THornhill mission group
What is a mission group?
In April 2002 the assistant pastors of Southampton Vineyard, Duncan and Emma House, moved to the Thornhill estate in Southampton. This was in response to what they felt was God asking them to "go to the poor". They iinvited others within the church who felt God saying the same thing, to come and join them in this crazy adventure. Over the next fewyears, four other couples came to join in with them.
For the last six years the housegroup has been a "closed" group. It is open for anyone to join, as long as they move to Thornhill to actually live among the marginalised. The group has set up a girls' group, a boys group, a bicycle repair group, a parent and toddlers' group and once a month runs "messy church" - which incorporates a lot of fun, food and families from the estsate, giving them a small taste of "church".
During 2007, it became clear that God was calling the group to the next stage and so for that year, preparations were made to release the group. At the church weekend on April 25th 2008, the rest of the church laid hands on the ten adults, twelve children and one "bump" and commissioned them and released them to focus on Thornhill. The group moved from being one of our housegroups to a "mission group"
What is a mission group, I hear you say? Well, that's a good question and, hoepfully, that will become more clear over the next year or so! Basically, all of the members of the group have now been released from any responsibility to the main part of Southampton Vineyard in order to see how the work can develop. This has meant Duncan & Emma stepping down from their role as assistant pastors and Rob & Kay Bowen stepping down from their role as childrens' work co-ordinators. In other words, half of the leadership team of Southampton Vineyard has gone with them! (Don't worry, God has clearly had it all in hand!)
The group is still part of Southampton Vineyard and Duncan is paid for two days a week to oversee and develop the group. Once every six weeks, the group will come back to Southampton Vineyard for a Sunday meeting and Duncan will certainly be speaking at main meetings every so often.
For the best synopsis of what it is all about, listen to this talk that Duncan gave on 25th April 2008 - Why are we going to Thornhill?
