New Wine Songs of Praise

This week I'm in Somerset, relaxing with thousands of Christians

at the annual summer event, New Wine.

Welcome to Songs Of Praise.

Coming up, how family, faith and fun can make the perfect holiday,

even if you're camping.

It's the one event of the year that we feel we can't not do.

It's a great way just to get re-centred back in

and focused on Christian values.

Connie Fisher is celebrating the 50th anniversary

of one of the Beatles' greatest hits.

# All you need is love. #

And how Christianity has transformed this man's life.

I left school with no qualifications.

I'm a little lad from Blackpool.

How am I leading in a place like this?

Much of today's music comes from here at New Wine,

including a contemporary song that's become a firm favourite

for Christians right around the world.

Christian festivals have long been a regular summer fixture.

New Wine began in 1989 as a gathering

organised by members of the Anglican Church, St Andrew's, Chorleywood.

It was given the Bible inspired name, New Wine, as a symbol

of the new life that many Christians associate with their faith.

Over the years, it's grown into a huge network of events,

both here and abroad, and every July and August, the UK contingent

get together here at the Royal Bath and West Showground in Somerset.

The Sloman family have travelled on the overnight ferry

from Guernsey in the Channel Islands to get here.

Mum Susie, runs her own company and Dad Paul, works in finance.

They've been coming to New Wine for five years with their three boys.

Yeah!

After giving the family a helping hand setting up camp,

I want to find out what's on offer for them

and the other 25,000 people attending this year.

What's the plan for everyone today then?

OK, so we're going to start with worship today.

There are three different venues.

Different sizes - small, medium and large.

When the music starts, it could be from acoustic and chilled

-to pretty excited.

-OK, Susie, what are you up to?

There's loads of seminars to choose from

with all sorts of different topics, politics.

-I'm going to the parenting one.

-OK.

I feel like I need a bit of help on that one!

-Stuff for the boys as well, I'm guessing?

-Yep.

Cameron, what are you going to be doing?

There's groups for different ages.

They're all called different names like Rock Solid,

which is the one I'm in, but they're all fun.

What are you planning then, Isaac?

Well, you don't really have to do anything at all when you come here.

You can just go for a coffee down at the main arena.

-So that's what I'm going to do.

-That's your plan?

-Chill, relax.

-All right, enjoy. See you for lunch.

-Thank you.

After a full morning of activities,

there's time for us to relax together

and for me to hear why Susie and Paul appreciate being here.

We come here to just almost re-start,

it's like the start of a year almost for us,

to have time to think what our vision is for the family

and what we want Jesus to do in our lives in the next year,

and what we want for the kids.

It's just that space to do that

amongst other people with the same belief.

It's a great break just to go and get together, all five of us,

as a family. Now that Isaac's off at university,

it gets us all back in the same place.

It's the one event in the year that we feel we can't not do.

Yeah, it's a bit like Christmas and birthdays,

this is the same sort of priority.

Christmas, birthdays and New Wine, yeah!

What is it like now raising a family as Christians in the modern world?

When I grew up, there was conscious acceptance of Christianity

and those values were evident everywhere and I think it's

almost flipped on its head now that is a Christian, you feel

like you're in the minority there and the values are very different.

What you read in the news, what you see on telly, the films

and things, so we think coming to New Wine is a great way to get

re-centred back in and focused on Christian values and you can

drink it in and impart it to the kids

and use that as a good solid basis.

I think life's so busy,

particularly with the three kids,

and we travel quite a lot for work, so it can feel very rushed

and it's like taking ten steps back coming here

and just having time at a much slower pace.

Everything happens more slowly.

We can come here and consciously spend time,

a bit of quiet time or in the noise of the worship

and reconnect with God, get a fresh focus from him.

50 years ago, the Beatles released their song, All You Need Is Love.

It came at the end of the summer of love and while youth culture was

undergoing a revolution, a similar one was happening in churches.

Connie Fisher has been to find out what happened

when two worlds collided back in the 1960s.

This must be the world's best known zebra crossing.

It leads to the world's most famous recording studio,

Abbey Road, where the Beatles, Oasis, Pink Floyd have all recorded.

