Hi there! We are Rayleigh Vineyard – a Christian church meeting together to worship and enjoy God. Our aim is to make God known to people who don’t know him yet or don’t know him well. We are the leaders, Dave and Laura Smith. We meet every week on Sunday mornings at 10.30am at Sweyne School, Cheapside West, Rayleigh SS6 9BY (see map on this page). We also meet the first Sunday evening of the month (at Costa Coffee 5pm) and the second Sunday evening of the month as well for Book Club. And we have weekly house groups and other midweek events to add to our activities.
We would love you to come along and check us out sometime. Just turn up on a Sunday or give us a call or e-mail us. We’d love to chat and we can give you directions to any of the events. We adopt a “Come as you are” policy. We aren’t “heavy sell” or directive in our approach. We just like meeting new people and seeing what they have to offer.
God has asked us to plant a growing church that is based on what the Bible says, that is run in a contemporary, modern style, where we worship God and communicate what Jesus talked about in a friendly manner (ie with compassion, fun, relaxed style with lots of chocolate to hand!)
Its our aim to train and equip people for life and what it throws at them. For them to be effective both in their personal lives and their lives within the church here at Rayleigh. To enjoy a better quality of life through what Jesus has taught us.
We also try and support and encourage the other churches in Rayleigh and certainly feel that in our short life as a new church that they have encouraged us.
How it all began
Rayleigh Vineyard is the 81st Vineyard church to be planted in the UK since 1987. The church began in June 2003 with with a handful of people at a house group on the Birdy estate in Rayleigh. We expanded to more groups by the end of that year. In June 2004, we started Sunday morning meetings in the Todman Centre.In April 2005, we outgrew that venue and moved to the Rayleigh Youth Centre on the grounds of FItzwimarc School. In October 2006, we moved to Downhall School, Brooklyn Drive, Rayleigh SS6 9LW and we moved again in 2010 to our current venue at Sweyne Park School, Cheapside West, Rayleigh SS6 9BY.
We are an off-shoot church from Southend Vineyard. Dave worked on staff at Southend Vineyard as assistant pastor, before Rayleigh Vineyard began. He now works full time for the church. Laura also worked at Southend Vineyard as Kids’ Pastor, before going to work as an art teacher in a local grammar school. We have been married for seven years and have a son and daughter.
We have recently planted another Vineyard church from Rayleigh at Chelmsford.
