You’ve been to a summer conference and maybe a one-day event, but how much do you know about New Wine and why it began? From seed money, to an office in a caravan, to international adventure, Fiona Campbell charts New Wine’s surprising growth

Today we’re going to take you on a journey. First stop: the summer of 1989. Margaret Thatcher is still in power, the Berlin Wall is showing the first signs of instability and shell suits have hit the high street in all their luminous glory.

And on a slightly damp, pungent showground in the south of England, 2,000 adults are sitting, expectantly, in what looks like an old aircraft hanger, straining to hear a suited vicar speak about the gifts of the Spirit. Every now and then his voice crackles and fades as the microphone cuts out.

Now let’s fast forward to July 2005; a recent bombing in London has left 52 people dead, white wrist bands are a must-have accessory and Tony Blair is debating global issues with the world’s super-powers.

And, on a showground in the south of England, 6,000 adults are listening to a rugby-shirted leader talk about church growth. His image is projected onto giant video screens, and his wireless lapel-mic never lets him down. At the same time on a showground in an historic Yorkshire city 300 miles away 2,000 people are listening to a youthful-looking minister talk about spiritual gifts.

Things change. Over the last16 years New Wine has changed – and grown. From its conception and birth to its careful first steps and well-nurtured growth, New Wine has impacted a lot of people. But where did it all start? And, more importantly, why?

Let’s go back to 1989: a dull April, a vicarage garden and a caravan where a small team are hard at work preparing for a week-long conference – the first of its kind. The make-shift office has some fitting neighbours – David Pytches and his associate Barry Kissell, the founders of New Wine and, at that time, the leaders of St Andrew’s, Chorleywood.

Although what they were trying to achieve – an event for the whole family – may have seemed far-sighted, it wasn’t, says David Pytches, a ‘colossal vision – just an obvious next step.’

In fact, the first summer conference was a natural consequence of meeting a much more simple need: helping church leaders to understand ‘renewal’, a word which was gradually being introduced into Anglican vocabulary.

‘The vision,’ reflects David, ‘was to gather leaders who wanted to know how St Andrew’s was handling renewal, worship and the gifts of the Spirit. Most people who were talking about it weren’t doing it. How do you do it without scaring people off?’

Small step by small step, leaders who were hungry for more of God began to meet; they prayed, shared and experienced the Holy Spirit. In 1987 and ’88 conferences were organised at Swanick in Derbyshire. But as the leaders’ meetings continued, David realised something was missing. Spirit-filled leaders were being misunderstood by their spiritually-dry flock. ‘The congregation didn’t know what on earth they were talking about,’ emphasises David. ‘We needed to have a bigger venue that church leaders could bring their people to.’

So, in 1989, 3,500 leaders and church members pitched up at the Royal Bath and West showground in Somerset. New Wine was born and, from that first year, continued to grow.

But this domino effect of Spirit-inspired renewal started even further back than 1989.

In the mid-’80s there was incredible growth in the Vineyard movement of churches founded by John Wimber. These churches were seeing people being healed, set free and filled with the Spirit. After one of John’s visits to St Andrew’s, he handed David £3,000 and explained: ‘This is seed money. Don’t give it away; invest it in conferences so that it makes a return.’

Doors opened to do what John suggested. And with further financial help from nine other churches – the summer conference, which they named New Wine, was planted, watered and began to produce some exciting fruit.

Life bloomed in all sorts of places: training days on the gifts of the Spirit became a regular feature in many churches; frequent 10-day leaders’ retreats focused on New Wine values; New Wine’s youth work developed its own personality, culminating in the launch of a separate Soul Survivor conference in 1994; a small, dwindling event in Scotland, Clan Gathering, was given fresh momentum when it became part of the Network; and countless lives were changed as people met with God in new ways.

Was any of this expected? ‘I don’t think I even vaguely thought of it,’ admits Mary Pytches. ‘I thought we’d get 3,000 people for a couple of years and then we’d stop. But it just went on growing.’

