Contents
Hot List
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Situation Vacant?
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Are you up to Life at the Stones?
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Faye's poems
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Faye Gilbert is our chief poet
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Jesus Fellowship Church
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Home page of the Church, which includes the Community
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Dave's home page
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Personal pages of David Lee, webmaster for this site
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Marquee pages
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Details of the marquee the Jesus Army uses.
Comments and Suggestions
Please send me mail
telling me what you think about this page and how I might improve it.
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Copyright (c) 2001 David Lee.
Last revised: May
07, 2001.
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Introduction
| Living Stones is a community house,
part of the Jesus Fellowship Church and Jesus Army. It is situated in the
village of Flore in Northamptonshire, UK |
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Key People
The main leadership is
About 25 people live at the house, and there are several other houses linked
with Living Stones
Characteristics
Living Stones is a peaceful house, with a lot of people, and a lot of activity.
This seems paradoxical, but somehow works, by the grace of God! It was
purchased in 1978 as a community house, and three of the current residents
moved in then, which has given a lot of continuity. The eldest of these
first residents is now in her 70's. We also have a family living here,
and lots of teenagers around the place, so have a young average age. An
article about the house was published in the Jesus Fellowship Church magazine
"Together" in January 2000, and a slightly edited version is available
below, where I have tried to clarify some of the terminology of the Jesus
Fellowship Church. Please mail
me if you anything is not clear - it will help others as well!
Article from Together, Jan 2000
Tolerance, oddbods, OAPs and green grass
Easy acceptance and tolerance of all kinds of people has built Living Stones
over the years. One of their main ministries has been an ability to help
those who have struggled in other situations within Jesus Fellowship. A
couple living in a small house once said to Kelly 'We would love to move
to a big community house, but we can't!', to which he replied 'Why not',
Pete, Denise and family moved in, and eventually on to lead a larger community
house in Oxford, restored, enabled, commissioned. Others similarly received
in their need included Anne 'Loyal', Dave 'Dependable', Richard 'Rising',
and John 'Devoted' and family. Currently the church unit based on this
house (which we refer to as the household) includes an 'OAP contingent'
of Verna (at Living Stones for 21 years), Betty, Sue Wright, Fred &
Hazel, alongside a swarm of teenagers who have grown up within this church.
Many are able to find a niche, but discipline and direction is often lacking,
and tolerance may be overdone at the expense of maintaining order. 'We
collect a lot of odd bods', says Dave 'Dependable'. Recent ones include:
'An independent thinker (from Alaska)... who put jam on everything he ate...
detained for 3 hours questioning when he first came over to England'; and
a bouncer who 'wouldn't fit into a normal [Church] structure...'
Our teenagers
J Generation folk (our name for the 15 to 35 age group) seem to think that
Living Stones grows good green grass! There is a growing crowd of them
catching the buzz (mostly brought up within the church) including Daniel,
Joram, Barney, Alex, Chris Hunt, Chris G, Andrew, Simon, Steve, Faye, Cheri,
Corinne, Olivia and many others - all at differing levels of commitment.
A high proportion of the 'Reds Band' have their base there. "They've benefitted
from their up-bringing - the firm foundations and faith of their parents.
Some are tempted by the world, but deep down see that it causes breakdowns
and dead ends. They're brilliant to live with - very liberated, very secure,
full of life. Recently there have been some very genuine breakthroughs
(baptisms etc), which have helped relationships between the generations.
This was needed because we've had some very unreal people in the past,
which has made the older ones reluctant to cope with problems." (Kelly)
Generally, the older generation are positive about the teenagers. 'We need
lots of patience and expectancy', says Verna. Many of them are gaining
Kingdom vision and want to express themselves and build on the foundations
already laid down.
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