Month: July 2024

Saying Goodbye To Uti (sort of)

/ Steve Petch / Leave a comment

Last week we went out for a meal with both our Welcome Church staff team and many of our regular office volunteers. We went out to celebrate the end of another church year, and also to say a sad goodbye to Uti, who has now finished her employment with the church.

(with a few missing faces…)

Uti joined our Welcome Church staff team as an Operations Manager in 2021, just as we were reopening the offices after the pandemic. She has served us very faithfully over three years, and we’re going to miss her smiling face, and her detailed & thorough approach to everything she does. We do want to honour Uti and say a big THANK YOU for everything she has done.

We had a whole plan for a public ‘thank you’ during our Sunday morning meetings last week but, after a last minute change of their family plans, Uti ended up being away! We’ll make up for that after the summer now.

Of course it’s only a ‘sort of’ goodbye we’re saying, because Uti and the family are still a much loved and valued part of Welcome Church, and Nnamdi (Uti’s husband) continues to be a key member of our eldership team. It’s a case of, “Goodbye… and see you next Sunday”.

Future opportunities

Uti does leave a gap in our staff team, which is already a bit smaller than is ideal for a church of our size. At some point in the autumn we will be re-recruiting, albeit we are pausing first to decide exactly what role or roles we want to fill. We may not recruit a like for like replacement, because our needs have changed since 2021. Watch this space for more information about exciting job opportunities at some point in the future!

Have a great summer

Summer is now here (despite the changeable weather 😊) and the schools have finished until September… and so has my blog.

Many of our staff team and our office volunteers will be away for various periods across the summer, which means there will be less of us around day to day. That said we still have a lot to do with all the preparations for Newday, the Commission Festival and the autumn term, alongside our continued focus on Church Gate. This means there will always be a few people in the office every day across the summer, so do still get in touch with the office team if you need to.

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Church Gate Gift Day Results

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On Sunday we announced the results of our latest Gift Days for our Church Gate project. It was an incredible result, and in case you missed it here’s the figure as it stood on Sunday morning:

Since Sunday morning I believe it has gone up a little higher, but I’m still waiting for the full details on that.

Thanks

The main thing I want to do in this blog is say a very big THANK YOU, on behalf of the whole Eldership Team, to everyone who gave a gift, large or small. It was a joy to see people of all ages taking part, from across the many different nationalities that make up our church. I also loved seeing people who’ve been part of the church for many years joyfully giving alongside others who’ve only just joined us. Wow!

100% of the money given will go towards the purchase (now completed) and the delivery of Church Gate, and when we add this to the money raised during the Gift Days that we held in November, it means that what has been given and pledged now reaches our initial target: to raise £2m in 2 years – except we’ve done it in just 8 months 😮

Moving forward

On Sunday September 15th we will hold a Prayer and Vision evening to kick off the new term (details to follow). We’ll give a full update on that evening about where we’ve got to and how we plan to go forward. For now though, let’s give glory to God for all He’s done for us. It’s a joy to be part of such a generous church and to be on this great mission together.

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Some Items For Prayer – July 2024

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We would love you all to be praying for our church in the weeks ahead. Here are a few key items to pray for this summer:

Church Gate

The Gift Sundays have been great and it was wonderful to celebrate together in worship last week as we drew them to a close. It was a joy to see so many people taking part: people of all ages, and from so many of the different nationalities that make up our church; people who’ve been with us for many years and others who have just arrived. I loved it!

This Sunday we’ll announce the Gift Day results and, without saying too much, they are excellent once again. Don’t forget that it’s not too late to add your gift if you haven’t given yet – you can do that here. Why not step out in faith?

Please pray:

  • For great results from our Gift Days and for all the finance we need to deliver this project well to be released
  • For wisdom and insight during our meetings with the architect as he draws up the plans and helps to bring life and vision to the eventual layout of Church Gate, both inside and out. We’re working with the same company who designed the chapel – Plan A UK – and we’re excited to work with them once again.
  • For the grocery team as they look at the various requirements to fully deliver the Community Grocery and the new Welcome Cafe. There is a lot to consider, including legal issues, charity issues, finance issues and more, including some grant applications that we would love to come through

Welcome Youth

Welcome Youth will be off to the New Day Festival on July 29th, and this year they are taking around 90 young people with them. This is always a great event where our youth can connect with God and grow in their faith.

