Christmas

Carol Services and Christmas Plans

/ Steve Petch / Leave a comment

I hope you enjoyed our Carol Services as much as I did. I want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who helped them go so well!

Here are a few pics to give a feel for what went on:

The following is just a sample of all that I’m grateful for:

  • Both buildings were beautifully decorated inside and out
  • The ‘busking’ band who entertained us outside as we arrived did an awesome job
  • The Welcome Team were on the ball and looked after everyone well
  • Our worship band sounded the best I’ve ever heard them – they were SERIOUSLY good
  • We had a great range of people involved with the Bible readings, including a reading in BSL (British Sign Language) at each service. Each service also had live BSL signing that was appreciated by the deaf community
  • The sound and lighting team were in great form and served us superbly with sound, videos, visuals and a surprise ‘firework’ display for the finale
  • The Brew Crew delivered top notch refreshments flawlessly, on time, every time
  • The Welcome Kids and Tots teams went above and beyond the call of duty and the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves
  • We were able to raise money for a local charity, Your Sanctuary, who work with victims of domestic violence ( I haven’t heard a total yet, but it’s not too late for you to give to that offering)
  • As a church, between us we invited hundreds of friends, family, neighbours and colleagues to attend

Roughly 2000 people attended in total, adding together the three services and the children’s parties. The Mayor of Woking joined us at 2pm, and we had the Leader or the Council with us at 4.30pm. Those who are especially eagle eyed may have spotted our local MP in attendance too. In addition to these we were joined by representatives of the York Road Project (a local homelessness charity), Woking Borough Council Family Services and the CEO of Your Sanctuary. It really was A CAROL SERVICE FOR WOKING.

If you missed the services or you just want to experience it again, you can follow this link to watch what went on for yourself. I’m looking forward to next year already 🙂

Welcome Church Christmas Plans

Now that the Carol Services are done, I also want to let you know about our plans for the following Sundays, which are as follows:

Sunday 17th December: we will meet as normal at 9am and 11am. This will be the last week of our ‘Faithful’ preaching series. We will also take communion together

Sunday 24th December: we will meet at 9am and 11am for a short, all age, family service to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas together. Welcome Tots will be running as usual for the smallest children

Monday 25th December, Christmas Day: we will not be meeting on Christmas Day this year as we are focusing us on Sunday 24th instead (next year may be different)

Sunday 31st December: we will meet at 9am and 11am and will hear from people sharing testimonies of what God has done in their lives over the last year. Come expectant to be blessed and encouraged, and let’s also be ready to support and cheer people on

Sunday 7th January: we will meet at 9am and 11am and kick off our new year preaching series, ‘Reset Your Life’. This is a four week series to start the New Year, and we’re encouraging you to invite people along to hear it.

We will also kick off 2024 with a week of prayer, starting on Tuesday 2nd Jan. I’ll post details about that next week.

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.

So Many Reasons To Celebrate 🙂

/ Steve Petch / 1 Comment

We have a lot to be thankful to God for as a church right now! I want to highlight two things in particular: our Gift Days and our Carol Services.

1. Gift Days

Over three Sundays in November we held Gift Days towards buying Church Gate, the three storey building next door to us (click here for info).

Church Gate will be key to the work we want to do to serve the poor, including starting a community grocery to bridge the gap between the FoodBank and a supermarket for the most needy in our town. It will also provide extra space we need for our children’s work and youth work, which are both essential ingredients for our church’s future.

The owners of Church Gate agreed to sell it to us for £3m, which is a fair price. I’ve discussed the size of the financial challenge in a previous blog post (click here), but in summary we plan to buy Church Gate with a mixture of both cash and a mortgage. We needed to raise the first £1m as soon as possible – ideally in this first set of Gift Days.

It’s worth bearing in mind that we faced a BIG challenge going into these Gift Days:

  • We only had 5 weeks notice before the first Gift Sunday
  • The UK is in a cost of living crisis
  • Our town has been declared ‘bankrupt’ (section 114 notice)
  • We are in the run up to Christmas
  • As a church, we already gave sacrificially in 2019 to build our current building.

