our events later in the year - see National Events, page 24. Bless you, dear readers, for all your faith, love, prayers and gifts. You are part of our team which is building Christ’s church in the UK with pure service for Jesus Christ lik-ened to building with “gold, silver and precious stones.” You will have your reward.

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08/09/2005, 13:58:50

Jesus Life Three/2005 www.jesus.org.uk

Two weeks after the London bomb atrocities, the Jesus Army carried a spirit of joy to London with a lively march and fast moving programme of events in Trafalgar Square

05-7.indd 5 06/09/2005, 10:48:47

Jesus Life Three/2005 www.jesus.org.uk Jesus Life Three/2005 Page 7www.jesus.org.uk

THE Jesus Army march was a happy event with young people dancing, banners waving, and songs of praise to God arising. As it arrived on Trafal-gar Square, it was accompanied by a small number of policemen, who looked relaxed and even cheerful. The police quickly dispersed as the Jesus Army gathered around Nelson’s

Two mJa members share their perspective on the 2005 London Jesus Day

love conquers hate

Jesus Army brought a message of peace and reconciliation to a troubled capital. John Thomason reports.

such an interesting mix of people, banners, fl ags, instruments and loudspeakers on a funny little trolley. Welcome to Church! Helene spots Prisca who comes from the same place in Switzer-land and is part of the Jesus Army. They’re jabbering in Swiss and I haven’t got a clue what they’re saying so I go to say hello to some friends of mine who have come from all over the UK. When the march rolls off, Helene and I get back together. Singing and clapping away she keeps making comments like ‘Super!’, ‘Das ist gut!’ and ‘Jesus!’ The crowd of onlookers look fairly puzzled seeing this happy crew of about 1,000 Jesus people marching down the middle of

Park Lane. Trafalgar Square is not its usual self . There’s a big ‘Jesus Army’ banner stuck to Nelson’s column, and a small stage in front of it where a band is playing praise and worship songs as the train of the march quickly fi lls the whole Square with excited people. Welcome to Church! We spend a good three hours on the Square being church together. Some go a bit wild dancing on the stage, others engage in conversa-tion with people who are curious about what is going on and some offer prayer. A group performs a stage drama which refl ects on how Jesus can bring us out of the mono-tone ‘robot-like’ life into reality. Helene is taken aback by the fact that people from all different kinds of backgrounds and cultures are together in such unity. This October Helene is moving into my community house to do a ‘Jesus Army Training Year’ – she knows now what she is in for! Welcome to Church!

Doris Kahnes reports on the impact made in London by the varied and colourful expression of ‘Church on the Square’.

column to celebrate the victory of Jesus. Exactly 200 years ago Lord Nelson (in his ship Victory) had died commanding the English Navy which had routed the Spanish fl eet at the Battle of Trafal-gar. As the event drew to a close I left the Square to collect a minibus, which took me down Whitehall. As I walked I saw a white police Transit,

and then another. As I proceeded past the Horseguards Parade, I counted no less than 40 police Transits, each with about seven police-men, gathered along Whitehall and even more along Downing Street and the side roads of Whitehall. Then on the other side of the pavement I saw a group of sad-looking activists carrying a large ban-ner which said “NO

HUMAN RIGHTS FOR TERRORISTS”. ‘What a contrast’ I thought. There’s the Jesus Army, hundreds of them, with banners and cards saying “Make Hatred History”, and not 500 yards away a small group of hatred-mongers, surrounded by some 300 police, 40 Tran-sits and police dogs, doing the opposite. The gospel mes-sage of the love of

Jesus overcoming hatred is as power-ful as ever. The raw demonstration of forgiveness and rec-onciliation touches many anxious bystanders. As one policeman said to one of our guys after the march: “Your march has been a pleasure to cover, and there is such a different and better atmosphere to the one we had last week.”

‘There’s a big Jesus Army

banner stuck to Nelson’s column’

(Top left) Jesus Army members march through London’s West End. (Clockwise from left) A dramatic sketch, prayer and celebration on stage in Trafalgar Square.

SOMETHING I really fi nd exciting is getting to know new people, like Helene. She lives in a Chris-tian community which is in some ways very similar to the one I live in – it’s just that mine is right here in the centre of London and hers in a small town near Bern. Jesus has transformed her life of insta-bility, drugs and homelessness into one fi lled with the love, peace and beauty of God. She now lives to love and help others. It is Saturday 23rd July in the morning and we are on our way to Marble Arch, exchanging thoughts and experiences of our different and yet similar lives. I realise again that through Jesus we are made part of the same culture wherever we are, wherever we come from, or whatever we have been through. This will be the fi rst time Helene joins us for our big march from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square, where we will have a Jesus Festival. Marble Arch is already buzzing with excite-ment but in view of the recent bombings in central London I’m aware that some of it might be of a nervous kind. Still, there is a lot of laughing and chatting, and

many nationsONE CULTURE

JL

05-7.indd 6-7 06/09/2005, 10:49:00

Jesus Life Three/2005 Page 6 www.jesus.org.uk w

THE Jesus Army march was a happy event with young people dancing, banners waving, and songs of praise to God arising. As it arrived on Trafal-gar Square, it was accompanied by a small number of policemen, who looked relaxed and even cheerful. The police quickly dispersed as the Jesus Army gathered around Nelson’s

Two mJa members share their perspective on the 2005 London Jesus Day

love conquers hate

Jesus Army brought a message of peace and reconciliation to a troubled capital. John Thomason reports.

column to celebrate the victory of Jesus. Exactly 200 years ago Lord Nelson (in his ship Victory) had died commanding the English Navy which had routed the Spanish fl eet at the Battle of Trafal-gar. As the event drew to a close I left the Square to collect a minibus, which took me down Whitehall. As I walked I saw a white police Transit,

and then another. As I proceeded past the Horseguards Parade, I counted no less than 40 police Transits, each with about seven police-men, gathered along Whitehall and even more along Downing Street and the side roads of Whitehall. Then on the other side of the pavement I saw a group of sad-looking activists carrying a large ban-ner which said “NO

HUMAN RIGHTS FOR TERRORISTS”. ‘What a contrast’ I thought. There’s the Jesus Army, hundreds of them, with banners and cards saying “Make Hatred History”, and not 500 yards away a small group of hatred-mongers, surrounded by some 300 police, 40 Tran-sits and police dogs, doing the opposite. The gospel mes-sage of the love of

Jesus overcoming hatred is as power-ful as ever. The raw demonstration of forgiveness and rec-onciliation touches many anxious bystanders. As one policeman said to one of our guys after the march: “Your march has been a pleasure to cover, and there is such a different and better atmosphere to the one we had last week.”

many nationsONE CULTURE

05-7.indd 6-7

Doris Kahnes reports on the impact made in London by the varied and colourful expression of ‘Church on the Square’.

‘There’s a big Jesus Army

banner stuck to Nelson’s column’

SOMETHING I really fi nd exciting is getting to know new people, like Helene. She lives in a Chris-tian community which is in some ways very similar to the one I live in – it’s just that mine is right here in the centre of London and hers in a small town near Bern. Jesus has transformed her life of insta-bility, drugs and homelessness into one fi lled with the love, peace and beauty of God. She now lives to love and help others. It is Saturday 23rd July in the morning and we are on our way to Marble Arch, exchanging thoughts and experiences of our different and yet similar lives. I realise again that through Jesus we are made part of the same culture wherever we are, wherever we come from, or whatever we have been through. This will be the fi rst time Helene joins us for our big march from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square, where we will have a Jesus Festival. Marble Arch is already buzzing with excite-ment but in view of the recent bombings in central London I’m aware that some of it might be of a nervous kind. Still, there is a lot of laughing and chatting, and

ww.jesus.org.uk

such an interesting mix of people, banners, fl ags, instruments and loudspeakers on a funny little trolley. Welcome to Church! Helene spots Prisca who comes from the same place in Switzer-land and is part of the Jesus Army. They’re jabbering in Swiss and I haven’t got a clue what they’re saying so I go to say hello to some friends of mine who have come from all over the UK. When the march rolls off, Helene and I get back together. Singing and clapping away she keeps making comments like ‘Super!’, ‘Das ist gut!’ and ‘Jesus!’ The crowd of onlookers look fairly puzzled seeing this happy crew of about 1,000 Jesus people marching down the middle of

Park Lane. Trafalgar Square is not its usual self . There’s a big ‘Jesus Army’ banner stuck to Nelson’s column, and a small stage in front of it where a band is playing praise and worship songs as the train of the march quickly fi lls the whole Square with excited people. Welcome to Church! We spend a good three hours on the Square being church together. Some go a bit wild dancing on the stage, others engage in conversa-tion with people who are curious about what is going on and some offer prayer. A group performs a stage drama which refl ects on how Jesus can bring us out of the mono-tone ‘robot-like’ life into reality. Helene is taken aback by the fact that people from all different kinds of backgrounds and cultures are together in such unity. This October Helene is moving into my community house to do a ‘Jesus Army Training Year’ – she knows now what she is in for! Welcome to Church!

(Top left) Jesus Army members march through London’s West End. (Clockwise from left) A dramatic sketch, prayer and celebration on stage in Trafalgar Square.

JL


06/09/2005, 10:49:00

I AM IN the middle of a six year sentence. Three weeks after coming to prison I became a Christian. From that time I seem to be struggling with my Christianity and feel that I get very little help or support to mature and grow in my faith.

I have accepted my sentence now and thank the Lord for bringing me here and saving my soul. I know very little about Christianity on the outside, but what little I know concerns me. Things like, people going to church on Sunday but forgetting about Christ for the rest of the week. Also I believe in the divine inspiration of the Bible as God’s holy word, but I’m not con-vinced of traditional churches’ rules and regulations, that come from man and not from God. Also, I’m getting fed up with the Chris-tians I’ve met since my new birth, being very similar to secular people I’ve met all my life. i.e. they burn brightly to start with, talk about undying love and eternal friend-ship. Then they disappear and you never hear from them again.

Although I’ve got 18 months left to serve, I’m already thinking about my life after prison. I want to do mission work for the Lord and I also want to be a Christian seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

“...be a Christian 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.”

“I thank the Lord for bringing me here and

saving my soul.”


8.indd 8

My old life is dead even if my old self keeps trying to resurface from time to time. My family seem to have given up on me except for my youngest daughter, who seems to have a forgiving heart. So, being a very high maintenance sheep, I would like to fi nd a church with a very real commitment to Christ and a fel-lowship where I can feel at home.

N.F. HM Prison Hull

• For information on the Jesus Fellowship’sPrison Release Programme, write to :Phil Ferris, Jesus Fellowship Central Offices, Nether Heyford, Northants NN7 3LB tel: 01327 344533 or e-mail: [email protected]

⊗ 128 state run jails

⊗ Current total jail population: 76,038

⊗ 11 privately run jails

⊗ Average cost per prisoner per year in state jail: £25,718

⊗ Average cost in private jail: £31,502

⊗ It costs more than £2 billion a year to run the Prison Service

⊗ Average age of those going to jail is 27

⊗ There are 5,420 life sentence prisoners, of whom 26 have been told they will die in jail

⊗ 25% of jail population is from minority ethnic groups

uk statistics

www.jesus.org.uk

08/09/2005, 12:05:38

london

JesuJesuJJJ sunnn

JJJJJJJThe first fruits

09

IT’S SUNDAY 26 June, in the after-noon, and the chapel bell is ringing in the new Battlecentre in central London. In response to the bell, all around the lightwell windows are fl ung open and smiling faces ap-pear. Down in the courtyard yet more people are gathering around a children’s paddling pool. They are watching the fi rst baptisms to take

Baptisms in the new London property and future Jesus Centre

The London Jesus Centre may not be open yet but lives are already being transformed by the love of Jesus in action

www.jesus.org.ukwww.jesuscentre.org.uk

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CeCeCCplace in the court-yard of the London Jesus Centre. About to enter the water are Ishmael and Pablo, from Spain. Apostolic leader, Steve Calam, describes them as the ‘fi rst fruits’ of the new community house and the type of work its members will undertake in serving the homeless. The ‘baptistry’ had been bought, fi lled and just over a week

before, on Friday 17 June, the J Gen (aged 15-35) had gathered around it and prayed, asking God to fi ll it with people. Edwin Jindu fi rst met Ishmael about three weeks after the community moved from Acton. “We were just excited about moving here!” he says. “So I wrote on a board ‘God loves you’, hooked it on my neck – like a sandwich board - and took one of my kid’s skateboards out. People were just amazed. ‘What’s that guy all about?’ they said. One of them was Ishmael and I invited him over. “Ishmael and Pab-lo were good friends, so next time Pablo came too. Soon they became part of us. They started coming around regularly and

haven’t stopped.” The men were homeless when Edwin met them, and the commu-nity has been able to help them out with showers, laundry and keeping bags. “We’ve been a family to them that way,” says Edwin. “It was tempting to bail them out by spoonfeeding them – but we didn’t. Now they’ve found work and are getting sorted.” Since June six more people have been baptised in the courtyard – four Iranians, one English and one Nepalese. “What we’ve done since we’ve been living here has encapsulated what we want to do in the Jesus Centre when it opens,” says Steve. The water’s lovely – come on in!


08/09/2005, 14:17:12

Jesus L

JesuCen

coventryjesus centre

northamptonjesus centresus

nThe Northampton Jesus Centre’s healing prayer group has witnessed some remarkable events. Jesus Life reports.

