The Jesus Army, also known as the Jesus Fellowship Church and the Bugbrooke Community,Nigel Wright in Charismatic Christianity: Sociological Perspectives, p.66 was a neocharismatic evangelical Christian organisation based in the United Kingdom, which has been considered as a cult. Part of the British New Church Movement, the name Jesus Army was used specifically for the outreach and street-based evangelism for which they were known.Jesus Fellowship Church website (accessed 13 December 2018)
The Jesus Fellowship was founded in 1969 by Noel Stanton (1926–2009), who at that time was the lay pastor of the Baptist chapel in the village of Bugbrooke near Northampton. It expanded in the ensuing decades by appealing to a younger generation of worshippers.C. Peter Collinson, All Churches Great and Small, p.78: "Originally this was a Baptist church in the village of Bugbrooke, just west of Northampton. Noel Stanton became the pastor there in 1957, and is still the overall leader. After a charismatic experience in 1969, he led the church into experiencing the supernatural gifts of the spirit, and they grew in numbers quite dramatically."George D Chryssides, Exploring New Religions (Cassell, 1999), p.149-150 As the new church grew and became more charismatic in nature, many of the original congregation left to continue worshipping in more traditional churches.Chryssides, p.151 The Fellowship continued to grow considerably and by 2007 consisted of approximately 3,500 members in around twenty-four congregations in various cities and towns of the UK.William K Kay, Apostolic Networks in Britain (Milton Keynes; Paternoster, 2007), p.157 The church frequently engaged in evangelism in public places, seeking through outreach to demonstrate the love of Jesus and the moving of the Holy Spirit.Cornerstone Church Christian information website (accessed 4 March 2014). The Fellowship used various slogans, in its early days adopting "Love, Power & Sacrifice" and later "Jesus People, Loving People," and the name "Jesus Army."
The Jesus Fellowship announced in May 2019 that it "will cease to exist and the current National Leadership Team will be stepping down from their roles once the winding up of the central Church has been completed." Members had voted on 26 May 2019 to revoke the church's constitution, after a decline in membership to less than 1,000 following claims against Stanton and two other then-members of the church of a history of sexual assault during the 1970s. It was planned that the Jesus Centres charity organized by the church would continue to operate and that individual churches would become independent congregations. Fewer than 200 people were still living in communal households of the Fellowship.
In October 2021 Companies House certified the change of name from Jesus Centres Trust (1165925) to JCT - Joining Communities Together Limited. Since December 2020, the Jesus Fellowship Community Trust existed as a residuary body with the sole purpose of winding up the administrative affairs of the Jesus Fellowship Church. A 2024 "Final Report," described as "staggering," stated that a Jesus Fellowship Redress Scheme was available "to those who have suffered harm, abuse and/or adverse experiences within the Jesus Fellowship community. It also provided a clear process for employment, pension, national insurance and retirement claims."
Distinctive features The Jesus Fellowship operated like the house church movements, or the more radical elements of the larger, more conventional churches.Stephen J. Hunt, Alternative Religions: A Sociological Introduction (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003), p. 113: "In many respects, however, the movement was not that different from other New Churches that sprung up at the time, though it did differ in its emphasis on communal life and a membership that was not predominantly middle-class in composition." It was affected by the charismatic movement of the late 1960s and early '70s, and influenced by the Jesus people movement in the United States.Keith Newell in Charismatic Christianity: Sociological Perspectives, ed. Hunt et al., (St. Martin's Press Inc, 1997), p.122: "Under the leadership of the pastor, Noel Stanton (who still holds this position), a number of Chrismatics gathered at Bugbrooke Baptist Chapel, near Northampton, in 1969. At this point there were some similarities with the Jesus Movement in California (Palms, 1971). For the first three years the group that met at the chapel to participate in Charismatic life included bikers, drug-users, hippies and others who lived through the counter-culture. Very diverse people joined in the years that followed, including a number of evangelicals from Oxford, and to a lesser extent, Cambridge University."Nigel Wright in Charismatic Christianity: Sociological Perspectives, p.66: "A full description of Restorationism ought to include a reference to the Bugbrooke Community or Jesus Fellowship in Northamptonshire. In the 1970s an ordinary village Baptist church passed under the leadership of its lay pastor, Noel Stanton, into Charismatic renewal and then into practising the community of goods in the style of the Anabaptist Hutterites." According to author William Kay,Kay, p.151 Stanton was highly influenced by Arthur Wallis's book In the Day of Thy Power,Arthur Wallis, In the Day of Thy Power (London: CLC, 1956) and associated with a number of the early leaders within the British New Church movement. The beliefs of the Jesus Fellowship are in line with historic Christian orthodoxy.Chryssides, p.149: "the group is thoroughly orthodox, professing allegiance to Christianity's historic creeds; it neither seeks to add to scripture nor claims new present-day prophets, although, in common with many mainstream Christians, it believes in continuing revelation through the Holy Spirit's inspiration." Nevertheless, there are various aspects of the Fellowship's way of practising Christianity that are distinctive when compared with more conventional churches.
