SPECIAL ENQUIRY: THE JESUS PEOPLE

SPREADING THE GOSPEL

Source : 17/09/1982 Northampton Chronicle and Echo

One of the disturbing aspects of the Jesus People, to outsiders, is the way their conversion teams accost young people in the streets.

They get the young people talking about their religious beliefs, and convert many of them, to their way of life.

The Fellowship also holds public meetings, some of which take place under the title of New Life.

Two such meetings are held each week, but the Fellowship will not disclose where. Elder Mr. David Hawker told me: 'They are nothing to do with you.'

He said the aim of the group's evangelical activities was to introduce people to the Gospel. After that it was up to them which church, if any, they joined.

'We don't regard it as a recruiting exercise and we don't accept that we bring any pressure to bear on people,' he said. 'Obviously some will join our church, but a large number find faith through us and go on to other churches.'

Apart from meetings, Fellowship members, sometimes in groups of two or three, approach people in the street to 'bear personal witness to Christ.'

'That means sharing the Gospel; talking about how Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead.' Mr. Hawker explained.