However, it's also home to some of the most popular

recordings of modern worship music.

# It is well with my soul... #

Christian singer-songwriter Matt Redman recorded his top 10 album,

Unbroken Praise, here in the very same studio as the Beatles.

But that's not the only connection between pop music and praise,

as I found out when I met Christian record producer Les Moir.

In the early '60s, actually in the '50s, everybody was making music.

All the young people were in bands, but then in the south,

there was a group called the Joystrings.

They were really basically like a skiffle band.

They recorded here at Abbey Road.

They recorded these songs that were in the charts

and the Joystrings were in their uniforms making music.

OK, so did the Beatles really influence contemporary

worship music?

The Beatles, they inspired a generation to find their voice

and to start to write their own songs.

In the Psalms, it says, "Sing unto the Lord a new song."

And so that message kind of spread,

and encouraged other Christian songwriters to do that.

A famous phrase from a modern hymn writer called Graham Kendrick,

and he said his greatest inspirations in the '60s

were the Beatles and the Baptist hymn book.

And because the Beatles' song All You Need Is Love

is 50 years old this summer, we've asked musician Ken Burton

to make a brand-new arrangement of the song.

Ken, you're a gospel guru.

Some people consider All You Need Is Love as an urban hymn.

What do you reckon?

The heart of the Gospel message indeed is love.

Love to God, love to each other, and so in that sense

it does what a hymn does, which is connects us to something deeper

and something greater and something which unifies and connects us.

So all you need is love and music?

All you do need is love. and as cliched

and as light as that might sound, it's a much deeper concept.

Love indeed runs deep and it's what the world certainly always needs

and needs very much today.

# Love, love, love

# Love, love, love

# Love, love, love, love

# Love

-# Oooo

-There's nothing you can do

# That can't be done

# There's nothing you can sing that can't be sung

# There's nothing you can say

# But you can learn to play the game

# It's easy

# There's nothing you can make that can't be made

# There's nothing you can save that can't be saved

# Nothing you can do but you can learn to be you in time

# It's easy

# All you need is love

# All you need is love

# All you need is love

# Ooo-ooo

# All you need is love

# Love

# Love is all you need

-# Oooo

-There's nothing you can know

# That isn't known

# There's nothing you can see that isn't shown

# Nowhere you can be which isn't where you're meant to be

# It's easy

# All you need is love

# All you need is love

# All you need is love

# Oo-oo-oo

# All you need is love

# Love

# Love is all you need

# All you need is love

# Deep down in your soul

# All you need is love

# Ohhh

# All you need is love

# Love

# Love is all you need

# Love is patient

# Love is kind

# Love is all you need

# Ohhh

# Love is all you need. #

A famous song from the famous Abbey Road Studios there,

and if you'd like to enjoy Songs Of Praise from another iconic venue,

then make sure you've got your tickets for our annual Big Sing,

happening at the Royal Albert Hall on September 10th.

For details, you can go to our website:

Back here at New Wine,

the organisers take pride in being as inclusive as possible,

and that leads to some inspiring partnerships being formed

behind the scenes.

-Billy, how long have you been on the team at New Wine?

-Three years.

So, what do you enjoy about it?

-I like the music.

-Mmm.

-Oh, the music's great.

-Yeah.

And where do you help on team, Billy? Which team do you help with?

-The Flavour Cafe.

-The Flavour Cafe?

-Yes.

-What do you do there?

-There are cakes...

-Yes.

I like making hot chocolate with marshmallows.

-Hot chocolates with squirty cream are the best, aren't they?

-Yeah!

-Really tasty.

-Yeah, but too much calories.

-Too many calories.

Naomi, why do you do it? Why do you enjoy it?

I really love it. I love it because God's heart is for everybody,

and I think everybody is of value within his kingdom.

As New Wine, we want to reflect that in everything that we do.

Just enabling people across site to be able to connect with God

in different ways, whether it's bouncing on a gym ball,

or playing with rice,

but in a way that enables them to engage with what's going on.

Meanwhile, New Wine goer Ian Grasmeder and his family

get to enjoy their time here,

thanks to the team of British Sign Language interpreters,

led by Hannah Robinson.

