jl89

The magazine of the modern Jesus army & Multiply Christian Network

JESUSIssue 89 FREE one / 2012www.jesus.org.uk

LIFE

INSIDE: TALKING TO SHANE CLAIBORNE ON THE MARGINS: ILLITERACY PROPHETIC WORD

COURAGEOUS FAITH AND ACTION

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Jesus Life www.jesus.org.uk2

Courageous faith and action 3 A word from Mick Haines

History Makers 14-15 Grateful to God in war, plague and famine

Jesus Centres 16-17 A moving moment at Northampton Jesus Centre

Multiply Christian Network 24-30 Recent visits and events by the Multiply teams

Keep in touch 35 Phone numbers for UK Multiply churches

and...

The Jesus Fellowship ChurCh, which is also known as the Jesus Army and includes the New Creation Christian Community, upholds the historic Christian faith, being reformed, evangelical and charismatic. it practises believer’s baptism and the New Testament reality of Christ’s Church; believing in Almighty God: Father, son and holy spirit; in the full divinity, atoning death and bodily resurrection of the lord Jesus Christ; in the Bible as God’s word, fully inspired by the holy spirit. This church desires to witness to the lordship of Jesus Christ over and in his Church; and, by holy character, righteous soci-ety and evangelical testimony to declare that Jesus 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 kingdom of God. This church proclaims free grace, justification by faith in Christ and the sealing and sanctifying baptism in the holy spirit.

© 2012 Jesus Fellowship Church, Nether heyford, Northampton NN7 3lB, uK. editor: James stacey. reproduction in any form requires written permission. The Jesus Fellowship does not necessarily agree with all the views expressed in articles and interviews printed in this magazine. unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are taken from the holY BiBle, New iNTerNATioNAl VersioN®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 international Bible society. used by permission of hodder & stoughton ltd, a member of the hodder headline plc Group. All rights reserved. photographs in this magazine are copyright Jesus Fellowship Church or royalty-free stock photos from www.sxc.hu. The Jesus Fellowship is part of Multiply Christian Network. Both the Jesus Fel-lowship and Multiply Christian Network are members of the evangelical Alliance uK. Jesus Fellowship life Trust registered Charity number 1107952.

CONTENTS

Zombie Church 4-6 Laurence Cooper on courageous faith and action

On the margins 7-10 Julia Faire looks at illiteracy and how the church can help

Changed life 11-13 How one binge drinker changed to living a Spirit-filled life

Talking to... 18-23 An interview with Shane Claiborne of The Simple Way

And another thing, God 31-33 From the blog of Jesus Life editor, James Stacey

Just four questions 34 Jesus Life asks Jesus radical, Chris Gilbert, just four questions JESUS

ARMY

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COURAGEOUS FAITH AND ACTION

02-03

A word from Mick Haines, apostolic team leader of the Jesus Fellowship.

THIS IS a year of “Courageous Faith and Action” in the Jesus Fellowship. Some of us

will take a new stand for Jesus. Do your work mates know you are a Christian? God calls us to identify with him, so wear a red cross with pride! Believe, and act in the name of Jesus! What will you do this year? Why not reach out to a neighbour, or follow an inspiration that God gives you? Be like the young man on the front cover, painting a fence, serving the community as a sign that Jesus has made us “servants of all”. “These signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well” (Mark 16:17-18) These were the dramatic words of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ to his amazed disciples. Today, they remain as true and relevant as ever. I recently met the founder of Healing on the Streets, a ministry seeking to mobilise the church effectively in the public square. Mark Marx had just come back from Colombia, where he taught in dangerous neighbourhoods as gunshots rang out. Many miracles occurred: a child with epilepsy cured, a disabled baby made well; doctors were stunned, while families rejoiced.

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The Holy Spirit, who did these works, is with us, too. Like the disciples after Pentecost, we are to be filled with the Spirit and move in boldness and supernatural power. We have begun to see deliverance and healings among us, and more will follow, as signs and wonders demonstrate the rulership of the Lord Jesus Christ in the UK today. Whatever courageous steps you take, God will be with you, the flame of his presence flickering from your words and deeds. In 2012, may his Holy Spirit move through you to spread a blazing, attractive, holy “fire on the earth” (Luke 12:49). Only believe, and act – He does the rest!

3Jesus Life

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ZOMBIE CHURCH WAKE UP

THE PROPHETIC

WORD

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04-0

Laurence Cooper issues a personal call to courageous faith and action.

A FRIEND of mine, a charismatic Catholic, had an office in the Vatican for 11 years.

With others, he would visit Pope John Paul II and lay on hands, praying for the Pope in tongues. After one of these sessions the Pope said to the group, “When you visit you bring me Jesus.” One asked what his many other visitors brought. “Problems,” came the doleful response. Like all churches, the Jesus Fellowship faces the question of succession: who will take over when the present generation is no longer here? Indeed, we face the question of whether we will survive at all. (Presuming we will survive as a matter of course is, well, presumption.) Or we may safely transfer from one set of church “adminis-trators” to another – while, over time, losing spiritual vibrancy. As John Paul II expressed, life-giving faith can all too easily be displaced by problem-centred management. Dead men walking? Zombie churches lurching unsteadily in no particular direction, until some-one has the decency to declare them deceased and sell off their buildings? Such churches, like the chicken whose head has been lopped off, can move busily, but without vision or a future; the Holy Spirit isn’t there. Risk-averse, stagnant religion was not un-known even to the churches of the New Tes-tament. Revelation gives sobering testimony to this. The church in Sardis had a reputation for being alive, but was dead. The church in Ephesus, like the chicken, had lost its head, its raison d’être – its “first love”. Without re-penting, and doing the works they did at first, it was scrap heap time for them. Don’t say it could never be true of us.

