TVC Church in South Bank - Update - Tees Valley Community Church

In the past 2 weeks, we have launched our third TVC Church building! This is really exciting for us as a church because it allows us more freedom and more opportunities as we work together to make Jesus known in Teesside.

What has been happening so far in South Bank?

2 years ago, we were blessed to have Nikki & Krista Coulson join the TVC Church family. They brought with them a vision that had been birthed through prayer, to see South Bank turn to Jesus and begin thriving again. Over the past two years, they have grown a wonderful team who have been looking for opportunities to see community flourishing and people meet with the risen Jesus in powerful ways.

They began a weekly meeting ‘The Open Well’, named straight from a scripture that Nicky and Krista had been moved by and stories of hope were being written every week as they formed a place where anybody could share hope, increase faith and experience God’s love.

So why the change?

The past 2 years have been amazing and we have seen so many people come to know Jesus and experience his transformative power in their lives. As they have continued to move forward in their faith, we started running out of space – so we started to make plans for growth in different ways.

In January, our Eden team launched a new event – TOAST (Time on a Sunday Together) at South Bank Mission, which is just across the road from where we used to meet as The Open Well, with a heart to provide another worship setting and Bible based teaching for those who are disciples of Jesus. This has been going so well!

The launch of our Eden team last year also brought about the opportunity to free up more of Krista’s time, by bringing her into employment. This of course means that she is available during the day to work with her team within the community. Having a building that we could use during the day has been a dream for a while now and so when the opportunity came up to lease space on the other side of Normanby Road – it felt like a real answer to prayer!

Last week, our team moved in to our new ‘Open Well’ building – which has opened up a massive amount of opportunities to us. It is both more accessible in terms of a lot less stairs and also in terms of timetable – and it is still right in the heart of the community!

What plans are in the pipeline?

Well the team lost no time and within 10 days they launched the first of their drop in sessions ‘Toasty Thursday’s’. They first session was a hit, with loads of people dropping in for a cuppa and a snack. There were some new faces, as well as people who we haven’t connected with for ages and the local community support police even dropped in to see what was going on! Everybody was full of enthusiasm for what the people of God are doing as they come together to reach their community.

There are lots more ideas in the pipeline that may take a bit longer to work through, but we are exited about none-the-less. Team leader Krista tells us ‘We are currently working towards opening a homework club for children from local schools. A place where they can come, get a meal and have vital online access, so that they can complete their homework tasks. We are also undergoing training that will allow us to offer a life-skills course in conjunction with Christians Against Poverty and debt management too. We would love to see well-being a focus in this community and we have ideas about other drop ins that we could offer, as well as Alpha courses and ways to explore faith.