Buildings

Church Gate: The Size Of The Challenge

/ Steve Petch / 6 Comments

Last week I blogged about Church Gate, the next big adventure we believe God has for us as a church (click here to read about it).

This is a big deal for us and, of course, we wouldn’t be doing it if we didn’t think it was ‘mission critical’ for our calling as a church together:

  • Church Gate will be key for the work we want to do to serve the poor, including our desire to start a community grocery to bridge the gap between the FoodBank and a supermarket for the most needy in our town
  • Church Gate will provide the facilities and space we need to disciple our children and young people well. Remember, we are not baby sitting them week by week; we are equipping them to be the men and women of God He is calling them to be, so they can lead the way into the future in all areas of life and follow His call on their life.
  • Church Gate will also provide lots of space for our meetings and ministries all week long, and even has a few extra parking spaces, which is always handy to have.

Gift Days

Obviously we need to pay for Church Gate! As I said last week, we’ll be looking at mortgages, but we also all need to do our part individually so, in November, we will be holding some gift Sundays. I want to fill in a few details on that.

We will hold our gift Sundays over three weeks, on Sundays 12th, 19th and 26th of November. In case you’ve not been at Welcome Church when we’ve done this before (and the last time was a few years ago) it will be a normal Sunday meeting – with worship, kids work, teaching etc – but there’ll be a chance at the end of the morning to come forward and give, or pledge to give, to this big adventure. With that in mind we recognise that more information needs to be shared.

Next Sunday, and in the weeks to come, we’ll be giving out a printed booklet with all the information you need. It will explain:

  • WHAT we are doing
  • WHY we are doing it
  • Why we are doing it NOW (very important!)
  • HOW MUCH it will cost and
  • What we are asking YOU to do

The size of the financial challenge

People have been asking what Church Gate will cost, so here are the details:

The owners have agreed to sell Church Gate to us for three million pounds.

That may sound like a lot of money (and in many ways it is) but it’s a price our professional valuer agrees is fair for us to pay, and a lot less than where we started from. We also have to budget for additional fees and refurbishment costs, so the total cost for the project is likely be in the region of £3.5 million pounds – hopefully a bit less.

We anticipate that some of this cost will be funded through our existing savings as a church, and through a new mortgage. We’re also in faith to raise £2 million pounds over the next two years through our sacrificial giving as a church to this adventure.

The big challenge is that we need to raise the first £1 million in the next few months, in order to complete on Church Gate in early 2024, so we need to step out in big faith this November.

Time is tighter than we’d like for this project, but the opportunity really is now or never. The sellers of Church Gate have received Planning Permission to redevelop the site into flats. Were they to go ahead, the opportunity will be closed to us for good, so we need to go for it in faith now to invest in our future as a church.

What can I do today?

At this point we would ask you to do one thing: please pray. Pray that the sale moves ahead smoothly. Pray that finance comes together quickly.

Mainly though, please pray for God to speak to YOU about what he wants YOU to give.

We wouldn’t want anyone to give more than God is asking them to give, but we wouldn’t want anyone to give less than He is asking them to give either!

And remember: it’s not that we HAVE to give; it’s that we GET to give. It’s a privilege to invest in the Kingdom of God, knowing that we cannot out-give God.

Between us we have a significant amount of money to raise, but I believe we can do this as we step out in faith, so let’s go for it together. I’ll share more info in the weeks ahead.

Stay up to date with what’s happening at Welcome Church by subscribing to this blog to get it straight to your inbox each week.

Church Gate – Our Next Big Adventure

/ Steve Petch / 7 Comments

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.

Stay up to date with what’s happening at Welcome Church by subscribing to this blog to get it straight to your inbox each week.

October 2023 News Updates

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This week I want to share a few Welcome Church news updates, in case you missed them

A New Website

We’ve just launched our brand new Welcome Church website and we’re really pleased with it! You can find it at www.welcomechurch.uk. The website is not only new in terms of its content, it also has a brand new website address. If you do accidentally try to access the old website it will forward you to the new one automatically, at least for a while.

Our church email addresses have also changed, so if you previously e-mailed someone on name@allwelcome.uk, you now need to use name@welcomechurch.uk. Again, if you use the wrong e-mail address it will be forwarded for a short while, but not forever.

