As Dub shared earlier this week on my blog, we’ve seen God’s extraordinary goodness to us as a church. We’ve received a grant of over £260,000, over the next two years, as part of a £900,000+ grant made to a consortium that we are leading to serve our town — this is an incredible milestone.
When you experience that kind of grace, there is only one natural response:
Because we have been blessed, we want to be a blessing.
Over the last couple of Sundays, I’ve shared a vision for something we haven’t done for several years as a church, but which feels deeply appropriate and timely for this year: our Welcome Church Christmas Offering 2026 – which officially kicks off this Sunday!
To be clear, I don’t mean that we’ll be passing an offering basket around during our Carol Services (we won’t!) This is a focused, church-wide moment of worshipful generosity with a single goal: to raise funds beyond our regular budget and to give every single penny away over the Christmas season.
We’ve set a faith goal to raise at least £50,000 (although £80,000 would be more comfortable, and I’d really love to see us achieve six figures!) to fund three significant initiatives connected to our wider church family.
1. Supporting Church Planting in Europe
As part of our wider Commission family of churches, we have been thrilled to hear about real breakthroughs in church planting in Italy recently—a place where vibrant, local evangelical churches like ours are still relatively rare.
It is a privilege to partner with what God is already doing across that nation, coming alongside local leaders and existing Christian expressions to help establish a life-giving gospel presence. Alongside other churches in our network, we want to provide some strategic financial support to help these new congregations get firmly established and thrive.
2. Serving Families in Need Here in Woking
Secondly, we want to do something right on our own doorstep through the Woking Community Grocery. Since opening our doors back in April, the Community Grocery has grown to serve over 1,350 member households across our town—representing nearly 4,000 local people.
Christmas can be an especially stressful and expensive time for families navigating financial pressure. This December, we want to provide a free ‘Christmas Hamper’—a generous food parcel—for every household connected to our Community Grocery.
When I say a hamper, I don’t mean pâté and champagne. I mean a basket of food essentials with a few festive extras mixed in, giving real practical help so no family connected to us goes without the basics this Christmas. We would love to fund 1,000 hampers if we can raise enough.
3. Standing With Our Persecuted Church Family
Finally, a large portion of our offering will go towards supporting persecuted Christians within our own global church family.
Commission works across a number of persecuted nations, and for the safety and protection of those we love, I am keeping the specific country and names off the internet. However, I can tell you that in one nation where we have a significant number of churches in our network, our brothers and sisters are facing intense and growing persecution. Meetings and believers have been attacked, pastors arrested, and church buildings confiscated. Many congregations no longer gather openly as we do, and are learning how to be the church when you can only have small home-based meetings.
Because restrictions are continuing to tighten, some of the leaders are seizing a ‘now-or-never‘ window of opportunity. They have secured a safe venue, hosted by fellow Christians in the region, and are arranging an urgent, one-off weekend camp to gather hundreds of believers from across the network.
It is likely to be the only time they will ever do this before the door of opportunity closes. The goal is simple and vital: to strengthen, encourage, and equip them to stand firm in their faith for what lies ahead.
Sadly, many of these believers also live in significant poverty. While everyone attending will contribute what they can, they need help with the costs of food, travel, and accommodation to make this event happen. Our goal is to cover that gap, ensuring that every believer who wants to attend can be there—standing together, looking each other in the eye, and being built up in Christ.
(If we are fortunate enough to exceed our target, any extra funds raised will go directly towards other pressing needs across our wider Newfrontiers family around the world.)
How You Can Be Part of This
Christmas is a time of year that can easily become rushed and self-indulgent, so this is a wonderful opportunity for us to stretch our faith and practice radical generosity.
Please take some time to reflect and pray about what your part looks like, and then count yourself in. Some will be able to respond in a big way and others in a small way, but whatever your part looks like, it matters—make it an act of worship to Jesus.
For clarity, we aren’t asking anyone to redirect their regular giving to the church (that never helps!) but rather to give something over and above as a special one-off gift.
Giving begins this Sunday!
Across the next three Sundays—15th, 22nd, and 29th November—there will be dedicated moments during our meetings to give, or pledge to give, towards this offering.
On Sunday 29th November (the final Sunday of November), our kids and youth will join us in the adult meeting for that moment too. We are also talking to them about the Christmas Offering in their groups, so parents, please do check in with them and help them join in if you feel that’s appropriate.
Finally, you don’t have to wait until Sunday — you can give at any point throughout November via our usual church giving channels. Just be sure to mark your gift clearly as ‘Christmas Offering’ so our finance team knows where to direct it. And if we are going to claim Gift Aid on your giving, we also need to know who it’s from.
So let’s stretch our faith this Christmas. Let’s look beyond ourselves, and be a massive blessing to our wider church family.
