Last Stoneleigh Bible Week to be held this year

2001 WILL see the last Stoneleigh Bible Week. Leaders of the New Frontiers International (NFI) churches made the shock announcement at their Brighton 2000 Conference, saying they believed the time was right for a change of direction and a "major evangelistic push" across the UK. Terry Virgo, head of the NFI team, told Christian Herald, "We feel God is speaking to us about planting hundreds of churches and re-evangelising the nation. Without Stoneleigh, we will have the space needed to give ourselves to evangelism." The NFI churches had previously run the highly successful Downs Bible Weeks in Sussex, but these were also dropped after 10 years. Terry Virgo said it was part of a continuing pattern of growth and change. "After the Downs events, we didn't have a Bible Week for two years before Stoneleigh came along. The conference has served us well to proclaim a specific message and as a gathering place for tens of thousands but we believe God first put a stop to the Downs Week and now he's putting a stop to Stoneleigh. Now, I believe we are on the edge of a major evangelistic push, that God is on the move and we will be working with a lot of people as part of that."

The Stoneleigh Bible Week, held annually at the National Agricultural Centre in Warwick, has regularly attracted 20,000 people and the Stoneleigh live worship albums, led by Kingsway's Stuart Townend, have been Christian bookshops best sellers. Terry Virgo told Christian Herald that he is keen to develop links with Andy Hawthorne of the World Wide Message Tribe and the Message To Schools Trust in Manchester. "When we were talking about conferences and what would be happening in place or Stoneleigh, I told Andy that I'd been thinking of stadium events. He then said he had been thinking about stadiums too. It's early days yet but the Tribe and NFI could well join hands evangelistically." He sees it very much as the way forward: "I'm aware that some people will be disappointed at losing Stoneleigh, but we have to listen to what God is saying to us and sometimes that means changing what has so far been a successful thing. These are exciting times, and I feel a spirit of adventure as we move into a new era." Andy Hawthorne echoed the sentiment: "Partnership is the name of the game. We just can't do it on our own and NFI are activists who make things happen."