OUR STORY
Jo & Mike // Pastors
Hi, we’re Mike and Jo, and together with a wonderful group of people, we lead a community church meeting in South Shields - The Beacon Vineyard, South Tyneside.
Having spent most of our adult years in London, God called us to leave that all behind, and at the start of 2021 move to South Shields to share his love with the people in the communities of South Tyneside. We had no connections here before we decided to come, we just knew God had laid his love for the people in the north east on our hearts and we couldn’t be anywhere else. And what a beautiful place to live - we love getting out on paddleboards, walking or running along the local coastline and trails.
We’ve been part of the Vineyard movement of churches since 2015 and so when we moved up we joined Life Vineyard, knowing they had a heart for planting local community sites and churches. Only one person from the church lived in South Tyneside at the time, but God was busy moving his people into place, and suddenly there were 6 adults and 2 kids living here and going to the same church. We started a local home group in September 2021, which quickly grew, and in September 2022 we started a site plant of Life Vineyard, and in September of 2024, we were commissioned to plant out as The Beacon Vineyard, South Tyneside.
We meet on Sundays at Ocean Road Community Centre, for community, teaching and worship, as together we seek to love South Tyneside, with Jesus at the centre. We also hold home groups, prayer meetings and worship nights during the week, as well as finding opportunities to bless our local communities and share God’s love with them.
So, whatever your own story, if you feel stirred to be a part of this church, or you just want to find out more about who Jesus is, we’d love to hear from you, meet up for a walk or a coffee and have a chat. Please get in touch.