Please Pray:

  • For our youth team: they will be working very hard and usually come back both encouraged and exhausted
  • For the serving teams: they will be cooking food and helping with various practical issues to help free up the youth team to lead well
  • For the youth: that they meet with God and find a fresh sense of calling and that they grow in their identity in Christ
  • For the event itself: they have great speakers lined up this year and the worship is always high quality, but there’s lots more at Newday besides the main meetings. Please pray for the whole event to be safe, for the sun to shine and for the young people to meet with Jesus

Commission Festival

We’ll be off to the Commission Festival as a church over the bank Holiday weekend at the end of August (so no Sunday meetings at Welcome Church on August 25th!) If you haven’t booked in yet it’s not too late and you can do that here. Day tickets will also be available so do check them out if you can’t make the whole thing.

We’re taking a big group from Welcome Church again this year, and we’ll be camping together, eating together (food provided) and no doubt having a lot of fun in our marquee in the evenings (please bring ear plugs if like to go to bed early 🙂)

Please Pray

  • For Dub: he’s running a stream of seminars this year and will be speaking twice, with Christopher covering one of the slots too
  • For Jo: not only does she lead our worship team here, she’s leading the worship for the whole event. Reuben, Owen, Sophie and Paul from our team are also involved in worship this year, alongside people from various other Commission churches
  • For me: I’ll be anchoring all of the main meetings which is all about getting the right people in the right place at the right time and making sure they know what they are doing and stick to the programme! It’s an ‘invisible job’ so you won’t see me. If I get it right no one will notice anything I do; if I get wrong everyone will!
  • For Darren: he’s helping to organise the whole Festival, supporting Tom who is the Ops Manager for Commission. It’s a big responsibility and another invisible job.
  • For our team of chefs who are sorting out the food (too many names to mention)
  • For the weather: sunshine please
  • For each of us to encounter Jesus and grow in our faith
  • For our church to grow deeper in love and friendship with one another
  • For our children and young people to encounter Jesus
  • For all who are serving in various ways (another list too long to mention)
  • For the whole event to be fun, safe and successful

Thanks

Thanks in advance for your prayers. Don’t forget that Welcome Church is meeting every Sunday across the summer at 9am and 11am, except for the 25th August. This Sunday we’ll be back to our series on Exodus. Christopher is speaking and I’m looking forward to it.

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Church Gate: A Big Encouragement

/ Steve Petch / 1 Comment

The Sunday will be the second of two Gift Sundays towards our Church Gate building project. I wrote in a blog that I posted last week about our goal for all of us to participate; please do read it if you missed it. This week I want to share an encouragement:

Whilst preparing for last Sunday’s meetings I was searching for a certain document on my desktop. As I was searching I came across a forgotten document that I’d saved at some point in the past. It wasn’t what I was looking for and the title – ‘151017.doc’ – gave little away as to what it actually contained. I opened it to see what it was and it stopped me in my tracks.

The document contained the transcript of a prophetic word given to our church by Guy Miller (the leader of our Commission family of churches) on Sunday 15th October 2017, the day I was appointed as Lead Elder at Welcome Church. Viewing it now in light of our plans for Church Gate, a building to the east side of our current site where we will open the community grocery, the Welcome Cafe and more, I can only say “WOW!” This is what it said …

“I saw a house, a big old house. Some of the windows had been blocked in. Some of the rooms had not been used for a while.  The kitchen table had been covered over…

“I saw the builders coming and some of the old doors being knocked down. I could see … a sledge hammer knocking out a few doors. Suddenly light is pouring in, people are pouring in … around the kitchen table there weren’t 5 people, there was something like 100 around the kitchen table. I think food is going to be a big thing for the Church, feeding people, whether that is the word of God or actual physical food, I don’t know.

“I see a great big conservatory being built on the East side. It is where the sun is going to shine. It’s where it is going to bring people in and they are going to enjoy the sunshine of this group of people, knowing the love of God.

“The basement needs to be opened up. It’s all full of cobwebs and dusty things. There are things that are in your history and heritage that need to be brought into the light … things that God has spoken; promises; things you have seen before. God says, ‘I want you to bring them up and start using them for this day’.  

“There are many rooms. There are many people God is going to save; the poor, the needy, the nations are going to come. God says this house will be full. At the moment, you don’t have a full house … there are many, many people; well over a 1000 people; this church is going to grow to.

“This is just as a starter and you need to be reaching out saying its faith, not our effort. It’s not ‘our best shot’, its grace.“

I hope that like me you’re encouraged! I believe it confirms again that God is at work through this project and will provide all we need; He knew about it long before we did, and the timing is all in His hands – even the ‘completely by chance’ timing of me finding the document again. Be blessed!

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