Earlier this month, several members of our church community attended the New Wine United 2017 conference. For those of you who don't know, New Wine is a movement of churches working together to change the nation through a network of church leaders, summer conferences, training events and resources. Each year, a group of us pitch up their tents alongside thousands of other Christians for a week of worship and spiritual development.

This was our fourth visit to New Wine (that's myself, my wife, Sarah, and our two children, Joseph and Lily). It was by far the coldest and wettest but it made me realise a number of things about why the weather really doesn't matter:

You don't need good weather particularly when you have as much equipment as we did - tent extensions, shelters, brollies and wellies.

1. The fresh food and drink you have doesn't go off as quickly.
   
2. We were in seminars undercover a lot.
   
3. A New Wine leader said, 'Pilgrimage is never meant to be easy.'
   
4. When you're at New Wine, all things are done in Jesus’ name, the more you think about it, the more humbled you feel.
   
5. You realise that you're sort of addicted to the calling from the Holy Spirit for more, regardless of whether it's comfy/idyllic or not.
   
6. If it stops raining you are really grateful!
   
7. When we arrived, we were a little disappointed to be camped at the top of the hill at the furthest point from the main arena and conference area. The higher ground turned out to be a real blessing in the rain!
   

1. The two main worship groups in the arena never disappointed, led by Nick Herbert and Chris Sayburn. They followed the Holy Spirit mixing upbeat worship with reflective pauses for an uprising outpour of melodies from the audience. The best one for me was the rising up of 'You are good, good, ohhhhh' from King of my heart, John McMillan.
   
2. The main morning speaker was a guy called John Marc Comer from Oregon. An incredible author, extremely witty with whom I could easily connect as he was so normal yet super intelligent. He spoke about how to intentionally change to ensure spiritual growth. He discussed the importance of a Sabbath whenever you can fit it in and not necessarily a Sunday. He suggested listening the routine of your day across a week in order to spot the trends and doing a habit swap to include something Jesus would have done instead.
   
3. The children's groups never fail to amaze. Joseph spoke about Rwanda to his year group (800 10- and 11-year-olds) on the opening night and came away from the week literally buzzing about the fun he'd had. Lily was also soaking everything in and keen to go back next year.
   
4. After the evening worship and talk, we went to several late-night events - a comedy magician, a film night where we watched Hidden Figures, a pub quiz and a disco party celebrating each year of pop from 1960-2017! The kids were absolutely shattered!

This was the Line family's fifth New Wine, and for all of us it is a time to have fun, learn, be together and do our own thing. Edward had his Rock Solid group every morning and evening, leaving me free to enjoy the worship and seminars. He loves it - with sport, drama, worship, stories, arts, crafts... so much to do! In the afternoon he played with Rebecca and other friends who camped with us.

Richard had seminars and worship, and hung out with friends from previous years, and made new ones.

Fran was 'on team', volunteering in the children's Stomping Ground. They fed her too, so we rarely saw her!

This year, the weather was a challenge, but so much of New Wine is inside. The morning worship series of talks by John Mark Comer really spoke to us all this year, and I have already made changes in the way I live my life to the full for Jesus. With 14,000 Christians in one place, the Holy Spirit is everywhere. I usually find I 'hear/see' God at New Wine, and it shapes my year ahead. This year was no exception!

The highs for me was the worship! Praising God with over 1,000 Christians, it was an awesome experience...

I loved all the worship places for different reasons. Followed by my daily dose of John Mark Cromer... I loved his talk on the Sabbath and dreams. He was very real and honest, an intelligent man with a touch of humour.

I also heard our own Bishop Rachel for the first time which was refreshing. I also loved going to Wells Cathedral with some camping buddies on our midweek ‘day off’.

On Friday, our friend Jo made a surprise visit to St Michael’s tent, which was lovely. Bits that weren't so great were the mud, the rain, and the showers! But on the whole it went well with my soul.

P.S. if you don't like camping There's always bed and breakfast!

John Mark Comer achieved a first in my three years at New Wine ... usually the St Michael's adults start the week together at the arena but we lose one or more to the other venues, depending on how well the speaker attracts (not the right word, but you get the idea) the different traditions we are from. This year, we started and ended the week together as he spoke to each and every one of us.