Soul Survivor

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (September 2009)

Soul Survivor

Founders	Mike Pilavachi
Type	(Registered Charity number: 1080720)
Founded	1993
Headquarters	Watford, Hertfordshire
Area served	Worldwide
Members	1000 (Soul Survivor Church, 2009) 28,000 (Summer Festivals)
Website	http://www.soulsurvivor.com/

Soul Survivor is a Christian movement based in Watford, Hertfordshire.^[1] It oversees several Christian summer festivals aimed at young people, in addition to a church based in Watford.

A wide variety of other Soul Survivor events take place around the world every year, not all aimed at young people. These, however, are organised by charitable bodies in each country and are not centrally administered from the UK.

History

Soul Survivor conferences began in 1993 and grew out of the New Wine family conferences. Like New Wine, the Soul Survivor conferences were originally overseen by a church called St Andrews, based in Chorleywood, Hertfordshire (the vicar at the time was David Pytches). The New Wine conferences inspired Mike Pilavachi (then youthworker of St Andrews church) and one of the members of his church youth club Matt Redman, to have thousands of young people praising God together at their own festival.^[2]

The first conference happened in 1993 when 1,896 young people attended the first Soul Survivor festival. The event split across two weeks in 1995 (Soul Survivor A and Soul Survivor B) and by 2006, attendance at the events was around 25,000 over the two separate weeks.^[3]

The Momentum festival was founded in 2004.^[2] Momentum 2006 saw just under 5000 people attend between the 19th and 24th of August. Momentum 2007 took place from 20 - 24 July, preceding the main Soul Survivor weeks A and B by two weeks, and was attended by just over 2500 delegates.^{[citation needed]}

Soul Survivor (Church)

The Soul Survivor Church is based in a converted warehouse in Watford, Hertfordshire.^[4] It was established in 1993 (along with the Summer Festivals) by Mike Pilavachi.

The church defines its values^[4] as:

• Intimate worship
• Committed community
• Relevant evangelism
• Active compassion

More information about the church can be found on the official website: Soul Survivor, Watford

Soul Survivor (charity)
Mike Pilavachi and Ali Martin (née McInnes) with Tim Hughes in the background at Soul Survivor 2007 Week B
Location(s)	Staffordshire and Somerset
Years active	1993 - to date
Date(s)	Week A: 30 July - 3 August 2010 Week B: 11-15 August 2010 Week C: 16-20 August 2010
Website	http://www.soulsurvivor.com

Soul Survivor Festivals

At present, four separate Soul Survivor festivals run every year within the United Kingdom:

Soul Survivor A - A week long festival based in Staffordshire aimed at teenagers.
Soul Survivor B & C - Two week long festivals based at the ‘Bath and West Showground’ near Shepton Mallet in Somerset aimed at teenagers.
Momentum - A week long festival based at the ‘Bath and West Showground’ near Shepton Mallet in Somerset aimed at students and those in their twenties.

Most of the 28,000+^[2] delegates who attend choose to camp on site, although staying in local hotels/hostels is possible. Various seminars run throughout the weeks and delegates can choose to go to as many as they wish.

Seminars run at 9.30am, 2.30pm and 4pm and delegates can go to as many as they like. There is usually a choice of up to 7 seminars running at any one time and the topics are as varied as preparing for leadership, sexuality, God’s heart for the poor and how to read the Bible.

— "A Day at Soul Survivor" http://www.soulsurvivor.com/uk/about/day.html

A number of cafés, skate parks and resource centres are set up during the day, with gigs held most evenings.

Soul In The City

"Soul In The City London" was a 2004 outreach mission in which 20,000 young people from all over the world gathered to show the love of God through practical projects and evangelistic events.^[5]

The idea for Soul In The City started with Message 2000 and Festival: Manchester which were jointly held by Soul Survivor and The Message Trust^[6]

Soul Survivor have also organised ‘Soul In The City Durban’ which is taking place in Summer 2009 in Durban, South Africa.^[7]

More information about Soul In The City Durban can be found on the official website: Soul In The City Durban

Passion For Your Name - A short festival based in Somerset, focusing on worship. It only ran for only two summers (2005 and 2006), replaced by Worship Central after Tim Hughes moved on to join Holy Trinity Brompton.

The events are currently hosted by founder of Soul Survivor Mike Pilavachi and friends Ali McInnes (nee Martin) and Andrew Croft. Worship is currently led by Tim Hughes, Ben Cantelon, Andreana Arganda and Sam Parker. As of 2008, the worship band also includes Delirious? drummer Paul Evans, and ex member of The Tribe, Quintin Delport. In the past, worship leaders Matt Redman and Lex Buckley have played at the event.

Soul Survivor Worldwide

Soul Survivor has spread across the globe and now holds festivals and other events in the following locations:

Country	Locations	Established
Australia	Melbourne	2000[8]
Australia	Sydney
Malaysia	Selangor	1985[9]
Netherlands		1998
New Zealand	Fielding	2007
South Africa	Durban
United Kingdom	Stafford & Bath	1993
United States	Newport Beach	2000

See also

• World Wide Message Tribe
• The Message Trust
• New Wine - a similar event aimed at families, which also originated from St. Andrews.
• Survivor Records - a record label affiliated with Soul Survivor, distributed by Kingsway Communications.

References

External links

• Global Soul Survivor Homepage
• Soul Action Homepage
• Momentum Homepage
• Worship Central Homepage
• Soul Survivor Myspace page
• Soul Survivor Picture Gallery

Global Websites