An update on the extraordinary offering launched at United this summer, our finances, the future and 2023 events.
The offering
We are incredibly grateful for everyone who contributed this summer to our extraordinary offering. As our National Leader Paul Harcourt said when launching the offering, we felt that it was right to pray for a total of £1million at this critical moment in our history. We are excited to say that we are very close to achieving this target, which is a wonderful sign of how deeply we all share commitment to the vision of local churches changing the nation together.
The finances
There is still financial need. The response to the offering has enabled us to cover the losses of the past few years, mostly a result of the pandemic, but addressing the underlying deficit and ensuring that we put New Wine on a sustainable foundation is a priority. We are looking at our leadership structures and reassessing what staff structures would best support the mission of local churches and our shared vision to see the nation changed. We hope that both churches and individuals will feel able to contribute financially to this vision on a regular basis, enabling us to plan and giving us time to seek God for new ways of fulfilling our call. You can find out more about supporting us financially at new-wine.org/give
The future
We thank God for all that has gone before but want to remain open to anything new that he wants us to embrace. New Wine needs new wineskins too! However, we will always keep the centrality of the Spirit’s ministry, values of Word and Spirit, and focus on the local church. Our strategy of training, mentoring and church planting continues to direct our activities, as does a concern to raise and empower the next generations. That has to be made real at a local level and throughout the year. As a network of churches, New Wine is so much more than events. We recognise though that gathering nationally has huge impact, and we enjoyed a tremendous sense of God’s blessing on United 22, Luminosity and Sixty One – which means we have something very special to steward and build on for the future.
2023 events
Thanks to the generosity of the New Wine family in the summer, we are excited to be able to plan for the coming year – and delighted to launch a National Leadership Conference in Harrogate in February. Previously we had expected to do smaller regional leaders’ conferences in 2023 but it felt right, in a time of great change and uncertainty for churches, nation and New Wine, to gather all together once more. We hope that leadership teams will come together to the conference, which will include streams for many ministry areas – including Raising Generations for youth and kids’ ministry – with a practical focus. Learning from the NLC in 2022, we are planning to give priority to worship and prayer, as well as space in the programme for developing relationships.
As you will have heard, the Peterborough showground is not available for events anymore. We continue to look at other sites but are also open to the possibility of different formats and ways of gathering. We hope to have more definite news in the coming months.