A charismatic church leader of our time had a son who was made the leader. “Surely he’ll carry his father’s powerful anointing?” the church thought. The son spoke stirring words. He took meetings. He wrote books. But several years later, people around him came to realise that he didn’t have any real leadership quality at all. Are we in danger of our rising generation accepting an inherited form of godliness without real, living power? We shouldn’t ignore the dangerous possibility of a genera-tion just “going with the flow”, never learning to find God’s reality for themselves. Complacency is a church killer. I think of the Isaac Watts hymn: Must we be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, While others fought to gain the prize and sailed through troubled seas?

The answer, of course, is “yes” – if we don’t have vision that grabs our hearts and ruins our lives then it will be little pleasures and personal

preferences that dictate our course. We will have swapped eternal glory for an IKEA mattress. Compare this with this cry in a hymn by F. Brook: My goal is God Himself, not joy, nor peace, Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God; ’Tis His to lead me there – not mine, but His – At any cost, dear Lord, by any road. My generation, and those younger than me, should repent of making a “flowery bed of ease” of our church, which the previous generation laboured and toiled so hard over. Yet there’s something to be said to the old-er generation, too: ownership of vision comes from being given real responsibility. The first generation of our church were key leaders in their twenties. The same must happen now.

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Complacency is a church killer

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We will have swapped eternal

04-0

As in Revelation, we must repent and do the works that we did at first. Young people should lead churches, go and start churches, or restart failing church plants. I’d like to see more of our youth going to Africa to work on projects with churches there. Our youth must step out in faith and, when they reach their wits end, “try tears”, as William Booth famously recommended to a struggling Salvation Army team. What could block the progress of the new generation? Stifling care, cautiousness tend-ing to indecision, crippling conservatism. “How dare they suggest...?” “You’re too young to understand!” “We worked hard to set it up this way.” “Mere emotionalism!” These elder-brother-ish tendencies, unchecked, would keep the baby of the church’s new generation in the womb to die, unable to be born. The younger generation needs its mentors. The Jesus Fellowship needs its apostolic leaders and its wise pioneers. Nevertheless, sacred cows may need slaying. The programme isn’t sacrosanct. Some need to embrace the pain of seeing things run less competently by a group of

Laurence is a writer, fund-raiser, and leader in the Jesus Fellowship. He lives in a Christian Community house in

Birmingham and supports Jesus Centres around the UK.READ HIS BLOG:laurencecooper.wordpress.com

young greenhorns. To risk others messing up what they gave their lives for. Only in this painful trust, only in this letting go – only in this death – can there be a resurrection. An unchallenged, un-trusted, visionless generation will be seduced by comfort, cosy beds, the endless distractions of this age; they will love the world and be consumed by its pleasures and passions. The challenge to them is: will you love the crucified and risen king enough to lose your lives to further his kingdom? And the challenge to the preceding generation is: will you let them?

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glory for an IKEA mattress


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Heart in tHe write place

ON THE M A R G I N S

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Julia Faire looks at the widespread problem of illiteracy in the UK and considers what the church can do about it.

THE PLEASURE is immense. We’ve finished the last page. It’s been a steep climb but the

summit has been reached. Joseph (not his real name) has read his first book - ever. Who was more elated? Him or me? Joseph is about 35 and comes from central Africa. He is one of several people who can hardly read or write at all – either in English or in their native language if they come from overseas, who come to Coventry Jesus Centre each week to an adult education programme, Your Learning. There is nothing in life I find much more pleas-urable than teaching someone to read and hear them decode their first few words. It requires pa-tience (a great deal actually) but more than that. It takes a great deal of understanding, listening and building up what has been torn down. And “torn down” is no exaggeration. I’ve heard it all: made to stand up in front of schoolmates and shamed as someone who can’t read; branded “thicko”; receiving the message loud and clear – “There’s not much hope for you.” Even in churches we don’t always get it. “Please can you read that Bible passage out aloud for us,” I’ve heard leaders say to some poor unsuspecting individual – followed by a red-faced and hurried excuse. The truth is: they can’t read. We tend to presume everyone can read – I certainly did. In fact, statistics from the National Literacy Trust reveal that, although less than 1

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Branded ‘Thicko’

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per cent of the UK is completely illiterate, one in six people in the UK struggle with literacy in so far as they do not have sufficient skills to function properly in society, including the workplace. Poor literacy skills can also be a serious barrier to people finding work or progressing once they find employment. Shockingly, research has shown that 40-50 per cent of prisoners are at or below the level of literacy and numeracy expected of an 11-year-old. This is much higher than the national average. Clearly, there is a link between illiteracy and crime. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, writing for the Evening Standard says: “Literacy is still about dignity and freedom...illiteracy is a prison. It traps people in a world where they are always at a disadvantage and always in fear of being ‘found out’.” Illiteracy equals powerlessness: not understanding the post that comes through your door; not being able to express yourself on paper; having little choice of work you can do; not being able to help your kids with their homework. The list goes on. Indeed, poor literacy skills are often passed on from generation to generation – children suffering an inherited disadvantage. The flipside of this, the acquisition of good literacy skills, is obvious: Kofi Annan: Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006 writes: “Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope...a tool for daily life in modern society...a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development...a platform for democratization, and a vehicle for the promotion of cultural and national identity. [It is] a basic human right...the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child