A lot of work went into getting the new website up and running, and we’re really pleased with the result. Huge thanks go to everyone involved. The site been checked quite extensively, but if you do find any errors, bad links, typos or other problems, please let us know – there are bound to be some!

Kids Work

From the end of Half Term (Sunday 29th October) Welcome Tots, Welcome Kids Juniors and Welcome Kids will be starting earlier each Sunday, so your kids can go there straight away if you want them to. You can drop them off from 10 minutes before each meeting starts (no earlier please!)

These changes will help us serve our kids well, and also allow more room for adults to join us without feeling that the meetings are full, especially at the 11am meeting. It will also allow the worship times to flow uninterrupted. Welcome Kids Seniors and Welcome Youth will be with us for the whole of the worship time for now, and will go out to their own meetings after that.

Because the kids will now be in their groups a bit longer each week, we want to encourage parents to collect them promptly when the meeting has finished. Thank you in advance for this, and also a very big thank you to all our kids and youth workers – you are fantastic and massively appreciated. 🙂

The Alpha Course

Our Alpha Course is now up and running with 28 guests in attendance on week one, and some others expected to join from week 2. Please pray for the success of the course and for people to grow in faith as they explore the big questions of life together.

Baptisms

On Sunday 5th November we’ll be baptising several people at each of our Sunday meetings. It’s still not too late to join them and be baptised if you’re a Christian and have not yet been baptised since you came to faith in Jesus – please just chat to us.

Please also pray for those who are being baptised on the 5th, and let’s be on the front foot to welcome the many guests who will be there and to serve them well.

Car Parking

You may have spotted that, due to new tenants moving in, Phillips Court is no longer available for us to use for parking on a Sunday morning. Instead the Red, Yellow and Blue shoppers car parks are available. These are just a short distance away, and the walk is largely under cover.

If you put your number plate into the relevant ‘pad’ in our building (the pads are very clearly marked) then you will get your parking for free 🙂. We recommend putting your number plate in on arrival rather than waiting until the meeting has ended.

Buildings

Thanks to all who have prayed about our plan to buy Church Gate, the building next door to us. We want to use it to create more space for kids and youth each Sunday, as well as to provide meeting rooms and office space to serve all that we do all week long. We would also like it as a space to start a community grocery that will serve those in need in our town, and it could perhaps house some of our other social action ministries too. The alternative is to extend on our own site, and we’ve been developing plans for this in case Church Gate doesn’t come our way.

Lots of people have been asking for updates on this issue, and this coming Sunday (15th Oct) at Welcome Church I will be sharing the latest news. Please make sure you’re there at our 9am or 11am meeting to hear what’s been happening!

God can do amazing things

Eph 3v20-21: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

Let’s be in faith for all God wants to do in and through us as a church, and let’s be praying for Jesus to be glorified in our town. He can do immeasurably more than all we can ask or even imagine.

Thanks for reading.

Stay up to date with what’s happening at Welcome Church by subscribing to this blog to get it straight to your inbox each week.

Important and Urgent! PLEASE PRAY!

/ Steve Petch / 6 Comments

Hello Welcome Church. We have a very important prayer request and would ask you ALL to please pray, pray and pray again.

Yesterday Mike Deavin and myself, along with Darren Forsdyke and Dub Everitt, met with the representative of the owner of a significant building near to us in Woking. We had a look around the building and discussed how we might be able to get use of it for us as a church, perhaps by buying it.

After viewing the building I explained all that we do to serve our community and to help those in need around us. I explained how the church exists to bring hope to people. I explained how we need more space for all that God is doing through us. I explained our calling to be good news to our town and to serve the poor. I explained that we wanted this building to enable us to continue what we do and to enable us to do even more.

If we were able to take ownership, it would be a significant game changer for us as a church, enabling so many things we want to do to serve the poor and carry out our social action programme, including space for some new initiatives we are thinking of such as a community grocery. It might also release space for our children’s and youth work, preparing us for the day that the Annex (The Cube) is redeveloped.

It would not be right at this stage to say what or where this building is (so please don’t even ask) but all four of us all came away feeling that this could be something God is leading us into. The representative we met with is now going away to speak to the owner to see if there is a way forward, and if so at what cost.