We knew we were up against a big challenge!

The result

After the three Sundays, adding together the money received, some outstanding pledges and the gift aid on that giving, together we have given just over …

… £1.25 million!

That’s an incredible result and one we should celebrate. We have so much to be thankful to God for in the way this has come together.

On behalf of the whole team I want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who’s given sacrificially to make this happen. It’s a joy to be a part of such a generous church.

It’s still not too late to give to these Gift Days, remembering that it’s not the amount that matters, but the heart of worship it’s given with. If you want to do that you can visit our giving page by clicking here.

2. Carol Services

This Sunday, 10th December, we are holding our “Carol Service For Woking” at 2pm, 4.30pm and 7pm (NB: there are no morning meetings that day!)

More than 1900 people have now booked to attend on Sunday, and those numbers are growing every day. That figure doesn’t include the many people who are serving in various ways at each service and who don’t need a seat.

It’s still not too late to book a seat for yourself and your friends, and you can do that by using this link. Remember, this is the easiest church invitation you get to make all year; people love to come and sing Christmas carols.

Please do pray for this Sunday’s Carol Services. We want to see many people encounter Jesus and start their journey towards a relationship with Him. Your prayers really do matter!

I look forward to seeing you on Sunday but, if you’re ill or housebound, or you live too far away and just can’t make it to a service in person, the 7pm Carol Service will also be live streamed at welcomechurch.online. I hope you can join us.

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.

‘Carol Service For Woking’: An Update and Some Requests

/ Steve Petch / Leave a comment

Our Welcome Church Carol Services are going to be fantastic. At the time of writing (Thursday am), a total of 1741 tickets have been booked across all three services. In addition to these bookings, many people will be serving in various ways. Of course, there’s still room for more people to book. We’re excited to announce that the Mayor of Woking, Councillor M Ilyas Raja, will be joining us for the 2pm service this year.

Each Carol Service will include Christmas Carols that everyone knows, sung to the tunes everyone knows, along with videos, readings and a short Christmas themed message. We will finish with free mulled wine, mince pies and other refreshments. Children’s parties will be taking place alongside the 2pm and 4.30pm services, so you and your friends can relax and enjoy the service.

Seven Simple Requests

We have some simples request to put in front of you all, so please have a read:

1. Please invite people

There are now just 10 days to go, so this is the perfect moment to invite friends, family, neighbours and colleagues to join you. There is no easier church invitation to make than to a Carol Service, so let’s go for it together. To book tickets for yourself or your guests please click on this link or on the picture below.

2. Please arrive on time

We will open the doors at least 20 minutes before each service starts, but it will take time to drop children off and get everyone seated. It would really help the services go well, if people could arrive in good time. We are able to provide free parking in the Town Centre ‘Red, Yellow and Blue’ Car Parks as usual, using the car park machines in our Front Building, but please remember that car parks may be busier than normal due to Christmas shopping, especially at 2pm, so do allow a little extra time. There is no parking available in our own Car Park except for those with a blue badge who have pre-booked a disability parking space.

3. Please allow yourself to be seated

This one is really important. The Welcome Team will be showing people to their seats again this year, so please allow them to do that and please fill every seat. On a normal Sunday you may like to sit in a certain place, or to leave a gap between you and the next person, or to save a seat for your friend. Numbers at the Carol Services mean that none of these things are possible. Please allow the welcome team to show you to the next available seat(s). If you want to sit with someone specific, please arrive together. Please remember that the Welcome Team are all volunteers, so lets make their job easy for them this year …

4. If you can’t attend, please cancel your tickets

If you’ve booked to attend and can’t now make it, or you booked more tickets than you need, please amend or cancel your booking. This is especially true of the children’s parties, some of which are now completely full. If you know you can’t make it, please release your tickets so someone else can attend.

