Thanks to all who prayed about the various things I highlighted in my last blog post. Here are a few updates:
Insieme
Insieme (Italian for ‘together’) was the Commission Italy conference I spoke at last weekend, along with Chris Kilby from Life Church Southampton. We were connecting with two churches in Ladispoli, near Rome, who are looking into Commission.
It was a joy to connect with these Italian Churches and spend time with them in worship, prayer and teaching, and also to get time to talk with the Italian leaders about the future. Our teaching on the grace of God was well received and impacted people’s lives and faith. Thankfully there were good people on hand to translate as we went along. We also got the chance for a (brief) visit to Rome on one day to take some selfies and also to enjoy some great food.
Some of the Italian leaders are now hoping to join us at Commission Festival this summer as a next step in our developing relationships.
Newcomers Lunch
Our Newcomers Lunch on Sunday went really well. It was attended by 63 adult guests (!) in addition to the table hosts and a number of children. Like Woking as a town, the guests represented a wide variety of nationalities and backgrounds, which we always love to see.
Dub led the event through brilliantly and the majority of those who attended will now come to our Belong, Believe, Become course too. It’s good to see new people joining us each week, so please be on the front foot to befriend them. Why not make it a personal goal to meet at least one new person at church every Sunday morning?
Training Scholarships
Recently we promoted the Commission training courses, which enrol each September and are a superb way to grow in your faith, and connect more widely with our Commission family of churches. Lots of people have expressed interest, however we’re aware that, for a few, the course fees might be a barrier, so we’re delighted to launch our Welcome Church training scholarships 😀
We’re offering a limited number of scholarships for those who otherwise would not be able to participate in a Commission training course for financial reasons. Most of the scholarships will cover 50% of the course fees, although there may be exceptions where we can offer a larger scholarship. Sadly, it’s unlikely that we will be able to fund every application.
To be eligible for a scholarship you must:
- Belong to Welcome Church
- Be serving in one of our teams
- Be in need of financial support to attend the training course
- Commit to attending all the training sessions for the course you’re applying for and to submitting all assignments as required
If you’d like to put yourself forward for a scholarship, please apply here.
Applications will be reviewed on a ‘rolling’ basis, and decisions will be made by a panel. If you have any questions regarding scholarships or training, Christopher Hawes would be happy to chat to you.
We hope this means that everyone who wants to, has the opportunity to participate in these excellent courses.
And finally …
I know that parking on a Sunday can sometimes be tight, but let’s at least try not to imitate this unfortunate driver who accidentally left their vehicle at Welcome Church over the weekend 😃.
Apparently no one was hurt, but sadly we do have a bit of a repair job to do now! Police are aware and the vehicle should be recovered soon.
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