“WE BOTH felt as if we were diving off a very high diving-board without being able to see fully what we were diving into!"

This was how Peter Bayliss described the moment in August 1976, when he and his wife, Gill, sold their home and joined another family and an elderly couple in a farmhouse in Northamptonshire as pioneers of the New Creation Christian Community.

"God was asking us to risk all. We had two young daughters, Ruth, nine years old and Jean, seven, and it was a huge step of faith!"

All Peter's life, since he became a Christian as a student, he says that God put signposts along his way to guide him along the right paths. Each new direction had meant costly decisions - but this new challenge was in a class of its own.

"Quite honestly," says Peter, "I've needed those heavenly signposts. We couldn't have moved into community if we hadn't been certain that it was God's calling to us. And we've always come back to that fact in the difficult times. It was a big decision but neither of us had any serious doubts about it - God was going to watch over us. I remember praying: 'God, You're going to have to get us out of a big mess if it all folds!'"

Peter and Gill are not naturally the sort of people you would expect to pioneer community. Far from being an extrovert, Peter is naturally a private, cautious type, while Gill describes herself as 'the only child of ancient parents'.

"After spending twelve years of my childhood in boarding schools," says Gill, "community living was definitely not on my agenda!"

While Peter was working as a graduate engineering apprentice, Gill was studying music in Essex. Their paths crossed for the first time in 1963, on a stage in Colchester, where they were both singing in the chorus of a college musical. They married in 1965 and, after a short time, moved to Rugby, Warwickshire.

"We were both very serious about our faith," says Peter. "Inside Gill's wedding ring is inscribed from Psalm 127: 'Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain' and we both meant every word. We were faithful church-attenders and Bible class leaders, but after a while we both felt that there was something missing from our Christian life."

In the late 60's the young couple began to hear from different friends about something called 'the charismatic movement' that was gathering momentum in the south of England. They both sensed that God was setting up another signpost for them to follow.

"Don Double and John McCloughlin came to a local housemeeting in 1969," says Peter. "We both listened intently when Don explained 'speaking in tongues' and we agreed 'that's right!' A year later, in another local house-meeting, Harry Greenwood from Chard was the speaker, and our hands shot up when he asked if anyone would like to receive the Holy Spirit. A hand was laid on both our heads together. I felt a warm sensation and for Gill the experience was like a cannonball exploding or a fountain springing into life. It was a powerful moment that changed our lives completely."

Sadly, the experience was spoken against by other local Christians. Disillusioned, but more determined than ever to pursue God's fullness, Peter and Gill eventually found their way, in 1975, to the Jesus Fellowship, at Bugbrooke Chapel, Northamptonshire, twenty miles away. The following year came the Holy Spirit's call for the Fellowship to set up community. Peter and Gill were among the first to step out in faith and become part of it.

"If we had any illusions," says Gill, "that life was going to be trouble-free, they quickly disappeared! We'd only been living in community for some eight months, when Peter went to the doctor about a lump he'd discovered and came home to say that it might be malignant.

"Within a week Peter was on the operating table at the local hospital and I had my eyes opened to the reality that his life could be in danger.

"Before I was baptised in the Holy Spirit I had a particular fear about being left as a young widow. God knew this and when I received the Spirit so powerfully in 1970, the fear completely went. It was as if God prepared me for what lay ahead.

"Peter had always been fit and well - to be struck down like this was very hard. But he just oozed faith and got through amazingly well."

At first everything went well and the cancer responded to radiotherapy. Then, some months later, the cancer re-occurred. This time it had spread and become more serious.

"After extensive chemotherapy and time dragging on," says Peter, "there was a real sense of battle for my life. One dedicated brother came weekly to pray for me and anoint me with oil. I lost two stone and all my hair.

"What a wonderful feeling, though, when the day came when I was told there had been a dramatic change in my condition. Praise God for my healing!"

By the early 1980's, the community began to spread out from its Northamptonshire roots and in 1981, Peter and Gill moved to a new household in rural Warwickshire, where they lived for a few years, before becoming part of the city team in Coventry, where they now live.

Nearly thirty years later and both in their sixties, Peter and Gill are still fully active. Peter works for one of the church businesses and Gill is part-time domestic, fitting in other work.

Both are volunteers at the Coventry Jesus Centre. Their daughters are both married with families and are active Christians.

Gill comments: "Community produces unusual situations which have their funny side afterwards, but can be hugely stressful at the time - like the night we came home late and tired from a meeting to find every one of our duvets had been stolen! Our experience has always been that whatever the challenge - big or small - God has always been faithful and brought us through."

Peter believes that community has presented an opportunity to be released from things that would have distracted him from his goal to build something lasting for God.

"Quite often I'll walk past private houses where couples are building homes just for themselves and their children. At first I'd be thinking: 'Mmm. I'd quite like to be there.' Then I'd think again and ask myself: 'but what cause have they got?' Living in community we've got a far bigger, greater cause to be a part of. My life has an eternal value because I've chosen to give it to God in a real way. My goal is far bigger than community itself - community is just part of a much bigger picture of following Jesus, growing in knowledge of God and building His church in a practical way."