Elim's Sarah Whittleston is part of the Spring Harverst planning group

Putting a Spring in our step!

From Butlin’s fun at Easter to online resources all year round, Spring Harvest’s mission is to equip the church. Elim’s Olivia Amartey and Sarah Whittleston explain why they love being part of the team that leads it

Olivia and Sarah, you both play big roles up front and behind the scenes at Spring Harvest. To kick us off, tell us what you do.

OLIVIA: I’m a trustee and director on the board of Essential Christian, which is the parent company of Spring Harvest. As one of the trustees, I also have insight and access to the SH planning team. They are the ones responsible for delivering the main event. This team also keeps the ministry of Spring Harvest running throughout the year. I have the awesome privilege of speaking at Spring Harvest too, either in a seminar or on mainstage.
SARAH: I’m on the planning group and speak at the event too, plus I champion and host Spring Harvest Home – the online element for people who can’t physically make it to the Spring Harvest sessions at Butlin’s.

From your roles on the planning team, give us some behind-the-scenes insight into Spring Harvest.

SARAH: The planning group are a bit like elders and deacons. We ask what the Holy Spirit is saying, what God’s doing and how Spring Harvest can support and equip the church.

We spend time praying and fasting about this together and the theme for each year usually emerges from this.

Coming out of Covid, our theme was “Restore, renew, rebuild”, based on the book of Nehemiah. This year was about living a life worthy of our calling, based on Ephesians.

We have a three-word strapline for Spring Harvest – gather, grow, go – the idea being that we gather the church, grow people’s vision of who God is and who he’s called us to be then equip people to go and live that out in everyday life.

What do you love about your Spring Harvest roles?

OLIVIA: I love the fact that the board aren’t precious and allow the planning team to be creative in seeking God and bringing to life what they believe God is revealing about the themes for SH. Honestly, they are so visionary!

As a trustee, I know Spring Harvest costs millions to put on and every year we have a faith stretch, knowing that we have to sign contracts a year in advance. It gives me so much joy though, being on this faith journey with the board, sensing and seeing God’s answers to prayer and working powerfully.

I also love that I get to use the administration and governance gifts God has given to me and that are proactively used in my trustee role.
SARAH: I love getting to be a part of people being transformed by Jesus. Also, it’s great when you see a theme come to life that you felt God wanted to highlight when you were in the planning stages.

Tell us more about the event – why do you love it and how does God move there?

OLIVIA: That’s actually the part I love most; being at Spring Harvest, seeing everything we’ve been planning coming together and all the different churches and denominations that are involved and attending with their families. Spring Harvest caters for everyone – kids, adults, people with additional needs – I don’t know of any similar event in the UK that does that.
SARAH: I love it when you see people having lightbulb or transformation moments. We hear stories like, “I didn’t want to follow Jesus anymore then I came to Spring Harvest and my faith was renewed,” or “I came with a difficult family situation and someone prayed with me.” There are so many stories like that which give a snapshot of the body of Christ across the UK and Ireland.

Sarah, you mentioned Spring Harvest online. That’s relatively new isn’t it? How’s that going?

SARAH: I really love our commitment to online! When lockdown came to an end a lot of people decided they wouldn’t continue with it, but we’d created an online community and wanted to carry that on. Spring Harvest isn’t just about the joy of Butlin’s, the beach and the ice cream. It’s also for people beyond the confines of our venues.

One new thing that’s really exciting with online is that we’re now streaming Spring Harvest into prisons. Lisa, who heads that up, has a partnership with Wayout TV that takes it into hundreds of prisons, with chaplains in place to follow it up.
OLIVIA: Prisons are now asking for resources too, for Bibles. It’s amazing!

There are lots of other people from Elim helping with Spring Harvest, aren’t there?

OLIVIA: There are really great people from Elim involved – like Leon Evans who’s on the planning group and is writing the theme book for next year, and Helen Yousaf who ministers and facilitates ministry through art.
SARAH: There’s Sam Blake, Moyo and others from Elim Sound leading worship too, and Malcolm Duncan is the theologian for Spring Harvest.
OLIVIA: I know Spring Harvest is about kingdom, not tribes, but I’m really excited about how Elim is blessing others.

Finally, Olivia and Sarah, this is your opportunity to pitch Spring Harvest to our readers. Why should they go next year?

SARAH: It’s a great week where you’ll encounter Jesus! Spring Harvest is like a waypoint or a catalyst; one of those places where you get equipped, filled and encouraged. If you come with a sense of expectancy God moves in powerful and surprising ways.
OLIVIA: And because it’s cross-denominational, if you come with a mind to give as well as receive you end up blessing others who may be from a different church tradition, whom you wouldn’t otherwise have met. Diversity is important too. The planning group have been very intentional about making sure diversity flows through everything at Spring Harvest and it’s been so heartening seeing more people of colour coming along and being an active part of the life of SH. When I first went, I felt like a grain of pepper in a bag of salt but now it’s great to see people of all races coming as guests, speakers and volunteers. It’s a wonderful representation of the church of God.
SARAH: My last point would be that it’s not only about the event but also the resourcing Spring Harvest does throughout the year. There are podcasts, teaching material and loads of stuff on the website. We work hard to make the event as good as it can possibly be, but we also want to fuel what the Holy Spirit is doing during the rest of the year.

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.

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