Soul Survivor is a global Christian movement based in

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

. It oversees several Christian summer festivals aimed at young people along with other events throughout the year. Soul Survivor hosted its final Summer festivals in 2019.

History

By 1993 the number of young people attending the annual Summer

New Wine New Wine is a not-for-profit Christian evangelical organization based in the United Kingdom, that assists Christian churches with organizational leadership training and fundraising. The organization also holds its own annual summer conferences, ...

Christian Family Conference at the

Royal Bath and West Showground The Royal Bath and West of England Society is a charitable society founded in 1777 to promote and improve agriculture and related activities around the West Country of England. Based at the Royal Bath and West of England Society Showground near ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

was significant enough for the organisers of New Wine to launch a special youth event. The first Soul Survivor conference took place in the Summer of 1993 under the leadership of

Mike Pilavachi Michael Pilavachi, (; born 7 March 1958) is a British charismatic Christian evangelist and author of Greek Cypriot descent. He is the co-founder and former leader of the Soul Survivor charity based in Watford, England. In May 2023, he was suspe ...

, a youth worker at St Andrew's Church,

Chorleywood Chorleywood is both a village and a civil parish in the Three Rivers District, Hertfordshire, on the border with Buckinghamshire, approximately northwest of Charing Cross. The village is adjacent to the Chiltern Hills Area of Outstanding Na ...

. Like New Wine, the Soul Survivor conferences were originally overseen by St Andrew's Church. The conference was the inspiration of Pilavachi and one of his church youth club members,

Matt Redman Matthew James Redman (born 14 February 1974) is an English Christian worship leader, singer-songwriter and author. Redman has released 16 albums, written 8 books, and helped start three church-plants. He is best known for his two-time Grammy Aw ...

who regularly led the worship at early Soul Survivor events aged 15.Soul Survivor: About us... A history lesson!
1,896 young people attended the first Soul Survivor festival and in 1995, the event split across two weeks (Soul Survivor A and Soul Survivor B). By 2006 attendance at the events was around 25,000 spread over the two weeks. In 2007 Soul Survivor C was launched at the Royal Cheshire Showground, but there was a reshuffle in 2008 when Soul Survivor A moved to the Stafford County showground with B and C remaining at the Royal Bath and West Showground. The Momentum festival, aimed at students and young people in their twenties and thirties was founded in 2004, and a new event called Naturally Supernatural was launched in 2017. A fourth week of Soul Survivor was launched in July 2014 at the Thainstone Centre in

Inverurie Inverurie (Scottish Gaelic: ''Inbhir Uraidh'' or ''Inbhir Uaraidh'', 'mouth of the River Ury') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland at the confluence of the rivers Ury and Don, about north-west of Aberdeen. Geography Inverurie is in the vall ...

, Scotland but has since moved to Lendrick Muir in

Kinross Kinross (, gd, Ceann Rois) is a burgh in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, around south of Perth and around northwest of Edinburgh. It is the traditional county town of the historic county of Kinross-shire. History Kinross's origins are connect ...

. For 2017 Soul Survivor moved to the East of England showground near

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

for the Soul Survivor B and Soul Survivor C festivals. Soul Survivor festival finished on 27 August 2019 at the East of England show ground near Peterborough. The final meeting started in a thunder storm after an extremely hot week with lightning believed to have hit the Big Top and ended with Amazing Grace sung by the 9,000 people there; after being started by the band, the song was finished a capella, with the band exiting the stage, leaving the cross lit up. The meeting was followed by a fireworks display and a live band. Soul Survivor officially finished at 23:30 on Tuesday 27 August 2019 after 27 years of festivities. Although the summer festivals have come to an end the Soul Survivor church still runs events such as Saturday Celebrations and Worship and Preaching teaching days.

Church

While it shares its name and leadership with Soul Survivor, Soul Survivor Watford is a separate organisation and registered charity from Soul Survivor. It is based in two converted warehouses in

.Soul Survivor: About us... Our Church!
It was established in 1993 by Mike Pilavachi.

Festivals

Until 2019, five separate Soul Survivor festivals took place every year within the UK: Soul Survivor A - A 5-day festival based at the Stafford County Showground in

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

aimed at teenagers.
Soul Survivor B & C - Two 5-day festivals based at the East of England showground near

, aimed at teenagers. (Before 2017 it was held at the Royal Bath and West Showground near

Shepton Mallet Shepton Mallet is a market town and civil parish in the Mendip District of Somerset, England, some south-west of Bath, south of Bristol and east of Wells. It had an estimated population of 10,810 in 2019. Mendip District Council is based t ...

)
Naturally Supernatural - A 6-day festival based at the Stafford County Showground aimed at the whole church family. Soul Survivor Scotland - A 5-day festival based at Lendrick Muir in

aimed at teenagers. The festivals consist of seminars, sporting events and art, music and drama workshops during the day, and a

charismatic Charisma () is a personal quality of presence or charm that compels its subjects. Scholars in sociology, political science, psychology, and management reserve the term for a type of leadership seen as extraordinary; in these fields, the term "ch ...

worship service followed by live bands in the evening.

Live albums

The worship at the Soul Survivor festivals is recorded, and each year a live album is released with the most popular new songs from the festival. Each album often contains original songs from Soul Survivor's worship team, as well as traditional and contemporary songs from other artists and ministries.

"Soul In The City"

"Soul In The City London" was a 2004 outreach

mission Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

in which 20,000 young people from around the world gathered in London to undertake practical projects and evangelistic events. 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 Soul Survivor also organised "Soul In The City Durban" which took place in Summer 2009 in

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

.Soul In The City Durban
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Worldwide

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

References

External links

Global Soul Survivor Homepage

Soul Action Homepage

Momentum Homepage

Worship Central Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soul Survivor (Charity) Christian conferences Christian organisations based in the United Kingdom Christian festivals