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The Jesus Army took over this art deco cinema in Northampton. The army was disbanded this year.
The Jesus Army, also known as the Jesus Fellowship Church and the Bugbrooke Community, was a neocharismatic evangelicalChristian movement based in the United Kingdom, that is part of the British New Church Movement. The name Jesus Army was specifically used for the outreach and street-based evangelism for which they were known.
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. As the new church grew and became more charismatic in nature, many of the original congregation left to continue worshipping in more traditional churches. The Jesus Fellowship grew considerably and by 2007 there were approximately 3,500 members in around 24 congregations in various cities and towns of the UK.
The Jesus Fellowship frequently engaged in evangelism in public places, seeking through outreach to demonstrate the love of Jesus and the moving of the Holy SpiritThe Fellowship used various slogans, in its early days adopting "Love, Power & Sacrifice" and later "Jesus People, Loving People", and the name "Jesus Army".
The church disbanded in May 2019 after a collapse in membership following claims against its founder, Noel Stanton, and two other then members of the church of historical sexual assault during the 1970s. The Jesus Centres charity the church created continues to operate.
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