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can realise his or her full potential.” It happened again yesterday. A smiling Chinese man came for the first time to the “English for Work ESOL” course at Coventry Jesus Centre. I was giving the class a short spelling exercise and I noticed the English script meant nothing to him at all. Quietly, after the session, I drew him to one side: “Would – you – like – me – to – teach – you – to – read?” I said very slowly with gesticulations. His face lit up. He speaks very little English; actually he understands very little either. So today we began: “c-a-t”, “d-o-g”, “s-a-t”. It was a start. At the end my new friend grabbed me by the hand twice over and, smiling broadly, said “thank you” – a word he knew. It was one of the heartiest handshakes and “thank yous” I have ever had. “See you next week,” I said. I’ll be looking forward to that. The UK government recognises the chronic skills shortage and commissioned the Leitch Review to examine and propose possible solutions to the problem. Among the Review’s recommendations, published in 2006, are that by 2020, 95 per cent of UK adults should have achieved functional literacy and numeracy skills and more than 90 per cent of adults should be qualified to at least Level 2 (equivalent to five good GCSEs). Time will tell if the economic downturn will hinder such ambitious plans and whether the recommendations are, in fact, feasible. What can we do? Put ourselves in their shoes. Be sensitive – certainly not patronising. Begin a buddy scheme (the Shannon Trust does this in prison: inmates with good literacy skills pair up with those with weaker skills and undertake an intensive phonics reading course with excellent results). Offer to help. You’ll probably make a

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Illiteracy is a prison

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Jesus Life10

Helping someone

slowly decode those sacred words for the first time... is an experience second to none

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Julia is a skills tutor at Coventry Jesus Centre. The centre runs an adult education programme, Your Learning, which offers provision

for about 40 people each week. Her classes include literacy, computing, ESOL, job seeking and confidence skills, as well as life skills such as cooking. READ HER BLOG: julesjotting.blogspot.com

friend for life. Don’t think too that it’s only people from the developing world who can’t read. Plenty of UK-bron people can’t read. One such lady I taught to read is now one of my most loyal friends. I can count on her for anything. Over the years I have had a small stream of people (mainly men from the Caribbean) who have wanted to be able to read so that they can read the Bible. Let’s, for a minute, travel back a few centuries to when the Bible was available in English for the first time. This was surely one of the greatest stimuli in our history for the masses in general to learn to read. At the moment a couple of men come to Your Learning in order to read and understand the Bible. Helping someone slowly decode those sacred words for the first time and read their first sentence is an experience second to none – they are magical, not-to-be-forgotten moments – not just for them but me, too. Jesus said: “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me...I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:35-40). In the same way, He might have said, “I could not read and you understood. You made friends with me and taught me – and that has made all the difference... to me – and to you.” JL


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From booze to bubbly

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UP TO THE age of 10, Karen Jackson, now 29, describes her childhood in Berkshire as

a “normal, typical kid’s life.” She adds, matter-of-factly, “But from the ages of 11-16, my life was hell.” Adolescence is usually a turbulent time, but for Karen it marked the end of her childhood contentment altogether. Growing up as the only girl with two older brothers, Karen was often made to feel unwanted because she was a girl. “My parents told me I was a mistake,” she says, “But I just wanted to feel loved and accepted.” She lists the habits that drove her out of con-trol: “Drink, drugs, nicking stuff, fighting…” In her own words, she was “an angry young person.” Just after she turned 16, Karen was kicked out of her home by her mother, leaving her to sleep underneath blocks of flats, garages, and occasionally her friends’ floors. She got drunk most nights, whenever she could get hold of some alcohol. A year later, having lived in foster care, Karen had to “move on” because her foster parents couldn’t deal with her drink and drug habits. “I couldn’t settle anywhere,” explains Karen, “with my foster parents, I felt like a lodger rather than part of the family.” At 21, Karen had nothing to keep her in Berk-shire. After a failed attempt to “live the dream”

As a teenager, Karen Jackson was a homeless binge drinker – but that was before God’s Spirit bubbled into her life. She told Jesus Life her story.

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She hasn’t drunk any

alcohol for six years, hasn’t

smoked for over seven years

Karen and some of her friends from the Jesus Fellowship

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in Tenerife, she ended up sleeping on a friend’s floor in Leicester. Months later, she managed to get a room at an outreach hostel. A girl living there invited Karen to her first church meeting, a “friendship meal” at a Jesus Fellowship community house called “Springfield”. “Afterwards,” she chuckles, “I decided I never wanted to go back. But I did start a relationship with one of the guys I met there.” Two months later, Karen found herself asking her Christian boyfriend and his friend ques-tions about God. “I claimed God was nothing to me,” says Karen, “But I didn’t know that the Holy Spirit was working in me.” It wasn’t the first time she had sensed that there “might be more to life”. The week before she started asking her boyfriend about God, she had experienced a peaceful sensa-tion go through her body. “I knew there was someone else in the room, even though I could see there wasn’t.” Days later, she started to have a panic attack in her bedroom in the hostel and asked a friend for help. He phoned a member of staff, a Chris-tian woman who sat on the end of Karen’s bed and said, “I’ll call the ambulance, but, before I do… can I pray for you?” She put her hand on Karen’s shoulder and prayed. A few seconds later, she was breathing normally. Some time later on the way to a residents meeting at the hostel, Karen suddenly started to skip and dance around the local park. She returned to the hostel and announced to her friend: “I think it’s time!” Karen defines it as the Holy Spirit’s energy filling her. Minutes later, she had the urge to open her mouth and shout “Jesus Christ is Lord!” She realised that this was a sign that she had real faith. For the next few hours, the Holy Spirit bubbled up inside her. Karen couldn’t stop laughing. Later, a Christian member of staff visited Karen and found her full of enthusiasm. “Julian,

I’m a Christian! I love Jesus!” He was amazed at the change, informing her that she’d “gone from ice cold to boiling hot”. The following day, Karen returned to “Springfield” and in January 2004, she was baptised as a Christian, knowing it was a step she needed to make. She says: “At times when things have been tough, and I’ve felt like clear-ing off, God’s reminded me of my baptism and it’s held me true.” Eight years on, Karen’s life has changed dra-matically. She hasn’t drunk any alcohol for six years, hasn’t smoked for over seven years and has known a lot of healing. “I’ve been able to accept myself, through knowing that God loves me and my friends in the church love me.” She talks excitedly of “First Spring”, a group for teenage girls in Leicester that she leads, along with a few others. “It’s a space where the girls can relax, make friends and find life.” “God touched me so deeply that I can never walk away from Him. I’ve come so far since my teenage years; I’m a lot calmer and happier. I’m a daughter of God, and proud of it!”


