soap service and threads

Hi


is a soap service active only when one of its published methods are invoked ?

does that mean if i start a thread ( for application specific book keeping ) 
inside a particular method (assuming the thread object has class scope), will
it be active even if the soap request terminates?

If no, how can i ensure a thread to be active all the time (in a soap service)  
?

any suggestions???

thanks & regards
biju