Contents page 3
Hello Students
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Love Brum
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Welcome
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Get invested in
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City of Birmingham
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What our heart is
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making the most of your time here
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Meet the Team
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BASEs
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Looking outwards
Get stuck in
Save the Date
Hello students Hello and welcome to Brum! My name is James and I’m the student worker here at the Vineyard in Birmingham. Students play a vital role in the life of the church, serving in various areas from the children’s ministry, Discovery Zone (DZ), to the welcome teams and tea and coffee. In a nutshell – we value students and want to make sure you flourish whilst you’re here with us! Over the last few years we have seen God do some amazing things in the life of the students, from seeing people introduced to Jesus for the first time, people being healed and set free and students growing into all that God has made them to be! One of our firm beliefs for all students is that we don’t stand still, but are constantly seeking God and what he wants to do in our city and on our campuses. Hopefully you’ll find lots of information in this booklet about what student ministry looks like in our church. Look forward to seeing you soon! James
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WELCOME We believe church should be fun and down to earth - the kind of place where anyone can feel at home. We love to hang out together, worship God together and serve our communities together. We think that following Jesus is all about making a difference in an otherwise crazy world and showing genuine love to those around us.
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As a church, God has given us a heart for our communities and a heart for mission, therefore we exist in missional community groups across the city to build one another up and bring wholeness to broken lives through the power of the Gospel. We gather centrally on most Sundays to celebrate what God is doing across the city, however, on the 4th Sunday of the month we meet in our missional community groups to impact the community sharing Jesus’ love.
We have a large group of students, and are committed to helping and discipling students that attend. We really want to invest in you while you are at university, help you grow and give you opportunities to step out into what God has planned for you. We hope that this is a church you will be able to call home.
The City of Birmingham
Birmingham is the second biggest city in the country. It also has the largest amount of students outside of London, with 6 higher education institutions and over 65,000 students. The city is full of many quirks - here’s a list of some things you have to see whilst you’re here:
Birmingham Library One of the largest regional libraries in Europe, Birmingham Library is a great place to visit and even includes a panoramic view of the city on the top floor!
Cadbury World The Cadbury factory over in Bournville is where the magic started! If you’re a chocolate lover, this is definitely the place to check out.
Brindley Place Birmingham has more canals than Venice (that’s a fact!). So if you fancy having a drink overlooking these, head down to Brindley Place for a selection of classy bars.
The Mac/Cannon Hill park If you’re an arty type or you want some space to explore, The Mac and Cannon Hill park are great places to look around, often with exhibitions or performances. And best of all – it’s mostly free!
Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park Also on the Pershore Road (one of the main roads through Birmingham) you’ll find Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park. Although it isn’t huge, it is definitely a great place for a couple of hours visit!
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Making the most of your time here At Vineyard, we want you to thrive in all areas of life. Here are 5 ways to make sure you get the most out of the life of the church: Get into cell: One of the main aspects of church life is cell groups. We believe that being in community is really core to development so make sure you join a cell early on.
Get involved: As a student ministry we put on a lot of events to enable you to grow and to stretch you. We’d love to partner with you so see the save the date page for more information.
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Get serving: Another way to develop your giftings is to serve on one of our many teams. Chat to Keely Bateson for more information or pick up a serving flyer. Get mentored: Finding an older person whom you can be accountable to is really key in keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus at uni. If you’d like to find someone to mentor you, please speak to Lucy White.
Get stuck in: University life is full of opportunities to meet new people. Try to take every opportunity you can by joining societies and sports teams - whatever you are passionate about!
meet the team
Daisy Hill Kirsty Tulloch James Pickin Student Team Leader Assistant Team Leader Central BASE Coordinator
Jon Solway Worship and Prayer Coordinator
Melody Platford Mission Developer
Heather Marlow Compassion Coordinator
Alice Wynne South BASE Coordinator
Lucy White Discipleship Coordinator
Ben Whale Development Coordinator
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BASEs What is a BASE?’ I hear you ask. BASE stands for Birmingham Area Student Events and is basically just an extension of the work we used to do centrally, but now do locally in some of the main student areas. There are currently 2 BASEs – one in the city centre, near Millennium Point/ Aston campus and one in the south of the city, near the University of Birmingham campus. The events and the way BASEs work are flexible; tailored to the particular student community that they’re in. Their main aims are to build a relational base and extend that community to those who aren’t a part of it (as mentioned in Acts 4:32-35). These events could look like anything from a pub lunch, to an acoustic night, to a worship evening in a café or pub. Ultimately we are bringing the student work to you, the students – rather than keeping it in one place which is outside of where you and your mates are.
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The South BASE The South BASE is a community of students, including the University of Birmingham and Newman College, who come together regularly for a time of fellowship, as well as a chance to hang out and just have some fun! This will include a whole host of social events throughout the year, from pub lunches to games nights. There will also be an opportunity for gatherings which will encourage us to go a little deeper and to challenge each other in our faith whilst here at uni. The majority of events are set around the Selly Oak area, which not only means they are on your doorstep, but also that they are accessible to the thousands of other students in our surrounding community. Keep tuned into our Facebook page to find out what is happening next! Alice
The Central BASE The Central BASE is going to be aiming to take the Vineyard community out to the universities in the centre of Birmingham enabling relationships to be developed with Aston, BCU, UCB and University of Law. The aim is for student gatherings to be arranged monthly to enable all students old and new to get to know other Christian students and to help them engage in general student life together. I really feel that through the BASEs a student community will be developed within the wider Vineyard community. It will be a place where students can feel comfortable to voice any concerns or problems and where prayer and worship can actively support them in their every day uni life encouraging them in their journey with God. It will be where students can enjoy and arrange social events outside the busyness of university life, which may include acoustic nights, pub lunches, and prayer and worship evenings.
Daisy
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We, the students of Vineyard Network Church, love Birmingham and we want to serve our city in practical ways, which has led to the launch of Love Brum. We want to impact the city and see transformation in the lives of people around us and also in the environment. Through Love Brum, we hope to run acoustic nights for private halls, hang out with other students at social events, serve the city in basic ways such as litter picking, feed the homeless, and provide support by handing out water bottles on student nights out. The brand ‘Love Brum’ is not labelled as Christian and therefore we will only share
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views of our faith if asked. We simply want to love and serve our city. A similar organisation with involvement from Vineyard Network Church is City Pastors, where volunteers head to Broad Street and Southside on Friday and Saturday nights to ensure that everyone encounters a fun and safe environment. We hope that Love Brum will benefit the city and its people greatly. Kirsty
get invested in
Hi there! I’m Ben and I’m the Student Development coordinator. Here at Vineyard we want to support you in developing the skills to succeed after your time at Uni. We’re going to run a big careers event, and with the wide variety of vocations and experiences here we hope that we can assist you in developing your future plans, and support you to achieve them. We also want to invest in the giftings you bring to the table here at church, and through the year we will be aiming to support you to step out and to use your skills and influence. Finally, above all else we long to encourage and equip you to be Jesus where you are. One way we do this is by seeking to become more ‘naturally supernatural’. Jesus and the early church went out to the places where they were and healed the sick, spoke out what God revealed to them and were always seeking to ‘do what they saw the Father doing’. We want to get on board with what God’s doing here in our city, and we want to invest in the student body here – that we could go out and be Jesus to the people around us, and that we might see more of God’s Kingdom breaking in, in our halls, houses and universities.
Ben
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What our heart is Hi guys! I’m here to help you connect with God in new and deeper ways. I’ll be organising worship and prayer events, worship teams for our student weekend, and running Friday night worship sessions: a time to meet with God, through worship and prayer. I want to encourage you guys to live prayerfully, worshipping Him with all you do. Please ask for prayer or for someone to pray with! God wants to be involved in everything. I’d love to hear from: • Any worship leaders, musicians or people passionate for prayer • Anyone with a prayer request so that we can support you in prayer. • Anyone else! I’d love to meet you! Come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come to him with thanksgiving, let us sing psalms of praise to him. Psalm 95:1-2, NLT Jon
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Hi Everyone! I’m Heather and I’m responsible for student compassion ministry here at Vineyard.
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
God calls us to live compassionate lives where we love and look out for the last, the least and the lost. Our students have a heart for compassion work both here in our city and further afield so I’m here to encourage students to get involved in compassion work as a daily out-working of God’s calling. Our students are already involved in work such as Foodbank but this year we will be expanding our compassion opportunities. We’re looking to partner with outreach organisations to help Birmingham’s homeless community and provide support for women that have been trafficked. So watch this space for developments and opportunities throughout the year… Heather
Colossians 3:12
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Looking outward
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Hi everyone! I’m Melody – the Student Missions Developer. My job is basically to get us looking outwards and taking the message of Jesus to our halls, campuses and city.
So often the church gets a bad name for what it’s response has been to certain things. My heart is that through what we do as a student community we show what the Gospel really is. We have an opportunity to show that the church is a sanctuary, where people can come and find peace and hope from a world that doesn’t offer it. One of the ways we hope to achieve this, this year is by waterbottling outside some of Birmingham’s popular student nightclubs. This is where we basically hand out water to people, listen to them, help them get home and sometimes pray for them. If this seems like something you would like to get involved with, we’d love to have you on board!
Melody
Get stuck in
Hey, I’m Lucy and I’m a second year at UoB. So my role on the student team is to help you guys ‘get stuck in’…that’s getting stuck in to church life and church family.
At Vineyard, we meet in cell groups, a great place to get to know people and to explore what you believe. This year we’re keeping in touch through our e-bible study and seeing what God’s got to say about how to survive your first year at uni. There are lots of lively churches in Birmingham and a great way of finding the right one for you is getting stuck in and serving. Here at Vineyard there are loads of opportunities for you to do this; from welcoming people into the church to serving on our Children’s ministry – Discovery Zone. So basically we are really excited to have you here and hope to meet you soon. If you’ve got any questions about anything, feel free to come and chat. Lucy
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Save the Date students lunches 28 Sept, 5 Oct 12 Oct
Join us after our 11.15am service for a twocourse meal and a chance to find out more about our church on these dates.
These are some of our Freshers events which will get you out and seeing the city, which you’ll be living in for the next 3+ years. 27 Sept: BBQ 4 Oct: photo scavenger hunt, by the bull at the Bullring at 1pm. 11 Oct: Laser quest at Star City. Please email James.
Cause to live for 21 - 22 Nov
Seeing the City 27 Sept, 4 Oct, 11 Oct
Cause to Live For is Vineyard’s national students, 20s and 30s weekend. You can get a ticket for the weekend including food and accommodation for under £25.
This is our annual student weekend in. It’s a great time where we get to know each other, listen to what God has to say to us, and go out and bless our city.
Urban camp 23 - 25 Jan
FIND OUT MORE E-mail: James.leepickin@vineyardnetworkchurch.com Facebook: Central page: www.facebook.com/bhamvineyardstudents Central BASE : https://www.facebook.com/groups/1481486635422282/ South BASE : https://www.facebook.com/groups/474945055942436/