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She put her hand on Karen’s

shoulder and prayed. A few

seconds later, she was breathing

normally

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GRATITUDE IN THE DARKEST HOUR

HISTORY

M A K E R S

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Trevor is a senior leader in the Jesus Fellowship. He says, “I love learning from God’s movers and shakers in history because I

want to be a history-maker now! READ HIS BLOG: radical-church-history.blogspot.com

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30 or 40 people might be seen

fighting in the streets for

a dead cat or crow

Trevor Saxby writes about a remarkable man of God who stayed grateful to God through war, plague and famine.

HUMANLY SPEAKING, Martin Rinkart (1586-1649) was in the wrong place at the wrong

time. In God’s plan, though, he was in the right place and destined to be a shining example of gratitude to God in the direst of circumstances. He had just been made Lutheran minister of the walled town of Eilenburg, north-east of Leipzig, when the Thirty Years War broke out. It lasted for the rest of his life, almost exactly 30 years. For all this time he served the townsfolk and the many hundreds of refugees who sought shelter there. Soldiers were billeted in his house and they stole his belongings and the food meant for his family. But this was small compared to the suffering in the town. In 1637, a plague swept through the overcrowded slums, and in that one year alone, 8,000 people died. At the time there were four pastors in the town. One fled for his life and never returned. Two others contracted the plague while serving the sick and died. As the only pastor left, Rinkart was in con-stant demand, visiting and comforting the sick and dying, and sometimes conducting funerals for 40-50 people a day. In May of that year, his own wife died. Before long, plague victims had to be buried in trenches without services. Even worse was to follow. After the plague came a famine so extreme that 30 or 40 people might be seen fighting in the streets for a dead cat or crow. Rinkart and the town mayor did what they could to organise relief. Rinkart gave away everything but the barest rations for his own family, and his door was usually surrounded by a crowd of starving wretches. So great were Rinkart’s own losses and charitable gifts that he had the utmost difficulty in finding bread and clothes for his children, and was forced to

mortgage his future income for several years. And yet, living in a world dominated by death, Martin Rinkart’s spirit was unbroken and clung to the true life of God. After years of horror and agony, he wrote a prayer for his children to offer to the Lord. It was soon turned into a hymn, known to the English-speaking world through Catherine Winkworth’s transla-tion. It is a remarkable testimony to the faith of a remarkable man, but also to the triumph of generosity and thankfulness over inhumanity and despair.

Now thank we all our GodWith hearts and hands and voices;Who wondrous things hath done,In whom this world rejoices.Who, from our mother’s arms,Hath led us on our way,With countless gifts of love,And still is ours today.

O may this bounteous GodThrough all our life be near us,With ever joyful heartsAnd blessèd peace to cheer us;And keep us in His grace,And guide us when perplexed;And free us from all ills,In this world and the next! JL


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A BIRD WITH A BROKEN WING

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SOME VISITORS to the Jesus Centre remind me why it is a privilege to work here.

Lisa was one. In her late 20s, like a little bird with a broken wing she came, on an afternoon when a women-only session was running. In fact, no-one had turned up and I was feeling like I was wasting my time, hang-ing around waiting for regulars to turn up. Then I spotted her at the window. She was reluctant to come in, but when I offered her the option to talk privately, explaining there was no-one else around, she agreed. I sensed I had to be very patient and gentle (neither are my particular strong points!) if I was going to get her to unfold her story. Lisa was desperate. She’d been diagnosed with a personality disorder and tried to com-mit suicide a few weeks earlier. She’d come because she was alone and so hopeless she’d decided to get out of the house before she tried to overdose again. Her voice was quiet, but I could sense her misery. To Lisa, I probably appeared cool, calm and controlled. In my head, my panicky thoughts were, “I need to phone the emergency mental health team; this woman’s serious; I feel out of my depth!” But I managed to pray, “God,

Jayne Elliott describes a moving encounter at the Northampton Jesus Centre.

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Jayne is Volunteer Coordinator at Northampton Jesus Centre and volunteers in the Step up, the drop-in facility there. She describes herself as “a follower of

God and a believer that it will all be worth it in the end”. READ HER BLOG: northamptonjesuscentre.blogspot.com

please help me to be gentle and give me the right words to say”. Lisa unfolded her damaged soul, giving me an insight into what was causing her pain. I sensed God had brought her to the Jesus Centre because he wanted her to know that He loved her, cared about her, knew all about her and wanted to begin the process of healing. So I took a deep breath and decided to tell her that. I asked her if she believed in God and if she’d like to write Him a letter to tell Him how she was feeling. As she wrote it, I silently prayed that God would help me to know what to say and do next. Lisa wrote a beautiful and honest letter. She started simply with a cry: “God please help me”. Then she apologised for not living a good life, described the pain she was feeling, the abuse she had suffered – and asked God for help. As I read it out, I hoped she felt what I sensed: God wrapping His arms around her, reassuring her that He had heard her.

I didn’t promise Lisa a quick fix or a magic wand to wave, to take away what happened. What happened to Lisa, happened. It was wrong, and it caused such pain, mentally and emotionally, that Lisa had developed a personality disorder to separate the adult from her abused child. None of that was go-ing to change overnight – but I told Lisa that I believed God could heal the memories and the scars they left. Lisa was visibly more relaxed and said she felt peaceful. Having assured me that she no longer felt suicidal, she flew away – with an invitation to return any time she needed to talk or pray again. After she’d gone I sat for a few moments and thanked God for her, and the opportunity He’d given me to be there for her. Often in the Jesus Centre I can feel overwhelmed by people’s need, demands and suffering. But that afternoon God had come down to earth. He’d begun to heal a broken wing. And that made all the difference. Names have been changed to protect confidentiality

She started simply with a cry: “God please help

me”

JL

1

WHAT ARE JESUS CENTRES? Places where the love of Jesus is expressed daily in worship, care and friendship for every type of person.

