SCM Conference - 1st March 2025
First ever SCM Day Conference
In November 2023 the Southampton City Mission team had the joy of meeting up with other City Missions from around the UK to share, encourage and pray for one another. It was so uplifting and inspiring to hear about all the different kinds of activities, ministries and outreach that City Missions are doing to share God’s love and hope in their own cities.
During this time, God really impressed on my heart the idea of having a City Mission conference in Southampton. Since joining SCM in 2022 I have been so impressed by how much amazing work the churches in Southampton do to alleviate poverty and bring positive change to people’s lives. God showed me how SCM’s many years of working in partnership with churches in Southampton placed us in the perfect position to bring the church together to encourage and inspire one another in our united passion to share God’s love with the people of Southampton.
And God has been so faithful in helping us to bring this idea into being. Despite many challenges over the last year of planning, our first ever Southampton City Mission conference was a joyous celebration of church unity and mission in our city.
One of the big decisions at the start of our planning was who we should invite to speak at the conference. Having just been inspired by the book “Invisible Divides” by Natalie Williams, she was our first thought. As the CEO of the charity Jubilee+, who “want to see churches that change the lives of those in poverty in their communities” we knew Natalie’s vision for churches and communities aligned perfectly with our theme for the conference.
We were delighted that Natalie accepted our invitation to the conference, where she challenged us to consider how our churches welcome and love everyone from all backgrounds and cultures. She also shared her own candid story of growing up in poverty and her experiences of coming to church for the first time feeling like she didn’t fit in to the “middle class” church culture.
The day also included some lively group discussion time, a chance to go prayer walking in the local area, time to browse the latest Christian books on the Oasis Bookstall and of course time to catch up with old friends and make some new ones over coffee.
With the kids also having a fantastic time with the SCM Schools Team and the young people growing in their faith together, led by the Encounter Youth team, it really was a day for all the family.
We are already praying and thinking about our next conference. We are really excited to grow this opportunity to bring more people together in Southampton, to be equipped and encouraged for God’s great mission to our city.
Jacqueline
Programme
Keynote Speaker
Main speaker – Natalie Williams, CEO of Jubilee+
Natalie Williams grew up in relative poverty in the deprived seaside town of Hastings. She is now chief executive of national Christian charity Jubilee+ and speaks and writes on poverty, class, justice, and the mercy of God. Natalie describes her latest book, ‘Tis Mercy All – the power of mercy in a polarised world, as her life’s message. Her previous books include Invisible Divides (on class issues in the church) and The Myth of the Undeserving Poor. Natalie is passionate about the church being a place of overflowing mercy, especially for those trapped in poverty.
Natalie’s Books can be found here.
“Equipping the Saints was a wonderful day with Christians from various churches, coming together with a shared love for Jesus and desire to be a rich blessing to Southampton, especially to those experiencing hardships. There was a great sense of unity in the room as believers from different traditions worshipped side-by-side, and learnt, talked and prayed together for the local community.”
Natalie Williams
“Quoting Corinthians, Natalie Williams reminded us that God loves to take those from the bottom of the pile and lift them up! It was so good to spend the day with those who think along similar lines, encouraging one another to reach out with practical care and prayer as a way of joining with God’s mission to love all who live in our City of Southampton!”
Bishop Geoff Annas
Children's Stream
The SCM Schools team were excited to run the Children’s Stream for the first ever SCM Mission Conference.
The children spent the morning in a holiday club style session exploring God’s mission, and then the afternoon session responding through an interactive Prayer Space.
During the morning session, the children were invited into Eden Escapes where they met three detectives trapped in Eden Escapes. Fortunately, through a series of stories, games, crafts and other activities, the children were able to piece the clues together and allow the detectives to escape! This session explored the whole story of God’s Mission in creation, how we are all trapped in sin, how we all need a rescuer and that God invites each of us to join in his mission. The children loved learning about God’s Story of Mission and their role in it.
In the afternoon Eden Escapes was turned into an interactive Prayer Space with different stations scattered throughout the space. The children explored and interacted with the different stations as they wished. It was so encouraging to see children as young as 4 encounter God in these activities. The different stations were:
Broken Things: children were invited to place a plaster on the world and pray for areas that need healing.
Lifelines: children were invited to tie a shoelace to a rope and thank God for the people who have thrown them a lifeline.
Thank You Jesus: children wrote or drew what they wanted to thank Jesus for.
I’m Inviting You: children wrote invitations to their friends and family inviting them to join God’s Mission.
God Invites You: children made their mark on a large piece of art they had made earlier in the day to show they were accepting their place in God’s Mission.
Fizzy Forgiveness: children dropped effervescent vitamin C tablets into a vase and watched the things they needed forgiveness for vanish before their eyes.
Web of Connection: children joined themselves together in a web of string to show that nobody is alone in the Kingdom of God.
My Reflection: children were invited to look at their reflection and to see themselves as God sees them.
Youth Stream
The youth track brought together fifteen or sixteen young people from a number of different church backgrounds. We worshipped together and then spent some time discussing questions around the idea of “What kind of person do you want to be?”
Quite a few of the group were approaching major life transitions – changes of school, beginning new courses, new jobs or moving away from home and so we looked at the challenges and the opportunities that these times in life present, and what kind of people they wanted to become through those times of change.
Of course, as we dug into the question we found ourselves thinking more and more about who God wants us to be, and how He might use us in these new phases of life. Then, in the middle of the day we had a bit of a change of gear and threw ourselves into an immersive role play focused on the experiences of Christians in parts of the world where it is difficult and dangerous to follow Jesus because of political pressures, legal restrictions or threats of violence. As well as an appreciation of the courage and faith of our siblings in other parts of the world, this gave us an opportunity to reflect on our own faith and where we are prepared to stick our necks out for what we believe.
The young people seemed to find the day thought-provoking and challenging. We were surprised by the depth and honesty of some of the comments and questions that they raised. It felt like a day which left us all better equipped to live out our faith, thoughtfully and openly in the situations where God has placed us.
Paul Vaswani
CEO's Summary
It was a real joy to be able to hold our first ever Southampton City Mission conference.
When we thought about our position in the city, working with all flavours of church, encouraging, equipping, training and facilitating a variety of Missional activities; we realised that we were in the position to pull together a church conference from a position of unity in a way that would be difficult for any one church to do, as it would sit in the context of its own denomination and stream.
We tend to be very aware of our small differences in doctrine and practice as churches, where really we have the greatest things in the world in common! It was lovely to be able to blend hosting from one church, worship from another two, speakers from two others, Christian outreach charities from half a dozen more as well as conference delegates from across the Church spectrum in Southampton.
One of the productive sessions at the conference saw us split into discussion groups to talk about these different ministry areas: prayer and intercession, events, street evangelism and prophetic evangelism, compassionate serving and loving, invitational and our ordinary lives. We discussed what was already happening in the city in these areas, what the opportunities might be, what to avoid and where we could work better together.
It is exciting to pray and dream about the opportunities that an annual unity conference like this might bring to the City, so please join us in prayer and discernment for the future.
Duncan