5. Please don’t come for a 9am or 11am meeting 🙂

It happens every year: precious, faithful people turn up in the morning for church as usual. Please remember that the Carol Services are the only meetings we are holding that day. Our normal 9am and 11am services are not happening on the 10th, although we will be there to set up and to rehearse. The Carol services are at 2pm, 4.30pm and 7pm.

6. Please attend one service and serve at another

We have three serving teams that could do with a little extra help this year:

  • Brew Crew
  • Welcome Team
  • Kids work (for those who have a current valid Welcome Church DBS check)

If you are able to help in any of these areas, please let us know. Ideally we would encourage people to attend one service, and to serve at another one.

Why not step up to help as part of the Brew Crew or the Welcome Team, even if it’s not something you normally do? If you have a current Welcome Church DBS, why not help with one of the kids parties? If you can help in these areas please contact the church office or let us know in person on Sunday morning.

Finally, and most importantly:

7. Please pray

Let’s pray for the Carol Services. We can all do that during the week ahead, but let’s also gather together to pray.

This Sunday, 3rd December, we will gather to pray for one hour from 7pm to 8pm at Welcome Church. The Carol Services are the greatest evangelistic moment of our year, and our biggest meetings by far. Let’s ask God to pour out His blessing on it all, and for many guests to start a journey towards seeing Life Transformed Through Jesus.

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Prayer Requests – Nov 2023

/ Steve Petch / Leave a comment

Here are some things we would love you to be praying about this month:

Gift Sundays

Our Gift Days to raise the finance we need for Church Gate are on Sundays 12th, 19th and 26th November. We would love everyone to be praying for this – for God to supply all we need as a church, and for Him to speak to each of us personally about what He is calling us to give.

A booklet is available with all the info you need to know, so do pick one up on Sunday morning or get in touch with the office to ask for a copy. It will tell you WHAT we are doing, WHY we are doing it, why we are doing it NOW (which is key to the whole thing), HOW MUCH it will cost and what we are asking YOU to do.

Baptisms

This Sunday we have baptisms at both morning meetings. Please pray for all those getting baptised.

There is a special need for prayer for 2 of those being baptised at 9am. They have come to us from a nation where to convert to Christianity could cost them their liberty and perhaps their life. Both came to faith in their own country. Both are fleeing persecution.

For this reason these two baptisms and testimonies, will not be live-streamed – we will switch the live-stream off at this point. We are also asking that no photos are taken or posted anywhere. The testimonies are well worth hearing, but you will have to be there in person at the 9am meeting to hear them.

If you are planning to be at the 11am meeting that day there might be room for some to stand at the back from about 10.15am if you want to arrive early and catch this part of the 9am meeting.

CST

CST is the “Commission Students to Thirties” event taking place on Saturday Nov 18th at Hope Church, Winchester. This year the theme of CST is about being ‘All In for Jesus‘. There will be great worship, great talks, time to connect with God and some good food too.

I would appreciate your prayers because I’m preaching the opening message at CST this year. Please pray that it connects well with people and helps to grow and stretch their faith.

If anyone isn’t booked in to CST and wants to know more, then do follow this link here for more information and a link to the booking page.

Luqman and Kimberley

Luqman and Kimberley, our two leadership trainees from India, finish their year with us next week, and will then head home to Goa. They are going to be greatly missed and will leave a hole in both our Office Team and our hearts ☹️. They have been a joy to have around and we’re sad to see them go.

Please pray for them as they return to India, that God will direct their steps into whatever He has next for them, and please do give them big hugs and lots of appreciation this weekend. Sunday 5th November will be their last Sunday with us.

Carol Services

Bookings for our Carol Services open this weekend. They will be held on Sunday 10th December this year, at 2pm, 4.30pm and 7pm. On Sunday we will give out all the information you need, and I’ll post it in my blog too, but please do be praying already about who you could be inviting and for all the preparations to go well. Please also pray for lots of people to sign up to attend.

