OUR STORY
Jo & Mike // Pastors
Hi, we’re Mike and Jo, and together with a wonderful group of people, we’re preparing to plant a new community church - The Beacon Vineyard, South Tyneside.
Having spent most of our adult years in London, God called us to leave that all behind, and at the start of 2021 move to South Shields to share his love with the people in the communities of South Tyneside. We had no connections here before we decided to come, we just knew God had laid his love for the people in the north east on our hearts and we couldn’t be anywhere else. And what a beautiful place to live - we love getting out on paddleboards, walking or running along the local coastline and trails.
We’ve been part of the Vineyard movement of churches since 2015 and so when we moved up we joined Life Vineyard, knowing they had a heart for planting local community sites and churches. Only one person from the church lived in South Tyneside at the time, but God was busy moving his people into place, and suddenly there were 6 adults and 2 kids living here and going to the same church. We started a local home group in September 2021, which quickly grew, and in September 2022 we started a site plant of Life Vineyard, with the view that this would become a church plant.
We’ve had great fun as a site. We’ve been running regular family fun days, where we got to meet over 209 families, have conversations of faith, invite guests to our other groups and pray with them.
We’ve also been out sharing Jesus in the streets and beaches of South Shields – flyering, offering prayer, giving out chocolates and litter picking. These have been great ways to see God at work and begin conversations of faith. Every time we go out, we come back knowing God has used us to speak into the lives of people we’ve met.
And we love getting to know the people God’s been bringing us. We enjoy building friendships, reading God’s Word, worshiping and praying together as we meet in small groups during the week. Food, family and community is really important – so once a month we have a community meal for everyone who’s a part of the church here, and where family, friends and neighbours can be invited.
We now feel God is asking us to plant out as The Beacon Vineyard, South Tyneside.
So, whatever your own story, if you feel stirred to be a part of this new church plant, or you just want to find out more about who Jesus is, we’d love to hear from you, meet up for a walk or a coffee and have a chat. Please get in touch.