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Newday 2011 Highlights
The peace of the Norfolk countryside was shattered as the roar of 6500 voices lifted in praise and worship in a tent somewhere outside of Norwich earlier this month. Young people, their leaders, and a small army of volunteers had gathered at the Royal Norfolk Showground for a week of worship, teaching, service and fun. The first meeting was underway, and the celebration carried for miles in the still, clear air. This was Newday 2011.
The sun beat down for most of the week as the young people attended main meetings and seminars on topics as diverse as ‘How to Change the World’, ‘How to Answer Tough Questions’ and ‘Making Choices’, while in their free time taking part in sports tournaments, learning new creative skills, showcasing their musical talents and holding impromptu water fights.
The great disappointment of the week, for many of them, was the day it rained – not because the football tournament was abandoned (it wasn’t), nor because the creative activities were disrupted (they weren’t), but because some of the community service projects were cancelled. Clearing gardens and painting fences were simply not possible in the rain, and many of the young people deeply regretted not being able to participate in what was for them a key feature of the week’s activities.
As the delegates and their leaders returned home, it was to the breaking news of riots and looting taking place across the UK. The nation descended into head-scratching and soul-searching over the state of its young people, and two rival articles appeared on The Guardian’s Comment is Free blog discussing Christian youth camps. Thomas Prosser, the ‘anti’ author, felt that such camps are ‘wicked’, because beneath the veneer of“proceedings finish[ing] by a godly hour and the Babylonian substances that lubricate secular teen gatherings [being] surplus to requirements,”
such camps have taught that
“witch doctors can maim children by cursing them [and that] God judges us on death for our deeds and thoughts”.
To top it all, he pointed out that
“teens were…encouraged to practise physical healings”.
Steve Clifford of the Evangelical Alliance wrote the ‘pro’ article the following day, stating that“part of what makes [such camps] essentially good things is how the personal decision [to follow Christ] plays out in the bettering of communities.”
As for Thomas Prosser’s point about physical healings, Adrian Holloway gave the following report from the meeting he led on the Thursday night:“We started with the testimony of a young woman born totally deaf in one ear, who was instantly and totally healed on the equivalent night at Newday 2010. It was 17 years of total deafness, followed, 15 minutes later, after prayer in the name of Jesus, by 100 per cent hearing. It’s a healing that has been verified by two audiologists, after tests. So we were off to a great start! The good news is that after the prayer which followed her testimony, we had 338 people healed on Thursday night, and then following a sermon on Galatians 4:1-7, we had 365 first-time commitments. So we are all very grateful to God. Thanks for praying! Praise God!”
Youth camps such as Newday play a vital role in helping young people from a range of backgrounds to discover who God has made them to be, and to find something to live for that is bigger than themselves and the immediate gratification of their desires. Were we offering them false hope, perhaps Thomas Prosser would have a point, but Newday 2011, like so many Christian youth camps taking place this summer, was a celebration of life, service and hope.
Writing to church leaders in the wake of the riots across our nation, David Stroud said“The church has a unique role in providing hope and a model of community life. We have an excellent opportunity – if not an imperative – to be salt and light in our towns and cities at this difficult time.”
Let us join our young people in living out the faith we profess, not just in the extreme times, but in our daily life, too.
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About the author
Jennie Pollock is editor of UK communications for Newfrontiers and is studying for an MA in Philosophical Studies. She attends ChristChurch London, where she’s learning and growing all the time, and loves London above almost anything else. She reads voraciously to learn lessons from the past and drink deep of the wisdom of today, and longs to see words and the creative arts used to bring about a shift in the norms and assumptions underpinning Western culture.
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