Unite Southampton

I remember whilst I was a young person and student, I was encouraged to do something useful with all the spare time I had - endleass summer holidays and all that. You know, things such as spend a few weeks helping with a Christian holiday, or going on a "mission trip". Doing good stuff with your time. No arguements.Read more

Normally advertisers tell us that cars are fast, shiny and great at cornering whilst causing a wave of spray to arc up from the road. To have an exciting life, you need this car because it is "exciting" is the message.Read more

Just heading off to school to do a bible study group with some kids who have never been to church, think God isn't real and would tell you they aren't even interested. Anyway, they come to bible study group each week. We deliberately call it bible study group to put people off coming unless they really want to. Sometimes we have good chats, other times they just mess around.Read more

Sometimes (or maybe always) when we are trying to serve, we think we are the only ones doing the serving. Let me explain. Read more

I love the way Jesus taught about seeds. He taught about them but he also lived the same way. He seemed happy to drop a thought into someone's head and then leave them with it. Or to act kindly towards someone and let them think about what it meant. He trusted that his Father would use the seeds.

I was talking to my friend Dave Thorpe yesterday. He works with young people mainly using drama to help them explore issues such as drugs and bullying.Read more

God is really good in giving us opportunities to go into schools to serve them. We run a weekly lunch club in a local secondary school. We play some games with the kids, do a short thought to help them think about who they are, what the world is all about and the possibility that God is interested in them. Its not uncommon for us to attract kids that, well, might not otherwise be popping down the shops to buy the teacher an apple.Read more

Tommy I and me (I know that's incorrect grammer, but you can say "Tommy I and I really can you) went into Millbrook School today to do a bible study with some of the students we met doing our lunch clubs on Mondays.

On Mondays, we do a little talk about Jesus and then play some games and chat with them. People have been asking loads of questions recently so we thought we would try something more. Plus, we figured that even if no one else turned up we would still read the bible together which can only be a good thing.

Lessons learnt:Read more

Nothing to do with the way Becky is wearing her belly button this season.

Lots of things have caused me to have been thinking recently: At what point would we have called the appostle Peter a Christian?

Some would point to his statement that Jesus was the messiah Mark 8:29.

Maybe it was when he heard Thomas realise Jesus divinity John 20:28.Read more

OK, quick bit of Bible study and then I'll get to the point. It's best that way (un)fortunately.

The first half of Luke 10 is all about Jesus sending out 72 "others" and sending them out to do the kind of things he had been doing. Earlier he had sent out his inner circle of 12 "apostles" with positive results. Luke tells us that when the 72 return they are excited that "even the demons submit to us in your name". Seems to have been a good trip for them too.Read more

At Unite we aim to help churches to work together in getting involved with young people who are not generally in the habit of coming to them. We have had some success doing this. However mostly we have ended up working with mostly larger churches that have youth workers. This is probably because it's easier doing that and it seemed like a good place to start.

This is good and useful. However it has some weaknesses. There are two that trouble us most. Read more