Praise God For Newday

I got back from Newday yesterday afternoon. Wow. Of course, I would have written earlier but I just had to sleep. And shower. Getting home meant I could stand under the shower. And flush the toilet. And lie on my bed. And eat food from a fridge. All just because I could!

Oh yes, the showers. We had vastly superior sanitation facilities this year. The toilets were so non-camping I actually got through quite a bit of various reading materials. And the showers were always warm, and with no queues mornings were blissful with the pleasure of forgetting we were camping. And so people took wholehearted advantage of the showers. However, this meant too much water was being used on the campsite – which had to sustain over 6,000 people – so a five minute limit was imposed on showers. Of course, short of draconian measures this restriction was unenforceable. So I had the pleasure of waiting one afternoon for 25 minutes as three lads decided to not only discuss the fittest girls in their youth group cross cubicle, but also pass conditioner to each other over the top! And they didn't look old enough to shave, let alone understand the mysteries of Eve!

But I can't write about Newday and spiel on about soaking showers. Newday is about young people meeting God. And in that sense, it was an incredible great week!

Being part of Newfrontiers has always been a privilege. As I grow and understand more, the more I realise the cost that godly men before me have paid to establish something I'm now part of, and have been shaped by. Not to undervalue any other movement of course, but speaking about the movement I'm part of, I cannot speak more highly of it.

Watching young people encounter God is an amazing privilege with spirit-filled, God centred worship. I know we don't have a monopoly on that, but I feel so thrilled my young people aren't part of an emotionally empty, thrill seeking 'ra ra ra' concert – they are singing truth, to the God of Truth.

I love hearing superb biblical exposition that is more than just a shallow rally cry, knowing young hearts are being shaped. They are being encouraged to meet God in the Bible, to bring their lives in line with the Book, and to read and study the Bible for themselves. We heard messages on Purity, on Materialism, on Prayer, on Grace, and on Honouring Parents. There was a depth to the teaching that brought a challenge and conviction to many. On top of the main sessions, there were seminars in mornings and afternoons on the prophetic, on leadership, on Christian heroes, on apologetics and on evangelism. One evening, Terry Virgo told the story of Newfrontiers and encouraged this generation to take the baton and continue running with it.

Seeing my guys motivated for building a missional church was one thing. But seeing them put on red 'Jesus' t-shirts, get onto a coach en masse and be driven into Derby to do practical social works and action in the city was a powerful sight. Seeing them come back after an afternoons grafting after cleaning graffiti, or hedge trimming, or litter picking, reminded me and taught them that Jesus proclaimed a gospel of works as well as words.

But Jesus also preached a gospel of wonders. There were numerous healings, of which I could list so, so many. My friend Julian hosted some seminars in the Prophetic and prayed for many to be healed – and he wasn't the only one. Some of the reports are here, as well as another perspective about Newday.

We also saw new life – around 300 first time commitments during the week, as non-believers who had come along met Christ at the Cross for the first time and gave themselves to Him.

I think the way the last session ended, with the worship band quietly leaving the stage during 'How Great Is Our God' as the congregation, lost in wonder, love and praise continued to sing unaccompanied, summed up so well what the message of Newday 2007: "God First."

Other non-spiritual highlights of Newday for me included:

• A bet between two of the testosterone fuelled males in my group. One boy licked a guys armpit for the princely sum of.... five pounds. The licked guy then had his armpit waxed by a mad group of frenzied females. And of course, we recorded it. The Youtube link will be published soon...

• A sweet and innocent looking girl cunningly tied string around my chair, then round my neck without me knowing. So after lunch, I stood up and subsequently choked myself violently, much to the mirth of my ward

• Pegging: Pegs with written bible verse references written on are clipped to random people during meetings to bless them. Unless they fail to notice them, as they then just look stupid. Bonus points are awarded for attaching the peg to flesh – especially earlobes. You'll be thrilled to know I resisted the temptation to change peg bible references to rude or random verses.

• Meeting a little 13 year old kid with big gold chain, all acting cool and hard and speaking like a London gangster in hip hop shizzle stylee. I suppressed a smile when he introduced himself as 'Reg.'

• Various duct tape attacks on people

• Terry Virgo being commandeered by one of my group during a game of American Football, and dropkicking the ball back to the group. He shanked it right into a caravan. Then ran!

• Various children feeling sick after eating their own body weight in Haribo

• Rolo doughnuts sold by the questionable stall traders in the Grand Ring

• Our geezer coach driver providing highly illegal, yet very good quality copies of the new Transformers and Simpsons movies for keeping the kids quiet on the four hour journeys to and from Derby

Newday 2007 was my final act as a Youth Worker at my current church. So the goodbyes when we got home were emotional. They are great kids, and during the week I made sure I got round them all to see how they were doing. Without fail, they had all met God. Which, as a leader, is what you want your people to do. They belong to Him – I'm leaving them in very capable hands.