WHERE ARE JESUS CENTRES? There are Jesus Centres in Coventry, London Northampton and Sheffield with one planned for Birmingham in the near future, with vision for further locations.

MORE INFO: www.jesuscentre.org.uk

JESUSCENTRESworship • friendship • help for all


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Jesus Life www.newcreation.org.uk18

talking to...SHANE CLAIBORNE

Shane Claiborne (centre) with Paul Veitch (left) and James Stacey (right) of the Jesus Fellowship

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our first experiment

with community involved buying

a double-decker bus

Jesus Life editor, James Stacey, talks to Shane Claiborne, a founder of The Simple Way, an intentional Christian community in inner-city Philadelphia, USA. Shane, author of bestseller, The Irresistible Revolution, is described at thesimpleway.org as a “bestselling author, prominent Christian activist, sought-after speaker and recovering sinner”.

THANKS FOR giving us your time, Shane. You tell quite a bit of your own story in The

Irresistible Revolution. Could you tell us about one or two of the turning points in your life? The big one was in 1995. Some homeless families moved into a derelict cathedral in Philadelphia and began a struggle over their right to live there. When Philadelphia began to really criminalise homelessness it stirred our heart for justice; that was the catalyst for our community, The Simple Way.

A story you tell in The Irresistible Revolution. Yeah. But I don’t know whether you know this: our first experiment with community involved buying a double-decker bus. Our ideal was to have a mobile, hospitality space for folks on the street, they could come and get their mail, they could get something to eat, network. But it was a disaster! Philadelphia isn’t built for double-decker buses. We couldn’t get it into Philadelphia, so we had to rethink our strategies. I always joke that our community began with a mistake. Then when I went to Iraq in March 2003 there were huge moments, wrestling with the violence in our world, and how we’re called to non-violence.

The Simple Way came out of all this; tell me a little bit about where it’s at now. I understand

you’ve made a distinction now between The Simple Way as a not-for-profit organisation and the community within that? That’s right; we had to distinguish between them because we wanted to keep community a local expression – “this is what’s happening on our block”. And The Simple Way had got bigger than that. Some of the people on our block are involved in the other things that we’re doing, and some aren’t. It’s not at all a divorce or separation, but distinguishing between grass-roots community and larger concerns. As The Simple Way, we’ve come to articulate who we are as “a web of subversive friends that are loving God and loving neighbours and following Jesus”. Of course, that includes the local thing, the community; in fact that’s the heart of it. We have a kind of village now; we started in one house and now we’ve got a dozen or so, all of them within walking distance of each other. And we’ve had people live with us and then start other communities, we’ve got a magazine that we do, we’ve got a project called Friends without Borders which is trying to create a social network for reconciliation around the world. The Simple Way has grown quite a lot of appendages.

It says in The Simple Way’s “Foundation”

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that the community is committed to “always remembering to laugh”. What’s the funniest thing that’s ever happened to you in community?There’re so many. One of my housemates climbed above my bunk – I was on the top bunk about a foot from the ceiling – and plastered a full-size picture of George Bush above my bed. I woke up with him (George) literally lying on top of me. That was great; I’m really grateful for folks that know how to play hard even in the face of a lot of really difficult things we experience.

What would you say is the best thing and the worst thing about living in community? Other people, in both cases! It can be tough facing ourselves every day. It’s easier to hide when you live alone. Community brings us in touch with our own vulnerabilities and brokenness – but there’s also more to celebrate. I think you laugh harder, you cry harder, you hurt each other deeper – it’s a choice to live deeper. Community comes with more laughter and more tears.

Have you had those moments where you feel like running away and never coming back? Yeah, sure!

What do you say to young Christians looking for something to do with their lives? I’m not sure there’s one answer; I think every person’s unique. Some are coming from a faith background, some are not. For some people I’d say “You need to be in community”, to others I’d say “You need to be alone”. I say: “Don’t

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Don’t give up on Christianity

because of Christians

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the gospel is lived out of homes and

dinner tables and doesn’t

need paid staff for it to work

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give up on Christianity because of Christians; Jesus is bigger than the embarrassing things that we’ve done in His name.” I do think that to find community is a deep hunger in all of us; to find a group of people who look like what we want to become, who help us get closer to that – and ultimately to Jesus. I do – we do – call people to embrace Jesus and to embrace justice and reconciliation: all the things which are on God’s heart. A big part of our message is that we must connect our passion to the world’s pain, not flee the suffering of the world into our own bubble. We’re called to do something meaningful for God and for our neighbour. I think Christianity thrives at the margins; when it’s in the centre it loses itself. Communal expressions of Christianity offer something the megachurch can’t. It’s the day of the micro church, the house church, and the idea that the gospel is lived out of homes and dinner tables and doesn’t need paid staff for it to work.

How do you combine building local community with international speaking tours? Are they in tension? The simple answer to that is that we believe in mutual submission as a part of community – supporting each other in finding and living out our passions and gifts. I do that for other people and they do it for me. I have a “clearness committee” that discerns my travel plans with me. I don’t say yes to any engagement without them and I cap my travel days in any month. My wife’s in that group, too!

You mention your wife and that was my other question, which I’ll put provocatively: is it more difficult to be radical when you’re married? Ask me in a year! I’ve only been married three months. I sometimes joke that I was single as long as Jesus was! I think that marriage is one wonderful form of community and covenant – but not the only one. I’ve learned a lot through singleness. I’ve

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learned to love God and people through it. I think we have to celebrate singleness as a gift to the Church so I’ll continue to passionately ring that bell. But I think that marriage can also be radical – it’s actually very radical in our neighbourhood to have a good family, to have fathers, things like that. Our entire neighbourhood celebrated our wedding and will continue to celebrate our marriage with us.