Please pray:

  • That God would give us favour with the owner and his representative
  • That God would open this door to us so that we can bring even more salt and light to this town, and serve our community well, especially at this time of growing need
  • That we can take ownership of this building for a fair price
  • That finance would be released to make this possible

I will tell you more when I’m able to, but as you pray please be open to what God might say to you and please share that with us.

At this time of need I believe God has a big calling on us as a church to bring the good news of the Kingdom of God in all we do. Why not stop what you’re doing and pray right now?

Thank you in advance

Some Important Things To Pray About – July 2023

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Hello lovely Welcome Church people! We would value your prayers this month for the following key things:

1. Buildings

We’re keen to work out how to create more space for our growing kids and youth work. On Sunday mornings we’re currently relying on The Annex (THE CUBE!) for extra space. The Annex is great, but we don’t own it and it will be redeveloped at some point, so we need to either build or buy a more permanent solution.

Mike Deavin and I met with the architect of our current building recently, and he’s looking at what’s possible on our site. We want to find a solution that will serve the needs of our young people, and also serve the church and the wider community all week long.

We love and value our young people and want to serve them well, so please be praying for wisdom and a clear way forward. I’m excited to see what doors God will open for us.

2. Newday

At the end of July our youth will be heading off to the annual ‘Newday Youth Festival’ at the Norfolk Showground in Norwich 🎪. This year it runs from Monday 31st July to Friday 4th August. So far we have around 80 young people booked to attend. Each year Newday helps our youth to grow in their faith, building solid foundations for the future.

Please pray:

  • That our youth stay safe and have a great time
  • That they encounter God and grow in their faith
  • For the leaders and the many helpers who are taking them and serving them during the event (they need our prayers! 🙂)
  • For the practical arrangements (For example, just this week the coach company we booked announced that they’ve gone bankrupt … 🚌 … we’ve got time to solve that problem, but we’d love to avoid any more last minute headaches or unforeseen problems)

3. Commission Festival

Commission Festival is on the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of August ⛺️⛺️⛺️

We’ll be joining with Commission churches from around the UK for times of worship and teaching, and a whole lot of other fun and games too. This event helps build our togetherness as a church and as family of churches. It connects us to our Apostolic mission around the world, and it also serves our children and young people well.

We currently have around 370 people from Welcome Church booked in, which is more than we’ve ever taken to an event like this before. For us it’s a bit like we’re running a festival within the festival!

It’s still not too late to book in and join us (click here for details) and don’t forget you can get a 40% discount if you sign up to serve.

A LOT of people from Welcome Church are either serving at the Festival, or serving our church site at the Festival in a range of different ways. I can’t possibly name them all, but each one is greatly appreciated.

Please pray:

  • For the event to go really well and for God to move powerfully
  • For the weather – we’d like lots of sunshine please ☀️
  • For Darren, our Ops Director, who is leading the delivery of this brand new Festival for Commission, working with their staff team and an event management company. It’s been a massive undertaking and he’s gone above and beyond to get this done
  • For Richard who, along with an awesome team from our church, is leading the operational delivery of our Welcome Church site at the Festival
  • For Jo, who leads four worship team and is also leading the worship for the event (alongside Sean from City Gate Church, Bournemouth)
  • For Harriet who is co-leading ‘Unique’, a ministry for children at the Festival who have additional needs
  • For Dub, Meg, and Robin and Anna who are all responsible for various seminars
  • For myself – I’m responsible for anchoring the adult meetings and I’m also preaching on the Saturday evening

If you have any questions about the festival, please do ask. One more thing:

Do you want to go to the Festival for free?

If so, Compassion UK are looking for some outgoing, faith filled and friendly volunteers to help on the Compassion stand at the Festival. In return they will provide a free ticket for the event along with your food and any travel expenses. All you need to bring is yourself, your camping equipment, and faith in what God can do.

If you want to know more about this opportunity please let us know in the church office and we will put you in touch, but please don’t leave it too late!

Stay up to date with what’s happening at Welcome Church by subscribing to this blog to get it straight to your inbox each week.

