[2] The Jesus Fellowship was founded in 1969, when Noel Stanton (1926–2009), at that time the lay pastor of the Baptist chapel in the village of Bugbrooke 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.

In October 2021, Companies House certified the change of name from Jesus Centres Trust (1165925) to JCT - Joining Communities Together Limited.

[14][15] According to William Kay,[16] Stanton was highly influenced by Arthur Wallis's book In the Day of Thy Power,[17] and associated with a number of the early leaders within the British New Church movement.

[9] In 2002, the Jesus Fellowship opened the Coventry Jesus Centre including a Drop-In Centre known as "The Bridge", which provided services such as a subsidised breakfast, free clothing, showers and hot drinks, as well as social support, job training and providing medical help to vulnerable people.

The Centre also assisted in finding rented accommodation for the homeless, though a major emphasis of these activities was evangelistic, "bringing people to Jesus".

[29][30][31] From 2007 to 2017 the Jesus Army hosted a yearly event for young people aged between 15 and 35 called "RAW (Real and Wild)".

[32] In contrast with many Christian churches which often have an aging population,[33] the Jesus Army had a comparatively high proportion of young members.

[citation needed] Motivation for the Jesus Fellowship's venture into residential communal living and the sharing of possessions came primarily from their interpretation of Biblical descriptions of the early church.

Those dwelling in a community house, along with the majority of members who lived outside but who are formally attached to it, made up the "church household".

The church household was the basic unit of the Jesus Fellowship, usually comprising both members who lived in community and a majority who did not.

Those in the loosest forms of membership may have been merely attached to a Jesus Fellowship weeknight "cell group" or attended only on Sundays.

[46] The Jesus Fellowship was the only new church stream that advocated and practised celibacy,[47] claiming that it led to a full life for single people.

The main justification used for advocating celibacy was that it freed a member for ministry, particularly in the unsocial hours that Jesus Army campaigning required.

[48] Some critics maintained that the Jesus Fellowship taught celibacy as a better or higher way, and that single members felt pressured into making the vow.

[49] Others denied this and insisted that both marriage and family life, and celibacy were held in high regard in the Jesus Fellowship.

[53] Hunt found that "where problems in child-rearing occur, support and advice for the parents is on hand from fellow members.

It believed in baptism in water and the Holy Spirit, in the Bible as the Word of God, and in acceptance of charismatic gifts.

It practises believer's baptism and the New Testament reality of Christ's Church; believing in Almighty God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit; in the full divinity, atoning death and bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ; in the Bible as God's word, fully inspired by the Holy Spirit.

This Church desires to witness to the Lordship of Jesus Christ over and in His Church; and, by holy character, righteous society and evangelical testimony to declare that Jesus Christ, Son of God, the only Saviour, is the way, the truth and the life, and through Him alone can we find and enter the kingdom of God.

This church proclaims free grace, justification by faith in Christ and the sealing and sanctifying baptism in the Holy Spirit.

[58] Critics claimed that this had the potential to break up the natural family, but the Jesus Fellowship maintained that many relationships with parents were strengthened and that the Fellowship encouraged (and the community paid for) community members to visit relatives, including visits overseas if family members were abroad.

Jesus Fellowship community members aimed to "eschew worldly belongings and seek what is perceived as a simple and more ethical form of economic life".

An official Jesus Fellowship publication stated that "the love of money brings selfishness in human hearts".

In many respects the economic structure of the Jesus Fellowship might be said to have been "socialist" in orientation and is most readily seen in the property-less community and the philosophy of "each according to their need".

[63] Ten people from the church were convicted of sex offences, and a report concluded that abuse of women and children was covered up by senior members.

Earlier in 1986, the Evangelical Alliance had launched an inquiry into the beliefs and practices of the Jesus Fellowship Church and found that it no longer qualified for membership, citing much the same problems as did the Baptist Union later that year but at least as relevant in both cases was the fact that the rise of the JA came at a time when an international welter of anti-cult activity was under way.

Their intense style and requirement of totalitarian commitment led to some allegations of abuse from disillusioned former members, and some hostility from more conventional churchgoers.