Have you experienced heartbreaks or things that haven’t worked out or disappointments? There are plenty of stories of trying to love people and them not making it off the streets, overdosing, or ending up in prison. But part of the gift of community is that we bear each other’s burdens; we’re carrying the load together so when those things happen we have a lot of arms to make it lighter. That doesn’t mean that we’re not going to have to carry a cross, it just means we have help carrying it. One of my friends says “Even Jesus didn’t carry His cross on His own, so we’d be pretentious to assume that we should.” When it comes to disappointment with those I’m living and working with, I’ve learned not to box ourselves into a corner where everybody has to stay the way that they were when we started. We’ve got to allow ourselves to be malleable clay.


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Sometimes we hold onto the forms of community

rather than the spirit of it

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1

JL

I moved into community with six people and I thought we’d live together for the rest of our lives in 32-34 Potter Street. That didn’t happen. But actually, it was right that it didn’t happen. There may even be heartbreak, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Sometimes we hold onto the forms of community rather than the spirit of it. We can be attached to “the way things are now” in an unhealthy way. Don’t get me wrong, I love it that we still have dinner each week with the people I started the community with. One of them has adopted two kids that used to live in the cathedral. Another is god-parenting a kid from the block who came out of a tough situation. And so on. I think actually it would have been a great shame to

try to keep it all like it was when we started. These can be really hard decisions to make. Sometimes it is a failure when someone moves on; sometimes we just think it’s a failure; and sometimes it’s actually a failure if we try to keep them when they should be somewhere else.

Shane, come to dinner next time you’re in the UK! I’d be delighted. It would be good to hear some of your stories.

Let me give you one of our trademark red crosses. They actually glow in UV lights; they’re popular in the clubs. I’m officially branded for the Jesus Army – or for a club tonight. Thanks.

Stevo and Olivia are a young couple who live in intentional Christian community. They talk about their lifestyle online at: jez.uz/stevoolivia The house in which Stevo, Olivia and their friends live is one of a number of homes around the UK the residents of which form the New

Creation Christian Community – part of the Jesus Army, across the UK. Several others also share their community experience and vision at youtube.com/jesusarmyFor more on New Creation Christian Community visit: newcreation.org.uk

NCCCCCC vid AD

new creationchristian community


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Jesus Life24

Community of Communities

Ensemble community, Switzerland

WHAt is muLtiPLy?Multiply Christian Network is a worldwide apostolic stream of churches, initiated by Jesus Fellowship Church.

ContACt muLtiPLy:www.multiply.org.ukContact Multiply Director, Huw Lewis, Tel: +44 1327 344533Email: [email protected] to: Jesus fellowship/multiply, nether Heyford, northampton, nn7 3LB, uK

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Doris is from Germany, but now lives in central London in a Jesus Fellowship Christian community house. She is committed to

lifelong singleness to be more free to serve God and love people. She “loves to live and lives to love!”

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19/01/2012 11:13:12

24-30

Doris Kahnes describes her visit, with a team from the Jesus Fellowship in the UK, to several European Christian communities.

MARK FELS is Multiply’s apostolic partner in Switzerland and the leader of a Swiss

Christian community Basivilla (Kingdom House). He is also a crazy driver. I am convinced that only with the help of a few angels does he get the four of us safely to Riehen, near Basel. We are here to visit Thomas Widmer, who has arranged for us to join a gathering of 20 leaders of communities of various settings and sizes in and around Basel. The group meets twice-yearly to share and pray; this time they are looking forward to hearing about our community movement in the UK, the New Creation Christian Community. Thomas had visited our Jesus Fellowship com-munity house, Cornhill Manor, ten years ago and was impressed by what he saw and experienced. First, we had the privilege of lunching with Thomas and his Ensemble Community in the Moosrain, a very large and beautiful building. Thomas, his wife Irene, and three children, moved here from a smaller community at the beginning of 2011, together with eight other like-minded adventurers. Later this year, when refurbishments are completed, up to 25 people are expected to join the crew. We arrive just as this community family is fin-ishing off their “aemtlis” (small jobs) around the house and large garden. There is a real buzz in the air and the meal time is fun, with lively conversa-tions and lots of laughter. Next, we’re taken on a guided tour of the house by Nicole, one of the Ensemble members. She also takes us round a good part of the town, which has a very strong and rich Christian heritage, pointing out various smaller community houses and places of outreach and care. The heart of Christian faith beats very loudly in this town. We cannot help but be impressed by it all. Our trip finishes in the Fischerhus, a townhouse

where a young couple are heading up another small community. They will be hosting this little gathering. After a cup of tea, some lovely Swiss cake and a few “hellos”, our UK contingent is asked to introduce ourselves to the group: Piet and Wilf, leaders in two different, large Christian commu-nity houses in Northamptonshire; Ruth who lives with her husband Jim in Germany, but has been linked to the Jesus Fellowship in the UK for many years; and myself, Doris, a member of our Jesus Fellowship community house in central London. Even our introduction gave the group enough ammunition to fire plenty of questions at us. They seemed particularly amazed and challenged by our practice of a common purse – the way we share all of our money – and this provides lots of material for conversation. The same is true of our practice of celibacy – the commitment some of our members have made to stay single permanently. Ditto our Jesus Centres. And giving up material goods for God. And covenant loyalty. And the Jesus Army Training Year. And our youth movement, “Real and Wild”… Had Thomas not drawn this question and an-swer session to an end at this point, I shudder at the thought of how fast Mark would have driven us back to Basivilla in order to get us there on time for the meal with the rest of his house family. As it is, we live to tell the tale!

Watch a video about life at Basivilla at: jez.uz/basivilla

The heart of Christian faith

beats very loudly in this town

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Jesus Life www.multiply.org.uk26

BreAKing neW grounD

The conference team in Kathmandu included representatives from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, as well as Nepal. We worshipped in three languages, consumed a variety of tongue-curling spicy food, and were awoken at 5am each day by exuberant prayer and praise from some visiting Korean Christians in the conference hall below our bedrooms.

