New Horizon is a seven-day Christian festival that takes place every year in August in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. The website for New Horizon states that it exists to provide a space and time in which thousands of people of all ages can be taught from the Bible, be inspired through worship and story and engage with relevant and challenging issues.
We have been twice before but this year was by far the best. This was firstly because we devoted the whole week to it rather than just attending a few of the days. Secondly, the children are a bit older (10, 12 and 14) so they gained significantly more from the fantastic youth and children’s programme provided.
The morning session included a service in the main tent lasting an hour with some singing then a talk of approximately 45 minutes. There was then a break where people could get a coffee, browse the extensive bookstore and explore the partnership stands. After this there was a choice of three or four seminars to attend. This year seminars included; “The logical problem of evil and suffering,” “Dealing with doubt,” “Where is God in my hurt?” and “Raising resilient disciples: forming hearts in a digital age.”
The evening session was a longer service in the tent with more singing, speakers and a main talk. There were groups for the children in both the morning and evening. Our ten year old attended the group for school years 4-6 and our older two went to ‘On the Edge’ for 11-16 year olds. They were greatly encouraged by the groups even though they didn’t know anyone before. They were actually begging to go back the next day. We ended up going morning and evening most days as everyone was enjoying it so much. The teaching in the groups followed the theme of the adult teaching which helped stimulate good discussion afterwards.
The theme for the morning teaching was the story of Joseph. These sessions were led by John Lennox. The talks were challenging and very thought provoking. John spoke about how Joseph was treated unfairly, and the world we live in is like this too. He described our world as a “mixed bag of beauty and bombs.” He asked the question, “Can we trust God with this?” His answer was “Go to the cross.” The cross dissolves all the problems. God is not indifferent to human suffering as he has become part of it. John’s final talk focussed on true repentance leading to forgiveness, looking at how Joseph tested his brothers to be sure they were really sorry.
The evening session had the theme of “Following Jesus in a strange new world.” The first session was by Stephen Shaw and reminded us that if we do follow Jesus, we need to totally surrender to him whatever the cost and have total trust in him whatever the circumstances.
The final talk by Alanzo Paul had the greatest impact on me. We were initially challenged with three questions: Who am I? Do I matter? Am I enough?
We were asked whether we tried to answer those questions without God. He spoke about the burden of self-creation and the modern self being exhausted by the quest for identity. The one and only solution to this is Matthew 11:28-30. We need to go to Jesus for rest. Nothing is too much for him. He is the only one in our strange and weary world who isn’t exhausted. We can find new life and joy in him. We have a new identity that is not based on performance and will not crush us.
The highlights for each of us were:
Clyde – “spiritually getting filled up.”
Penny – “the final talk mentioned above reminded me that we can find true rest in Jesus and we don’t need to achieve anything great or perform better.”
Kaiya – “the teaching.”
Noah – “the talks.”
Matthias – “I made lots of new friends.”
I would really recommend this to anyone in the church family. It is a beautiful area to be in and there is so much to see and do. I would happily do this every summer. Everything was covered for me in that week.