Impact Report - Small Groups

Small groups are an essential part of all we do at Birmingham Vineyard as we seek to follow Jesus, live life to the full and make a difference.

Other than Sundays they are the main place that people find community. As well as being the main way we deliver pastoral care and discipleship.

Our society has an epidemic of loneliness, where people feel over connected but not seen or known. We think small groups done well are the solution to this. They are places of authentic friendship, where you are known, encouraged and supported.

Each week we have around 300 people attending small groups. In short if you aren’t in a small group, you are missing out! We now have 38 groups, across the city, so there should be one near you.

Early last year we set out the goal of starting one new group a month, and over the last 12 months we have seen 17 new groups started and have trained over 40 new small group leaders.

It is so exciting to see so many people stepping into leadership, setting aside their time to create welcoming spaces where they care for and investing in others.

Your giving enables us to deliver training as well as provide discipleship resources for our groups. Thank you to all those who invest their time, talents and treasures in this ministry by giving to the church, attending, hosting or leading one of our groups.

Impact Report - Sites & Multiplication

Our Sunday services are environments where we encounter God together. Several hundred people gather across our 4 weekly Sunday services, which each have their own feel and flavour. We’re united in our commitment to worship Jesus, centre on His Word and welcome the work of the Holy Spirit to help us become more like Christ. Drawing from diverse ages and backgrounds, we’re learning each week to love God and love each other. In a fragmented world, that’s a powerful picture of faith, hope and love in action.

Each of our services is led by a great team of site pastors, and they are actively training new site pastors and teams who will launch new sites in other communities in Birmingham.  We’re committed to planting more groups and sites where people can encounter God and learn what it is to follow Jesus.  

We are fortunate to own one of our Sunday venues and have a small mortgage on the car park. We hire all the other spaces we meet in. Our fixed costs for venue hire, maintenance and utilities are about 50k per annum.

Every time you serve, pray and give, you are investing directly in the story of God expressed through this church! 

Impact Report - Compassion

It’s been an extremely exciting year for Compassion at Birmingham Vineyard!

Our Foodbank is run by Lucy Beneton. Last year we gave out over £6000 worth of food and vouchers either directly through our Foodbank Champions or via partner agencies like Birmingham Solihull Women’s Aid and the Edge Academy. 

Our Growbaby has expanded. We now have two drop-in sites, one in the City Centre and one in the East. Ruth Allen, who runs our East site Growbaby has seen a huge rise in the number of families visiting them - since setting up, they’ve helped 188 families with over £8000 worth of donated clothes, equipment and basics like nappies and toiletries.

Rick Hill and his team in Northfield have been running a warm spaces community meal since the start of the fuel crisis in 2022, with around 20 people now coming and being welcomed and fed each week. We’re also partnering with Safe Families to support volunteers looking after ten different families with complicated needs.

If you’re part of this story because you donate money, food or children’s equipment, or because you’re on the team then thank you so much!

It is an incredible privilege to be able to witness to the love of God through practical help and offering prayer through Compassion ministries! If you’d love to be part of that story, have a look on the giving pages of our website or get in touch with the team about volunteering!

Impact Report - Kids & Families

In our Kids & Families ministry we are all about connecting with each other, encountering God, supporting parents, and teaching children good theology.

One of the ways that this is expressed is through our Sunday Kids groups.

Each week we have an average of 82 children coming along to groups, across all four services, led by over 45 volunteers.

These children are not just the church of tomorrow, they’re the church of today, with time spent each week worshipping Jesus, learning about God and the Bible, and spending time in prayer and ministry (alongside the games, snacks and crafts, of course!).

Kids is such a rewarding ministry to be a part of, bringing so much to the children’s relationships with Jesus, but also to the team members.

“Being on the kids team has been a fun new adventure for me, it is wonderful to feel a part of teaching the children about God and seeing their faith journey. One particular moment stood out to me, when asking a group if they would call themselves a Christian, one girl said "yes" and the other said "no you're not!" To which the first girl said "I am now!" A wonderful moment to witness!”

Thank you to all of you who give, enabling us to create a space where children can both be discipled and have fun together, amongst so many other things!

If you want to be a part of this story, whether that’s through giving, serving or praying, you can get in touch with Lauren, who oversees our Kids & Families ministry at laurenm@birminghamvineyard.com