Who We Are
Students

Students

Arriving at University may be one of the biggest changes you have made in your life to date and we want to support you during your years studying in Southampton. We love having students as part of our church family. It doesn't matter whether you are from Southampton University or Southampton Solent University, British or International, we seek to be a community for you to belong to as we enable you to grow in your relationship with Jesus, provide you with opportunities to serve and use your gifts in church life and prepare you to reach out to your friends with the good news of Jesus Christ. We invite you to worship and serve alongside our community of all ages and stages of life. Portswood Church is centred on Jesus Christ, focused on the message of the Bible, dependent on God through prayer and driven to share the good news of Jesus in Portswood and wherever we are in the city.

At Portswood Church you will find:

  • A Place to Belong – You won't be viewed as a term-time visitor to Portswood Church, but as part of our community. Although there is the opportunity to get involved with a programme just for students, we hope you will enjoy getting to know many people and being part of the wider church.
  • A place to grow in relationship with Jesus – Whether you have been a Christian for years, are just starting out or simply wonder what Christianity is all about, we want to help you know Jesus more deeply so that you leave university more excited about him than when you arrived.
  • A place to serve and use your gifts – People who belong to our church also serve in our church so that means you can too! Chat to us about the various ways you can get involved from youth work to community projects, music ministry to a community café. There are so many ways for you to use your gifts and bless others.
  • A place to be supported and equipped in mission – Life at university is unlike any other stage of your life! Being surrounded by people day and night provides you with a fantastic opportunity to share and show the love of Jesus to your friends. We work in partnership with the Christian Unions at both universities and many of our church family were also students in Southampton or have worked alongside the CUs through UCCF. We are passionate about students reaching students with the good news of Jesus, so we want to support and help you to live for him among your friends and in your CU if you choose to be involved with it.

What's on for students?

Sunday Mornings 10:00am – We encourage all students to come along to our Sunday morning service to join with the whole church family in worship and hearing from God through Bible teaching.

Bible Study: Each week, 7pm at Tom & Sarah's we meet with the Navigators to study the bible together. It's a time for sharing life together and learning from the bible and each other. Plus there's free pudding!  
 
One-to-one: want to learn how to get the most from a 'quiet time' with God, go deeper in your faith, explore a particular topic or to be equipped with skills for discipling others? Spend time with someone who can meet regularly with you and pray for you.

Regular Church life
 – We'd love you to join us at any of our other regular activities, such as homegroups, Heartbeat (Our monthly prayer meeting). Our morning 'Hosts' are on hand to help you get to know other people in the church and can link you up to a family or a mentor if that is something you would appreciate.  There are also plenty of opportunities to serve whether that be in our worship team, helping with PA/Visuals, being a morning 'Host' welcoming people, helping with the children's work or serving refreshments after the service - we'd love to have you and full training is given!

The team

For further information on all of these things please contact the Student Team:
Email: students@portswood.org
 
Friends International - welcoming international students 
bethinking – a great website full of resources to help you answer the questions your friends are asking