The Welcome Church Building Work Is Finished

/ Steve Petch / 3 Comments

I am delighted to announce that the building work at Welcome Church is now complete, bringing to an end an important chapter in our church’s history and opening up a whole new one. I’m looking forward to the time when Lockdown measures are over and we’re able to start using it properly.

We had expected the current crisis to delay completion, but government guidance permits building work to continue as long as appropriate hygiene and social distancing measures are in place, and our contractor made the call to continue. They were inspected regularly along the way by Woking Borough Council for compliance.

Yesterday I had to go over to the building to collect the keys. Sadly we were unable to have a proper ‘handover ceremony’ because of the times we are in, but I was handed the keys by Simon Powell, contracts manager for O&D Construction, on the end of a 2m pole!

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The new offices are looking good, as is the whole site, and hopefully these pictures give an idea of the finished result. Let’s pray it’s not too long before we all get to see it in real life and enjoy meeting together in person.

If you’ve never visited us at Welcome Church, we’d love to see you when we’re open again. In the meantime, you can join us each Sunday online for our meetings at 9am, 11am and 6pm.

There are of course some small jobs outstanding on the building which social distancing or availability of raw materials at this time have made impossible, and there will undoubtedly be snagging issues to resolve once we get in; we will deal with these along the way.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this project. Please let me encourage you, as far as you are able (and I recognise that some are facing huge challenges right now) to keep giving generously so that we can meet our monthly mortgage payments, and perhaps clear the mortgage altogether.

God has given us this building for a reason and we have not been called to stand still. We are here to be a blessing to our town and further afield, and we have a big vision that we want to fulfil. I can’t wait to be back in our building again and I look forward to seeing you there!

Launch Sunday … Welcome Church, We Have Lift Off!

/ Steve Petch / 2 Comments

On Sunday (19th Jan 2020) Welcome Church marked the official launch of our brand new building in the heart of Woking. We were delighted to see so many people there to celebrate with us.

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Just over 1,200 people attended across the two meetings, and this represents a new ‘high water mark’ for the church. We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who was there including friends old and new and, whether you were there or not, everyone is warmly invited to come and join us next Sunday at 9am or 11am.

So much to pack in

It was a fast paced morning:

  • Our worship team kicked us off in brilliant style with some vibrant worship
  • We then remembered some of our 140 year history of buildings, looking back at our journey so far and forward to our future vision
  • We heard from Paul Ginever, the architect who designed the new building
  • The Mayor of Woking, Councillor Beryl Hunwicks, spoke about the importance of community and working together
  • At the 11am meeting Jonathan Lord MP, Member of Parliament for Woking, was present to share some very kind words of encouragement
  • Then Steve Blow, the Finance Director for Compassion UK, presented Welcome Church with a display board to mark the support given to mothers and babies in Togo through our partnership with them

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My Favourite Thing From Sunday 🙂

You can listen to that part of our meeting by clicking here.

Welcome Stories

This week also marked the start of our six week ‘Welcome Stories’ series. Many of us were deeply moved watching Mike’s Story, which showed the difference that Jesus has made to his life, helping him to get free from depression and more. You can watch his powerful story here:

This video should play, but if not please click here to view it via our church website

Towards the end of the meeting I talked about a question, the answer to which profoundly shapes our lives and daily actions:

“What do you think God is like?”

This talk was based on Jesus’ story of The Prodigal Son, and you can hear it by clicking here. For me, it was a morning to remember.

Please come again

I want to invite everyone who reads this to come and join us at Welcome Church over the next five weeks. We will be continuing our Welcome Stories series, and there will be another powerful Welcome Story video each Sunday.

Consider some fascinating facts about how, on average, we spend our lives…

  • We sleep for over 20 years of our lives
  • We watch TV for over 10 years of our lives
  • We spend 5 years 9 months in some form of transportation
  • We spend 7 ½ years eating and drinking

Why not spend 7 ½ hours over these next five weeks joining us for this Welcome Stories series? It will be a great way to brighten up these gloomy January and February Sunday mornings!

Finally, here are some photos from Sunday morning to enjoy:

 

New Building, New Life

/ Steve Petch / 1 Comment

This Sunday is the launch of our new Welcome Church building, and what an exciting day it will be. We’ve had a couple of practice runs over the last two Sundays, and I’m anticipating a great weekend.

