New Wine

Jesus Makes The Difference

New Wine 2008 – a great new experience for the Bradleys

Elizabeth talks to Mary Otway

Along with 7000 other Christians, Elizabeth Bradley and her grandson, Michael, now 13, spent the last week of July camping at one of the three New Wine Summer Conferences, our nearest one, held at Newark on the County Show-ground. A group from St Martin's attended, encouraged of course by our Vicar, Laura, who headed up the Prayer Ministry team for the event.

Elizabeth says it was not only Laura's enthusiasm that stimulated her to go: yet another incentive came from the father of one of Michael's friends at school, a minister from Pickering. He said to her one day, 'You'll be going to New Wine' – not just a neutral 'Are you going to New Wine?' - so she really felt that God was nudging her to go.

As well as being a great holiday, it was a tremendously uplifting experience, a real boost to Elizabeth's and Michael's Christian lives. She says that through a powerful experience of the Holy Spirit she received healing and strength, her pace of life has become more relaxed and she takes things more calmly. The week brought totally new experiences for them both on many different fronts. Every aspect was good: the worship, the teaching and the community living.

She describes the atmosphere at the morning worship as 'fantastic': the band already worshipping as she and Michael arrived in the huge hall, together with upwards of 5000 people ranging in age from babies to 80+ - a wonderful start to the day. The evening worship was equally powerful, and the talks full of impact. They were not all centred on developing personal spirituality: for example, one evening Baroness Cox spoke about the problems in Nigeria.

There was a wide range of seminars to choose from during the day, with something relevant to everyone's needs. Elizabeth's choices were varied and included one on resisting the influence of advertising; two on healing, led by John Coles, the Director of New Wine; and one led by George Carey, the former Archbishop, on 'Reclaiming the Great Commission'. George Carey's son, Mark, works for New Wine and will be coming to Seamer next year.

Michael's day was equally varied. There were literally thousands of children. In the mornings different age groups were catered for appropriately in their own 'Clubs' – Michael's was Club 1 for the 12+ youngsters, with its own coffee bar and parallel teaching with similar key content to the adults'. The rest of the time there were sports and organised games for those who wanted to join in, otherwise they were free to take advantage of the open spaces to play with friends old and new.

Camping is a necessity to accommodate the large numbers and to make attending New Wine summer conferences cheap and accessible, but it brings with it a lot of fun. It is possible to stay in b&b or self-catering accommodation, but Elizabeth feels choosing this option would mean missing out on much that makes New Wine so special. There is plenty of take-away food available if you don't want to cook, and learning to live with others, fitting in and taking your turn, develops a great community spirit. She and Michael really enjoyed the 'village' atmosphere and the opportunities to mix with people from all over and from different walks of life and to share experiences. They were particularly pleased to get to know Diane Horsley well before she leaves to serve abroad with Interserve, and touched to receive from her the gift of a youth Bible for Michael. Camping together with the others from St Martin's led to great fellowship, not to mention new insights on people they thought they knew!

Elizabeth says her words can't do justice to the New Wine experience: with great enthusiasm she exhorts everyone to come and try it for themselves. I'm determined not to miss out next year: how about you?

Check the Gallery site for some photos of New Wine 2008

(Based at Google Picasa)

The New Wine network -

equipping churches to see Jesus' kingdom grow.

New Wine was founded in 1989 by Bishop David Pytches and is now led by John Coles, Vicar of St Barnabas, Finchley.

These are its core values:

Local Church Life that is welcoming, relational, accessible for all generations, and builds family and community life.

Inspiring Worship that is passionate, intimate, culturally appropriate and facilitates encounter with God.

Anointed Leadership that is visionary, courageous, humble, consistent, full of faith, and releases church members into their God-given ministries.

Spirit-empowered Mission that is evangelistic, holistic, kingdom-centred and concerned with justice and care for the poor, and encourages new church-planting initiatives.

Orthodox Theology with doctrine and ethics founded on the person, teaching and work of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible.

Bible-based Teaching and training that is thoughtful, relevant and equips for everyday life and ministry.

Personal Discipleship that is based on living like Jesus, exemplifying love, prayerfulness, holiness, integrity, accountability, humility and generosity.

Every-member ministry that discerns each person's calling and expresses God's love through the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit.

New Wine 2008

By Paul McWilliams

The theme of this year's New Wine summer conference was" Kingdom Come". New Wine has been established many years now and it was my eighth year, it is held in Somerset and Newark to be as accessible to as many folks as possible. This year saw the biggest turnout and around twenty thousand people came from home and abroad to have a taste of God's Kingdom here on Earth. The majority of visitors camp, whether in tents or caravan or motor-home although a few do stay in accommodation off-site.

The big thing when groups camp together is the great feeling of community within that group and to the other happy campers around them, this year saw lovely warm weather as opposed to 2007's nation-wide wet and flood. I felt this year was the best one ever, everyone seemed in a state of eager expectation and a trust that God would do great things, and God being God, didn't let His pilgrims down.

On the first evening a tunnel of prayer was initiated by the ministry team and everyone was invited to stroll through whilst being prayed for. It really is a moving site to see thousands of souls moving in faith and stepping out in trust. One of the more nervous partakers was an old friend of mine who, after being encouraged by her hubby to do so, went through. This woman had suffered a bad back for many years and guess what? Yes- God healed her back, right there and then. I met up with her a couple of days later at lunch and she was still grinning from ear to ear at the respite from so much backache.

There were many other stories of healing too, some minor and others like our friend from Hull, whose son broke his collar bone, after prayer in three days he was back to full movement in his arm! Events so life changing they could not be passed over as a fluke.

New Wine is not just about the miraculous things that God, through His presence, does but also in the teaching classes and seminars on at various times and places on camp that sometimes there seems too much to choose, too much to take in. This is where the quiet places such as the Prayer Room come into their own where you can just sit and just "'be' a place of peace where one can pray or just meditate on the day.

This year. after four years being a radio presenter at the site I was given a new role in the Control Office. Seven of us - with a team of around ninety stewards - ran the day to day business logistics of such a huge event. All voluntary, all doing it for the fun of helping out and the blessings of free meals and access received in return.

Even within our team we saw miracles, many little things that "Work to the glory of God to those that love Him" [Romans 8 v 28[ we all concluded that 2008 had been the best, a real time where Newark became a "thin place" between Earth and Heaven, God's Kingdom Come, it certainly increases the promise of more blessing next year. I for one, cannot wait!