In November 2011, Multiply Director, Huw Lewis and Jesus Fellowship Apostolic team member, ian Callard, visited India, Nepal and the United Arab Emirates, pioneering Multiply in unchartered territory. Huw shared some photos from their album with Jesus Life.

FOURTEEN memorable days. Seven flights. Four conferences. Three nations. Our first

ever visit to South Asia was a hectic launch of Multiply in this part of the globe, linking with

old friends and forming new relationships. Moving from Nepal to India and then on to United Arab Emirates, we found several spiritual “movers and shakers” on our journey.

Nepal

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The Korean guest house was a beacon of peace in a chaotic, vibrant and distressed city. In Kathmandu high street, tangled electricity wires swayed round crumbling, Lego-like tower block buildings and innumerable motor bikes and cycles swarmed through the dusty roads. Everywhere was evidence of Nepal’s three religions – Buddhism, Hinduism and Tourism!

A sewing class in the church of our host, Shanta Shreshtra – a colourful sea of harmonious activity, providing an income for the impoverished widows and single women.

Cycle rickshaw in Delhi – a novel taxi service! Teeming humanity spilled over the streets, market places and squares in this congested, bustling city of 22 million.


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Nepal Nepal

India

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Ubiquitous market traders, hawkers and begging street children jostled for attention, surrounded by colourful temples, ornate imperial buildings and old forts. Beeping horns from the battered 70’s cars, driven with an insane intensity, provided a constant background noise. Ramshackle stalls, incense, frying food and fumes mingled together on the crowded streets.

Multiply partner Colney’s orphanage in Cuttack, Orissa. Some were ‘gospel orphans’ – young boys whose parents had been killed in the wave of anti-Christian mob violence and persecution by Hindu extremists in 2008-10. These young witnesses were full of energetic praise and thankfulness, wearing familiar Jesus Army red cross tee shirts! A deeply humbling and moving moment.

Street scene in Cuttack, Orissa. A poor and neglected city, with open sewers and “sacred” cows wandering the crammed streets. Grotesque stone carvings adorn temples and shrines, while familiar bicycle rickshaws thread through the packed thoroughfares.



ss India

India

India

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Colney at the Orissa Conference. Eighty pastors enjoyed two days of teaching, youthful worship and al fresco dining arrangements! Orissa is a state stained with the recent blood of Christian martyrs. Burnt houses, bulldozed churches, forced reconversions in Hindu temples and frequent attacks, beatings, rapes and humiliations had not dimmed the passionate gospel zeal of these persecuted brothers and sisters in Jesus.

Camel Market at Al Ain, Abu Dhabi. Stubborn and resistant, these beasts of burden are still an essential part of life there. Al Ain - an oasis city in the midst of the cinnamon sand dunes and dry desert heat, framed by ever present palm trees. Oil rich Abu Dhabi oozes opulent luxury as building projects yearly push back the surrounding desert wastes.

Jebel Hafeet. The highest point in Al Ain, reached after a tortuous and spectacular drive up 8,000 feet. The breathtaking views of endless sands and patchwork towns were framed by the rich surrounding sandstone cliff at the summit. The glorious salmon-pink sunset gave a warm glow in the fading light, as we sipped tea in the café on the peak. A close network of caves contained artefacts dating back 3,000 years.

India

United Arab Emirates

United Arab Emirates

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24-30

LooseD Lions

The first Multiply UK Leaders conference to be held at the London Jesus Centre saw the 19th century chapel crammed with leaders eager to build church in the 21st century.

WHEN IT’S Halloween, do you batten down the hatches or throw open the doors of

your house and heart to people? This was just one of the provocative questions thrown at delegates to the latest UK Multiply Leaders conference, held in London last November. “Halloween is the one night of the year people are waiting for you to knock on their door!” Mat-thew Guest, of King’s Church Chatham, told the crowded chapel. “The trick is the lie of Satan, the treat is eternal life.” Sometimes it’s tempting for Christians in the UK to feel like caged lions in London Zoo. But as Jesus Fellowship senior leader John Campbell pointed out: “New atheism and rampant Islam puts Christianity in a cage. However, we’re not here to survive or feed our own people, we’re here to confront the powers of darkness.” Another Jesus Army leader, Nathan White, did just that in the wake of the London riots, when he took a minibus and team into Tottenham and set up camp with artboards and smoothies. Result: three young men have found faith in Jesus and have embarked on a “Jesus Army Training Year”. “We must pour our hearts into the next genera-tion. We’ve got to be raw, relevant and reproduc-ing,” concluded Mick Haines, Jesus Fellowship apostolic team leader. “That is the challenge to the church today.”

For more on Jesus Army Training Year, visit: jesus.org.uk/training JLMultiply UK Leaders conference


INTERNATIONAL CELEBRATE JESUS6.15pm Saturday 9 June 2012Jesus Centre, Abington SquareNorthampton NN1 4AE, UK

The torch of

vICTORYInternational Leaders Conference

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www.jesus.org.uk

AND ANOTHER THING, GOD

BLOG

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When worshipping God isn’t all sweetness and light. From the blog of Jesus Life editor, James Stacey.

