We catch up with the Revd Eleanor Jeans, Associate Vicar at St Paul's, Leamington Spa, about what has been happening at the St Paul's Mission Hub.
St Paul's has been a Mission Hub for over three years now. What have been some of the joys over the last three years?
How is it over three years already!? Some joys have been a growing relationship with other churches in our mission hub. Clergy especially have given time together to meet and pray. We have often called this ‘retreat to advance’.
There is a joy in hearing how God is at work across the Mission Hub. I have particularly enjoyed leading the Myriad Learning Community, which has had lay leaders from our Mission Hub and across the diocese join us to think through team building, leadership and discipleship so far - with more on mission and evangelism to come.
We have also hosted some events through ReSource and some evening services for our mission hub, with speakers such as Nicky Gumbel and Graham Kendrick joining us.
Have there been any challenges along the way?
One of the challenges is working out what a Mission Hub is and how we actually work! Things take time to discern and bed in and it is only now that we are really sensing what this might look like. Time is always a challenge. In a church which is very active, trying to get the balance between what is done at St Paul’s and how we work with the Mission Hub is complex and certainly in my first year, I had a lot of things to learn about St Paul’s as well as the local area.
Your new worshipping community, Hope, is over a year old now. What have learnt about planting a new worshipping community in the last year?
We started in December 2024 and it has been a fascinating journey. One of the things we have all learned about this is that it is hard work. Starting something new really is challenging at times, especially when you are not quite sure what will work and there is such a need to be reliant on the Holy Spirit and to hold plans lightly.
We have had some wonderful times together as a team and God has been helping us feel like a family of people on an adventure together. There can be times of real joy when we see people join us and hear of how those who come along with little or no faith have invited others because they sense community and something they need.
We have been meeting monthly, which makes this more possible to do, however monthly means that it’s hard for those who are attending occasionally to know when we are meeting. We hope to move to weekly in the near future. We have seen the power and importance of prayer and now meet most Thursday evenings for 20-30 minutes to pray on zoom.
Something that Mission Hubs do is support their local churches through interregnum, can you tell us about how you have been supporting Barford parish during their interregnum?
Jonathan has met with those at Barford and Andy Ruffhead, our Associate Minister, is going to be supporting them once a month on Sunday mornings. We are also seeking to find other ways to support other churches in our Mission Hub, especially during interregnums, have received various lay and ordained preachers from St Paul’s and one of our musicians has been supporting a local Messy Church.
What are your hopes and prayers for the Mission Hub in 2026?
One of my hopes is that we are able to support and encourage ministry across our Mission Hub, especially through training events for musicians, children and youth leaders, and other ministry areas, but also through growing a deeper sense of unity and shared vision.
I hope and pray that we will stay close to Jesus through the whole year and continually look to him in all we do.