IT WAS the leap of a lifetime! It felt very painful, but the pain was mysteriously exciting. The smart of losing independence was being swallowed up by the thrill that we were at last becoming a true New Testament church. I was experiencing the joy of obedience: to Jesus; to the Holy Spirit; to the radical, kingdom vision of "all things in common" community; to the call for the church to be a day-by-day alternative society.

But Mammon did not go easily. It was deep-rooted, seemingly essential to life. Extraction was painful! Yet my new life in the Holy Spirit, like that of the Spirit-filled disciples of the first church in Acts 2, would not be denied. Old Mammon was corrupt - it had to be removed! "You cannot serve two masters," Jesus said. "You cannot serve God and Mammon"(Luke 16:13).

A new, kingdom brotherhood was being birthed in the centre of the Jesus Fellowship and, as the Senior Leader, I just had to lead. That meant leaving the old, walking out of the Baptist manse, and leaving all but the most personal of my belongings behind. Yes, I could take the car, but it would become part of the "all things in common" pool of vehicles. My financial nest-egg in the Building Society must go into the pool of funds needed to buy communal houses. And, like everyone else, I needed to provide an income for the common purse in a property housing up to 40 people.

It all felt very frightening, yet also very stimulating. It felt like the completion of my baptism. Old independence was being buried with Christ Jesus and I was rising with Him to "walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:3-4). This new, community life was an imperative, terrifying in its radicality, but vital if I was to remain a true disciple and servant of Jesus, whose call is ever to "deny yourself, take up your cross and follow" (Mark 8:34). With the loss of material security, a new discovery was evolving: a Holy-Spirit-empowered way of living, in mutual dependence and in true openness with the brothers and sisters.

So it was that, some five years after being baptised with the Holy Spirit, I took the last big step of obedience (there have been many smaller ones since). The first had been repentance and saving faith in Jesus Christ; the second a thirsting for and receiving the fullness of the Holy Spirit. The third and last was the loss of Mammon-led independence with its capitalistic competitiveness, and the move into community. I needed to belong to a real church built by Jesus Christ, where justice, equality, brotherly love, peace, unity, trust and simplicity ruled; where every person was valued, needs were met, and disciples were equipped. My heart ached for a true kingdom of God church, where the chains of accumulation, the prides of life, security in personal wealth, prejudice of class and race, poverty, injustice and social sins were fully broken.

Have I regretted it? Never! This is the Jesus way, where the poor find the kingdom, the rich are humbled, and the last become first. It's the way of His disciples, who had to bring the natural family into the spiritual family of the kingdom and love every brother and sister with His quality of love. It is the fulfilment of His command to sell and distribute possessions (Luke 12:32-34) and of His promise that those who leave everything to follow Him would receive, now in this life, houses and lands, spiritual mothers, brothers, sisters and children, with persecutions, and so find eternal life (Mark 10:29-31).

Community is clearly the way of the first church - the band of disciples gathered around Jesus. That's the pattern church, the kingdom church, the new redeemed society which He creates, with a culture centred on His own lordship. And when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, we find this pattern church vastly extended, built with Simon Peter as its foundation, as Jesus had foretold (Matthew 16:18). It was also an empowered church, with disciples being added and taught; the strong, deep fellowship; the regular affirmation of covenant in the bread and wine; the fear of God; the signs and wonders; the sharing of possessions; with daily "church in the house" and more being saved day by day (Acts 2:42-47). This is truly the kind of powerful church which Jesus builds, where they are all of "one heart and soul" (Acts 4:32).

Although we must say it with kindness, we do need to say that some church life in the UK is an add-on to people's world-centred lives. They go to church or become church for a few hours a week. It's a far cry from the "being daily church and sharing all things" of that first church. Those early Christians saw church as the centre and wellspring of their lives. It was the cause for which they would live and die, as Jesus taught. Self-denial, bearing their cross, renouncing other things, was the way of being His disciples. Opposition from some of the closest members of their natural families, as Jesus had said, proved the reality of their commitment. They saw church as the presence of God's kingdom, the new society of Jesus Christ. Church, the Body of Christ, was their life, their inspiration, their passion.

True church is a rich, loving brotherhood, where sharing and caring are the way of life, and all live for the cause of Jesus Christ.

In the mid-1980s, the Holy Spirit began dealing with us in the Jesus Fellowship in the area of being too inward-looking. There was the danger of enjoying community brotherhood but not reaching out to lost souls. And so, in the leading of the Holy Spirit, the Jesus Army was born, with its distinctive jackets and red crosses.

For too long, Christian churches have been passive and self-satisfied. It has been assumed that the Christian faith would always be the national religion of the UK. But now Islam is on the march, as are other faiths. It is time Christianity began to show itself to be active, to march and fight.

So New Creation Christian Community and the Jesus Army became one. We became a "fight for justice", "love the poor" community. In recent years, this Spirit-enlivened desire to love the poor has led to the vision of opening Jesus Centres for worship and social care in large UK cities and towns.

It's all an ongoing adventure in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Noel Stanton was the founder and former Apostolic team leader of the Jesus Fellowship / Jesus Army.

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