Jesus Army, evangelism and ministry to the marginalised
The British public were most likely to be aware of the Jesus Army by its brightly coloured minibuses and coaches, and the highly visible multi-coloured camouflage jackets often worn by Jesus Army evangelists on the street.David V. Barrett, The New Believers (London, Cassell & Co., 2001), p.228 The Jesus Army was launched in 1987 as the campaigning identity of the Jesus Fellowship. Following the example of the early Salvation Army, and with a stated intention to "go where others will not go,"Kay, p.156 the Jesus Army engaged in what has been called "aggressive and effective street evangelism among the marginalized sections of society."Nigel Wright, in Charismatic Christianity , p.66: "the Jesus Army has engaged in aggressive and effective street evangelism among the marginalized sections of society." The Jesus Army's mission was described as "essentially one to the poor, the disadvantaged and the marginalized."Chryssides, p.154 Since 1987 the Jesus Army held an annual high-profile gospel event in London called London Jesus Day with a three-hour public event on Trafalgar Square, then (until 2005) an evening event in a marquee on Roundwood Park.
Jesus Army Charitable Trust and Jesus Centres
Growing from the Jesus Army's work among homeless street people, those involved in drug or alcohol abuse, and prisoners and ex-prisoners,Barrett, p.228 the Jesus Army/Jesus Fellowship founded a charitable trust "to develop and enhance its existing work with many disadvantaged groups and individuals", largely through the founding and running of "Jesus Centres" in UK cities and towns.
In 2002, the Jesus Fellowship opened the Coventry Jesus Centre including a Drop-In Centre known as "The Bridge", which provided services such as a subsidised breakfast, free clothing, showers and hot drinks, as well as social support, job training and providing medical help to vulnerable people. The centre also assisted in finding rented accommodation for the homeless, though a major emphasis of these activities was evangelistic, "bringing people to Jesus".Stephen J. Hunt, in Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies, Vol 20, Number 1, Spring 1998 (Hagerstown, Maryland, USA), p.21–41 [pp.39ff]Coventry Evening Telegraph, 2 May 2007. Other Jesus Centres were opened in Northampton (2004), Central London (2008) and Sheffield (2011).
Multiply Christian Network The Jesus Fellowship was also linked to around 250 other churches and groups in the UK and elsewhere through the Multiply Christian Network, which it initiated in 1992.Idea [magazine of the Evangelical Alliance], May 1999: "Multiply Christian Network[...] links more than 30 churches in England and Wales with others abroad. Multiply was initiated in 1992 by the Jesus Fellowship Church."William Kay in C. Partridge (ed), Encyclopedia of New Religions Oxford: Lion Publishing, 2004: "The Army is noted for[...] its linkage with more than 40 other independent Christian churches in the Multiply Network."Multiply website (accessed 14 October 8): "There are around 250 churches and groups in the Multiply Christian Network."
Youth ministry From 2007 to 2017 the Jesus Army hosted a yearly event for young people aged between 15 and 35 called "RAW (Real and Wild)".Times Online (accessed 26 March 9): "The Jesus Army, for example, a Baptist-inspired Christian youth movement, regularly offers chances to create legal graffiti on walls, boards or panels as part of its annual RAW youth outreach, which attracts several hundred young people each summer in Northampton." In contrast with many Christian churches which often have an aging population,Whychurch website (accessed 30 October 8) the Jesus Army had a comparatively high proportion of young members.
New Creation Christian Community
In the early years of the Jesus Fellowship, a residential Christian community was founded for its growing membership. Initially, a large Anglican rectory in Bugbrooke was purchased and renamed "New Creation Hall". Several members of the Jesus Fellowship moved in and it became the first centre of a community lifestyle. By 1979, several other large houses in the surrounding area were purchased and "New Creation Christian Community," as the entire community was named, was established, with some 350 residents.Hunt in Pneuma, p. 25 At its height in the early 1990s there were roughly 850 residents in about 60 communal households, but their numbers later dropped to less than 200 persons. Motivation for the Jesus Fellowship's venture into residential communal living and the sharing of possessions came primarily from their interpretation of Biblical descriptions of the early church.William Kay in C. Partridge (ed), Encyclopedia of New Religions, a Guide (Oxford: Lion Publishing, 2004).