Church Planting in Southampton
Building a church that looks like our community
Can I live in your shed? That was the question that sparked our accidental church planting journey. There was no lightning bolt moment, no pin on a map for direction, but a seed planted in that question that challenged our hearts and changed our course.
A desire grew and direction came to live lives that were ‘all in’ with those on the margins where boundaries blurred and doors were always open. A prophetic word from a near stranger confirmed this calling to live in proximity to the community and to make discipleship a daily pursuit, not just a Sunday activity.
We were presented with an opportunity to take on the leadership of a small community centre in the heart of Weston, a deprived estate on the edge of Southampton city, which our then-current church owned the lease to and had been running some activities from in various forms. After some big steps of faith, we moved with our four small kids to live on the estate. We took jobs in the local area, including at the local pizza delivery shop, and put our kids in the local school.
We didn’t set out to plant a church; we set out to love a community—to seek its peace and prosperity. We have seen it and ourselves prosper as a result.
But like when you fall in love and want to spend all your time together, not planting a church seemed wrong. We were surrounded by relationships from our life and ministry on the estate and had nowhere big enough to gather everyone and deepen our God conversations. We also knew that taking many of these people 10 minutes down the road to our current church was not an option as culturally it was a million miles away.
During this time, the local Anglican vicar approached us to offer a partnership in creating a new type of church on the estate, one that would reach demographics not currently being reached, particularly in the 18-30 age bracket.
The idea was to pioneer something different. Not to deconstruct church but to contextualise it for our area and imagine what it would be to build a church that looked like our community.
Much went on in between, but we officially launched Hope City Church on Easter Sunday 2024 and got to see years of relationship building and seed scattering come together in a weird ‘This Is Your Life’ type scenario. Families from the estate, connections made through existing ministries, supporters from both churches we were born out of, and a loyal, not-yet-believing friend in a flamingo print suit who saw the important moment and wanted to show up for his friend.
There were awkward moments, kids’ workers cried, lessons were learned, but we felt super swag in our matching sports socks and somehow, through our ragtag attempts, God was glorified.
Now, three months on, we have doubled in size with an average attendance of 60 on a Sunday, seeing several families from the estate actively involved in the life of the church.
We aren’t chasing statistics and maybe controversially don’t have a spreadsheet of weekly attendance. Instead, we have a book of stories of lives changed. Last week, a mum shared how, before she met ‘our lot,’ she would never leave the house due to crippling anxiety and physical pain. Now she is at every activity, helping lead the toddler group and dragging every friend and family member she can along with her. She’s not yet ‘prayed the prayer’ as far as we know but has seen her life change in so many ways due to the local church loving and surrounding her.
One of the most significant words we have received was about the journey being a marathon, not a sprint, and that continues to resonate with us as we walk the long, slow journey with many of our friends out of lives of addiction and trauma and into the Kingdom of God. We continually remind ourselves that our desire is not to see people change class or become more ‘Christian,’ but to change kingdoms and become more like Jesus.
We are taking a pause from Sundays during the school holidays because we want to take seriously rhythms of rest and remind ourselves that God builds the church, not us. We also want to use our capacity to meet the needs of our community. Recently, a local charity that provided a much-needed holiday club, which for many children on the estate was the only place they could go besides home during the six-week holidays, lost its funding. Together with other local churches and charities, we feel a responsibility to step in and fill the gap. This will take a huge amount of manpower and resources, and we want to ensure we are freed up from what can be the burden of running Sundays with a small team so we can all better love our community during this time.
The hope is our team will rest, organic fellowship will happen, and we will model that ‘church’ is so much more than a Sunday meeting, but God’s hands and feet to a hurting world.
Dave and Emily head up ‘Influence’, Catalyst’s 18-30’s work. Former site leaders at Christ Church Manchester, they now attend Kings Community Church in Southampton with their four kids.