Channels of God’s power

“IT’S COME together against the odds be-cause God’s been in it” is how tutor Kath-ryn Guille describes her literacy class.Kathryn had always wanted to teach. “I wanted to help peo-ple - to fi nd work, to improve their basic skills, to build their confi dence - to reach their potential,” she explains. The dream started small in 2001 with voluntary work on an ESOL course. Then came one-to-one help with reading, writing and spell-ing, voluntary group work in community centres and an initial certifi cate in teaching Basic Skills Literacy. Eventually, in Sep-tember 2003, Kathryn established a course at the Jesus Centre for drop-in clients. The next hurdle was fi nding a place-ment for a City and

For tutor and students the Coventry Jesus Centre literacy class has proved a stepping stone to new things

A lifelong dream fulfilled

Guilds Certifi cate in FE Teaching: “Normally, you are sent on a course by your employer; I put myself forward. The Jesus Centre was ac-cepted as my place-ment. So, informal teaching became a formal, externally assessed course.” Then she applied to Coventry City Council for a tutor’s post: “I got it plus they approached me about them becom-ing providers of the Jesus Centre course. I had prayed a lot about this but did not feel I could raise

it myself. “So the course I set up without a teaching background was taken under the Council’s wing, meaning we have books, tapes, expert advice/monitoring and more at our disposal.” The class includes those at pre-GCSE level, asylum seekers, people with learning diffi culties and those with mental health problems. “Cater-ing for differences can be a challenge!” says Kathryn. “You need to get to know people – to fi nd out their motivation and what they want to achieve.” Students can enter for nationally-rec-

ognised qualifi ca-tions or be awarded Certifi cates of Achievement at the end of the academic year: “One asylum seeker has entered for City and Guilds Entry Level Read-ing and Writing. He could hardly read or write at all: now he can read short text and understand local signs. And two stu-dents with learning diffi culties have gone from not being able to write their name to being able to write a sentence independ-ently.” Kathryn’s manager at Coventry Adult Education presented certifi cates to the students at the end of the year and commented on the marked improve-ments she saw.

Of one, she said: “You’ve done won-ders with him.” Most class mem-bers are affi liated to the church, and two have been baptised. “The course has been a means of draw-ing people in who would have been on the edges,” explains Kathryn. In the pipeline are a numeracy class and a confi dence-build-ing course. The literacy class, which has been an affi rmation of Kath-ryn’s dream to teach, has had a surprise outcome for her too: “I’m fi nding my personal potential in helping other people reach theirs!”

odds because God’s been in it

JesJL

09-11.indd 10-1

tre“HEALING RAYS, the name of the group, comes from Malachi: ‘But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings,’” explains team member Dave Howell. “In a book on healing, I discovered ‘wings’ could also be translated as ‘rays’.” Twenty-nine years ago Dave was told he had the ministry of intercession. “After a while I real-ised it was my particular ministry, and moved into a healing gift,” he recalls. “The fi rst brother I prayed for, we were amazed to see the pain went!” Every Tuesday morning Dave, together with Ann and Tony, assemble in one of the Jesus Cen-tre’s skills rooms and wait to see who will come through the door. “The three of us work very well as a team,” says Ann. “Tony is very prophetic. Dave brings healing and deliverance. And I have discovered a gift of discern-ment.” All sorts of people, Christian and non-Christian, come looking for healing for their body, soul or

spirit. Ann has seen many ‘God happenings’ with the group. “One lady was obviously very distressed. People are usually reticent but she just sat down and started talking. She had grown up knowing God (her dad was a vicar), but had rebelled and delved into the occult and hypnosis. Now she was climbing walls, literally, was about to be prescribed anti-psychotic drugs, and was really scared. ‘Help me please,’ she said to God. “We spent the whole two hours with her. She arrived stooped and sad, and went out glowing! “The next week she was back with a friend who wanted to get herself right with God. We encouraged them in their vision to start healing ministry in their own church. “Another week, two elderly ladies came in. One had severe sciatica. I had a word of knowl-edge: ‘By this evening you’re not going to have any pain.’ And she didn’t – not that we knew that for some time afterwards! “A young South African was

ife Three/2005

1

sHis doctor says he’s the healthiestHIV patient he has!

referred to us by another church member. He had been very badly damaged, fi rst by rejection from his birth mother, then by abuse from a step-parent, and fi nally, by a very bad trip after eating some magic mushrooms. We did our usual praying bit. Dave led him through a prayer of repent-ance, he was fi lled with the Holy Spirit and he started to speak in tongues.” Church members are welcome to join the group too. “One mem-ber with HIV has been so much better since he has been receiving regular prayer. His doctor says he’s the healthiest HIV patient he has!” says Ann. “We are just the channels of God’s power,” says Tony, “and as we are obedient to Him, He can do what he wants through us.”“Being an intercessor has given me more empathy for people,” concludes Dave. “And seeing re-sults is a tremendous encourage-ment to believe for more things to happen. “We just want more people to come along!”

www.jesus.org.uk Jesus Life Three/2005 Page 11www.jesus.org.ukwww.jesuscentre.org.uk www.jesuscentre.org.uk

08/09/2005, 14:18:02

Jesus Life Three/2005 Page 10 www.jesus.org.uk www.jesus

Jesun

coventryjesus centre

northamptonjesus centresus

ntresHis doctor says he’s the healthiestHIV patient he has!

The Northampton Jesus Centre’s healing prayer group has witnessed some remarkable events. Jesus Life reports.

Channels of God’s powerFor tutor and students the Coventry Jesus Centre literacy class has proved a stepping stone to new things

“HEALING RAYS, the name of the group, comes from Malachi: ‘But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings,’” explains team member Dave Howell. “In a book on healing, I discovered ‘wings’ could also be translated as ‘rays’.” Twenty-nine years ago Dave was told he had the ministry of intercession. “After a while I real-ised it was my particular ministry, and moved into a healing gift,” he recalls. “The fi rst brother I prayed for, we were amazed to see the pain went!” Every Tuesday morning Dave, together with Ann and Tony, assemble in one of the Jesus Cen-tre’s skills rooms and wait to see who will come through the door. “The three of us work very well as a team,” says Ann. “Tony is very prophetic. Dave brings healing and deliverance. And I have discovered a gift of discern-ment.” All sorts of people, Christian and non-Christian, come looking for healing for their body, soul or

spirit. Ann has seen many ‘God happenings’ with the group. “One lady was obviously very distressed. People are usually reticent but she just sat down and started talking. She had grown up knowing God (her dad was a vicar), but had rebelled and delved into the occult and hypnosis. Now she was climbing walls, literally, was about to be prescribed anti-psychotic drugs, and was really scared. ‘Help me please,’ she said to God. “We spent the whole two hours with her. She arrived stooped and sad, and went out glowing! “The next week she was back with a friend who wanted to get herself right with God. We encouraged them in their vision to start healing ministry in their own church. “Another week, two elderly ladies came in. One had severe sciatica. I had a word of knowl-edge: ‘By this evening you’re not going to have any pain.’ And she didn’t – not that we knew that for some time afterwards! “A young South African was

referred to us by another church member. He had been very badly damaged, fi rst by rejection from his birth mother, then by abuse from a step-parent, and fi nally, by a very bad trip after eating some magic mushrooms. We did our usual praying bit. Dave led him through a prayer of repent-ance, he was fi lled with the Holy Spirit and he started to speak in tongues.” Church members are welcome to join the group too. “One mem-ber with HIV has been so much better since he has been receiving regular prayer. His doctor says he’s the healthiest HIV patient he has!” says Ann. “We are just the channels of God’s power,” says Tony, “and as we are obedient to Him, He can do what he wants through us.”“Being an intercessor has given me more empathy for people,” concludes Dave. “And seeing re-sults is a tremendous encourage-ment to believe for more things to happen. “We just want more people to come along!”

Jes

www.jesuscentre.org.uk www.jesus

09-11.indd 10-11

C“IT’S COME together against the odds be-cause God’s been in it” is how tutor Kath-ryn Guille describes her literacy class.Kathryn had always wanted to teach. “I wanted to help peo-ple - to fi nd work, to improve their basic skills, to build their confi dence - to reach their potential,” she explains. The dream started small in 2001 with voluntary work on an ESOL course. Then came one-to-one help with reading, writing and spell-ing, voluntary group work in community centres and an initial certifi cate in teaching Basic Skills Literacy. Eventually, in Sep-tember 2003, Kathryn established a course at the Jesus Centre for drop-in clients. The next hurdle was fi nding a place-ment for a City and

A lifelong dream fulfilled

Guilds Certifi cate in FE Teaching: “Normally, you are sent on a course by your employer; I put myself forward. The Jesus Centre was ac-cepted as my place-ment. So, informal teaching became a formal, externally assessed course.” Then she applied to Coventry City Council for a tutor’s post: “I got it plus they approached me about them becom-ing providers of the Jesus Centre course. I had prayed a lot about this but did not feel I could raise

it myself. “So the course I set up without a teaching background was taken under the Council’s wing, meaning we have books, tapes, expert advice/monitoring and more at our disposal.” The class includes those at pre-GCSE level, asylum seekers, people with learning diffi culties and those with mental health problems. “Cater-ing for differences can be a challenge!” says Kathryn. “You need to get to know people – to fi nd out their motivation and what they want to achieve.” Students can enter for nationally-rec-

odds beca
.org.ukcentre.org.uk
eognised qualifi ca-tions or be awarded Certifi cates of Achievement at the end of the academic year: “One asylum seeker has entered for City and Guilds Entry Level Read-ing and Writing. He could hardly read or write at all: now he can read short text and understand local signs. And two stu-dents with learning diffi culties have gone from not being able to write their name to being able to write a sentence independ-ently.” Kathryn’s manager at Coventry Adult Education presented certifi cates to the students at the end of the year and commented on the marked improve-ments she saw.

Of one, she said: “You’ve done won-ders with him.” Most class mem-bers are affi liated to the church, and two have been baptised. “The course has been a means of draw-ing people in who would have been on the edges,” explains Kathryn. In the pipeline are a numeracy class and a confi dence-build-ing course. The literacy class, which has been an affi rmation of Kath-ryn’s dream to teach, has had a surprise outcome for her too: “I’m fi nding my personal potential in helping other people reach theirs!”

use God’s been in it

JL


08/09/2005, 14:18:02

and talking about the occult. I left home and moved into a bed-sit with my girlfriend. We spent all our money on music festivals, LSD, speed, dope and drink and experi-mented with the supernatural. Some pretty scary things happened. As dark powers got hold of me, the future looked bleak and my whole life seemed to be heading towards despair. “A lot of things happened in a few years

of manic teenage stuff which culminated in me meeting a friend of a friend in the drug scene, who offered me a lot of money doing drug runs for him. “He was a very evil, demonic man and he really oppressed me, holding power over me by saying that he’d hurt my family if I didn’t do what he said. I lost my job and for a few months I saw him most days. Awful things happened. As the demonic, psycho-logical pressure built up, I got withdrawn and paranoid.” By late 1985, Paul was in a different scene. He had a new girlfriend and they planned to drop out of society altogether and travel abroad - Paul had always been in-terested in experiencing different cultures. One day, when Paul was seventeen, he was crossing Hastings on his way to a club, when he felt drawn to a group from the Jesus Fellowship, talking to people out on the street. “They befriended me and I found out later that some of them began to pray for me in earnest. Two months later, two of the

team visited me. As they described what the gospel of Jesus meant, the words mysteri-ously hit home and I felt the whole of my life rocking on its foundations. It was if God revealed Himself to me personally and I knew that Jesus was God. All that search-ing through the occult I had never found an answer - now I knew I’d discovered reality and the source of life itself! Without any hesitation I gave my life to Jesus. When I went back with them to their community house in Hastings I was bowled over by the love and harmony as I saw people living together for Jesus. I’d just found Jesus. Now I’d found home!” Two months later, Paul moved up to one of Northamptonshire houses and commit-ted himself to Christian community. “I found a wholeness coming into my life

and a deep feeling of coming home. I felt that my life wasn’t for this world any more but I wanted to devote myself to God and His people. Whenever people at church mentioned celibacy my heart leapt for joy and in late 1988 I accepted the gift from God - it just seemed a natural move after fi nding home and my heart being captured by Jesus and His church!” Nearly twenty years in community have brought many different phases of spiritual life to Paul - and some of them have been like the dark tunnel again. “Healing of any kind takes time - it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a long proc-ess but - if you let Him - God makes it a

thorough process. We make many mistakes but God can hold us through them. Some years have felt a bit like God taking me fully apart and I’ve had to pray in faith: ‘Lord put me back together again - a stronger person!’ “I’ve had times of sickness and of back-sliding and a time when I’ve had to move out of community for a short time and then make a fresh start - but at such times my vows, my hope in God and my love for the church have held me. “When diffi cult situations have come up and we can’t see the end of the tunnel, it’s like God takes us to places where we don’t actually want to go and makes us face up to ourselves. We see that God is sovereign and He knows what we are and what we go through and He knows what’s best for us, even though we don’t understand. “I feel I have just come through such a time - and God has put me on my feet again in a new way and given me a job to do at the Northampton Jesus Centre. I’ve always had an empathy with people who have been op-

pressed or going through hard situations. “It’s good to look back at all the tough times I’ve had and see that nothing is wasted with Him and all my diffi cult times have helped me to get close to people and offer them genuine hope!”

‘Lord put me back together again - a stronger person!’

‘I felt the whole of my life rocking on its foundations’

‘As dark powers got hold of me, the future looked bleak’

Just one step from death, Paul had a split second decision to make

dark tunnel! Saved from the Paul has known God’s healing

JL

12-1

TANDING INSIDE the dark railway tunnel, fourteen-year-old Paul Veitch could see and hear the train thundering

towards him. It registered somewhere in his brain that there were two choices he could make. He could fl atten himself against the wall and the train would miss him. Or he could stay where he was, walking calmly along between the lines, and be smashed to pieces. He’d spent the afternoon sniffi ng glue. It was evening, now, and by this time he was so high that it seemed irrelevant to him which choice he made. “To this day,” says Paul, “I have no idea why I moved away at the last minute - the glue had made me completely indifferent to what happened to me! “About six of us lads used to get together in the evenings looking for excitement and

S


3.indd 1-2

doing silly things. Mucking about on the railway, throwing stones at the trains was the latest buzz. Then we moved on to some-thing else - like stealing motorbikes and burgling houses.” Soon after this, in the summer of 1982, the lads got hold of airguns and went on a midnight rampage, smashing up a school and setting fi re to two caravans used for storing equipment. Paul got caught and was locked up for six weeks ‘short, sharp, shock’ in the local Detention Centre, charged with vandalism and burglary. “I think I started to get out of control when Mum and Dad split up when I was about seven. Before this, I’d been a fairly stable, outgoing lad. Our council estate was a rough one but up to this time I’d had simple, harmless interests like kicking a ball about with my mates or making camps with

them in the woods round the seaside town of Hastings where I was born in 1968. “As a child I had bad, unsightly eczema, which got me a lot of teasing at school but I coped OK until Dad moved out. My security and my sense of boundaries seemed to move out with him. Mum did her best, but without a dad I got rapidly out of control and by the early 80s I’d got drawn into the local yob culture.” By the time Paul was sixteen, he’d left school with few qualifi cations, dropped out of college after a few months studying engineering on the YTS scheme and started to go down a tunnel far darker than the one on the railway - the occult. “I met a man at work who was a witch in a coven. I was drawn to him as I felt he had spiritual power. He became a close friend and we spent hours together smoking pot

Jesus Life Three/2005 Page 13www.jesus.org.ukwww.jesus.org.uk

08/09/2005, 11:47:37

doing silly things. Mucking about on the railway, throwing stones at the trains was the latest buzz. Then we moved on to some-thing else - like stealing motorbikes and burgling houses.” Soon after this, in the summer of 1982, the lads got hold of airguns and went on a midnight rampage, smashing up a school and setting fi re to two caravans used for storing equipment. Paul got caught and was locked up for six weeks ‘short, sharp, shock’ in the local Detention Centre, charged with vandalism and burglary. “I think I started to get out of control when Mum and Dad split up when I was about seven. Before this, I’d been a fairly stable, outgoing lad. Our council estate was a rough one but up to this time I’d had simple, harmless interests like kicking a ball about with my mates or making camps with

www.jesus.org.ukJesus Life Three/2005 Page 12

Just one step from death, Paul had a split second decision to make

them in the woods round the seaside town of Hastings where I was born in 1968. “As a child I had bad, unsightly eczema, which got me a lot of teasing at school but I coped OK until Dad moved out. My security and my sense of boundaries seemed to move out with him. Mum did her best, but without a dad I got rapidly out of control and by the early 80s I’d got drawn into the local yob culture.” By the time Paul was sixteen, he’d left school with few qualifi cations, dropped out of college after a few months studying engineering on the YTS scheme and started to go down a tunnel far darker than the one on the railway - the occult. “I met a man at work who was a witch in a coven. I was drawn to him as I felt he had spiritual power. He became a close friend and we spent hours together smoking pot

TANDING INSIDE the dark railway tunnel, fourteen-year-old Paul Veitch could see and hear the train thundering

towards him. It registered somewhere in his brain that there were two choices he could make. He could fl atten himself against the wall and the train would miss him. Or he could stay where he was, walking calmly along between the lines, and be smashed to pieces. He’d spent the afternoon sniffi ng glue. It was evening, now, and by this time he was so high that it seemed irrelevant to him which choice he made. “To this day,” says Paul, “I have no idea why I moved away at the last minute - the glue had made me completely indifferent to what happened to me! “About six of us lads used to get together in the evenings looking for excitement and

dark tunnel! Saved from the Paul has known God’s healing

S

12-13.indd 1-2

and talking about the occult. I left home and moved into a bed-sit with my girlfriend. We spent all our money on music festivals, LSD, speed, dope and drink and experi-mented with the supernatural. Some pretty scary things happened. As dark powers got hold of me, the future looked bleak and my whole life seemed to be heading towards despair. “A lot of things happened in a few years

of manic teenage stuff which culminated in me meeting a friend of a friend in the drug scene, who offered me a lot of money doing drug runs for him. “He was a very evil, demonic man and he really oppressed me, holding power over me by saying that he’d hurt my family if I didn’t do what he said. I lost my job and for a few months I saw him most days. Awful things happened. As the demonic, psycho-logical pressure built up, I got withdrawn and paranoid.” By late 1985, Paul was in a different scene. He had a new girlfriend and they planned to drop out of society altogether and travel abroad - Paul had always been in-terested in experiencing different cultures. One day, when Paul was seventeen, he was crossing Hastings on his way to a club, when he felt drawn to a group from the Jesus Fellowship, talking to people out on the street. “They befriended me and I found out later that some of them began to pray for me in earnest. Two months later, two of the

‘As dark powers got hold of me, the future looked bleak’

www.jesus.org.uk

team visited me. As they described what the gospel of Jesus meant, the words mysteri-ously hit home and I felt the whole of my life rocking on its foundations. It was if God revealed Himself to me personally and I knew that Jesus was God. All that search-ing through the occult I had never found an answer - now I knew I’d discovered reality and the source of life itself! Without any hesitation I gave my life to Jesus. When I went back with them to their community house in Hastings I was bowled over by the love and harmony as I saw people living together for Jesus. I’d just found Jesus. Now I’d found home!” Two months later, Paul moved up to one of Northamptonshire houses and commit-ted himself to Christian community. “I found a wholeness coming into my life

and a deep feeling of coming home. I felt that my life wasn’t for this world any more but I wanted to devote myself to God and His people. Whenever people at church mentioned celibacy my heart leapt for joy and in late 1988 I accepted the gift from God - it just seemed a natural move after fi nding home and my heart being captured by Jesus and His church!” Nearly twenty years in community have brought many different phases of spiritual life to Paul - and some of them have been like the dark tunnel again. “Healing of any kind takes time - it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a long proc-ess but - if you let Him - God makes it a

‘I felt the whole of my life rocking on its foundations’

thorough process. We make many mistakes but God can hold us through them. Some years have felt a bit like God taking me fully apart and I’ve had to pray in faith: ‘Lord put me back together again - a stronger person!’ “I’ve had times of sickness and of back-sliding and a time when I’ve had to move out of community for a short time and then make a fresh start - but at such times my vows, my hope in God and my love for the church have held me. “When diffi cult situations have come up and we can’t see the end of the tunnel, it’s like God takes us to places where we don’t actually want to go and makes us face up to ourselves. We see that God is sovereign and He knows what we are and what we go through and He knows what’s best for us, even though we don’t understand. “I feel I have just come through such a time - and God has put me on my feet again in a new way and given me a job to do at the Northampton Jesus Centre. I’ve always had an empathy with people who have been op-

pressed or going through hard situations. “It’s good to look back at all the tough times I’ve had and see that nothing is wasted with Him and all my diffi cult times have helped me to get close to people and offer them genuine hope!”

‘Lord put me back together again - a stronger person!’

JL


08/09/2005, 11:47:37

I did eight years with them in various guises. We moved every 18 months to different parts of the country. I was on the national staff. We then followed Clive to the Evangelical Alliance. He’d become the director and he asked me to come up with a framework of what the Alli-ance should be aiming at. I was strongly convinced that the Alliance needed to have a commitment to the ‘social agenda’ - working with the excluded and ensuring that the gospel was clearly and coherently presented to those who are at the margins. Also, I sensed the importance of our responsibility for the persecut-ed church. We needed to act as a

representative from the European Parliament, to secure the freedom for evangelical believers to hire buildings to hold their meetings. I just happened to be there after a whole congregation had been

released from prison after a week inside.

Their level of love, support and the reality of Christi-anity as a family of relationships was all very hum-

bling.

You were also involved in Spring

Harvest at that stage.Yes. Clive teamed up with Pete Meadows, who was editor of Buzz magazine, and they needed someone to put the mechanics of a Christian interdenominational training conference together. I’m not too good an administrator, so that was a challenge, and little did

volved with Revelation Church?When I left Youth for Christ. We moved down to the South Coast, after talking to Roger Ellis, sens-ing that God was saying that I needed to fi nd a home for me and Katey. We were linked in with the Pioneer Network.

Where did the focus on spiritual formation lead you? I began to see the importance of spiritual life being outworked co-operatively and relationally, not just personally and privately. So easily the dominant spirit of the age privatises our salvation. I am deeply dependent upon other people. I’ve hooked into a phrase of Ron Sider’s from his book, ‘Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger’: Total availability to one another, and unlimited liability for one another. That has become a foun-dational principal of how to steer my life and build people together.

husband, a former leader of the church, had walked out on her. She turned up just for a few weeks to get her head together, and she’s still with us today! I wear my heart on my sleeve and I’m reactive. So if something trig-gers me the wrong way, I explode outwardly, but a lot of us have dif-ferent foibles or bad practice that goes on within the privacy of our own homes but it’s never disci-pled appropriately. I am discipled by the love and commitment of the brethren, and the courage of people to face me up with my own weaknesses.

Why hasn’t community been worked through by more Christians? Too often people are looking for something for themselves out of community - it’s more about tak-ing than it is about giving. One of the things we have to agree to together in community is that

‘The dominant spirit

of the age privatises our salvation’

Jesus

14-16.indd 1

Following a Master’s Degree from Oxford University, Mike Morris worked for eight years with Youth for Christ, becoming director of strategic planning. He was also one of the founders of Spring Harvest in 1979. This was followed by 12 years providing innovation and leadership in the Evangelical Alliance.

In 1999, he helped set up Peaceworks, a cross-cultural mediation service.

Mike is a trainer, speaker, lecturer and writer. He is married to Katey and lives in Southsea in an extended household exploring realised community.

In this interview he talks to Huw Lewis, editor of Jesus Life and part of the Apostolic Team of the Jesus Fellowship.M

ike

Mor

ris

voice for those without a voice, to dialogue with the suffering church so we could fi nd out what level of support they wanted. Prayer was fi ne but there was also the need to take specifi c action.

Where did you go next? I was asked by Clive to set up what was then called the De-partment of Social and Foreign Affairs. That began to move the Alliance back into engaging with the social and political environ-ment, without trading down on the gospel. The other side was carrying a passion for the suffering church. Eventually, someone else took on the social side and I stayed on the international side, working for the persecuted church.

Do you feel that you initiated anything that made a difference in that time?One of the things I was learning was to listen to what the people on the ground were saying. I was deeply moved in Turkey, working with Sir Fred Cather-wood, who was there as special

I know what I was letting myself in for! But in 1978, we launched the idea and in 1979 the fi rst Spring Harvest took place. I set it up and was the bottle washer and fi rst chief executive for the fi rst two years. I’m a starter and an initia-tor, but not such a good fi nisher.

After the Evangelical Alliance you changed directions.Two things happened. First of all God said to me to come out of the Alliance. I was stepping into an unknown oblivion. At the same time, Katey was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. We didn’t know what that would mean, but in the short term it certainly involved being available in the home with her, to pray, dialogue and journey in that experience together. I began to explore and looked at how other traditions had en-gaged with God. It was a bit of a self-taught crash course in what I call ‘spiritual formation’ - basi-cally how we sustain spiritual life, both personally and corporately.

And at what point did you get in-

You’ve always lived in an extended family situation since you got married. How has that changed you?Six weeks after we were married, we had two people living with us – they came with the house that we bought! We learned some painful lessons, realising that you can’t assert one person’s rule over everybody else’s or it becomes tyranny. We saw the need to have conversation and dialogue, understanding that there have to be certain ground rules to make the whole thing work. Everybody involved has to have a bigger vi-sion than just their own private satisfac-tion and private needs.

There was a discipleship element?Totally. I think that discipleship works both ways. Jane came to be with us when she was seven months pregnant and her

it’s about discipleship. The second thing is that people are looking for personal advancement. There’s quite a lot of selfi shness around. Usually people want community but they also want to retain private wealth, private position and a way out. They want all the benefi ts of rela-tionship and shared life in Christ together, but at the same time they want to keep their little nest egg or escape route.

Why is the monastic infl uence impor-

tant to you?Firstly, because of their whole commitment to an ordered

rhythm of life, which has Christ

at the centre. The other

thing I’ve learned is the importance of their vows. These vows emerged out of a desire to give themselves completely over to God and His kingdom purposes, which begins to shape life. Having some sort of compass

talk

ing

to

‘Prayer was fine but there

was the need to take specific action’

Life Three/2005

4-15

HUW: What were the key things that shaped your spiritual journey?MIKE: I was a total atheist when I went to Oxford University. Someone from the Christian Union visited me in my room and was able to answer all the many practical questions about university life I asked. He was really helpful! He invited me to a coffee evening and I turned up because he had made a deep impression on me.

