Festivals

Spending time together outside of the normal run of things (weekends, weeks away and so on) is really important to the life of our community of faith. It is something we have seen modelled for us in the Old Testament stories of ancient Jewish festivals and indeed in society at large. Setting aside significant time (a whole weekend or week), travelling to a new place away from the things that keep us busy at home and work, being with others in the community or in something really big, engaging with teaching, the arts, other Christian traditions or significant Reach Out projects - all can help us encounter God in a fresh way and reorient our lives in his direction.

We’ve developed a lot of Festivals over the years and many of us tell stories of the deep impact of events like Ashburnham, Revive, Women Rock weekends, Men’s weekend, DTI, the T4:12 residential, leaders weekend, National leaders conference and so on - as well as those outside the Vineyard movement such as Spring Harvest, New Wine, Soul Survivor, Greenbelt and so on.

That’s a long list and we’re working towards a few changes in the way we engage with and run Festivals - taking advantage more of the large nationally organised events, and being a little more focussed on the events we run ourselves (because the effort and costs are quite large!). We may run some of our traditional Festivals less frequently (e.g. alternate years or not at all). We might decide to visit a big event and make a camping village within it (if you are a natural camp commandant - please get in touch!!) Or we might invent a new festival format.

To be more specific about 2010-11

Bob’s weekend (for men) runs as usual at Swarthghyll Farm on 1-3 October 2010.
The Cause to Live For conference is run at Trent Vineyard between 15-16 October 2010. It is aimed at young adults, with teaching from Julia and Eric Pickerill (Columbus Vineyard, Ohio) and worship led by Nigel Briggs (Trent Vineyard).
The National Leaders Conference (31 January - 3 February 2011) moves to Nottingham this year, making it much more accessible for people in our area. It is in the Trent Vineyard warehouse, so accommodation is not part of the package this time - we will find our own locally. Do let the office know if you are planning to go to the NLC, or know a good guesthouse so we can be together when we are there.
The T4:12 residential, for young people at secondary school, will head to Lineham Farm from the 4-6 March 2011 for an action-packed weekend with teaching and activities. More details to follow.
This year Women Rock will join in with some nationally organised events rather than organising our own weekend.
Ashburnham 2011 runs from 6-13 August 2011.

Details of the other festivals aren’t available yet, but we’ll communicate when we find out.