Let me say up front, if you are reading this blog and you don’t usually come to Welcome Church, please do join us on Sunday at 9am or 11am. There will be free coffee and pastries and we promise a warm welcome for all. Just come as you are; everyone is welcome.

If you need somewhere to park then please head to Philips Court where we have free parking spaces available. The entrance to Philips Court is to the left of the Fire Station on Goldsworth Road (Postcode: GU21 6LE). Stewards will cheerfully direct you on arrival.

Here is a short video with all the details, please do give it a watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_R4ALhj4gY&app=desktop

The video should be visible above, if it’s not then please click here to view it.

Ahead of Sunday, here are a few pointers and encouragements from me …

Let’s look out for every guest:

It can be nerve racking for anyone turning up at church for the first time, so let’s help everyone feel welcome. There will great coffee and warm pastries available before and after both meetings – let’s make sure that guests get to them first, or that we offer to bring something over for them. Some guests may be looking for the children’s work or the toilets – let’s be ready to show them the way. Perhaps you might offer to sit with someone who looks new.

In addition to those you will be bringing yourself, we have a number of ‘VIP’ guests coming including Borough Councillors, the Mayor, our Local MP, the architect, some of the building Contractors, local media and more. Please do speak to them and please help to make everyone feel at home. 

Let’s invite people:

Dub wrote about how to do that on this blog last week. You can read that here. Remember, people are very interested in the new building and want to see it. Many will come along if asked. Let’s go for it in faith.

Let’s fill up from the front and fill up the rows:

We have a lovely big building and it’s going to be fairly full on Sunday. One way to serve people well is to fill up from the front and to fill up the rows, not leaving big gaps. It’s a simple thing that we can all do to show love for others.

Let’s pray:

Whilst the building is beautiful and (in my opinion) impressive, we really want people to be impressed with Jesus. Let’s be praying through this week for God’s presence in everything and his protection over everything.

One more thing: another word about parking

As there will be many guests this week, if you belong to Welcome Church and are not bringing or arriving with a guest then perhaps for this one week, if you are physically able, you might consider parking in Victoria Way Car Park and walking across. We can validate your ticket so you get free parking. This will leave the nearby spaces free for our guests.

If you are serving at both meetings then please do park at Pulse on Cherry Street (GU21 6EE) as usual.

A Day To Remember

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We had our first Sunday meetings in our new Welcome Church building in the heart of Woking this week, and what a great day it was!

Around 750 people attended across the two morning meetings, and some  of the highlights for me included:

  • The sense of joy and excitement after so long waiting for a new building
  • Seeing so many people from our church gathered across the two meetings
  • The excellent coffee and refreshments (thank you Marcus, Sharon and team)
  • The top notch parking arrangements that came together and worked so well (thank you Richard and team)
  • Embarrassing the awesome Mike Deavin by getting him to sit on the stage in an armchair with a blanket whilst I preached (thank you Mike)
  • The amazing worship times … our musicians and sound team were absolutely ON IT! (Thank you team)

I also enjoyed gathering in the evening to pray around the whole site. 

An extra special thank you goes to Charles C for the huge amount of time he put in to make sure that everything worked in terms of sound, lights and visuals.

Next Sunday we will back again at 9am and 11am

You will see some changes to the building that have taken place this week as the builders have continued towards finishing the job.

And in terms of parking please do head to Philips Court again (left hand side of the Fire Station) and you will be directed from there.

Here are a few photos from the day for you to enjoy in case you missed them:

Happy 140th Birthday!

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Last Saturday was a special day for Welcome church, and not just because of the amazing Fun Day we had …

It was also our 140th birthday as a church!

In the 1870’s Woking was a fast growing town with a railway station and a canal – remember this was before cars existed and that homes did not yet have electricity. In terms of the church in Woking there was a small Methodist chapel, and a tin hut for the Anglicans to meet in. This tin hut was on the spot where Christ Church has now been built in Jubilee Square. 

In 1879 Rev. Edward Tarbox, from Addlestone Baptist Church, wanted to plant a new Baptist Church in Woking. Forty people attended an exploratory meeting in a house in Goldsworth Road on Thursday 18th September where it was agreed to go ahead.

