Editing Jesus Army (section)

===Baptist Union and Evangelical Alliance membership===

From its inception, the Jesus Army aroused controversy. The original Bugbrooke Jesus Fellowship had long been a part of the [[Baptist Union]]. However, the sudden expansion in members made the new church a nationwide movement. This took it out of the ambit of the Baptist Union, which places authority within a specific congregation. The JA was also accused of "isolationism", epitomised by the JA practice of sometimes rebaptising new members who had already been baptised by other Baptist churches, implying that Christian baptism elsewhere may have been invalid. Consequently, in 1986 the Jesus Army was expelled from the Baptist Union, leaving it on the margins of the Baptist denomination.<ref>Chryssides, pp.160–161</ref><ref>''Buzz'' Magazine, April 1986.</ref><ref>''Northampton Mercury and Herald'', 22/11/86. 'We shall not be moved – Jesus People to carry on regardless.' "The latest blow to the sect, which owns and runs numerous businesses including several Northampton shops, came from 129 of the 137 council members of the Baptist Union. The Jesus Fellowship was expelled from the organisation because of a lack of involvement in denominational life and a unilateral programme of recruitment. A statement from the union also said the Fellowship was becoming a national rather than local organisation, and spoke of 'embarrassment' over bad publicity."</ref> In 1982, the Jesus Fellowship had joined the [[Evangelical Alliance]], one of whose membership requirements was that the church remain in close fellowship with other local evangelical churches. Earlier in 1986, the Evangelical Alliance had launched an inquiry into the beliefs and practices of the Jesus Fellowship Church and found that it no longer qualified for membership, citing much the same problems as did the Baptist Union later that year but at least as relevant in both cases was the fact that the rise of the JA came at a time when an international welter of [[Anti-cult movement|anti-cult]] activity was under way. Allegations that the JA had too authoritarian a style of leadership and that members were under pressure to commit to lifelong celibacy, together with the [[corporal punishment]] of children ('rodding') was practised, and that community members were required to hand over their material possessions, left them vulnerable to accusations of cultic practices. Their intense style and requirement of [[Totalitarianism|totalitarian]] commitment led to some allegations of abuse from disillusioned former members, and some hostility from more conventional churchgoers.<ref>Nigel Wright in ''Charismatic Christianity '', p.66</ref> A number of churches within the Evangelical Alliance threatened to leave if the Jesus Fellowship Church was allowed to remain a member.<ref>Chryssides, p.161</ref>

During the late 1980s and 1990s, the Jesus Fellowship improved its relationships with other churches, and broadened its membership so that community residents became a minority of the church.<ref>Hunt in ''Pneuma '', p. 40: "The decision in the late 1980s to become more open and link with other New Churches has been of particular importance. So has the decision, over the last decade, to broaden the membership so that now community residences [residents] form only one-third of the church."</ref> At the same time it re-examined its practices and loosened its style,<ref>Kay in ''Encyclopedia of New Religions'', p.89: "After criticism of what were seen as cultic aspects of the Jesus Fellowship in the mid-1980s, deliberate attempts were made to widen and loosen the organization."</ref> with the result that when it reapplied for membership of the Evangelical Alliance in 1999 it received endorsements from both local and national church leaders<ref>''Idea'' [magazine of the Evangelical Alliance], May 1999: "the Jesus Fellowship Church, which withdrew its own membership from the Alliance in 1986 due to relational issues. Since then, positive efforts have been made by the leadership to improve their contact and working relationships with the wider Christian constituency at both local and national levels{{nbsp}}[...] Having received a number of endorsements from both local and national church leaders, the Evangelical Alliance expects to approve the Jesus Fellowship Church's application for membership later in 1999."</ref> and was accepted into membership later in the year.<ref>''Christian Herald'', 29 July 2000. "Another high-profile movement who joined the EA family last autumn is the Jesus Fellowship Church, also known as the Jesus Army. The fellowship left the EA in the late 1980s in relation to issues with other evangelicals. John Smith [General Secretary of the EA] explained: 'They again have moved considerably since then. It is an organisation that has had a lot of allegations made against it, most of which are based on past reputation rather than present practice.'"</ref> It never re-applied for membership of the Baptist Union, though a number of key Baptist ministers spoke at Jesus Fellowship events.<ref>Hunt in ''Pneuma'', p. 27: "Prominent leaders of practically all the strands of the British charismatic and Pentecostal scene have spoken at the large public meetings of the Jesus fellowship, and are frequent contributors to its major publications ''Jesus Life-style'' and the ''Jesus Revolution Street Paper''."</ref> Despite the entry of the Jesus Army into the charismatic mainstream,<ref>Hunt in ''Pneuma'', p. 24</ref> the church still attracted a range of views<ref name="view">Hunt in ''Pneuma '', p. 40</ref> and anti-cult groups like the [[Cult Information Centre]],<ref>''Sunday Mercury'', 4 March 2007 (Birmingham, UK) "The UK Cult Information Centre says that the mJA is on a list of religious groups it has concerns about. Spokesman Ian Howarth said: "We're very concerned about the Jesus Army. Over the years we have had many concerns expressed about it. There have been no major changes that merit removing it from our list.""[http://www.religionnewsblog.com/17638/jesus-army Reported in Religion News Blog] (accessed August 2009)</ref> [[Family Action Information Resource|FAIR]]<ref>Chryssides, p.161: "FAIR carefully and consistently monitored the Jesus Fellowship Church's development, even from its early Bugbrooke days, giving it adverse publicity in its quarterly magazine FAIR News. Not only did FAIR give prominence to the fact that many members handed over all their possessions to the Church, and to its disputes with the Baptist Union and Evangelical Alliance, unjustly portraying Stanton as an authoritarian leader who claimed an exclusive 'hotline to God'"</ref> and [[Reachout Trust]]<ref>[http://www.reachouttrust.org/pdf/Resource.pdf Reachout Trust 2008 Resource List] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722044008/http://www.reachouttrust.org/pdf/Resource.pdf |date=22 July 2011 }} (accessed 15 October 9): (page 3) Fact Files ... F010 – The Jesus Fellowship</ref> still included the Jesus Army on their lists.

Writing in 1998, Stephen Hunt summed up the outlook of the wider charismatic Christian fraternity on the Jesus Fellowship at that time as follows: "To some in the broader movement, the Jesus Fellowship will always be something of an enigma, tending towards exclusiveness and displaying a sectarianism incongruent with contemporary [[Pentecostalism]]. To others, the Jesus Fellowship will continue to epitomize the fullest expression of Christian and Pentecostal life."<ref name="view"/>