Jesus Makes The Difference

www.new-wine.org

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 Leadership Conference

Harrogate

This year once again the New Wine North annual conference was held at Harrogate and around fifteen hundred folks were in attendance. Eight of us went along and were really blessed at the teaching and sharing of faith issues and demonstration of God's power and love to us, His people. A busy programme still allowed time to sample the famous Harrogate tea-rooms and both nights were shared eating with other Scarborough friends from different Churches and denominations. The teaching was enhanced by great contemporary worship and we all did praise God together "In Spirit and in Truth".

Ugandan Archbishop Henry took much of the conference, and such humility and open hearted preaching came from his imposing six foot five frame. He took time to thank our Victorian predecessors who originally brought Christian teaching to his nation. He also called out for resource rich Western hemisphere Churches to respond to the great need to share with their African counterparts. In return he said, they had much to teach us in living an enthusiastic and abundant Christ centred lifestyle of faith. Very challenging and yet exciting.

We had to find our own accommodation and once again returned to a nearby hotel where we were heartily fed and watered, at the same time sharing our faith with its owner. We all came back renewed if not a touch weary and ready to do it all again next year. God is Good!

Paul McWilliams

New Wine North - 2009

What a great year again camping on Newark Show-ground with 6,500 people. The title this year of the conference was Stepout, and we were inspired and encouraged in our week to do just that, to trust God more, to risk telling folks about Jesus and about not living a life in bondage to worry and fear. Easier said than done you may say, but we prayed and saw people set free from disabling phobias and illnesses which had ensnared their lives some for many years. A hundred strong ministry team of trained and experienced volunteers ministered to 3,500 delegates every night, in whatever way prayer was requested. Speakers came from all over the world, one gave insight into how God is moving in the Chinese Church, and another of how Jesus met with a down and out homeless youth in New Zealand and changed his life for the better. Many grateful to God testimonies were shared and a couple who are very much in the limelight of show business also shared how God was moving and blessing not just them but those around them who realised they needed Jesus more than fame and fortune.

During the day we have many interesting seminars to sit in and learn from or just enjoy hearing the wonderful experiences of God's people. You could be a complete new comer to the Christian faith and yet find much to enjoy, everyone is welcoming. This is the message that God wants no one to perish but to come to Him through His Son Jesus and find life in abundance. To me that is the spirit of New Wine to be the best we can be in a safe and loving environment—and be secure in faith to actually step out.

Paul McWilliams

We arrived in Newark on Friday morning. We had been drafted in as Village Hosts (by a tall blonde vicar who shall remain nameless) which meant that we were in charge of our camping village. We were responsible for directing people to the correct place to pitch their tents when they arrived on Saturday and then being a point of contact for people during the week in case of emergencies or problems with the campsite. After setting up our own tent and gazebo and directing the first few early birds to the correct pitch, we found a local Indian restaurant to eat in and got an early night.

Saturday was a busy day, with people arriving throughout the day and needing directions to their various pitches. Kieron described this as doing a jigsaw without having a picture to work from, using pieces of all shapes and sizes that don’t fit together, some of which have strong minds of their own and have already decided where they need to be! This job was not as difficult as it could have been and by early Saturday evening everyone was happily settled on their pitches and the Seamer crowd had all arrived safely and pitched their tents/bongos/caravans around the gazebo that quickly became the meeting place for St Martin’s. On Saturday evening there was a meeting which began with an extended time of worship followed by teaching and then ministry time. This was the pattern for the meeting every evening, with a range of fantastic speakers and some amazing Spirit-led worship. For the first time I was on the ministry team, along with Richard Fuller. This involved being available to pray with people during the evening meetings and after seminars during the day. I must admit to being quite daunted by the role at the beginning of the week. Although I was used to praying with people in church and in house groups, etc, I had never had the opportunity to be part of a large ministry team. However, the ministry team met before the evening meeting to worship together and pray for each other and this was a valuable time to build each other up, encourage one another and to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I quickly learnt that while praying for people I simply needed to listen to what God was saying. Rather than getting hung up on what I should be saying or filling in silences with my own words I found that if I trusted God and listened to what He wanted to say, I would see Him at work in the people I was praying for. During the week there were hundreds of healings and stories of people being released from burdens and past hurts. This was so encouraging and being part of it was a real faith-builder for me.

During each day there were seminars which covered a wide range of topics from broad church-based themes to more personal, specific testimonies and issues. You could choose which seminars you wanted to go to, or opt out completely and spend time reading in your tent, drinking coffee in one of the many coffee bars or browsing through the books and CDs on sale in the Market Place.

The thing that makes the real difference at New Wine is being together as a church. I found that I got to know people from St Martins in a different way during the week in Newark because we shared our every day lives with each other in a way that we can’t do on a weekly basis each Sunday. After the evening meetings we usually ended up together in the gazebo, adults and children alike, drinking hot chocolate (or ginger wine!), chatting together and sharing experiences from the day. One evening we shared communion together and that was really special. We even had complaints from the next door village that we were worshipping too loudly! That’s a sign of a good worship session I think!

I would encourage everyone to consider coming to New Wine next year. It is not just a week of good teaching and amazing worship. It is a time to be together as a church, to share the vision together and to come back to Seamer built up and ready to see that vision come to life through God’s power at work in us.

Kate Middleton

New Wine '09 was brilliant. There were many great expectations after last year, however all of them become over-fulfilled. The Holy Spirit poured out to all this year, as it has done many years before. We all have our own special 'to myself with God' memories, as well as those 'no body in the world missed it' unbelievably embarrassingly funny ones too.

However, the children and youth work was fantastic this year—better than many years preceding. I was working in the 'Pebbles' team (3–4 year olds) this year. Although there were a few tears and bumps along the way the climax was the last few days, when the children were so into the 'Mister Bible' puppet that they even interrupted the other puppet show for 'the one who tells us about Jesus'.

There was one little girl who had just turned three and at the end of the week she turned to a team member and said 'Can Jesus be my best friend?' That came from a 3 year old, there are so many 30 year olds that don't even know who Jesus is, which proves that thanks go to the fantastic dedicated team. It is because of them these children will grow up with Jesus as their best friend.

Sure, there's flooding, a lot of rain, a lot of tents and mud. Maybe you might smell a bit but so will everyone else. The showers aren't that bad, and with a gazebo you stay dry! Food vans galore so no chance of starvation. Yeah, so there's a bunch of extremely friendly Christian people surrounding you for a whole week and the worship is amazing, but it's a week long holiday with God.

To anyone considering coming next year—I would highly recommend it. Whether it's a one-off or whether you want to come forever more, it will be a week you will never forget. And if you do something, fall through a chair (Laura ☺) then nobody else will either!

Emily Hewitt

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