The first Sunday morning and evening services of ‘Woking Baptist Congregational Church’ were held in a house in Goldsworth Road on Sunday 28th September, 1879. The Rev. Tarbox preached at both services, communion was celebrated and eight people were welcomed into church membership.

It was agreed on that first Sunday that Rev. Tarbox would become the Pastor and that Henry William Gloster would become the first Deacon. Henry was the Great Grandfather of John Gloster who is in our church today, and you really can see the family resemblance under that beard – they have the same cheeky smile. Sadly I have no photos of Edward, but if you do please let me have them!

 

Henry Gloster
John Gloster

Buildings

Goldsworth Rd Baptist (Alvina Gould) (2)

Building No. 2: Goldsworth Road Baptist Church, 1906

At that first meeting it was also agreed to put together a committee to oversee buying some land and constructing a building for the church. It seems that God has been inspiring us to build and to expand since day one.

 

 

That building was completed within two years and the debt paid off a year later, which was impressive to have achieved from a standing start!

Sadly that building was found to be far too small, so the church immediately started work on a second building, which opened in 1886: Goldsworth Road Baptist Church.

Once again we outgrew the building, so in the 1920’s the church bought some more land, this time in Percy Street (which no longer exists) and built a third building: Percy Street Baptist Church.

There are people in our church who still remember that building with affection, having been saved there, baptised there, married there and more.

There is a great photo that was taken during the last ever service held in the Percy Street building, on the evening of 31st December 1976. As you can see, there is some great seventies fashion going on in that photo, and if you zoom in close you may spot one or two faces you recognise …

 

Building No. 3: Percy Street Baptist Church
Last meeting at Percy Street Baptist Church, 31st Dec 1976

In October 1977 our church moved into its fourth building, called The Coign. We renamed this building The Welcome Centre when we became Welcome Church.

This building is now being redeveloped to provide us with new offices and to serve our children’s work, our youth work, our social action ministries and the wider community. On the land behind it we are also building a completely new 675 seat chapel. THERE IS MORE INFO ON THAT HERE.

We plan to start meeting in the new chapel from January 2020.

The_Coign_Church (June_2015) (3)

Building No. 4: The Welcome Centre (formerly The Coign)

Telling our story

Some of us love history, some are less interested. Either way let me encourage you to buy and read John Gloster’s book: Church On The Move.

John wrote this for us. It tells our history from 1879 – 1999. It’s the story of our church, so if you want to know where we come from, read it. It’s available from us for £7.00 (or £8.00 on Amazon). Any profits will go into the Building Fund.

 

John has written another book too, Welcome Church Story, which brings the story all the way up to date; that’s available for £5. These books are a great resource and I am personally grateful to John for putting them together for us; they are precious. If you want to get hold of a copy of either or both, please email info@allwelcome.uk

Feeling thankful

I’m so grateful to all the people who have gone before us. I thank God that in 1879 He sent Edward Tarbox to Woking with a courageous plan to plant a new church. That took faith, risk, money, personal sacrifice, travel, tears, prayers and hard work … and here we are today. Over the years thousands of people’s lives have been transformed by this church and I am in faith for that to continue into the future.

And it’s so much bigger than just our church. New Life Church in Old Woking celebrated their 90th birthday this weekend. Our church planted that church on our 50th birthday – a great way to celebrate! And there have been other church plants along the way too, such as those in Guildford, Camberley and Chertsey. And many leaders have been sent out to serve in different places around the UK and across the world too.

Why bother? 

But why do it? Why plant churches? Why send people? Why go to all that trouble? Why pay the price?

Because we have hope in a God who saves.

Jesus gave his people a mission to take the gospel to all nations, and that includes here in the UK. We are not a social club, here to look after ourselves; we’re on a mission from God! We have a message to share with our town. We want to introduce people to Jesus. We want to see lives change and our community impacted for good through God’s grace in action.

Our new building is part of that mission and soon we’ll move in. We should be meeting there from Sunday 5th January, with our big launch Sunday on Jan 19th.

I believe we could see hundreds of people coming to our big launch; it’s our God given opportunity to create the most exciting Sunday morning we’ve had for years. This season of church life, is all about that; let’s do all we can to maximise this moment in our history; let’s maximise the opportunity this new start creates for the gospel in our town.