A few other bits for prayer

In case that lot’s not enough to keep you busy praying, here are a few more things:

  • Reuben and Lucy get married this Saturday: pray for them as they start married life together
  • I’m leading the Commission ‘TLM’ training day on Saturday 11th Nov: the topic is ‘Grace for Ministry’
  • Our Alpha Course have their ‘Holy Spirit Day’ on Sat 25th Nov: pray for people to encounter the Holy Spirit and give their lives to Jesus

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.

 

95 Days ‘Til Christmas

/ Steve Petch / Leave a comment

If you’re reading this on the day it comes out, it’s only 95 days ’til Christmas … and I’ve already seen Christmas decorations in the shops 🎅🏼!

Even more importantly it’s now only 80 days until our Carol Services. The reason I see that as ‘even more important’ is that they are the best and easiest event in the year for us to invite people to, since nearly everyone says yes to a Carol Service invitation!

Anyone who comes to our Carol Services will hear the good news of Jesus, and that’s the most important message they’ll ever get to hear; it’s a message that can change our eternal destiny. With this in mind, we want you to start thinking about the Carol Services NOW.

“A Carol Service For Woking”

Our Carol services this year are on Sunday 10th December, at 2pm, 4.30pm and 7pm, and they’re not just for our church, they’re for the whole town, and for all of the people we know. The first two services (at 2pm and 4.30pm) will include a kids party for younger children so you can drop them off and enjoy the service in peace with your friends.

Just like last year, these will be ticketed events. Tickets will be free for you and your friends to book, and we’ll let you know when the booking opens, but we want you to start thinking TODAY about WHO you’re going to invite, and also to tell you about a way to help make those invitations well.

Building Up To An Invitation

Last autumn we did a series of invitational events for people to invite their friends to in the run up to Christmas. We called it the ‘Hop, Skip, (Sing) and Jump’, naming it after the Olympic Event also known as the Triple Jump, which is a type of jump that enables athletes to jump further than they otherwise would:

  • The HOP was our September Fun Day
  • The SKIP was our November Fireworks event
  • The (SING) was our December Carol Services
  • The JUMP was our January Welcome Stories series

As people were invited to each successive event, and as relational links were formed, the numbers of guests grew and grew. In the end we were able to share Jesus with hundreds of people at each Carol Service – the largest Carol Services our church has ever seen. As a result, lots of new people joined us in January for our Welcome Stories series. Thanks to all who stepped up and invited people.

This autumn we want to encourage you to take part in …

… Your Own Personal Hop, Skip and Jump

We won’t be running the Fun Day or the Fireworks this year as a church, but we still believe in the power of relational momentum to help people connect with us as a church, and then go on to connect with Jesus. Introducing the people you know to other Christians from our church, builds a relational momentum that helps open the door for them to find Jesus for themselves.

So this year we want to encourage YOU to run a couple of ‘social events’ of your own – a HOP and a SKIP. Maybe you could do one in October and one in November, leading up to an invitation to the Carol Service (the JUMP). At the Carol Service we’ll talk about the amazing good news we have in Jesus, and we’ll invite people to connect with us in the New Year and even to join our next Alpha Course.

There are lots of Hop and Skip events you could do: a quiz night, a cheese and wine evening, a meal, a BBQ (weather permitting), a board games night, a pub night, an afternoon tea, a walk, a sporting event, a shared fireworks night and more. The key thing is that you don’t do it alone! Invite your friends who you’d like to see at the Carol Service to each event you do, and use it as a chance to introduce them to some of your friends from church.

There are lots of contexts you could do this in: you could do it as Life Group, or with just a few people from your Life Group, or with a group of friends from church, or as a couple of families together – whatever works for you and your friends at the life stage you’re currently in.

We’d love you to go for one event in October, and one in November, and then to invite those same people to a Carol Service on Sunday 10th December. And don’t just invite them to the service, why not also open your home? “All round ours for mulled wine and Christmas cake afterwards” or “Come for lunch with the kids and then we’ll all go on to the Carol Service together” – whatever works best for you.

The Greatest Christmas Gift Ever

The greatest gift God ever gave us is Jesus. This Christmas is your best opportunity to share that gift with the people in your life who don’t yet know Him. Let’s go for it together!

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