In 1999, as the world debated the impact of Y2K, a new seed was planted and life began to emerge – the New Wine summer conference grew from one to two weeks, and the total number of people attending rose to 10,500. And over the last five years New Wine has enjoyed rapid growth: numbers have hit the 20,000-plus mark.

But the growth hasn’t just been in attendees or the number of conferences – which by 2002 included one-day events, three-day retreats and a variety of training days. What New Wine was birthed out of – ministry to church leaders – was, and still is its root; the sap that gives life to every other branch.

In the background, hidden behind the muddy Wellington boots, the laughter of children as they witness their group leader getting colourfully dunked, and the thrill of thousands of people worshipping the same God, is an invisible bond that links many churches and leaders around the UK and the world – the New Wine Network.

‘It equips church leaders for kingdom ministry,’ says Bruce Collins, overseer of New Wine’s international work and one of the visionaries behind the UK Network.

After much preparation, prophetic words and tentative steps forward, the Network was launched in 1998. Today, 680 church leaders in the UK are supported through the work of New Wine. For them, leaders’ retreats, the annual leaders’ conference and regular contact with like-minded leaders is what makes New Wine what it is – not the summer conference.

‘We don’t just go and teach people things,’ Bruce confirms. ‘We give a lot of time to people – that’s one of the things that’s unusual about us.

‘We don’t stay in hotels when we travel; we stay in people’s houses. We know what the kids eat for breakfast. It’s that kind of support that is desperately thin on the ground in churches.’

As leaders from other countries began to visit the summer conference in Shepton Mallet, requests for support, or for a New Wine leader to speak at a church weekend overseas, became more common. And, with little effort, the international Network began to bud. ‘I was convinced not only that the Lord wanted us to network leaders here but also overseas, only by invitation,’ Bruce acknowledges.

With sensitivity and prayer, the international work has taken root in Scotland, Ireland and Wales. And New Wine is now involved in over 20 countries including New Zealand, Finland, Sweden, Holland, Norway, Estonia and the United States.

Change and growth have become as natural to New Wine as the changing colour of leaves in the autumn; it hasn’t been forced. In 2001, David and Mary Pytches passed the oversight of New Wine onto John Coles, then vicar of St Barnabas’, north Finchley. In 2005, in recognition of the need for churches in the north of England to develop New Wine values, a showground in Harrogate became the best centre for another summer conference. And the total number of people attending last year’s summer event grew to 26,000.

What has been the cause of all this growth? ‘It has honestly felt like we’ve been stumbling along behind what the Lord has been doing,’ confesses Bruce.

David agrees: ‘God has done it. I used to think that we had to make plans and ask God to bless them; now I know it’s about seeing what God is doing. We sort of followed God.’

Yet what New Wine will be like in 15, 10 or even two years remains to be seen. Whether we want to train and equip leaders in India or China, plant summer conferences in other parts of the UK, or encourage more leaders to become Network members – it needs to be for God’s glory, not ours. ‘At the end of the day it’s not about building New Wine at all – it’s about Jesus and his ministry,’ affirms Bruce.

‘New Wine focuses on some of the most fundamental values of God’s kingdom,’ he continues, ‘prayer, worship, spiritual warfare, holiness, community. I think that’s why we’re seeing the Lord blessing us. As we preach we expect the Holy Spirit to endorse the ministry with signs such as prophecy and healing.

‘And what New Wine has to offer is our clear emphasis on the local church. Bill Hybels in his book, Courageous Leadership, says that the local church is the hope of the world. And we are convinced of that too.’

Now, let’s take a peak at summer 2006 – at a two-week long event run across two venues with 28,000 people seeking more of God. And at New Wine events in 10 other countries, thousands of people are fixing their eyes on Jesus.

That small seed that was planted over 16 years ago looks nothing like it did back then, but, amazingly, it continues to bear fruit.