This was St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, with a group of Jesus Fellowship students around, including myself!Yes! At the coffee evening I was directed to St. Aldates Church, which had an evangelistic cell group for people who weren’t necessarily vicars. Unexpectedly, I went along on my own. The Bishop of Coventry was preach-ing and I sensed God speaking directly to me. At fi rst I just sat there, embarrassed - I simply couldn’t get out of my seat to

respond. Eventually, I came for-ward, and that began my journey as I committed my life to Christ.

Where did you go from there? I had to do a lot of unlearning as well as a lot of learning! I am grate-ful to St. Aldates because I got put in a very caring beginners’ group with helpful basic discipleship. We were encouraged to go on a mission, so I got right into evangelism from the start. I remember being told to get on a soap box on a Sunday evening to do preaching. I was soon pulled down because my left wing socialist views got confused with my Christian salvation testimony. I was berating people as though I was a trade union shop steward! After about two years of that I got very dried out, feeling that it was all really hard work – I felt there must be something more. It was at that point that Clive Calver and Graham Kendrick came into town to speak on the baptism of the Spirit. I went forward for prayer, and got com-

pletely zonked out of my head with the power of God. That was a massive change - I began to fi nd a new reservoir of life.

Were you still at college at that stage?Yes. I was saved when I was in my very fi rst term and then I met Katey, now my wife, who wasn’t a Christian and was doing teacher training at Westminster College. I led her to the Lord and we saw a tremendous move of the Holy Spirit there.

Where did God take you after university?We went up to Wolverhampton to work with Clive Calver who was heading up Youth for Christ. It was the year before we got married. Katey got a teaching job and we ended up leading a team at ‘Youth for Christ’. We went into schools, preaching the gospel. It was fantastic!

So how long were you involved with Youth for Christ?

Jesus Life Three/2005 Page 15www.jesus.org.uk www.jesus.org.uk

02/09/2005, 10:49:31

HUW: What were the key things that shaped your spiritual journey?MIKE: I was a total atheist when I went to Oxford University. Someone from the Christian Union visited me in my room and was able to answer all the many practical questions about university life I asked. He was really helpful! He invited me to a coffee evening and I turned up because he had made a deep impression on me.

This was St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, with a group of Jesus Fellowship students around, including myself!Yes! At the coffee evening I was directed to St. Aldates Church, which had an evangelistic cell group for people who weren’t necessarily vicars. Unexpectedly, I went along on my own. The Bishop of Coventry was preach-ing and I sensed God speaking directly to me. At fi rst I just sat there, embarrassed - I simply couldn’t get out of my seat to

respond. Eventually, I came for-ward, and that began my journey as I committed my life to Christ.

Where did you go from there? I had to do a lot of unlearning as well as a lot of learning! I am grate-ful to St. Aldates because I got put in a very caring beginners’ group with helpful basic discipleship. We were encouraged to go on a mission, so I got right into evangelism from the start. I remember being told to get on a soap box on a Sunday evening to do preaching. I was soon pulled down because my left wing socialist views got confused with my Christian salvation testimony. I was berating people as though I was a trade union shop steward! After about two years of that I got very dried out, feeling that it was all really hard work – I felt there must be something more. It was at that point that Clive Calver and Graham Kendrick came into town to speak on the baptism of the Spirit. I went forward for prayer, and got com-

pletely zonked out of my head with the power of God. That was a massive change - I began to fi nd a new reservoir of life.

Were you still at college at that stage?Yes. I was saved when I was in my very fi rst term and then I met Katey, now my wife, who wasn’t a Christian and was doing teacher training at Westminster College. I led her to the Lord and we saw a tremendous move of the Holy Spirit there.

Where did God take you after university?We went up to Wolverhampton to work with Clive Calver who was heading up Youth for Christ. It was the year before we got married. Katey got a teaching job and we ended up leading a team at ‘Youth for Christ’. We went into schools, preaching the gospel. It was fantastic!

So how long were you involved with Youth for Christ?

Following a Master’s Degree from Oxford University, Mike Morris worked for eight years with Youth for Christ, becoming director of strategic planning. He was also one of the founders of Spring Harvest in 1979. This was followed by 12 years providing innovation and leadership in the Evangelical Alliance.

In 1999, he helped set up Peaceworks, a cross-cultural mediation service.

Mike is a trainer, speaker, lecturer and writer. He is married to Katey and lives in Southsea in an extended household exploring realised community.

In this interview he talks to Huw Lewis, editor of Jesus Life and part of the Apostolic Team of the Jesus Fellowship.

talk

ing

to M

ike

Mor

ris

Jesus Life Three/2005 Page 14 www.jesus.org.uk

14-16.indd 14-15

I did eight years with them in various guises. We moved every 18 months to different parts of the country. I was on the national staff. We then followed Clive to the Evangelical Alliance. He’d become the director and he asked me to come up with a framework of what the Alli-ance should be aiming at. I was strongly convinced that the Alliance needed to have a commitment to the ‘social agenda’ - working with the excluded and ensuring that the gospel was clearly and coherently presented to those who are at the margins. Also, I sensed the importance of our responsibility for the persecut-ed church. We needed to act as a voice for those without a voice, to dialogue with the suffering church so we could fi nd out what level of support they wanted. Prayer was fi ne but there was also the need to take specifi c action.

Where did you go next? I was asked by Clive to set up what was then called the De-partment of Social and Foreign Affairs. That began to move the Alliance back into engaging with the social and political environ-ment, without trading down on the gospel. The other side was carrying a passion for the suffering church. Eventually, someone else took on the social side and I stayed on the international side, working for the persecuted church.

Do you feel that you initiated anything that made a difference in that time?One of the things I was learning was to listen to what the people on the ground were saying. I was deeply moved in Turkey, working with Sir Fred Cather-wood, who was there as special

representative from the European Parliament, to secure the freedom for evangelical believers to hire buildings to hold their meetings. I just happened to be there after a whole congregation had been

released from prison after a week inside.

Their level of love, support and the reality of Christi-anity as a family of relationships was all very hum-

bling.

You were also involved in Spring

Harvest at that stage.Yes. Clive teamed up with Pete Meadows, who was editor of Buzz magazine, and they needed someone to put the mechanics of a Christian interdenominational training conference together. I’m not too good an administrator, so that was a challenge, and little did I know what I was letting myself in for! But in 1978, we launched the idea and in 1979 the fi rst Spring Harvest took place. I set it up and was the bottle washer and fi rst chief executive for the fi rst two years. I’m a starter and an initia-tor, but not such a good fi nisher.

After the Evangelical Alliance you changed directions.Two things happened. First of all God said to me to come out of the Alliance. I was stepping into an unknown oblivion. At the same time, Katey was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. We didn’t know what that would mean, but in the short term it certainly involved being available in the home with her, to pray, dialogue and journey in that experience together. I began to explore and looked at how other traditions had en-gaged with God. It was a bit of a self-taught crash course in what I call ‘spiritual formation’ - basi-cally how we sustain spiritual life, both personally and corporately.

And at what point did you get in-

‘The dominant spirit

of the age privatises our salvation’

www.jesus.org.uk

volved with Revelation Church?When I left Youth for Christ. We moved down to the South Coast, after talking to Roger Ellis, sens-ing that God was saying that I needed to fi nd a home for me and Katey. We were linked in with the Pioneer Network.

Where did the focus on spiritual formation lead you? I began to see the importance of spiritual life being outworked co-operatively and relationally, not just personally and privately. So easily the dominant spirit of the age privatises our salvation. I am deeply dependent upon other people. I’ve hooked into a phrase of Ron Sider’s from his book, ‘Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger’: Total availability to one another, and unlimited liability for one another. That has become a foun-dational principal of how to steer my life and build people together.

You’ve always lived in an extended family situation since you got married. How has that changed you?Six weeks after we were married, we had two people living with us – they came with the house that we bought! We learned some painful lessons, realising that you can’t assert one person’s rule over everybody else’s or it becomes tyranny. We saw the need to have conversation and dialogue, understanding that there have to be certain ground rules to make the whole thing work. Everybody involved has to have a bigger vi-sion than just their own private satisfac-tion and private needs.

There was a discipleship element?Totally. I think that discipleship works both ways. Jane came to be with us when she was seven months pregnant and her

husband, a former leader of the church, had walked out on her. She turned up just for a few weeks to get her head together, and she’s still with us today! I wear my heart on my sleeve and I’m reactive. So if something trig-gers me the wrong way, I explode outwardly, but a lot of us have dif-ferent foibles or bad practice that goes on within the privacy of our own homes but it’s never disci-pled appropriately. I am discipled by the love and commitment of the brethren, and the courage of people to face me up with my own weaknesses.

Why hasn’t community been worked through by more Christians? Too often people are looking for something for themselves out of community - it’s more about tak-ing than it is about giving. One of the things we have to agree to together in community is that it’s about discipleship. The second thing is that people are looking for personal advancement. There’s quite a lot of selfi shness around. Usually people want community but they also want to retain private wealth, private position and a way out. They want all the benefi ts of rela-tionship and shared life in Christ together, but at the same time they want to keep their little nest egg or escape route.

Why is the monastic infl uence impor-

tant to you?Firstly, because of their whole commitment to an ordered

rhythm of life, which has Christ

at the centre. The other

thing I’ve learned is the importance of their vows. These vows emerged out of a desire to give themselves completely over to God and His kingdom purposes, which begins to shape life. Having some sort of compass

‘Prayer was fine but there

was the need to take specific action’


02/09/2005, 10:49:31

14-1

to see us through is crucial. The monastics have inspired me to keep myself accountable and hold others to account as well. What I’m essentially about is contemplating Christ and engag-ing in mission - those two mean I have to come together with others rather than retreating into a privatised personal ‘faith world.’

Tell us a bit about Peaceworks, and how that all came about and where it’s travelling.It came about principally through two lines – my colleague and friend, Chris Seaton, who was very involved in the whole Identi-fi cational Repentance movement. This involved going back into historical roots of sin, seeking to take a stand and fi nd the healing of God in those situations. Also, as I worked in organisa-tions as a consultant, I found that a large percentage of issues weren’t about revamping an organisation but about recognis-ing and helping people deal with relational break downs. I then came across the whole concept of mediation, and talked to Chris about it. We basically trained in media-tion skills and that was the birth-ing of Peaceworks. The gospel is about fi nding the ‘Prince of Peace’ and working that out in terms of recovering broken relationships.

Do you see much progress with the Identifi cational Repentance movement? I’ve not heard too much about it in the last couple of years. I can give you an illustration. I went with Chris on a trip to Dresden, which you’ll know is one of the cities which was incendiary bombed by the British in the last days of the Second World War. Two situations there stand out – we met with some war widows.

I shared about my own father, who fought all the way through the war, and the heart of God for reconciliation. These were not Christian meetings, but the Spirit of God was there. Spontaneously, people began to get up and come forward tearfully, hug us and have a conversation.

Do you feel that the charismatic movement has lost its way?I can remember in earlier days when talking of being baptised in the Spirit was guaranteed to get pulpits closed – there was a price to pay. At the same time there was a tremendous enthusiasm about the reality of God moving through spiritual gifts. The whole charismatic movement re-ener-gised the church. My anxiety is that we have reached the stage where having pioneered, we’ve now colo-nised and fallen in love with the comforts of life – in other words, we’ve settled. We’ve exchanged the wagon for the homestead. My concern is also that the emerging generation are going to stop pio-neering sooner than we had when they saw it didn’t work for us. We need to fi nd some mecha-nism whereby we cooperate with the Spirit of God to continue the mission that God’s got us on.

What is the way of communicat-ing the prophetic vision that

takes us into new ground?We’ve critiqued

an awful lot on our journey as evangelical charismatics, but we haven’t critiqued the

whole economic basis upon which

we live as a society. Those following Christ

are blunted when they get absorbed or co-opted into the overarching culture. The second point is that we need to make ourselves account-able to others, so that we’re not privately amassing our own

‘We’ve exchanged the wagon for the homestead’


6.indd 16

wealth or pension or property portfolio. Too often, leadership has become separated from the body of Christ and tends towards an exclusive, unaccountable meritocracy.

How will this change the shape of the church?I hope church will become much more a 24/7 church than two hours a week church. This is the way in which the early Christians lived out their committed faith and it’s a whole life faith. Christians have compartmentalised their lives too readily. We’ve not really owned that any decision we take must be submitted to Christ and our brothers and sisters. Can I fi nancially enrich myself at the expense of those who go without? This takes a high level of trust, energy and commitment. Sadly, trust seems to be a commodity that’s in short supply today. Mod-elling trust in relationships is one of the greatest gifts the church can bring to society.

How do you feel about the future of the Pioneer Network? You’re in a stage of transition.It’s the biggest challenge that we face. It is diffi cult for leaders to transition appropriately and hand over responsibility so they remain honoured, yet don’t get in the way. There’s a great danger that we’re going to be a one gen-erational movement. Creating a bridge between the patriarchs and the emerging generation is vital so that together there can be co-operation in the vision. We mustn’t confuse the side-shows with the essence. Preaching, for example, holding forth on platforms, is a mecha-nism, it’s not an essence. The essence is having the message that’s transformational.

