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The Jesus Army is the identity that the Jesus Fellowship Church uses in its outreach and street-based work. It is a neocharismatic evangelical Christian movement based in the United Kingdom, that is part of the British New Church Movement. The Jesus Fellowship was founded in 1969, when Noel Stanton (1926–2009), at that time the lay pastor of the Bugbrooke village Baptist chapel near Northampton, East Midlands, was inspired by a charismatic experience which led him to successfully expand the congregation, largely 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 Jesus Fellowship has grown considerably and there are now approximately 3,500 members in around 24 congregations in various cities and towns of the UK.〔William K Kay, ''Apostolic Networks in Britain'' (Milton Keynes; Paternoster, 2007), p.157〕 The Jesus Army frequently engages 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 ) (retrieved 4 March 2014).〕 The Jesus Army has used various slogans, in its early days adopting "Love, Power & Sacrifice" and later "Jesus People, Loving People", but since 2012 has simply gone by the name "Jesus Army". ==Distinctive features== The Jesus Fellowship operates much 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 USA.〔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 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 Jesus Fellowship’s way of practising Christianity that are distinctive when compared with more conventional churches. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Jesus Army」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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