Over the last few months we’ve prayed several times about Church Gate, which is the building next door to ours. I believe this is now our next big adventure as a church!

The Story So Far

In January 2020 we opened our brand new Chapel building and, at the same time, we redeveloped our old Church building (often now referred to as ‘the front building’) to serve our various ministries, including our children’s and youth work, and to provide new offices, kitchens and more.

Unforeseen Challenges

Coming out of the pandemic, Welcome Church has grown significantly – much faster than any of us anticipated. One unforeseen problem this has caused is that, as a church with many families in it, the number of children and youth who attend each Sunday are more than the front building can accommodate.

At the moment Welcome Kids Seniors and Welcome Youth cross the road each Sunday morning to meet in ‘The Cube’ (above Useful Wood). This is a good solution for now, but we do not own that space and in time it will be redeveloped for housing.

Alongside our growth in numbers, we also have a growing focus on social action in response to Jesus’ call on us to be “good news to the poor”. One ministry we would like to start is a community grocery, bridging the gap between the food bank and a supermarket for the poorest families in our town. For many this could be a lifeline and a great way for people to connect with our church and with Jesus.

In conversation with Woking Borough Council we’ve looked at various premises in Woking, but nothing has yet been found that provides the space we need, in a venue that works for us in terms of accessibility, cost and location.

The Church Gate Solution

Church Gate, a three storey open plan office building, is next door to us, and has been empty for more than 6 years. The owners have recently received planning permission to add two extra stories to it and to develop it as residential accommodation, but we decided to contact them anyway, and they agreed to meet with us and let us look around the building.

On viewing Church Gate it quickly became apparent that it could meet our needs as a church. It could provide us with:

• Space to serve our children’s and youth work
• Space for a community grocery and for other social action projects in the future
• More space for meetings and ministries all week long – both for us as a church and as a facility to serve our town
• A few more parking spaces (always handy to have!)

In short, we believe Church Gate offers the right space for our needs, so with this in mind we shared with the owners our heart and our vision to serve the community and do good for our town. We asked them not to develop it into flats but to sell it to us instead, and they agreed to come back to us with a price.

Negotiations

Negotiations started off with a gap of several million pounds but, following a professional valuation, lots of discussion and a whole lot of prayer, last week we were able to agree on a fair price in line with the valuation, so …

… WE ARE GOING TO BUY CHURCH GATE

What’s next?

In November we will hold Gift Days as a church, and we’ll all have a chance to give financially to this exciting new adventure. Next week I’ll share more information about that.

We recognise we’re on a short time scale, but we’re also aware that this is a unique opportunity and we need to respond to it in a timely way, whilst the door is open.

These Gift Days are our big opportunity to step up and give sacrificially. Let’s give as an act of worship. Let’s give to build a better future. Let’s give to take part in what God is doing with our church at this time.

Our giving to this adventure is a chance to invest in our church, our children, our youth, the gospel, our work among the poor in our town, and the Kingdom of God, and let’s not forget it’s also an investment in our future together. Generations of this church before us have given sacrificially to get us to where we are today; now it’s our turn to step out in faith and to sow financially into the future.

In the weeks ahead I’ll share more information about the price we’ve agreed, and about what we now need to do – and there are lots of practical steps we will need to take – but at this point we only want to ask you to do one thing: to pray.

Please pray that the sale moves ahead smoothly and that the finance comes together quickly. And please pray for God to speak to YOU about what he wants YOU to give. Between us we have a significant amount of money to raise, but I believe we can do this together.

Listening to God

During the negotiations, looking at Church Gate out of my office window and praying and dreaming about what God might do, I felt God remind me of a parable Jesus told:

“The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” (Matthew 13v45-46)

That parable is not really about buildings, but I felt a whisper in my heart that, to us, Church Gate would be like that pearl of great value. I believe this is a great opportunity that God has put in front of us, and that we need to be prepared to sacrifice to get in on this adventure; it will be costly but it’s worth it, so lets go for it together. More information will follow in the weeks ahead.

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