How do you characterise your

own ministry? There’s a provocational and pro-phetic dynamic to my ministry. I can’t let things rest; I’ve got to stir things up. The nurturing of emerging

Christians is quite cen-tral to my ministry

as well. The whole of my life has been facilitating people in differ-ent situations, helping spiritual

formation, lay-ing foundations,

individually and corporately, to sustain

something for the longer haul. When I left the Evangelical Alli-ance one of the things God said to me was: “I want you to be a friend to people”. I thought that was a very wimpy word at the time and I wanted something more dynamic. A year later I was sitting in this room where a well known person was visiting me. I shared the word with this person. There was one of those pregnant silences in the room and he said, “I don’t think I’ve ever really had a friend”. Then all the lights went on.

Anything else you feel that God is saying to the church at the moment? In terms of my generation, we’ve got to fall in love with the gospel again and become deeply convinced of our own experience of God. I worry that in this post-modern age, the gospel doesn’t seem to matter. I’d been changed radically by the gospel and it’s my privilege to be able to communi-cate that to everybody. And we’ve also got to move away from the ‘quick fi x’ answer as to how we do church. We’ve got to fi nd out in what ways the gospel truly is good news to the poor, the marginalised. God has entrusted us to go to them, so if we’re not fi nding our way to them, then there’s something seriously wrong with us, and may God be gracious enough to deal with it!

‘Too often leadership has

become separated from the body of

Christ’

JL

www.jesus.org.uk

02/09/2005, 10:49:50

www.jesus.org.uk

mJa teams were among thousands of festival-goers across the UK this summer

www.jesus.org.uk

17-19.indd 17 08/09/2005, 11:09:47

Jesus Life Three/2005 Jesus Life Three/2005 Page 19

g09.06.05 IT’S THURS-DAY, and we’re at the Isle of Wight rock festival, seeking to bring Jesus where the people are. We set out together, with guitar, mJa fl ag and our team mascot ‘Ailes’, the friendly blue plastic alien. In our unity we are a focus of God’s love moving about the campsite; our red cross t-shirts stand out a mile. We chat to people, sing songs to some, and pray with others. One chap really opens up and Caleb prays with him. 10.06.05 Friday’s a slog. Going out in pairs doesn’t carry the same anointing as moving as one body; we’re feeling over-whelmed by the spirit of the world, proving that we, like Ailes, are in this world but not

Six Leicester mJa members made the Isle

What do mud, a girl in a tiger costume and a bunch of Christians have in common? Well all were present at this year’s Glastonbury Festival. Claire Mallon reports.

of it. We’re glad to get back to our tents for a team meeting. This, and worship, are essential ‘watering holes.’ In the afternoon we erect our nine-foot red cross, intending to take it into the main arena. “I’m absolutely speechless,” was the comment from the security guard on his tower. As we approach the check point, Andy is assailed by seven guards and told he cannot enter with the cross, so we stand on the track as 40,000 festival-goers fi le past us. The effect is awe-some. The presence of God can be felt, the crowds seem to hush, and a conviction seems to settle. Some folk really have a go at us. Others gather round and again the

door is opened to witness to people and pray for some. It was a powerful moment that nobody could ignore, maybe an echo of when Jesus carried his cross along a dusty track 2,000 years ago? 11.06.05 Again, it’s hard going. We feel enveloped by the crowds, the music and the clouds of dope smoke! Andy calls the folks at home to pray for us Saturday evening and we sud-denly feel a lot better. We move with a new confi dence. One team member overcomes her fears, shares her testimony and prays for a young girl. Both seem blessed by the experience! A girl of eight wants a red cross; she asks Andy to pray for her dad who has been in hos-

OVER 160,000 people fl ocked to green fi elds in Somerset to listen to music and let off steam at the Glastonbury Festival. This year earmarked the 25th anniversary of the Jesus Fel-lowship Church going to do its alternative Glastonbury thing; to bring the love of Jesus and the Gospel to the festival-goers. This year, however, was tinged with sadness, as Anne, who had looked after the Glastonbury evange-lism team in previous years, had passed away. Her daughter took up the mantle and kept an eye on us to make sure that we didn’t get into any mischief! The evangelism team came from various Jesus Fellowship community houses around the UK. All came equipped with the same word about unity and sticking together. We weren’t there for the music, we were there to be church and refl ect the beauty of what God had called us into as a people. So we set to work, or rather, the lads set to work, erecting tents and sorting out all the stuff we would need for the next fi ve days. After we set up camp, the lads embarked on a grandiose

scheme, to build a castle! It took them all day but at the end we had a castle with turrets and fl ags! Emblazoned upon this fortress were the words: “Jesus Centre”. This became the main attraction of our campsite and a landmark for those trundling past on their way to the various music stages. Each evening, people were drawn to the campsite by the glowing red cross that hung in the Jesus Centre, the fi re and the warmth of those who sat around, and many received prayer and blessings. A couple of days after we had arrived the rain came and with the rain came the mud. “Cheers God” was the headline that screamed from the front page of the festival newspaper. Stages were damaged as the torrential rain took its toll and the green fi elds turned into marshland. Folk roamed around, caked in mud, wading through water up to their knees. Wellies became the hottest fashion as people rushed out to purchase them en masse. One guy wandered into our campsite asking if the rain was God’s judgement on the festival and you couldn’t help wonder-

ing if there was some validity to his question…. Later that day, when the rain stopped, a blessing came. Laura appeared, dressed in a tiger suit and was very inquisitive as to what we were up to. She knew something of God but wasn’t committed to Him. Some of the team spoke to her and she gave her life to God. Laura hung out with us a lot over the weekend and this culminated in her bap-tism in a barrel! An American journalist whose curiosity had got the better of him came over to view the proceedings. “I don’t want to be proselytised,” he sternly said. As he watched the baptism, he was in awe of what was happen-ing and soon after he was being prayed for! He felt privileged to be part of something so unique and special. I guess when God wants to make a point, He does. Glastonbury was an interest-ing place, full of diverse people, odours and noises. Sometimes it was hard to imagine Jesus there but He was. He stirred up life within us and within the many people who came to receive what He had to offer.

pital for over a year; as he does so she kneels in the dust and starts to cry. She is alone at the festival with her 14-year-old friend. 12.06.05 We have our Sunday morning meeting in a fi eld with other festival-goers. One of our ‘neighbours’ joins us, and we take the bread and wine together. The partying goes on all night, and some folk are only just set-tling down at 8am. 13.06.05 Our neighbour comes to say goodbye. With our stuff piled high on a trolley we head home. It’s heart-warming to see so many of the red crosses we have given out dotted around the streams of people slowly making their way through the fi elds.

(Above)barrel! (Top right)

(Below)prayer.

Jesus Life Three/2005 Page 19Jesus Life Three/2005 Page 18

JL

17-19.indd 18-19 08/09/2005, 11:10:33

Jesus Life Three/2005 Page 18 Jesus Life Three/2005

g09.06.05 IT’S THURS-DAY, and we’re at the Isle of Wight rock festival, seeking to bring Jesus where the people are. We set out together, with guitar, mJa fl ag and our team mascot ‘Ailes’, the friendly blue plastic alien. In our unity we are a focus of God’s love moving about the campsite; our red cross t-shirts stand out a mile. We chat to people, sing songs to some, and pray with others. One chap really opens up and Caleb prays with him. 10.06.05 Friday’s a slog. Going out in pairs doesn’t carry the same anointing as moving as one body; we’re feeling over-whelmed by the spirit of the world, proving that we, like Ailes, are in this world but not

Six Leicester mJa members made the Isle

What do mud, a girl in a tiger costume and a bunch of Christians have in common? Well all were present at this year’s Glastonbury Festival. Claire Mallon reports.

of it. We’re glad to get back to our tents for a team meeting. This, and worship, are essential ‘watering holes.’ In the afternoon we erect our nine-foot red cross, intending to take it into the main arena. “I’m absolutely speechless,” was the comment from the security guard on his tower. As we approach the check point, Andy is assailed by seven guards and told he cannot enter with the cross, so we stand on the track as 40,000 festival-goers fi le past us. The effect is awe-some. The presence of God can be felt, the crowds seem to hush, and a conviction seems to settle. Some folk really have a go at us. Others gather round and again the

door is opened to witness to people and pray for some. It was a powerful moment that nobody could ignore, maybe an echo of when Jesus carried his cross along a dusty track 2,000 years ago? 11.06.05 Again, it’s hard going. We feel enveloped by the crowds, the music and the clouds of dope smoke! Andy calls the folks at home to pray for us Saturday evening and we sud-denly feel a lot better. We move with a new confi dence. One team member overcomes her fears, shares her testimony and prays for a young girl. Both seem blessed by the experience! A girl of eight wants a red cross; she asks Andy to pray for her dad who has been in hos-

OVER 160,000 people fl ocked to green fi elds in Somerset to listen to music and let off steam at the Glastonbury Festival. This year earmarked the 25th anniversary of the Jesus Fel-lowship Church going to do its alternative Glastonbury thing; to bring the love of Jesus and the Gospel to the festival-goers. This year, however, was tinged with sadness, as Anne, who had looked after the Glastonbury evange-lism team in previous years, had passed away. Her daughter took up the mantle and kept an eye on us to make sure that we didn’t get into any mischief! The evangelism team came from various Jesus Fellowship community houses around the UK. All came equipped with the same word about unity and sticking together. We weren’t there for the music, we were there to be church and refl ect the beauty of what God had called us into as a people. So we set to work, or rather, the lads set to work, erecting tents and sorting out all the stuff we would need for the next fi ve days. After we set up camp, the lads embarked on a grandiose

scheme, to build a castle! It took them all day but at the end we had a castle with turrets and fl ags! Emblazoned upon this fortress were the words: “Jesus Centre”. This became the main attraction of our campsite and a landmark for those trundling past on their way to the various music stages. Each evening, people were drawn to the campsite by the glowing red cross that hung in the Jesus Centre, the fi re and the warmth of those who sat around, and many received prayer and blessings. A couple of days after we had arrived the rain came and with the rain came the mud. “Cheers God” was the headline that screamed from the front page of the festival newspaper. Stages were damaged as the torrential rain took its toll and the green fi elds turned into marshland. Folk roamed around, caked in mud, wading through water up to their knees. Wellies became the hottest fashion as people rushed out to purchase them en masse. One guy wandered into our campsite asking if the rain was God’s judgement on the festival and you couldn’t help wonder-

ing if there was some validity to his question…. Later that day, when the rain stopped, a blessing came. Laura appeared, dressed in a tiger suit and was very inquisitive as to what we were up to. She knew something of God but wasn’t committed to Him. Some of the team spoke to her and she gave her life to God. Laura hung out with us a lot over the weekend and this culminated in her bap-tism in a barrel! An American journalist whose curiosity had got the better of him came over to view the proceedings. “I don’t want to be proselytised,” he sternly said. As he watched the baptism, he was in awe of what was happen-ing and soon after he was being prayed for! He felt privileged to be part of something so unique and special. I guess when God wants to make a point, He does. Glastonbury was an interest-ing place, full of diverse people, odours and noises. Sometimes it was hard to imagine Jesus there but He was. He stirred up life within us and within the many people who came to receive what He had to offer.

pital for over a year; as he does so she kneels in the dust and starts to cry. She is alone at the festival with her 14-year-old friend. 12.06.05 We have our Sunday morning meeting in a fi eld with other festival-goers. One of our ‘neighbours’ joins us, and we take the bread and wine together. The partying goes on all night, and some folk are only just set-tling down at 8am. 13.06.05 Our neighbour comes to say goodbye. With our stuff piled high on a trolley we head home. It’s heart-warming to see so many of the red crosses we have given out dotted around the streams of people slowly making their way through the fi elds.

(Above)barrel! (Top right)

(Below)prayer.

Jesus Life Three/2005 Page 19Jesus Life Three/2005 Page 18

JL

17-19.indd 18-19 08/09/2005, 11:10:33

Multipy European Conference June 2005

Europe will once again be thecradle of living Christianity

20

Europeans can now travel freely to the UK, and the European Union will include 27 countries when Romania and Bulgaria are added in 2007. “It’s a wonderful mission fi eld,” said Jesus Fellowship senior pastor, Noel Stanton. “It’s spiritually dead. But something is beginning to move. Europe will again be the cradle of living Christian-ity.” Delegates from 19 nations gathered to hear how the Multiply Network aims to tap this rich seam of potential disciples. “We must recover the meaning of the

The fi rst Multiply European Leaders Conference took place at the Northampton Jesus Centre on 18 June 2005. Emma Merry reports.


-23.indd 20

word ‘radical’,” said Multiply director, Huw Lewis. “Jesus called us to be radicals. He was opposed because His spirit was an op-posing spirit. We’ve got to speak against the system, whether it’s capitalism or commu-nism.” The afternoon’s seminars tackled how to be radical in our daily lives, with advice ranging from ‘don’t skirt round suffering, go for it’ to ‘restore table fellowship’ – 15 million people in the UK don’t have a dining table, and those who do make the TV their focus instead. “Your calling must be your number one objective,” said apostolic leader Mick Haines. “When you discover God’s call on your life, you don’t want to be anywhere else.” The call is personal. It’s progressive. And it’s sacrifi cial. Paul didn’t see starvation or sleepless nights as pressure; he saw it as part of the calling. Hypocrisy can have no place. Noel laid out a four-point reality check: “Get back

into Holy Spirit life. Because you’ve done that, know you’ve got energy within you. Awaken the spiritual gifts. And recognise the fruits you’re producing.” Huw had introduced the day by saying: “Multiply is a growing stream of friendship – one family of nations in Jesus.” Video and testimony showed how key apostolic leaders are already ‘sparking some fi res to spread the vision’ in the east, west and south of Africa, before focusing on delegates from Europe. Romanian Valentine Ion said simply: “There is no greater joy than to be with the family of God.” Earlier we had sung an old Salvation Army hymn: Into the regions of despair, into the realms of want and care, for dying souls to do and dare, Lord send us there! As the day drew to a close, we knew that as we dare to hear the call, to obey and to go, a ‘leaner, fi tter and more effective’ people, we will surely live to see what the Holy Spirit will birth in the cradle of Europe.

www.multiply.org.uk

08/09/2005, 13:48:50

conference.

20

ROVIGO Baptist Church, in north-east Italy, has been a member of the Multiply Net-work since 2000. This was the fi rst Multiply conference for Miriam, an elder, and for Fiore-lla, a member of the church council. “We see our church as a ‘little piece of heaven on earth’,” say both. “People feel at home. To

HEAVEN ON EARTHRovigo, ITALY

Delegates share t

Miriam D’Addeo, Rovigo Baptist Church

www.multiply.org.uk

-23.indd 21

see Russians and Africans hold

and integration.” About 120/150 people, including Asiat-ics, Africans, East Europeans, South Americans and, of course, Italians, attend Rovigo Baptist Church. Services are held in Italian and English, and once a month members come together to share a meal, followed by a Bible study. The cross-fertilisation of cultures makes for an enjoyable learning experience. “Africans have helped us to be more open, they make a joyful noise to the Lord and we have learned to do that too!” explains Fiorella. It is for similar reasons that they enjoy being part of the Multiply Network. “The good thing about Multiply is that we can exchange different experi-ences,” says Miriam. “It is good to stay open. If you close your-self off you will die.” Like many others, Rovigo Baptist Church is striving to communicate to the world at

heir vision and im
large the true gospel of ‘a radi-cal Christianity, not religious’. Members tackle this by working together, meeting together and praying together. The future is alive with pos-sibilities. “My vision is to see the church full of new people with real conversions, healings, mira-cles, wonders and the spiritual walls of our town shattered!” says Miriam. “I want the Lord to take possession of Rovigo.” “I also want to see real spir-itual growth in our church,” adds Fiorella. “I want there to be a strong communion between us so that people will see the love that binds us.” For both women, attending the fi rst Multiply European Leaders Conference has been a great blessing. “We felt God’s presence in a very deep way,” concludes Miriam. “We came expecting a blessing and we are receiving much more than we were expecting!”
pressions from the

“Put yourself in a situation where you don’t feel comfortable and challenge yourself to express Jesus’ love.” Nathan White

“It’s more important to strengthen a brother’s spirit

and heart than to shout at the devil. Our work is down

here. God will look after the powers of the air.”

Piers Denholm-Young

“We can’t reverse-engineer God. He has created male and female in His image. From me came two girls - but I’m still not a mother.” Len Kroon

STANISŁAW lives in Warsaw, works as a full-time evangelist for Bible League International and belongs to the Evangelical Christian Church. The church has about 30 branches in Poland. The city of Warsaw is divided in two by the great Vistula River. Most days Stanislaw can be seen walking the streets of the built-up area on the right side of the river, a district renowned for its poverty and high incidence of alcoholism. It is from here that the prostitutes cross the river to the richer parts of town to earn a living. Stanisław’s great longing, car-

AGAINST THE FLOWWarsaw, POLAND

Stanisław Solanikow, Evangelical Christian Church

ried in his heart for many years now, is to see a church planted here. He stops and talks to people, giving out leafl ets and often bumps into old friends. Everywhere, he talks of Jesus.Evangelism and church planting can be very rewarding and yet hard work at other times. Many Poles are steeped in religion and see no need to fi nd a liv-ing relationship with Jesus for themselves. The hard years of communist rule are now giv-ing way to an ever-increasing materialism, fl ooding in from Western Europe.

Stanisław knows he must keep going. He says the Holy Spirit reminds him to love people and not to give up when life gets diffi cult. Everything is possible with Christ! His dream – a church of living disciples on the right-hand side of the river.


08/09/2005, 13:50:03

20-

CELIBACYEfringen-Kirchen, GERMANY

Daniel Schelker, Junger Jesu

“CHATTING with celibates is very important to me,” says Daniel Schelker, pastor of Junger Jesu, a house church in Efrin-gen-Kirchen, south-west Ger-many. “We are a family-oriented church so it’s great being with people who aren’t married!”


23.indd 22

“I HAVE discovered another manner of living out the love of Jesus,” says Ahidje Caddy, pastor of Mission Ensemble

France. “Joy showed on everyone’s faces. It was all, quite simply, Jesus.”

SIMPLY JESUSFRANCE

T

Ahidje Caddy, Mission Ensemble pour Christ

At 9.00am, as I w

preach, there was a big holler-

MIHELA Pratascu met the Jesus Fellowship through the Jesus Centre when she came to Northampton on an educational programme. She invited her father and sister to the confer-ence. Maranata Church, in the little town of Tirgu Jiu in Southern Romania, has a congregation of about 100 people. The church is Baptist. Many young people have left to fi nd work abroad so the congregation is mainly

made up of old people at the moment. Mihai longs to see the church grow and for people to be-come ‘real Christians, not just religious’. He wants ‘to see the living waters fl ow’ in the church. “When I go back home,” he said, “I will not be the same. I will be more faithful.” Through his stay in the UK Mihai realised fellowship is essential for church-building. “When we encourage each other we get stronger and stronger,” he said. Alina said she had gained liberty to follow Jesus from the conference. She was particularly struck by the fi lm of the J Gen march in London. “Nothing like that could have happened in Romania,” she said. “We still do not have the freedom to do that.”

irgu Jiu, ROMANIA

Mihai Riosu, Mihela Pratascu and Alina Pratrascu, Maranata Church

“Your choices reveal what sort of character you are.”

Victor Shefford

“Initiative is creative disobedience” Ian Callard

“In a radical church we see being single not as ‘odd’ but as an opportunity to serve” Mick Haines

UNCONDITIONAL CARE

Annanagar, INDIA

REV Mishae

f the Apostolic Assembly, An-

nanagar, Chennai, south India,

was leading a church meeting

when the tsunami struck on

Sunday 26 December 2004. He

recounts what happened next.

“I had left my home at 6.42am

when I noticed people star-

ing at a building. Five minutes

later I had a phone call saying

there had been an earthquake.

as about to

www.multiply.org.uk

08/09/2005, 13:50:52

ing and people came running

towards the city.

“I quit the service and took

my bike to see the condition of

the sea. The water had reached

10 metres high. People had lost

their lives, their houses, their

families, their utensils. I saw

their boats thrown 1,500 metres

away from the seafront. That

evening we cooked food for

people.

“When trouble comes, we

are not supposed to look at

religion… I never put a limit on

helping others. I went to Hindus

and Muslims as well as Chris-

tians and prayed with them. All

had lost houses, and there was

a great need for food, clothes,

new water pots. I asked church

members and outside social

organisations for money with

which to buy saris, rice, split

peas for dahl, oil and pots.”

From then until March Mishael

maintained the church pro-

ramme and did his best to giv

the h

who

for h

nee

methe domsts

www.multiply.org.uk

20-23.indd 23

undreds of people

came asking

elp what they

ded. The govern-

nt then took over

relief effort.

“People said ‘God

esn’t have any

ercy on us,’. I

aid, to comfort

hem, ‘We were created by small

perm in our mother’s womb.

Whether you die as a big man

or whether you die in your

mother’s womb, it is nothing

before God. They are gone to

God because He invited them

home.’”

As well as pastoring a 150-

member church Mishael con-

ducts seminars all over south

India to encourage pastors

serving in rural areas. “These

pastors suffer from their lack

of education, and the lack of

supportive books to the Bible,”

he explains. This costs him

thousands of rupees for food

and transportation.

“I’d like to join Multiply,”

concludes Mishael. “I want our

Pastors’ Fellowship to connect

Europe and Asia.”

MULTIPLY INTERNATIONALLEADERS CONFERENCE

UK MULTIPLY LEADERS CON FER ENCESat ur day 26 November 2005 10.30am - 4pm Sat ur day 3 June 2006 10.30am, 2.00pm, 6.15pm

For all leaders from the Multiply Net work Church es and in ter est ed lead ers from oth er

church es and groups. Leaders from all levels of church life, in clud ing trainee lead ers are wel come.

Multiply Leaders Con fer enc es are arranged by the Je sus Fel low ship. No charge is made and meals are pro vid ed free. If you are at tend ing please advise Huw Lewis or Iain Gorrie, Jesus Fel low ship / Mul ti ply, Neth er Heyford, North amp ton NN7 3LB. UK Tel: +44 845 166 8171 Fax: +44 0845 166 8177 E-mail: [email protected]

Cornhill ManorPattishallNorthamptonNN12 8LQ

Jesus CentreAbington SquareNorthamptonNN1 4AE


08/09/2005, 13:51:39

BADGES BIBLES BOOKS BRACELETS CD’S CASSETTES CROSSES FLEECES PENDANTS PAATCHES SWEATSHIRTS STICKERS T-SHIRTS VIDEOS DVDS

t h e o n l i n e j e s u s p e o p l e s h o p

www.jesuspeople.biz

24.ind

CD £10.99The Poor | CD £10.99 Cassette £7.95New Awakening | CD £10.99 Cassette £7.95Dare To Be! | CD £10.99 Cassette £7.95Stand Up! | CD £10.99 Cassette £7.95Sounds of the Jesus Revolution | CD £10.99 Cassette £7.95Wild | CD £10.99 Cassette £7.95

CROS

SES

Plastic fluo cross | 50p Enamel cross | £1.50Wooden cross machined | £1.00Wooden cross styled | Fluo red or plain cedar £3.99

MUS

IC

Info: Jesus Fellowship, FREEPOST, Nether Heyfot: 0845 123 5550 e: [email protected] www.je

d 1

VIDE

OS

Jesus Centres | Compassion in action - inside the Jesus Army’s friendship and care project £5.99Celibacy - why? why not? | Six men & women tell what it means to them to be celibate £5.99CHURCH - Steeple or People? | What happens when a group of Christians live together? £5.99 What’s Happening! | UK evangelism today £5.99 Mul ti ply | Presenting the Multiply Christian Network - a varied and growing stream £5.99Just Looking | An short in tro duc tion to the mod ern Jesus army £5.99

DVDS

rd, Northampton NN7 3BRsus.org.uk

BOOK

S

Fire in our Hearts | The story of the Jesus Fel low ship £5.99When the Spirit comes | Accounts of spir it u al awakening £3.99Seven Silver Rings | Seven cel i bates from the Jesus Fellowship tell their stories £3.99The Bestseller | An informative introduction to the books of the Bible £3.99 Revival Fires | Stirring ac counts of Chris tian re viv al around the world £2.50Your Baptism | A clear, in depth teach ing book let on believer’s baptism £1.50

UK MULTIPLY CONFERENCE

Saturday 26 November10am - 4pm

Cornhill ManorPattishall

NORTHAMPTON

MEN ALIVE FOR GOD

Saturday 12 November 11:00am, 11:30am, 12:45pm,

2:00pm, 3:30pm, 5:00pm & 6:00pm

Jesus CentreAbington Square

NORTHAMPTON

UK JESUS CELEBRATION

Saturday 1 October 1:00pm, 2:00pm, 4:30pm & 6:00pm

Ponds ForgeSHEFFIELD

UK JESUS CELEBRATION

Saturday 31 December 1:00pm, 2:00pm, 4:30pm & 6:00pm

Jesus CentreAbington Square

NORTHAMPTON

n a t i o n a l e v e n t s n a t i o n a l e v e n t s al l f ree all welcome no prejudiceal l f ree all welcome no prejudice

08/09/2005, 12:35:43

ww

s

25.indd

elec

troni

c el

ectro

nic

post

bag

SCOTTISH REVIVAL

Thanks for an excellent website. I am researching revivals in preparation for the 150th anniversary of the Great North East Scotland Revival of 1859-60. I note that you have no note of it on your site. I have posted the contents of a book written on the 50th anniversary in 1909 to my church’s website www.leadside.cc. Feel free to take any quotes for your site. Meanwhile I am continuing to research the spiritual, social, moral and economic climate which prevailed in Scotland in general and especially Aberdeen and Peterhead at that time, before and after the revival.

D Byrne, UK

KOREAN NEW START

I have been in London for over two years. During this time I saw your work of preaching the gospel down town. I am now in Korea but I cannot stand life in my country. I am a student at a graduate school, but I do not like my subject. I desire to run away from my life. As I have no time to read the Bible, so now I am looking for a way to be with God’s people. I desire to change my life for the kingdom of Jesus.

S.J Yoo, SOUTH KOREA

ww.jesus.org.ukww.jesus.org.uk

25

If you’d like to send your prayer requests, or let us know what God has been doing in your life or you’d like to find out more about Hime: [email protected]: Jesus Fellowship, Nether Heyford, Northampton NN7 3LBt: 0845 123 5550f: 0845 166 8178

CARE FOR THE HIDDEN ONES

When you join community do you still have contact with your secular family? I feel strongly drawn to the common purse way of life and would like nothing more than to devote the rest of my life to serving God through expressing His tremendous love and grace in practical every day ways, caring for the people the world seems not to see.

