I was born in 1991 to professing Christian parents who attended one of the early Newfrontiers (NFI) churches in a working class part of Southeast London. Their pastor was a young working-class Cockney whose life had been turned upside down by Jesus. He found little life in the established church, and, like Terry Virgo, wanted to be part of something new, where the trappings of traditional church were removed.
My early impressions of church as a child were that the music was loud, the preaching was dynamic, and people were warm and friendly. Then came the Toronto blessing of ’94/’95, a very negative experience for me as a young boy. The fact I can still remember it highlights how defining it was. I recall people barking like dogs, whining, and being hurled backwards. It was confusing, chaotic, and scary, yet even today, many NFI pastors long for a return to such experiences.
The Lord being holy, righteous, or a judge were not truths that I remember being prominent in the songs we sang, nor the teaching we received. To me, the church culture was designed to show that Christians could be as cool as the world. There was very little emphasis on holiness, living separately from the world, or the seriousness of sin. ‘Sinners’ prayers’ and decisions were counted as true conversions, and people would be baptised without much evaluation or evidence of saving faith. It saddens me to know many families from those days are not walking with the Lord today.
Looking back, one of the most damaging teachings of a Newfrontiers church was their insistence that the law of God has no place in a Christian’s life because the law was fulfilled in Christ. Consequently, they dismissed the Sabbath day as still binding on the Christian. This doctrine proved to be fatal in my own experience, as I will now explain.
