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>>Ok Peter I would like you to tell me your history of >>JA involvement as briefly as you can. >> >>I was young back in the day and so I only remember the >>late 80's early 90's stuff. >> >>I reckon that there was some really good stuff going >>on along with the other stuff, my perception is that >>slowly but surely some compromises or other stuff >>happened which people turned a blind eye to and then >>the ball started rolling and lots of legalistic stuff >>came in. What do you reckon? > >I should really be in bed, but while my bath is >running, I will start the ball rolling. > >First off, I think legalism was in place before I >arrived on the scene back in 1981/2, it is just that I >was so idealistic and passionate that I couldn't yet >see it. > >I was at art college doing a foundation course in >design and was friends with a fellow christian >interested in community. He told me that he had met >some people at Glastonbury and been impressed by them. >I was intrigued. He gave me their address and I wrote >and asked if I could visit. I went up to Harvest (a >house then in Eathorpe, Warwicks) and stayed in the >lodge with the brothers and fell in love with the >whole thing. > >Until then I had read a great deal about evangelism >and been impressed by a book about an America street >evangelism group and had started evangelising in >Bristol. I started a Christian Union at college and >had been trying to get a local church to get active, >but had been told that I was too young and needed to >go away, grow up and come back when I hads some >experience of life. > >Naturally, being passionate (though I WAS very young >-18ish-) I wasn't going to be put off....so when the >New Creation Christian Community said, in effect, join >us and be an evangelist, I was delighted and felt I >had found my home. > >I was incredibly impressed by the organisation of the >place and by the way that they had every base covered; >they had thought of everything. It all worked so well. > >And I found people SO warm and open to me. I felt >then, and have felt ever since, that the fellowship >attracted a lot of very special and gifted >people...and even when I left I felt that I was >leaving people behind who, if they had been allowed to >leave the fellowship and operate independently, could >have made a powerful impact on the world. (We can talk >about this later, but I think that the fellowship's >need to control people crushed their creativity and >sucked the life out of people). > >I had a baptism of the Holy Spirit experience in that >first weekend with them, though even at the time I >have to admit that my euphoria came more from being >loved and accepted than from a spiritual experience. >Mick Temperate told me that I was being filled with >the Spirit. I said I couldn't feel it and he then told >me to speak in tongues. I felt very British about it >and couldn't let it happen, so he said I should just >make it up as I went along and that the Spirit would >take over. So I mixed school Latin with a bit of >pretend Arabic inspired by Lawrence of Arabia, and >though I knew I was a phoney and was a bit worried >about Mick knowing it too, I did enjoy joining in. > >I did worry about that fake baptism of the holy spirit >thing, especially after Mick made a big deal to the >brethren about it happening, when he knew it hadn't >been, but I so badly wanted to fit in that I played >along. It didn't matter because I was so in love with >the whole fellowship experience. > >That was the very beginnings of sharing in a lie. > >bathtime. must go. hope to talk again after work >tomorrow. Good night.
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