Merry Christmas – what a year it’s been!

December 24, 2019December 24, 2019 / Steve Petch / 3 Comments

We’ve made it safely to the end of another year (almost), and what a year it’s been for Welcome Church! I hope you’ve enjoyed it.

Some highlights

Along the way we’ve built a new building, moved into the annex, held an amazing Gift day, launched Welcome Works, sponsored 141 kids in Togo with Compassion UK, launched The Useful Wood Company, seconded Ben & Nancy to Gateway Church Basingstoke for a while, welcomed Rhea John onto staff, said goodbye to David & Tina Maskell, taken 300 people to Westpoint, finished meeting at the HG Wells Conference Centre, launched and shared our Welcome Stories, published our first book, run an amazing Fun Day, held a fireworks event with around 2000 people, put on a Carol Service for Woking (featuring both the Mayor and our local MP😃) and done a whole lot more too.

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Additionally there’s been the usual, day to day stuff of church life that has carried on, including baptisms, pastoral care, Sunday meetings, worship, preaching, weddings, funerals, kids work, youth work, Life Groups, Alpha courses, ministry to the poor and lots more too.

If you’ve chosen to make Welcome Church your church then we want to say,

“Thank you for being on the journey with us in 2019”.

Looking forward to 2020

2020 is going to be and in incredible year for us. The new building will be launched in January, and there will be many God given opportunities and blessings ahead for us. I’m sure we will also face some big challenges, yet we have a big God who is with us every step of the way. Let’s all start inviting people to the launch event on the 19th.

Something for us all to do

If you haven’t done it already, or even if you have, why not take a quiet moment over the next week or so to read Dub’s book, “Caring and Sharing”.

This book is our ‘manifesto for evangelism’ as a church. It’s easy to read, full of great stories and it will only take 1 or 2 hours to read from cover to cover.

I know that if we were all to put the principles in this book into practice in 2020, it would have a huge impact on many lives.

Merry Christmas

I hope you have an amazing Christmas this year, whatever you’re up to. Do take some time out along the way to reflect on the real reason for the season: Jesus coming into the world. Do take time to pray and to thank Him for all he’s done in your life. And I look forward to seeing you all in 2020.

Organised Chaos

December 22, 2019December 22, 2019 / Steve Petch / Leave a comment

Welcome Youth took over our Sunday morning meeting at Welcome Church today and we had a fantastic time together.

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The youth did it all: they led the worship, they hosted the meeting, they did Bible readings, they led us in prayer and they even preached. It was a lot of fun and no lasting damage resulted.

I want to say a huge thank you to them all.

Goodbye

This morning we said a final goodbye to the HG Wells Conference Centre. It was our last meeting there and we will start meeting in our own new building from Jan 5th. We also said goodbye to David and Tina Maskell who will be moving off to Grace Church in Salisbury, where David is starting his new job from January.

Launch Sunday

Dub took a few minutes to talk to us about our launch Sunday on January 19th. It’s going to be amazing and it’s time for us to start inviting people:

Organised Chaos

All in all it was organised chaos, and a whole lot of fun. We were reminded of Sue’s welcome story, from the Carol Service, and encouraged to share it to our social media feeds too.

And what better way to round off our twelve years meeting there than to celebrate communion together?

Here are some pics that sum up lots of what went on today. Enjoy!

Time To Say Goodbye

December 20, 2019 / Steve Petch / Leave a comment

This Sunday will be our last meeting at the HG Wells Conference Centre as a church, and I’m looking forward to enjoying a great time together. From January 5th we will be meeting in our new building and a new chapter will begin for us.

Welcome Church has been meeting at the HG Wells for just short of 12 years. It’s good to reflect back on all that God has done in the lives of many people over that time. As we say goodbye we will end our time by taking communion together. (And please remember: this Sunday there is only one meeting and it’s at 10am. Don’t get caught out!)

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More than one goodbye

We will have another goodbye on Sunday too as it will be David Maskell’s last Sunday with us as an elder, and David and Tina’s last Sunday at Welcome Church.

We are now in a position to tell people what they are up to next: from January David will be taking on a new pastoral care role at Grace Church in Salisbury, a Commission church led by my friend Simon Redmill. David and Tina will be looking to move house over the coming months. It’s been good to see God’s hand and timing in their next step.

I know that Simon and the church are looking forward to David starting, and the role he is taking on seems to be custom made for him. Obviously it’s a big change for the family to adjust to, so do keep them in your prayers.

Grace Church were only told this news last Sunday, and we didn’t want to share it ahead of them being told. If you want to read more about this move, please click here for a link to Simon Redmill’s blog.

Important Health and Safety Warning

One last thing about Sunday: Welcome Youth are leading through most of our meeting this week. This means that anything could happen and probably will 😮.

Don’t say you weren’t warned 😃

A Carol Service For Woking

December 18, 2019December 18, 2019 / Steve Petch / Leave a comment

On Sunday we had our annual Welcome Church Carol Service for Woking at the HG Wells Conference Centre in the heart of Woking.

This year we partnered with the Cobham Brass Band who provided the music as we sang traditional carols and heard the Christmas story in several readings. We saw a powerful new Welcome Story from Sue, I talked about Jesus being God With Us (click here to listen), and we finished up with mince pies and mulled wine.

While this took place, at the 4pm service, the kids had an exciting Christmas Party of their own upstairs.

I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who was involved in serving, and to everyone who gave up their time to attend.

Some highlights for me included:

A reading by the newly elected MP for Woking, Jonathan Lord, at the 4pm service
A solo rendition of Away In A Manger by Romilly, aged 8
Readings at both services by Councillor Beryl Hunwicks, the Mayor of Woking
Hearing Cobham Brass Band play some fantastic Christmas numbers before and after each service

If you missed it then you really missed out, but A Carol Service For Woking will be back again next year, and this time we will be in our own new building.

Here are some pics to highlight the event: