User:John Campbell/Jesus Army

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The multi-coloured camouflage pattern jacket (right) is often worn as a Jesus Army "uniform" on the street
The multi-coloured camouflage pattern jacket (right) is often worn as a Jesus Army "uniform" on the street

The Jesus Army is the outreach ministry of the Jesus Fellowship Church, an evangelical Christian movement based in the United Kingdom.

Contents

[edit] History

Originally based on a village Baptist chapel in Bugbrooke near Northampton. Its founder was the chapel pastor Noel Stanton who in 1968 experienced a profound and intense spiritual episode or 'Baptism in the Holy Spirit', see also Pentecost.

The church was affected by the Charismatic Movement in the late 1960s and early 70s and influenced by the Jesus People movement in the USA.

Jesus Army double-decker coach used in evangelism in Barnsley, South Yorkshire
Jesus Army double-decker coach used in evangelism in Barnsley, South Yorkshire

The Jesus Army is known for its street outreach and is particularly involved with many in need, including homeless young people, those engaged in drug or alcohol abuse, and prisoners and ex-prisoners. Like many other churches, it engages in frequent evangelistic activities in public places, often out-of-doors, seeking to spread the Christian gospel through relationship building and friendships which demonstrate the love of Jesus and a moving of the Holy Spirit. Around 600 Jesus Army members live in 60 intentional communities collectively known as "New Creation Christian Community". Within each "house family", members pool their income in a common purse arrangement (See Acts 2:44-47) according to their interpretation of Biblical references to the early church. An additional 1,800 members live outside these communities and operate much like members of any other church.

[edit] Beliefs

The Jesus Army upholds the historic creeds of the Christian faith. The creeds are a set of common beliefs shared with almost every other Christian church and are known as: the Apostles' Creed, the Athanasian Creed and the Nicene Creed.

The Jesus Fellowship's / Jesus Army's beliefs are documented in their pdf e-book "We Believe" [1].

[edit] Criticism

In the past, local Northamptonshire newspapers and the late Archdeacon of Northampton, Bazil Marsh, among others ([2]) have accused the group of being a sect ([3]) or religious cult ([4]) but members of the group[5], ex-members[6], relatives[7][8] and friends[9][10] have denied this ([11], [12]). They speak of the good work done by the church and state that the Jesus Fellowship is a member of the Evangelical Alliance ([13]) - an umbrella group representing one million evangelical Christians in the UK, made up of member churches from over 30 different denominations, organisations and individuals. However, as the Jesus Army were considered not to be in good fellowship with other churches in the early 1980s, they were asked to leave the EA. The Jesus Army were also forced to leave the Baptist Union. The Jesus Fellowship made efforts to improve relationships with other churches, and rejoined the Evangelical Alliance in 2000. The Jesus Fellowship is also linked to other churches and groups in the UK and elsewhere through the Multiply Christian Network ([14]).

According to local and national newspaper articles from the 1980s, members of the Jesus Army communal houses were encouraged to withdraw from the world and cut off their ties with outsiders[15][16], except for the purpose of evangelising. It was also stated in newspaper articles that it was a policy of the group that community members must gain the permission of the group's "elders" before they got married[17]

In the past, concern has also beenraised about the Jesus Fellowship's corporal punishment practices, allegedly involving the use of a rod for juniors and a wooden spoon on infants, which Noel Stanton denied on an Anglia TV documentary in June 1989 ([18]).

As Professor Jeffrey K Hadden commented: "The Jesus Fellowship did not escape the muckraking of the tabloids." [19]

One of the houses was featured more recently in a Channel 4 television documentary, "Battlecentre", in 2001 (Production summary, Guardian Unlimited Reader Reviews, BBC interview with producer).

[edit] References

  • E. Barker, New Religious Movements (London: HMSO, 1989)
  • David V. Barrett, The New Believers (London: Cassell, 2000)
  • George D. Chryssides, Exploring New Religions [20] (London: Cassell, 1999)
  • Peter Bernard Clarke, New Religions in Global Perspective: A Study of Religious Change in Modern World, [21] (Routledge, 2006)
  • C Peter Collinson, All Churches Great and Small, [22](Carlisle: OM Publishing, 1998)
  • Cooper, Simon & Farrant, Mike (1997). Fire In Our Hearts (2nd edition). ISBN 1-900878-05-4. (Northampton: Multiply Publications. Retrieved August 24, 2005)

Multiply Publications is the publishing arm of the Jesus Fellowship, itself.

  • Keishin Inaba, Altruism in New Religious Movements: The Jesus Army and the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order in Britain (Okayama: University Education Press, 2004)
  • K. Newell, "Charismatic Communitarianism and the Jesus Fellowship", in S. Hunt, M. Hamilton & T. Walter (eds), Charismatic Christianity, Sociological Perspectives (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997 and New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997)
  • C. Partridge (ed), Encyclopedia of New Religions, a Guide [23] (Oxford: Lion Publishing, 2004). Also published as New Religions, a Guide (New York NY: Oxford, 2004) See article
  • T. Saxby, Pilgrims of a Common Life (Scottdale PA: Herald Press, 1987)
  • N. Scotland, Charismatics and the new millennium (2nd ed, Guildford: Eagle, 2000)
  • N. Wright, "The Nature and Variety of Restorationism and the 'House Church' Movement", in S. Hunt, M. Hamilton & T. Walter (eds), Charismatic Christianity, Sociological Perspectives (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997 and New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997)

[edit] External links

Category:Intentional communities Category:Christian communities Category:Charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity

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