I’M FED UP with happy songs. I’m not saying that joy isn’t a profoundly

Christly sentiment, or that there’s any special virtue in misery. I agree with Teresa of Avila who famously prayed for deliverance from “sour-faced saints”. But last Sunday morning, as we sang song after song about how great God is and how happy he makes us, I wanted something else. I was feeling frustrated. Perplexed. Questioning. Why this, God? I wanted to ask. And why that? But the songs were busy declaring good-ness and glory. They weren’t asking anything. Oh dear, I thought, maybe I’m “in the flesh”. On Sunday nights, I set an hour aside for prayer, walking in a local park. Usually, I just walk, think and pray in tongues quietly. I’ll settle on one or two themes on which I’ll express myself to the Almighty, best I can. Sometimes I “hear” a divine response – a word, an image, or just an impression. Some-times God just listens, a patient parent, to my childish prattle. Last night I found myself chewing on some of my frustrations. Putting it frankly, it bothers me that the Jesus Army’s not doing better. I am aware of the dignified wisdom in sayings about God’s calling to be “faithful rather than successful” (attributed to another even more famous Catholic Teresa). And there’s much

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It was one of those times

when God didn’t seem especially

talkative

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to be thankful for – lives changed, new Jesus Centres, an expanding network overseas. But it bewilders me that we are often hindered in our endeavors around the UK. Churches fail. A number of our new disciples slip back. We’re not growing as we long for. We need many more leaders if we’re to fulfil God-given vision. Is God unable to bless us? Of course, we’re a church of sinners (no church on earth isn’t), but it seems to me that, at heart, we genuinely desire to be faithful to God’s call. I was left with a painful question hanging on the night air as I arrived home. It was one of those times when God didn’t seem especially talkative. Then, this morning, I read Psalm 44 – O God, we have heard with our ears,our fathers have told us,what deeds You performed in their days,in the days of old…But You have rejected us and disgraced usand have not gone out with our armies. Often in the Bible, such agonised prayers are followed by a confession of sin. But not this psalm; instead, it contains the following surprising lines – All this has come upon us,though we have not forgotten You,and we have not been false to Your covenant.Our heart has not turned back,nor have our steps departed from Your way…Yet for Your sake we are killed all the day long;we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. This last line was quoted by the apostle Paul in a chapter about Christians groan-ing and aching in prayer for the fulfilment of God’s plans (Romans 8:18-36). Given that when Paul quoted verses of scripture he usually had the whole passage in mind,

www.jesus.org.ukPhoto: Sam Gordon Photography, flickr.com

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31-

JL

I think Paul was thinking of the prayer that concludes the psalm – Awake! Why are You sleeping, O Lord?Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!...Rise up; come to our help! Shocking. Surely the psalmist should be telling God how beautiful He is? Surely Paul should remind us how lovely it is to be resting in God’s arms? The psalmist should sing about how happy we are – not nagging the Almighty to wake up and remember his covenant obligations? Not suggesting that God isn’t with his people and He jolly well should be because His people have been faithful? Dreadful theology. Can hardly believe it’s in the Bible. Cue awkward silence. In fact, I reckon there’s a place for this in our

praying and our worshipping. An important place. “Come on, God! (Groan.) Go out with our armies! (Ache.) Rise up! Come to our help! (Sigh.) Don’t let us go down the pan! (Yearn.)” We need songs and prayers that express longing, express questions, express groaning, even express impatience with God. Time to read a few more psalms. Time to write a few new songs.

Come on, God! (Groan.) Don’t let us go down the pan! (Yearn.)

www.jesus.org.uk

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James is a leader in the Jesus Fellowship. He lives in Coventry with those he loves - ‘wife, three kids and friends forever’ - in a

Christian community house. READ HIS BLOG: man-with-the-mop.blogspot.com

33Jesus Life

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JUST FOUR QUESTIONS

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Jesus Life asks a Jesus radical just four questions. Chris Gilbert lives at House of Miracles, a Jesus Fellowship community house on ‘Blackthorn’ a deprived estate on the outskirts of Northampton.

WHAT DO you say if someone from the Blackthorn estate asks, “What’s life

all about?” Life is about taking hold of Jesus’ example, looking at how He lived and working it out today. It’s about expressing God’s love to the people we meet and reconnecting people back to God.You’ve made a vow to be single all your life. What’s that all about? In today’s increasingly busy society being single seems the best way to give all of myself to God and His Church. I’m totally available to serve and give to the people we meet.You say “we” a lot. Tell me about “House of Miracles”. At House of Miracles we want to demonstrate and show practical Christianity. Not an aloof, “sitting-in-church-pews-style” church. We like to hang around with the people and for the people. People from the estate often come round to our house because they know we’ll help them. They’re part of our everyday life; they’re on our doorstep. Whether it’s helping them move house or making up food parcels we want to be there for them.What’s your dream? I’d like to see a church relevant to today’s needs, able to meet these with God’s solutions. I’d like to see the church becoming the place with the answers people are looking for – never judgemental, but a place of welcome, a sanctuary for every kind of person. JL

www.jesus.org.uk

19/01/2012 11:18:11


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jesus.org.uk

Upcoming events you don’t want to miss...Jesus army Events 2012

ALL FREE • ALL WELCOME MORE INFO?

jesus.org.uk/dates 0845 123 5550

[email protected]

UK Jesus CelebrationSAT 18 FEB 2.00pm & 6.00pm The New Bingley Hall 1 Hockley Circus BIRMINGHAM B18 5BE

MEN ALIVE FOR GODSAT 17 MAR 11.00am, 2.00pm & 6.00pm Jesus Centre, Abington Square NORTHAMPTON NN1 4AE

MULTIPLY INTERNATIONALSAT 9 JUN 6.00pm Jesus CentreAbington Square NORTHAMPTON NN1 4AE

POWER FESTIVAL WEEKENDFRI 1 JUN - MON 4 JUNThe Giant Marquee Cornhill Manor, PattishallNORTHAMPTON NN12 8LQ

ALIVE FESTIVAL WEEKENDFRI 6 APR - MON 9 APR The Giant Marquee Cornhill Manor, PattishallNORTHAMPTON NN12 8LQ

and get connected through our facebook page at: facebook.com/jesusarmy

Keep up to date with the latest news, tunes, videos and more at the mJa blog: jesus.org.uk/blog

Flick through photos and see what’s been happening at: flickr.com/groups/jesusarmy/pool/show

Get instant twitter updates at: twitter.com/mjanews

36.indd 36 19/01/2012 11:53:32

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