C Garioch, UK

GRATEFUL FOR PRAYERS

I don’t know if you remember praying for my daughter, Brittany, she was arrested because a girl she was with stole a lady’s purse. Well, the case just ended and I wanted to thank you for your prayers. The Lord heard and answered and in the end she was only charged with one crime, and received probation. It was such a joy and blessing to me to know that there were so many of the Lord’s people praying.

L O’Neill, UK

NEW USE FOR OLD CINEMA

I am so pleased that you have the Savoy cinema. My father was a bricklayer on the cinema when it was built in the year that I was born. Through the Second World War I went with my mother many times to the Savoy.

P Walker, UK
ttttt POWERFUL ARMY
I very much like reading the testimonies written in Jesus Life magazine where I find personal and spiritual experiences of lives teaching us every moment how effective was the blood of Jesus sprinkled on the cross a long time ago. I need your prayers for my life because I would like to find more of the will of God and to be a great helper in His Kingdom. God really is calling and training a powerful army to fight against all dark places.

E De Souza, BRAZIL

AMERICAN COMMUNITY

I was surfing the web in search of someone else experiencing the same life that I was and I was amazed and excited that I found this web site. The idea in America of community is going to church every Wednesday and Sunday and the occasional prayer meeting, but I knew that there had to be more. My husband and I began our ministry a little under three years ago. We are still very small, many people have called us a cult and many of the Christians we know want to have nothing to do with us. We put everything we have into one bank account and support each other in our calling and purpose God has placed in our lives.

A Baker, USA

Three/2005 Page 25

05/08/2005, 11:20:49

Paul had a split second decision to make

“I thought I had everything and needed nothing more. But somehow God got through to me!” Ann Hawker tells her story.

At last I am who mean

26-27

HEN YOU’RE a well-brought up, mid-dle-class “Christian” girl with family values of upright living and caring for

others, it’s strangely easy to avoid being genuinely converted to becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ! This was Ann Hawker’s experience. “As a child, I’d always dutifully tried to do the right things – but without any experience of doing them from love, inside me. At my fi rst secondary school – a Catholic one in Croydon - I remember loving the mystery of the ‘Sta-tions of the Cross’ but all that did was to lean me towards religiosity. At Crusaders’ Camp I fi rst became aware you were supposed to make some kind of per-sonal commitment to Jesus – which I dutifully tried to do, without any idea what it meant!

W

Jesus Life Three/2005 Jesus Life Three/2005 Page 26

.indd 26

“In 1969, when I was 13, we moved to Northamptonshire and I joined a Church of England school. A year later, I agreed to be confi rmed and I remember distinctly being very disappointed that it didn’t mean more, as I had an awareness that confi rmation should have meant that I ‘found the Holy Spirit’ – though nobody could tell me how or why.” Most of Ann’s peers at her new school had chosen their friends before she arrived and Ann’s identity became fi xed as the friend that all the friendless used to hang around with. “Because these weren’t two-way relation-ships, I became quite lonely and this led, in my late teens, to me getting into more drink-ing and sexual behaviour than my conscience felt happy about. I would still have called myself a Christian and sang in the choir but

gradually church got squeezed out of my life by music, boys and going out drinking.” By the early 1970s, the charismatic revival came to Britain and, just before Ann’s 18th birthday, her elder brother, Dave, announced that he’d become a Christian. “He really provoked me by saying: ‘Ann, if you say you’re a Christian, how come you don’t know the Holy Spirit?’ I got very cross. I did not want my cage rattled at all!” When Dave went off to university, he left the house littered with charismatic books like Run Baby Run and Nine O’clock in the Morning. In spite of herself, Ann read them all avidly. They sparked a realisation that you could actually know a living, miracle-working God today, through experiencing something the books called ‘Holy Spirit baptism’.

www.jesus.org.uk

08/09/2005, 13:08:28

f

o God nt me to be!

26-

“When Dave came home for Christmas, 1973, he asked if he could take me to Bug-brooke Chapel. I don’t actually recall saying yes but somehow there I was, surrounded by the gifts of the Holy Spirit and seeing with my own eyes the things I’d been reading about in Dave’s books! That night he asked if he could pray for me and I was fi lled with the Holy Spirit and, later, spoke in tongues – without knowing much of repentance or deep conver-sion! “The overwhelming sensation I felt was that now I knew God. I’d met Him for the fi rst time. My spirit had come alive. I went around with a massive grin and got cheek-ache through smiling so much! At school, people asked if I had a new boyfriend – I was so happy something must have happened. That Spring, I was baptised in water and became a member of the Jesus Fellowship.” At this time, the church began to set up the New Creation Christian Community and purchased the fi rst houses. Soon, pioneer groups of church members were getting to grips with the realities of an all-things-in common lifestyle, as described in Acts 2 and 4. Ann, meantime, had enrolled for a three-year university course in Social Sciences at Leicester and found it hard to have to wait for weekends before she could be with the church again. “At last, in 1978, my graduation day came and I was free to join them. My fi rst com-munity house was Living Stones in Flore, a few miles from Bugbrooke Chapel. I felt an overwhelming sense of ‘coming home’ and I was very happy and fulfi lled. I count the three

www.jesus.org.uk

27.indd 27

Ann (right) in the early days o

years I lived there as my spiritual adolescence and the thirteen years at my second house, Highway House in Weedon, as the spiritual training ground for my ministry of spiritual motherhood. “In 1994, I moved to my present home at Promise House, Coventry and you could say that this was the house where I felt my life of ministry really began. Over the last eleven years I’ve moved from being secretary to our architect’s practice to being the property trustee responsible for all the eighty Jesus Fel-lowship community houses.

“Following years of outreach, I had a grow-ing vision for church to be more accessible to all during the daytime and this vision was fi -nally realised when we began the Coventry Je-sus Centre project. I became project manager and am now the part-time services manager. Both during the setting up and now with the ongoing running, my testimony, again and again, is that God provides – whether through the amazing provision of suitable chairs at a bargain price or through volunteers suddenly appearing when there has been a gap we had no idea how to fi ll!” One day, during her time at Living Stones, Ann gave a friend a lift to work. As she got out of the car, the friend joked: “Only thirty-fi ve more years of journeys to work!”

“My spirit had come alive. I went around with a massive grin and got cheek-ache

through smiling so much!”

As Ann waved goodbye to her she thought: “Well, that won’t ever be me – be cause I’m going to get married!” Immediately, she heard God’s inner voice say: “Are you sure about that!? “Yes I am!” Over the next weeks, Ann knew she needed to ask God what He thought about her future. “I experienced a great tussle with God. Eventually, I agreed that I would ask Him. In gentle steps, He talked to me about receiving His gift of celibacy. “At Living Stones we had a tree called ‘The

Tree of Heaven’ and one day, under this tree, I made my vow to stay single for His service.“I believe this was the most decisive deci-

sion of my life - very much part of God’s plan for me and it all fi ts together in the way He wanted it to – releasing me to be free for my service to the church.

“Twenty-fi ve years on, I’ve experienced lots of heartache and loneliness at times and the occasional emotional entanglement – but never any regrets. “Spiritual motherhood has demanded of me all that I am and my work as property trustee and at the Jesus Centre means lots of stress and slog – like juggling many plates in the air! But it’s true to say that it’s at the very point of fi nding myself completely at an end of my own resources that I’ve found God most faithful, holding me up in the midst of it all. “I am who I’m meant to be, doing what God wants me to do – and that’s a very precious thing to be able to say!” JL

community living.


08/09/2005, 13:11:48

Jesus Life Three/2005 www.jesus.org.uk Jesus Life Three/2005 Page 29www.jesus.org.uk

D.

A SATURDAY in June 2005, at 4am. The sky over north London is light. It is going to be a bright summer morning. Twelve 20-some-things are gathered round a wooden table in a house in Acton. There is a freshly picked rose on the table. The rest of the space is covered in plates, pans, knives and

forks. Sausages, bacon, eggs; it’s like a “greasy spoon” café. We’re all laugh-ing, all half-awake & buzzing. It’s quite surreal, in fact; because none of us slept last night. We’ve just had a fry-up, and a few hours ago we were part of a chanting, dancing mob making our way through Soho, singing of the Jesus Revolution. It’s the end of the J Genera-tion (15s to 35s) EDP - Eat, Drink and Pray Campaign - of late night evangelism in London. It has been a wild ride. Three days of adventure in central London. Talking to people. Praying with people. Loving the poor. Feeding the street people (that’s where the “eating” and “drinking” comes in), leading some to faith in Jesus. Up through the night. Real fel-lowship; disciples together, loving it, taking risks - just like the New Testament

in fact! Finally, a big march through the West End with peo-ple from all round the country joining in. The crowds watching, all amazed at the colour and the life on display. One of the EDP team appears in the video footage from the march. Once he asked God to spare him the embar-rassment of people knowing that he was a Christian. Look at the way he’s dancing now! Ever seen the “Crazy Frog”? He’s boinging up and

down like a pogo stick! He doesn’t care who sees his passion for God! The freedom on the street is amazing, liberated worship in a red-light district! Earlier in the week the owner of a sex shop, talking to one of the evangelists, confessed that he had a faith in Jesus Christ. “Did he not think that God might want him to get another job?” asked one of the team. After thinking about it for a while, the owner agreed. God was speaking; he joined us on the march and has since closed shop! Being all out for Jesus on the streets

Every month a different mJa team takes the gospel out onto the streets of London for three days. Laurence Cooper reports on the J Generation’s (aged 15-35) turn.

of London was an exhilarating experi-ence. Not only for the several hundred people who joined in the march, but - in a particular way - for the team who came together for the duration of the EDP campaign. Jesus has truly given us a great commission, and on the campaign we experienced more of the greatness of it, the glory of it, the sense that we were making an eternal impact. We were joined in Jesus and His cause! Lov-ing all the people! Unashamed of the gospel! ...and all before breakfast!

Eating...Drinking...Praying...

Marching...Loving...Living

(Far left) Jesus Army members marching through Soho. (Above) Scenes on the streets of the West End of London.Jesus Life Three/2005 Page 28 www.jesus.org.uk www.jesus.org.uk

JL

28-29.indd 28-29 08/09/2005, 12:10:51

Jesus Life Three/2005 Page 28 www.jesus.org.uk www.jesus.org.uk

D.

Eating...Drinking...Praying...

Marching...Loving...Living

Jesus Life Three/2005 Page 28 www.jesus.org.uk www.jesus.org.uk

28-29.indd 28-29

A SATURDAY in June 2005, at 4am. The sky over north London is light. It is going to be a bright summer morning. Twelve 20-some-things are gathered round a wooden table in a house in Acton. There is a freshly picked rose on the table. The rest of the space is covered in plates, pans, knives and

Every month a different mJa team takes the gospel out onto the streets of London for threedays. Laurence Cooper reports on the J Generation’s (aged 15-35) turn.

forks. Sausages, bacon, eggs; it’s like a “greasy spoon” café. We’re all laugh-ing, all half-awake & buzzing. It’s quite surreal, in fact; because none of us slept last night. We’ve just had a fry-up, and a few hours ago we were part of a chanting, dancing mob making our way through Soho, singing of the Jesus Revolution. It’s the end of the J Genera-tion (15s to 35s) EDP - Eat, Drink and Pray Campaign - of late night evangelism in London. It has been a wild ride. Three days of adventure in central London. Talking to people. Praying with people. Loving the poor. Feeding the street people (that’s where the “eating” and “drinking” comes in), leading some to faith in Jesus. Up through the night. Real fel-lowship; disciples together, loving it, taking risks - just like the New Testament

in fact! Finally, a big march through the West End with peo-ple from all round the country joining in. The crowds watching, all amazed at the colour and the life on display. One of the EDP team appears in the video footage from the march. Once he asked God to spare him the embar-rassment of people knowing that he was a Christian. Look at the way he’s dancing now! Ever seen the “Crazy Frog”? He’s boinging up and


down like a pogo stick! He doesn’t care who sees his passion for God! The freedom on the street is amazing, liberated worship in a red-light district! Earlier in the week the owner of a sex shop, talking to one of the evangelists, confessed that he had a faith in Jesus Christ. “Did he not think that God might want him to get another job?” asked one of the team. After thinking about it for a while, the owner agreed. God was speaking; he joined us on the march and has since closed shop! Being all out for Jesus on the streets

of London was an exhilarating experi-ence. Not only for the several hundred people who joined in the march, but - in a particular way - for the team who came together for the duration of the EDP campaign. Jesus has truly given us a great commission, and on the campaign we experienced more of the greatness of it, the glory of it, the sense that we were making an eternal impact. We were joined in Jesus and His cause! Lov-ing all the people! Unashamed of the gospel! ...and all before breakfast!

(Far left) Jesus Army members marching through Soho. (Above) Scenes on the streets of the West End of London.

JL

08/09/2005, 12:10:51

suggested going to the Jesus Army’s Festival in Trafalgar Square. “I loved it and was fi lled with the Holy Spirit. Afterwards, in the meeting at Batter-sea Park, I heard the words ‘who wants to be baptised?’ and was fi rst to run on stage. The following week, I hitchhiked to Northamp-ton to stay in community with them for the remaining fi ve months of my visa. God re-ally proved Himself to me during that visit!” Over the next fi ve years, Peter visited Northampton many times. His vision was to learn how to set up a similar community in Hungary. But all three attempts failed. “To set up community is not hard but to endure is another issue! The fi rst attempt lasted a year. The second was a precious time – but only lasted four months. During the third attempt, in 2004, I learnt that I wasn’t mature enough spiritually to recog-nise that you have to train people. It’s easy to mistake a nice, soul agreement for real Holy Spirit unity!” During these important years of spiritual training, Peter worked at Taszar military base and, in 1997, he met Szilvia from Ka-posvar, who worked in the base laundry. “How I found Jesus is a very sad story,” explains Szilvia. “Dad was Catholic, Mum Protestant but neither went to church. Sometimes Grandma took me, but I thought the Jesus story was a fairy tale.

“At 17, I wanted to know what was the point of being on earth but neither fam-ily, friends nor teachers could tell me. I discovered lies were a great way to manipu-late people and put on a happy, cynical, witty image, which made me very popular. But no one knew the real Szilvia. It seemed interesting to do forbidden things and I felt cool leading a double life with a married man. After two years of the affair I became pregnant and he became angry and per-suaded me to have an abortion. Suddenly my ‘cool’ life became a total mess. I was sad and ashamed and hated myself and wanted to commit suicide. “One day on the base, I met Peter. Even my closest friends didn’t know about the abortion but Peter told me that he saw such sadness in my eyes and wanted me to know

that, whatever it was about, Jesus could heal me. We began to pray together and, gradually, I found faith, peace and heal-ing.” “Szilvia and I were two miserable souls with broken hearts,” adds Peter. “We agreed ‘neither

of us is ever going to get married.’ As we got to know each other, this changed! One day I found myself saying: ‘Szilvia, do you want to marry me and be the third in my life – my fi rst is God and my second is the church of Jesus!?’ Szilvia caught and understood my vision and in March 1998 we married. A year later, Benjamin was born. When he was a few months old, we came over to England to make covenant as long-distance members of Jesus Army. Two years later, Lili was born, then Ephraim, in 2002.”

A Radical family!

Peter and Szilvia Pap trace the unusual and often stormy pathways by which the Holy Spirit led them to leave Hungary to live the revolutionary lifestyle of Christian community in England

By May 2004, when Hungary joined the European Union, Peter had decided that his vision of setting up community in Hungary wasn’t going to work. There were many tears on both sides as the young couple said good-bye to their friends in the church. “The friendships were real and deep,” explains Peter, “but our visions were different. We wanted to fi nd real justice and equality in practice, not just in theory - nothing is worth living for, except Jesus and His church. If He is the only one, why not live your life in a radical way? We brought the family over to North-ampton to live in community. “Our fi rst community year has been hard at times – especially when, like us, you come from a different culture. But it is possible and that’s a big testimony to the power of the Holy Spirit! There can be quite touchy issues – even the food is different. Reconciling and fi nding unity is important. Instead of allow-ing yourselves to get isolated when diffi cul-ties come, it’s important to hold onto the fact that, whatever the issues, they are not the central issue of life and you need to look above the clouds to the sun! Community has given us so much scope for our ministries. I am a motivator and Szilvia brings a lot of joy and stability – she’s unshakeable!” It’s been an eventful year for Szilvia – especially with the birth of Larissa, their fourth child.“Brotherhood is a great treasure. For me, one of the secrets of living together is to realise that some things we class as ‘important principles’ are actually just personal taste. Certain things we need to let go of and others we need to stick to – and we need wisdom to discern which is which! As for the children – if parents are on the right track with Jesus and lead the family in loving authority, giving themselves to love and spend time with the children – the rest will follow!” JL

“Do you want to marry me and be the third in my

life?”

30-31.indd 30-31

WHEN A COMPLETE stranger in Amster-dam rushed at Peter Pap with a syringe, shouting “This needle is infected with HIV and I’m going to kill you with it!” all Peter’s cynical opinions about Christianity fl ew outof his head. He found himself crying out, “Jesus, help me!” To Peter’s astonishment he heard a voiceinside saying “Kiss him!” and – even more astonishing – found himself putting his arms round the man and kissing him on thecheek. Instead of plunging the syringe into Peter, the man ran away, shaking, as if an electric shock had connected with his body! “I’d come over to Holland from my home in Hungary,” explains Peter, “to experience life in other countries. I’d been brought up an atheist, but by this time - 1992 - I’d seen there must be more to life than what we can touch and see. I’d spent a long period exploring New Age and made up my own religion. For two weeks after the incident, Peter was so troubled he couldn’t communicate

with anyone and slept out in the park by himself. “One night it poured with rain. I chose a tree to shelter under and found myself say-ing: ‘God, I don’t know You. But if You know me, reveal Yourself!’ Peace came over me – peace was something I hadn’t experienced for a long time! “Some Christians had given me a Bible. I’d decided to give it back to them next day. But as I lay peacefully under the tree, I thought I’d give it one last look. The Bible opened at the passage where Nathaniel asks Jesus how He knew him and Jesus answers with a supernatural word of knowledge: ‘I saw you under a tree.’ “I lay, shocked, under my tree and I thought ‘well, you can’t misinterpret that, can you!?’ I started to be vividly aware of my sins – especially at having blasphemed Christians as idiots.” Over the next four months, Peter’s new faith grew fast. He was hungry for more and one day, during a visit to England, a friend

12/08/2005, 10:55:50

WHEN A COMPLETE stranger in Amster-dam rushed at Peter Pap with a syringe, shouting “This needle is infected with HIV and I’m going to kill you with it!” all Peter’s cynical opinions about Christianity fl ew out of his head. He found himself crying out, “Jesus, help me!” To Peter’s astonishment he heard a voice inside saying “Kiss him!” and – even more astonishing – found himself putting his arms round the man and kissing him on the cheek. Instead of plunging the syringe into Peter, the man ran away, shaking, as if an electric shock had connected with his body! “I’d come over to Holland from my home in Hungary,” explains Peter, “to experience life in other countries. I’d been brought up an atheist, but by this time - 1992 - I’d seen there must be more to life than what we can touch and see. I’d spent a long period exploring New Age and made up my own religion. For two weeks after the incident, Peter was so troubled he couldn’t communicate

A Radical family!

Peter and Szilvia Pap trace the unusual and often stormy pathways by which the Holy Spirit led them to leave Hungary to live the revolutionary lifestyle of Christian community in England

with anyone and slept out in the park by himself. “One night it poured with rain. I chose a tree to shelter under and found myself say-ing: ‘God, I don’t know You. But if You know me, reveal Yourself!’ Peace came over me – peace was something I hadn’t experienced for a long time! “Some Christians had given me a Bible. I’d decided to give it back to them next day. But as I lay peacefully under the tree, I thought I’d give it one last look. The Bible opened at the passage where Nathaniel asks Jesus how He knew him and Jesus answers with a supernatural word of knowledge: ‘I saw you under a tree.’ “I lay, shocked, under my tree and I thought ‘well, you can’t misinterpret that, can you!?’ I started to be vividly aware of my sins – especially at having blasphemed Christians as idiots.” Over the next four months, Peter’s new faith grew fast. He was hungry for more and one day, during a visit to England, a friend

30-31.indd 30-31

suggested going to the Jesus Army’s Festival in Trafalgar Square. “I loved it and was fi lled with the Holy Spirit. Afterwards, in the meeting at Batter-sea Park, I heard the words ‘who wants to be baptised?’ and was fi rst to run on stage. The following week, I hitchhiked to Northamp-ton to stay in community with them for the remaining fi ve months of my visa. God re-ally proved Himself to me during that visit!” Over the next fi ve years, Peter visited Northampton many times. His vision was to learn how to set up a similar community in Hungary. But all three attempts failed. “To set up community is not hard but to endure is another issue! The fi rst attempt lasted a year. The second was a precious time – but only lasted four months. During the third attempt, in 2004, I learnt that I wasn’t mature enough spiritually to recog-nise that you have to train people. It’s easy to mistake a nice, soul agreement for real Holy Spirit unity!” During these important years of spiritual training, Peter worked at Taszar military base and, in 1997, he met Szilvia from Ka-posvar, who worked in the base laundry. “How I found Jesus is a very sad story,” explains Szilvia. “Dad was Catholic, Mum Protestant but neither went to church. Sometimes Grandma took me, but I thought the Jesus story was a fairy tale.

“At 17, I wanted to know what was the point of being on earth but neither fam-ily, friends nor teachers could tell me. I discovered lies were a great way to manipu-late people and put on a happy, cynical, witty image, which made me very popular. But no one knew the real Szilvia. It seemed interesting to do forbidden things and I felt cool leading a double life with a married man. After two years of the affair I became pregnant and he became angry and per-suaded me to have an abortion. Suddenly my ‘cool’ life became a total mess. I was sad and ashamed and hated myself and wanted to commit suicide. “One day on the base, I met Peter. Even my closest friends didn’t know about the abortion but Peter told me that he saw such sadness in my eyes and wanted me to know

that, whatever it was about, Jesus could heal me. We began to pray together and, gradually, I found faith, peace and heal-ing.” “Szilvia and I were two miserable souls with broken hearts,” adds Peter. “We agreed ‘neither

of us is ever going to get married.’ As we got to know each other, this changed! One day I found myself saying: ‘Szilvia, do you want to marry me and be the third in my life – my fi rst is God and my second is the church of Jesus!?’ Szilvia caught and understood my vision and in March 1998 we married. A year later, Benjamin was born. When he was a few months old, we came over to England to make covenant as long-distance members of Jesus Army. Two years later, Lili was born, then Ephraim, in 2002.”

“Do you want to marry me and be the third in my

life?”

By May 2004, when Hungary joined the European Union, Peter had decided that his vision of setting up community in Hungary wasn’t going to work. There were many tears on both sides as the young couple said good-bye to their friends in the church. “The friendships were real and deep,” explains Peter, “but our visions were different. We wanted to fi nd real justice and equality in practice, not just in theory - nothing is worth living for, except Jesus and His church. If He is the only one, why not live your life in a radical way? We brought the family over to North-ampton to live in community. “Our fi rst community year has been hard at times – especially when, like us, you come from a different culture. But it is possible and that’s a big testimony to the power of the Holy Spirit! There can be quite touchy issues – even the food is different. Reconciling and fi nding unity is important. Instead of allow-ing yourselves to get isolated when diffi cul-ties come, it’s important to hold onto the fact that, whatever the issues, they are not the central issue of life and you need to look above the clouds to the sun! Community has given us so much scope for our ministries. I am a motivator and Szilvia brings a lot of joy and stability – she’s unshakeable!” It’s been an eventful year for Szilvia – especially with the birth of Larissa, their fourth child.“Brotherhood is a great treasure. For me, one of the secrets of living together is to realise that some things we class as ‘important principles’ are actually just personal taste. Certain things we need to let go of and others we need to stick to – and we need wisdom to discern which is which! As for the children – if parents are on the right track with Jesus and lead the family in loving authority, giving themselves to love and spend time with the children – the rest will follow!” JL

12/08/2005, 10:55:50

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BIRMINGHAM Jesus Fellowship Church......................... 0845 166 8153BLACKBURN Rishton Christian Fellowship................... (01254) 887790BRIDGEND The Bridge Community Church................... (01656) 655635BRIGHTON & HOVE Jesus Fellowship Church 0845 166 8151CHATHAM House Of Prayer For All Nations.................. (01634) 669933CHATHAM King’s Church Medway ................................. (01634) 847477COVENTRY Jesus Fellowship Church.............................. 0845 166 8154DEAL Christchurch.......................................................... (01304) 366512HIGH WYCOMBE Church of Shalom............................... (01494) 449408HORNCASTLE House Church.......................................... (01472) 859052 IPSWICH Jesus Fellowship Church................................. 0845 166 8156 KETTERING Jesus Fellowship Church............................. 0845 166 8157LEEDS Jesus Fellowship Church..................................... 0845 166 8167LEICESTER Jesus Fellowship Church ........................... (0116) 254 9233LIVERPOOL Jesus Fellowship Church ............................ 0845 166 8168LONDON N Glad Tidings Evangelical Church (020) 8245 9002LONDON S Bible Life Family Ministries ....................... (020) 8689 2244LONDON S Understanding Ministries ......................... (020) 7064 1999LONDON SE Ephratah Int’l Gospel Praise Centre (020) 8469 0047LONDON SE Flaming Evangelical Ministries (020) 8694 2083LONDON SE Hope of Glory Int’l Ministries .................. (020) 8694 6738LONDON SE Mission Together for Christ..................... (020) 7401 2687

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LONDON Jesus Fellowship Church.............................0845 166 8152MANCHESTER Jesus Fellowship Church....................0845 166 8169MILTON KEYNES Jesus Fellowship Church ................0845 166 8159NORTHAMPTON Jesus Fellowship Church ................0845 166 8161NORWICH Jesus Fellowship Church...........................0845 166 8162NOTTINGHAM Jesus Fellowship Church.....................0845 166 8163OXFORD Jesus Fellowship Church..............................0845 166 8164RAMSEY (Cambs) Christians United ........................ (01487) 815528SHEFFIELD Jesus Fellowship Church.........................0845 166 8183STOKE-ON-TRENT Jesus Fellowship Church...............0845 123 5334

BELFAST......................................................................0845 123 5552BOURNEMOUTH ........................................................0845 123 5558BRISTOL .....................................................................0845 123 5339CHESTER/NORTH WALES ..........................................0845 123 5561HASTINGS ..................................................................0845 123 5551NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE ..........................................0845 166 8187PRESTON ...................................................................0845 123 5554SWANSEA ..................................................................0845 123 5556WALSALL/WOLVERHAMPTON ....................................0845 123 5563

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T U S !08/09/2005, 12:14:14

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