I like the access that I have here,

because if I go to church, I'm on my own.

I might have subtitles or a lot of information,

but having the interpreters here

means I can fully absorb everything, and it really helps my faith.

Hannah, why is it you do this?

I really got into sign language by seeing interpreters

at Christian events, and throughout my whole journey

of learning sign language and becoming an interpreter,

it's been important to me that I want to serve God in this way.

I really love being part of the deaf community,

and the deaf Christian community, and it's great to work with

other Christian interpreters, and to provide access to God's word.

Does it give you a slightly different perspective

on what is being said or sung?

Songs are essentially poetry, a lot of the time,

so that's very challenging to interpret into another language.

So we're constantly looking for the meaning.

Would you agree with that, Ian? Do you feel that expression,

especially in worship songs?

Yes, through worship it's very important,

because deaf people need to worship as well as anyone else.

The task of organising

and leading New Wine's music for the thousands of Christians here

falls to the Reverend Chris Sayburn, who's new in the job this year.

So, I've taken on a voluntary role of overseeing all the musical

worship teams from across the site, so yes,

a massive privilege, and pretty daunting as well, if I'm honest.

So you may be not what a lot of people expect

when they hear they're going to meet a vicar.

Often, a lot of people I meet have a certain expectation

of what a vicar will look like, sound like,

so for them to see, hopefully, a normal working-class guy

with a collar... Sometimes they think I'm on a stag do!

Actually, to say this is part of God's calling on my life

and I feel very privileged to serve in this way.

34-year-old Chris' lifestyle today is a far cry from his childhood.

He was brought up in Blackpool in a family that faced many challenges.

As a result, as a teenager he had serious issues.

I left school with no qualifications

and was really struggling with self-worth.

I saw my family coming to faith and saw their lives change,

but for me, I was like, well, that can't reach me, and I struggled

with depression, anxiety, anger - real, serious flare-ups of anger,

and that would then feed into the depression,

feed into the anxiety, and I was just in a real cycle.

So I'd be drinking, I would be trying to numb

some of the pain I was in, always looking for something

to take my mind off me, and to give me self-worth and things like that.

I guess the way I look at it now is seeking things that were

over-promised but under-delivered, is how I kind of see it.

It was an event at this very campsite in Somerset in 2001

which turned around Chris' life at the age of 18.

So, I got invited to come to an event like this

called Soul Survival, which is like the youth version of this.

We actually met in a similar tent to this, just over the way, where,

after three days of hearing some of the talks about who Jesus was,

I finally thought, do you know what?

I think there could be something in this.

He is who He says He is, and I am who He says I am,

not what the world has spoken of me, or what I have spoken of myself.

And so it was there that I said yes to Jesus, yes to following Him,

and it is kind of crazy,

I'm a little lad from Blackpool,

how am I leading in a place like this?

So, it's just by God's grace.

What would you now, if you could, say to your 14-year-old self,

who was struggling with all of those issues?

Yeah, I want to say don't be proud in saying that you need help.

So, I still struggle with anxiety at times.

I still struggle with times of depression,

but the difference is, I know that God walks with me through those.

I don't fear them, I don't get lost in them.

My anger, by God's grace, is no longer like a flare-up thing.

So I just want to say, be real, be honest, just be you.

God is not looking for some Sunday school type perfection

where church is like Disneyland and we all smile and it's all very nice.

He wants to meet us where we are.

I probably talk more about my brokenness than any of my gifts

because I just think that's really important

as we sort of model that in our journey together.

As well as leading the music at New Wine,

Chris also writes his own worship songs,

which are popular all over the world,

and he's chosen one for us.

So, it's a song called Spirit And Truth,

which I've recently written with a few friends,

and it's about the worship of God,

how we love him in response to all he's done for us.

That's almost it from Somerset.

Next week, Sally Magnusson is in Edinburgh,

home of the famous festival.

And JB Gill tries his hand at "champing",

that's camping in a church.

He also meets the famous gospel group The Blind Boys of Alabama.

# Feel that jumping!

# Jump, jump... #

The words of our final song were originally written

as part of a hymn almost 200 years ago.

More recently, they've been revived

in the modern classic known simply as Cornerstone.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE